PlayStation Now game streaming service ‘hits 1 million subscribers’

Sony claims that its PlayStation Now game streaming service has reached one million subscribers as of October 2019.

The company revealed the new subscriber milestone during its second quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

The figure is up over 40% since April 2019, when Sony said PlayStation Now had 700,000 subscribers.

In early October, Sony slashed PlayStation Now prices in a bid to be more competitive with rival streaming services.

It also said PlayStation Now will be adding “blockbuster” games each month, available for a limited time, starting God of War, Grand Theft Auto V, Infamous Second Son and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.

During Sony’s second quarter earnings call on Wednesday, senior EVP and CFO Hiroki Totoki said: “PS Now has become even more attractive due to a global strategic price reduction and the addition of limited-time only popular game titles such as God of War.

“Since starting the service renewal, subscribers have steadily increased, and the total number of subscribers has already exceeded one million people as of this month.

“This is a great step toward the target we mentioned at the investor relations day of growing subscribers by an average of more than 50% per year. Through this renewal, we are aiming to assess the potential of cloud gaming services.”

Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan said in July he expects PS Now to play an increasingly important role in the PlayStation business over the coming years.

“We are getting more confident with the [PlayStation Now] service and we are really going to start to push it hard this year and in years to follow,” he said.

“We obviously have seen the trend in other forms of entertainment towards the mass adoption of streaming as a means of accessing content,” Ryan told the Financial Times. “It would seem likely, very likely, that gaming will follow that trend.”

Sony shipped 2.8 million PS4 consoles during its second fiscal quarter, taking the system’s lifetime total to 102.8 million, the company said on Wednesday. PS4 has now outsold Wii and the original PlayStation.

The company also announced this week that it’s to shut down its PlayStation Vue video streaming service on January 30, 2020.

Microsoft recently launched the preview version of its Project xCloud game streaming service, while Google is set to launch its game streaming service, Stadia, on November 19, 2019.