PlayStation Now adds download functionality for PS4, PS2 offline play

Sony’s PlayStation Now streaming service has branched out to include game downloads, adding in the functionality shared with Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass.

As of now, members of the subscription service will be able to download most PS4 and PS2 games available on PS Now, with the remainder of titles to be activated and available in the weeks and months to come.

As long as you have an active subscription, you will be able to download and keep the likes of Bloodborne, Until Dawn and many more. DLC, microtransactions, add-ons and PS4 Pro enhancements are all supported too, so it’s just like having the actual digital version of a game on your console. Mainly because that’s what it actually is.

One bonus of Now membership is that a PS Plus subscription isn’t required for online play, and this factor will remain in place for downloaded games.

The streaming side of things will continue as-is, and will remain the only place in which subscribers will be able to play PS3 games. They are not mentioned at all in the Sony blog post, with only the PS2 line-up mentioned as available for download.

In that respect Sony still lags behind the backwards compatibility offerings of the Xbox One, which has an ever-growing library of Xbox 360 and original Xbox games available. Perhaps Sony is holding off on original PlayStation games in order to get as many people as possible investing in the PlayStation Classic.

But the PS3? Well the lack of emulation on PS4 just shows the console’s ‘unique architecture’ is still working against the machine, even to this day.