All the differences between Sony's two online gaming services.

PS Plus and PS Now can be used on PS5, as shown above. 

PlayStation manufacturer Sony offers two subscription services for gamers: PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now. Although they both provide online game access, they have very little overlapping content. Whether you are a new PS5 buyer or an experienced PS4 owner, here is how to decide which service is right for you. 

Read more: PS5 Purchase Tracker: How to buy PlayStation 5 from Target, Best Buy, etc.

This is not a problem unique to Sony. Microsoft has its own somewhat confusing subscription menu, which includes Xbox Live Gold and three different styles of Xbox Game Pass (one of which includes Xbox Live Gold). 

PS Plus requires many multiplayer games to be played online, and subscribers can access new games for free every month. The lesser-known PS Now is the originator of cloud gaming on modern consoles, although it is not qualified compared to newer competitors.

In order to compete with Xbox Live Gold, Sony created PS Plus for PlayStation 3 in 2010. Subscriptions allow online multiplayer games, discounts in the PSN store, cloud storage, and monthly additional games. Initially, PS Plus free games included PS3 and PSP games. Ultimately, it includes other Sony devices such as PS Vita, PS4, and most recently PS5. The additional games included in the subscription are only available when the PS Plus subscription is active. Stop payment and you will not be able to access these games. 

There are additional rewards for PS5 users. PS Plus subscribers who have successfully obtained PS5 can also access the PS Plus Collection, a library containing some of the best PS4 games, such as "God of War", "Curse of Blood" and "Uncharted 4: A Thief's End". 

Most online multiplayer games still require PS Plus, but free online games such as Fortnite, Call of Duty Warzone, and Apex Legends do not require PS Plus. Microsoft also recently moved free games such as Fortnite from behind the Xbox Live Gold paywall. 

Even if you are not interested in online multiplayer games, it is still a subscription that can be paid multiple times through monthly bonus games. In 2021 alone, PS Plus subscribers received "Control", "Final Fantasy VII Remake", "Battlefield V" and "Shadow of the Tomb Raider."

Cloud gaming may be hot right now, with major players like Google Stadia, Amazon Luna, and Microsoft’s Xbox cloud gaming beta, but Sony first tried to make cloud gaming mainstream through PS Now in 2014. Early pioneers such as OnLive and Gaikai (the latter) were eventually purchased by Sony) are now largely forgotten. More than 800 PS2, PS3, PS4 games can be streamed or downloaded on PS4, PS5 or PC. 

But latency is still a factor, just like other cloud gaming services. The game resolution of some games was recently updated from 720 to 1080, but this lags behind the 4K provided by Stadia. There is also a lack of newer titles in its library. Even Sony’s recently published works such as "The Last of Us Part Two" and "Return" are not on the service, and there is no sign that they will be added. Those added games sometimes don't stay in the library for that long, and some are available on PS Now for only three months. On the bright side, many PS4 games on the service can be downloaded instead of streaming, and there is also a PC client for cloud gaming on the computer. 

Interestingly, Sony's promotion of this service is very small, especially when compared with Microsoft's promotion of Xbox Game Pass. For many years, the company seemed to be less interested in PS Now, and invested very little energy in it. 

The new game library alone can make up for the price of the PS Plus subscription, especially if you pay once a year. Many games also require access to online multiplayer games, and it has the convenience of cloud saving to switch between different game consoles. 

PS, on the other hand, it is a bit difficult to prove now. Although the service does have more than 800 games, many of them are not new or so good. This may be one of the reasons why there are only 2.2 million subscribers as of April 2020, while PS Plus subscribers exceed 40 million. It may be worth it to try for a month or two so that you can access a lot of games you haven't played, but this is not something you want to subscribe to for more than a few months. 

The obvious answer seems to be to consolidate these services into a single subscription, but when we asked Sony about this possibility earlier this year, the company said there were no announcements on this issue.