While the PS5 and Xbox Series X continue to dominate the gaming conversation, there is more to these systems than hardware. Both Sony and Microsoft offer subscription services that make their vast libraries available for a monthly fee: PlayStation Now and Xbox Game Pass, respectively. However, while Microsoft has been promoting the Xbox Series X with Xbox Game Pass front and center, Sony has been largely silent on how PlayStation Now will benefit the PS5.

Sony's attitude is puzzling given that PlayStation Now is a good service and has the potential to get even better. However, it is certainly a better service than Xbox Game Pass, which offers fewer games, newer games, wider availability, and more consistent features. In addition, Xbox Game Pass has improved markedly in recent months, whereas PlayStation Now has offered much of the same since its inception.

PlayStation Now could be a major selling point for the PS5, as long as Sony takes advantage of the service's vast library, great functionality, and reasonable price. Here is how this service could be meaningfully improved in the next console generation.

In a way, PlayStation Now is the unlabeled genesis of cloud gaming for the masses. when the PlayStation 4 first came out, fans were disappointed to learn that backward compatibility was essentially impossible. the PS3 CPU was fundamentally different from the PS4 architecture, so it was impossible to run PS3 games on the PS4.

Sony's proposed band-aid was something no other major gaming company had tried before: streaming the entire game over the Internet. Rather than change the architecture of the PS4, Sony thought it could satisfy consumer demand (and hopefully generate revenue) by running PS3 games remotely and streaming them directly to players' PS4s. called "PlayStation Now," launched in 2014 with about 20 PS3 titles and now offers more than 700 games selected from PS2, PS3, and PS4.

In other words, Sony intended to address backward compatibility issues with PlayStation Now. Instead, the company accidentally spearheaded the launch of cloud gaming. Today, Google, Nvidia, and Microsoft offer comparable services, but PlayStation Now still wins when it comes to the ability to enjoy many games for a flat fee.

PlayStation Now includes the Batman: Arkham series, Red Dead games, Bloodborne, Control, the Infamous series, the Ratchet & Clank PS3 titles, Hollow Knight, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and a great selection of others. If you don't like these, there are literally hundreds of choices, from big titles to cult classics to popular indie titles. Games are offered at a somewhat unpredictable pace and are interchangeable, but this is not limited to the PlayStation.

The service costs between $5 and $10 per month, depending on the number of months you pay in advance. As long as you have a reasonably strong Internet connection (at least 5 Mbps down and in the 25 Mbps range), the service works fine on both PS4 and PC.

So why is Sony neglecting this service and making it so difficult to use?

First, Sony does not make it easy to figure out which games are available on PS Now or what they are about; the official PlayStation Now page does not mention game selection, instead relegating players to the "Latest Games" section, relegating players to the At the time of this writing (September 11), this page is already several weeks old and advertises that certain games will only be available until August 31.

When one clicks on "View All Games," all that appears is a plain list of white text on a black background, with no box art, no game descriptions, no links to individual game pages, and no indication of how long the games will be offered. The browsing experience is better with the PS Now app, but I wonder how many people tuned out before signing up for the 7-day free trial (which is pretty stingy for a free trial).

Sony has also been instrumental in limiting, rather than expanding, the scope of PlayStation Now's offerings. Previously, the app was available for PC, PS3, PS Vita, PS4, Sony Blu-ray players, and various smart TVs. Currently, only PC and PS4 remain. While I don't think many people are clamoring to play PS Now on their PS3 or Vita these days, the smart TV integration is an advanced feature and it's a shame that Sony (and consumers) didn't take full advantage of it. Similarly, there is no PS Now app for smartphones or tablets that would be a natural fit alongside apps like Stadia or GeForce Now.

Downloading games through PS Now is another confusing process. Games can be downloaded to improve performance, but only for specific PS4 titles, and only on the PS4; they cannot be downloaded to a PC, leaving the option to stream all PS4 games. This is a confusing and inconsistent system that does not take full advantage of the available hardware.

There is also a general feeling, justified or not, that Sony is not putting much effort into PlayStation Now. No major upgrades have been made since PS4 games became available for download last year, and while we know that the feature will be available on the PS5, we doubt that PS Now will take advantage of the PS5's more powerful hardware in any significant way. Similarly, there is no information that PS5 titles will be offered on PS Now, either immediately or in the future.

Xbox Game Pass, by contrast, is a more straightforward service. Pay $10 to $15 per month, depending on the desired option (PC games, streaming games on Android devices, etc.), and choose from a library of over 100 titles to download to your Xbox One. download games on Xbox One and PC, and stream games on Android devices, and streaming games on your device. Save files are carried over across platforms, and many games are available on all three systems.

In addition, Microsoft has made Xbox Game Pass a major pillar of its marketing strategy: all Xbox first-party titles, from Gears 5 to Wasteland 3, are available as part of Xbox Game Pass from launch day. The Xbox Series X will continue this trend with big titles like Halo Infinite and Avowed; while Xbox Game Pass does not place as much emphasis on backward compatibility, it does allow users to play a variety of original Xbox and Xbox 360 games. And we already know that all Xbox One games included in the service are playable on both the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X.

In short, Microsoft is good at communicating not only what Xbox Game Pass does, but also what it will do in the future. For the most part, they are streamed beautifully; there is absolutely no reason why PS Now cannot be an integral part of PlayStation's strategy or why it should exist in the ambiguous space between "backwards compatibility alternative" and "full-fledged cloud gaming service."

Give PlayStation Now a more comprehensive website, a clear demarcation between platforms, a mobile app, and a little attention at Sony events, and Sony would have had a worthy competitor for Xbox Game Pass all along! You might notice that.