You could be forgiven for thinking that Xbox Game Pass is the only console games subscription service in existence — that is, if you’d only just started playing games recently. There is no question that Game Pass is a unique and valuable service, offering the biggest games and (most) new releases on day one. Sony isn’t playing that game, at least not yet, so comparing the two isn’t apples to apples, but it isn’t right to completely ignore Sony’s service either. PlayStation Now offers the most compelling value per game and easiest entry to gaming of any service in the world.

Ÿ 欧可以原谅的思想，Xbox游戏通行证是唯一存在的主机游戏订阅服务-这，就是如果你只是刚开始玩游戏最近。 毫无疑问，Game Pass是一项独特而有价值的服务，在第一天就提供最大的游戏和(最新)发行的产品。 索尼至少还没有玩这种游戏，所以将两者进行比较并不是一个苹果，但是也不应该完全忽略索尼的服务。 PlayStation Now为每个游戏提供了最引人注目的价值，并且使世界上任何服务的游戏进入最容易。

I was among the many who had not tried PlayStation Now until recently. This was more due to my backlog than it was any negative reviews of the service, though. That said, some of that negative press was earned in the early years of this service. When it debuted in 2015 there were multiple issues, as it only featured about 80 games, connection speeds were suspect and the price was the highest in the industry at $20 per month. You could stream to PCs and a variety of devices, but the quality of the infrastructure just wasn’t there yet, especially for the price. Unsurprisingly, the service struggled to find early adopters and build a subscriber base.

直到最近我才尝试过PlayStation Now。 不过，这更多是由于我的积压，而不是对该服务的任何负面评价。 也就是说，这种负面新闻是在这项服务的早期获得的。 当它于2015年首次亮相时，存在多个问题，因为它仅包含约80款游戏，因此连接速度令人怀疑，而且价格是业内最高的，每月20美元。 您可以流式传输到PC和各种设备，但是基础设施的质量还不存在，尤其是在价格方面。 毫不奇怪，该服务努力寻找早期采用者并建立用户基础。

Sony has learned much over the past 5 years, improving the service even while doing other things to frustrate their supporters and industry watchers. They have steadily increased the number of games on the service, which now stands at over 800. They discontinued the service on PS3, PS Vita, and many of its own TVs and Blu-Ray players which it had touted when the service began. In late 2018 they began allowing downloads of some games to PS4 consoles, more than 300 at the time of writing, though it includes none of the PS3 titles.

索尼在过去5年中学到了很多东西，即使在做其他事情来挫败支持者和行业观察者的同时，也改善了服务。 他们稳步增加了该服务上的游戏数量，目前已超过800种。他们停止了PS3，PS Vita以及该服务开始时曾吹捧的许多电视和蓝光播放器的服务。 在2018年末，他们开始允许将一些游戏下载到PS4主机上，在撰写本文时已下载了300多个，尽管其中不包含PS3标题。

As with most Sony things, there’s a bit of whiplash between the good and bad, but the service they currently offer is the best it’s ever been. I recently took the plunge, so let’s take a look at what I learned.

与大多数Sony产品一样，好与坏之间也存在一些折磨，但他们目前提供的服务是有史以来最好的。 我最近经历了大跌，所以让我们看看我学到了什么。

价格值 (Price & Value)

As I said above, PlayStation Now represents the best per-game value of any service. You can choose $9.99/month, $24.99/quarter, and $59.99/year plans, giving a best price point of $4.99 per month for the full service. By comparison, the only comparable plan from Game Pass (the Ultimate plan giving both PC and console service) costs $14.99 per month and does not (yet) include a streaming option. That capability is supposed to be coming in September with their xCloud service, which is supposed to work with Android phones and tablets. As a side note, Sony offers a 7-day free trial on its service, and Microsoft has been offering the first month at $1 for their Ultimate package, so there’s little risk in trying both.

就像我在上面说的那样，PlayStation Now代表了所有服务中最好的每游戏价值。 您可以选择$ 9.99 /月，$ 24.99 /季度和$ 59.99 /年的计划，为全套服务提供每月$ 4.99的最佳价格。 相比之下，Game Pass中唯一可比较的计划(同时提供PC和控制台服务的终极计划)每月花费14.99美元，并且(尚未)包括流媒体选项。 该功能预计将在9月与他们的xCloud服务一起使用，该服务应与Android手机和平板电脑一起使用。 附带一提的是，索尼提供了7天的免费试用期，微软一直为他们的Ultimate套餐提供第一个月的服务，价格为1美元，因此同时尝试这两种产品的风险很小。

Microsoft touts that their service has over 100 games available (though it appears to be over 200 at current), while Sony has a roster of more than 800 games. On a per-game basis, that’s about half a penny each on Sony’s service, compared to about 8 cents each from Microsoft. As I said before, this isn’t really a comparison article, as the two console giants are aiming for different markets here. It is important to have examined the cost for both, though, as value seems to be the word on everyone’s tongues when they wax poetic about Game Pass.

微软吹捧他们的服务可以提供100多种游戏(尽管目前看来已经超过200种)，而索尼则拥有800多种游戏。 按游戏计算，这相当于索尼服务每笔半美分，而微软则为每笔8美分。 正如我之前所说，这并不是真正的比较文章，因为两家游戏机巨头正在瞄准这里的不同市场。 不过，重要的是要检查两者的成本，因为当每个人都对游戏通行证充满诗意时，价值似乎是每个人的话。

Microsoft seems to care less about where you play their games, as long as you play them, and aims to engender fans through Day 1 access to its biggest wholly owned games. Sony’s service is aimed more at fixing their lack of backwards compatibility on console while allowing potential PlayStation fans to experience three generations of games on PC, hopefully bringing them into the console fold as well.

只要您玩游戏，微软似乎就不在乎您在哪里玩游戏，它的目标是通过第一天的访问来吸引粉丝访问其最大的全资游戏。 索尼的服务旨在解决他们在游戏机上缺乏向后兼容性的问题，同时让潜在的PlayStation迷在PC上体验三代游戏，并希望将它们也带入游戏机市场。

游戏 (The Games)

Sony has compiled a massive roster of games across three generations here, with something to bring a smile to every fan from the PS2-era onward. It also allows a great jumping-in point for new gamers who may just have a PC and the desire to investigate the great lineup for which PlayStation is famous. Sony is not putting its newest massive hits on the service permanently, but it has been rolling them in at various intervals, so that’s always something to look forward to.

索尼在这里已经编制了一个庞大的游戏列表，涵盖了三代人，从PS2时代开始，每位粉丝都为索尼带来了微笑。 它还为刚拥有PC并渴望调查PlayStation闻名的优秀阵容的新玩家提供了一个不错的起点。 索尼并没有将其最新的热门产品永久地投放在该服务上，但是它已经在不同的时间间隔内不断推出，因此，这总是值得期待的。

Looking through the roster, you have the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, MGS 4, and MGS 5, giving you every entry in Kojima’s most famous series, sans the original Metal Gear Solid. You have every God of War game except for the 2018 soft reboot, though that was included in the service at one point and will likely be again. There are the first three Uncharted games, The Last of Us, multiple classic Ratchet & Clank games, as well as 14 games from the incredibly popular LEGO games series. There’s obviously a lot more that may appeal to you, these are just some of the most recognizable titles.

翻看名册，您会发现Metal Gear Solid HD Collection ， MGS 4和MGS 5 ，除了原始的Metal Gear Solid之外 ，还为您提供了小岛最著名的系列中的每个条目。 除了2018年的软重启功能外，您还拥有所有《战争之神》游戏，尽管该游戏已经包含在服务中，而且有可能会再次出现。 有前三个Uncharted游戏， The Last of Us ，多个经典的Ratchet＆Clank游戏以及非常受欢迎的LEGO游戏系列中的14个游戏。 显然，还有更多可能吸引您的东西，这些只是一些最知名的标题。

At the time of this writing, the current offering of newer and bigger games includes Control, Hitman 2, Rainbow Six Siege, Dead Cells, GreedFall, Street Fighter V, and Metro Exodus. Most of those are timed inclusions, usually staying on the service for 6–8 months before they are replaced by other offerings. Some of the biggest games have already spent time on the roster, including Spiderman, the aforementioned God of War, Persona 5, Uncharted: Lost Legacy, and Horizon: Zero Dawn. It stands to reason that many of those games will eventually become permanent additions.

在撰写本文时，当前提供的更新更大的游戏包括Control，Hitman 2，Rainbow Six Siege，Dead Cells，GreedFall，Street Fighter V和Metro Exodus 。 其中大多数是定时包裹体，通常在服役6-8个月后才能被其他产品取代。 一些最大的游戏已经花了很多时间，包括蜘蛛侠 ，前面提到的战争之神 ，《 女神异闻录5》，《神秘海域：失落的遗产》和《 地平线：零黎明》 。 可以说，其中许多游戏最终将成为永久性添加。

性能 (Performance)

With the streaming content being the main focus of the service, the performance you experience will largely depend on the quality of your internet. Sony recommends you use wired internet for the best possible performance, but my personal experience was that the service performed very well over WiFi. I tested several games that required low latency for good performance, and they had above-average quality to my estimation.

由于流内容是服务的主要重点，因此您体验的性能将在很大程度上取决于Internet的质量。 索尼建议您使用有线互联网以获得最佳性能，但我的个人经验是，该服务在WiFi上的表现非常出色。 我测试了几款要求低延迟才能获得良好性能的游戏，而据我估计它们的质量高于平均水平。

Street Fighter V was flawless, with no lag or frame drops at all. Need For Speed Rivals had a bit of lag when I pulled up the in-game menu, but the action and response to control inputs were solid. Wanting to test an FPS, I streamed Metro: Exodus and the result was above average, with no freezing or dropped frames. The action seemed a bit slow, but Metro is a bit slower when compared to something like Call of Duty, so it’s possible that is just the design. Regardless, the performance was better than I expected for WiFi, and I have no doubt it will be even better when I go to the wired connection. It’s safe to say that older games and less graphically intense or speed-based games can be expected to also perform well.

街头霸王V完美无缺，完全没有滞后或丢帧现象。 《极品飞车》的竞争对手在我调出游戏菜单时有些滞后，但对控制输入的动作和响应却很可靠。 要测试FPS，我播放了Metro：Exodus ，结果高于平均水平，没有死机或掉帧。 动作似乎有点慢，但是与诸如《 使命召唤》之类的东西相比， Metro要慢一些，因此很有可能只是设计而已。 无论如何，性能都比我预期的WiFi更好，而且毫无疑问，当我使用有线连接时，性能甚至会更好。 可以肯定地说，较早的游戏和图形强度较小或基于速度的游戏也有望表现良好。

Of course, this performance concern is bypassed when downloading the games, which is supported on most of the PS4 and PS2 entries. Due to the complexities of the PS3 system architecture, those games can’t be run on the local machine so streaming is the only option available. Your mileage may vary due to a number of factors, but I can confidently say it was a better experience than I had been led to believe from the various articles and influencers who have discussed the service.

当然，下载游戏时无需担心性能问题，大多数PS4和PS2条目均支持此功能。 由于PS3系统架构的复杂性，这些游戏无法在本地计算机上运行，​​因此流媒体是唯一可用的选项。 由于许多因素，您的里程可能会有所不同，但是我可以自信地说，与讨论服务的各种文章和影响者所认为的相比，这是一次更好的体验。

As reported in our recent article, those in the know expect cloud-based streaming services and subscription-based plans to make big gains in the post-COVID world. Reduced disposable income will have gamers looking for the best possible value and lowest expense proposition to get into the hobby. Sony is well-positioned to take advantage of this if they are able to focus some of their marketing efforts toward letting the world know that PS Now even exists. With all the attention on PlayStation 5’s imminent release, there is some doubt whether they will do that, but it would certainly be a worthwhile undertaking.

正如我们在最近的文章中所报道的，知情人士期望基于云的流服务和基于订阅的计划将在后COVID领域取得重大进展。 减少的可支配收入将使游戏玩家寻找可能的最佳价值和最低费用的提议，以进入嗜好。 如果索尼能够将其一些营销工作重点放在让全世界知道PS Now甚至存在的情况下，便可以利用这一优势。 在即将发布的PlayStation 5上引起了人们的广泛关注，他们是否会这样做值得怀疑，但这肯定是值得的。

The service has the accessibility, value proposition, games and performance to be a big hit with gamers, if they can overcome the Microsoft hype train for Game Pass that is. As with everything in the gaming space, it will be very interesting to watch it unfold, but I urge you to try out the service and make up your own mind.

如果他们能够克服Microsoft对Game Pass的炒作，该服务的可访问性，价值主张，游戏和性能将对游戏玩家产生重大影响。 与游戏空间中的所有内容一样，观看它会非常有趣，但是我敦促您尝试该服务并下定决心。