Well, I'm sorry to hear that and I hope your fortune changes soon and you are able to afford the things you enjoy. How much do you pay for PSnow and how long have you been subscribed (you don't have to answer that ofc)? I'm not trying to make you look silly but have you considered saving up that money instead till you can afford the console itself? That's where services like GP fit in, it's for those people like you who maybe can't afford to buy a console plus a bunch of full priced games. I'd honestly recommend trying that as a change rather than sticking to streaming. Of course it's up to you at the end of the day.
It's all good, I don't mind answering! I've done the math many times and of course my situation will be different from lots of others so I'm not saying my choice makes sense for everyone else.
When I had some extra cash (i.e. before having a kid), I preferred to game on a mid-range PC for the fidelity and for competitive multiplayer games like Dota, Tekken, PUBG etc. I was never interested in paying for multiplayer and I enjoyed > 60fps experiences so Steam/Origin/etc made the most sense.
However, now I no longer have access to gaming hardware as I'm priced-out of that option, so I can either save up money for a console, or stream.
Streaming is currently the better option for me right now for a few reasons:
- If I save money for a console, I don't get to play games right now. I know I have time to game now, but I don't know how much time I'll have months from now when I would theoretically be able to afford a console if I saved up specifically for that. Let's say theoretically I specifically allocated the same money for either streaming or saving for a console. I'm either paying $10 a month to stream games now, or saving $10/month for ~25 months to be able to afford the PS4/XBoxOne, or longer for the PS5/XboxTwo at whatever their launch price is.
- Even if I buy a console, I'm still considering that a sub-optimal experience since I'm used to playing on PC anyway, so I get the feeling of a downgraded visual quality regardless. For now, the streaming quality is good enough for the price.
- If I buy a console, I'm effectively choosing an ecosystem that locks me out of exclusives for one 1st party or another, whereas with streaming I can change back and forth every month. If there's nothing that interests me or if I don't have time to game for a month, I don't have to pay anything.
- I get multiplayer included with streaming so no need to sign up for PSPlus or Live saving me extra $$$.
- Buying a console late in the generation is not always a good investment, since it becomes harder to sell current-gen hardware as next-gen approaches, and when the next consoles arrive, I've already sunk money into the current-gen console which means I would have to save up again to buy the new box.
I've only been signed up for PS Now for less than a week, so I've been playing Bloodborne for $0 so far. If I finish it by the end of the week, it will have cost me $0 to play the game I wanted. If it takes me more than a week, I'll just pay the $10 for a month. It seems like a pretty great deal to me!
