Have you practically saturated the memory of your PlayStation and don’t have the faintest idea where to store new games? Are you a serial gamer and you devour titles as much as you can, but don’t you have the slightest intention of continuing to spend a fortune to always have new ones? In this case, you may want to consider subscribing to the PlayStation Now service .
Put simply, PlayStation Now is a subscription service made available by Sony, which allows, for a monthly fee, to freely access hundreds of titles for PS2, PS3, PS4 and PS5 and play them on PS4, PS5, computer, smartphone and tablet directly in streaming, without necessarily having to download them. In addition, you will be happy to know that it is possible to take advantage of a free trial of the service, so that you can evaluate it and understand if it is actually for you.
How do you say? The thing interests you a little and, now, you can’t wait to figure out how to get PlayStation Now for free ? Then take a few minutes of your free time for yourself, make yourself comfortable and carefully read everything I have to explain to you on the subject. I wish you good reading and, above all, have fun!
Index
- PlayStation Now costs
- How to get PlayStation Now for free: free trial
- From console
- From PC
- From smartphones and tablets
- How to turn off automatic renewal of PlayStation Now
- From console
- From PC
- From smartphones and tablets
PlayStation Now costs
As I have already mentioned in the introductory jokes of this guide, PlayStation Now is a subscription platform, which allows you to access the numerous titles in its catalog in on-demand mode, as long as the subscription to the service remains active.
The games, which are streamed and therefore not “physically” downloaded, can be played not only from one of the compatible consoles (PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, where download of titles is also supported), but also from a computer, smartphone or tablet, via an application used for the purpose, provided you connect the DualShock 4 controller, the PS5 DualSense controller or one of the controllers compatible with Xinput.
As for the catalog, available on this website , the service offers hundreds of titles for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 and is generally updated on a monthly basis.
At the time of writing this guide, the PlayStation Now subscription can be subscribed with three different billing methods: monthly for € 9.99 , quarterly for € 24.99 or annual for € 59.99 . All users who have never used the service are still entitled to a free trial period of 7 days , which can be deactivated at any time.
The theme of this guide will be, precisely, to explain how to activate the free trial of PlayStation Now and how to disable the automatic renewal of the account, in order to avoid running into unwelcome charges.
How to get PlayStation Now for free: free trial
To be able to have PlayStation Now for free , simply activate the 7-day free trial period made available by Sony. Although the addition of a payment method is required , nothing will be charged until the free trial expires (after which you pay € 9.99 / month, unless you disable the service at least 12 hours before the end of the test).
For everything to go smoothly, it is essential to have previously activated a free PlayStation Network account, to which you can associate the PS Now subscription; if you have it and you no longer remember its password, you can deal with it by following the instructions I have given you in this guide .
If, on the other hand, you have not yet signed up for PSN, connect instead to the PlayStation website , click on the Login button located at the top and then on the Create new account button , located on the new page that opens.
Now, click on the Create button and, when prompted, enter your date of birth in the form that is proposed to you; then, press the Next button and follow the instructions on the screen, to complete the subscription to the service, at the end of which you may have to validate your email address by visiting the link in the email message received from Sony.
For more information on how to access PlayStation Network , I refer you to reading the tutorial I dedicated to this topic.
Once you have finished creating your PSN account, you are ready to activate your PS Now free trial: everything is explained below.
From console
At the time of writing, it’s not always possible to activate the PlayStation Now free trial directly from PS4 or PS5 . Therefore, I invite you to give it a try and, if this is not available, to proceed from your PC or mobile device as illustrated in the following sections of this guide.
That said, to activate the PlayStation Now trial from PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5, try opening the PlayStation Store (the shopping bag icon in the console’s home menu) and looking for Now .
Select, therefore, the result relating to the PlayStation Now test and continue following the instructions on the screen, also indicating the payment method to use.
Alternatively, you may find a reference to the trial directly in the PlayStation Now section of the PS4 or PS5 main menu.
From PC
If you intend to act from your computer, first connect to the PlayStation Now website , click on the Login button located at the top right and use the following page to log in to PSN with the account you created earlier.
When prompted, enter your email address in the Login ID field , click on the Next button and, in the same way, enter your personal password and press the Login button . If prompted, complete two-factor authentication , following the instructions that appear on the screen.
Once again at the home page of the service, click on the Join PS Now button now and then on the Buy button , located in correspondence with the item Free 7-day free trial .
Now, click on the Accept button , put the check mark next to the box for immediate purchase access and press the Order and pay button , to proceed with the purchase using the configured payment method (or the remaining balance of the PlayStation wallet).
Please note that if you have not entered a valid payment method or you do not have a balance on your PlayStation wallet, you will see an error message. To solve, first click on the (X) to close the PS Now purchase procedure, then on your avatar located at the top right and, subsequently, on the Payment Management item , which appears in the proposed menu.
Once this is done, click on the Add payment method button , choose the option that suits you best ( credit / debit card , PayPal or prepaid card ) and follow the instructions that are provided to you, to conclude: if you have chosen to use a card payment, you will need to indicate the name of the holder , the expiration date and code CVV / CVC2 ; if you have opted for PayPal, you will need to log into your account and authorize Sony for payments.
In any case, once you have completed the configuration of the payment method, repeat the PS Now registration procedure that I indicated a little while ago: everything should now be successful. I remind you that, if you wish, you can pair the DualShock / DualSense controller with Windows 10 and use it to play PS Now games on your computer too: for more information, I refer you to my tutorial on how to play PS4 on PC .
From smartphones and tablets
If, on the other hand, you want to use the service from smartphones and tablets, you can use the PlayStation App , the free Sony application dedicated to PlayStation users, available for Android (even for devices without Play Store ), iOS and iPadOS .
To install it, open the reference store of your device, search for the application using the integrated function and, when you have found it, tap the Install / Get button to start the download. If prompted, authenticate with your account facial recognition, fingerprint or password.
Once the download is complete, open the app in question, tap the Sign in button and, when prompted, enter your PSN account credentials and wait a few moments for your personal information to be loaded.
Now, reach the PS Store section , by tapping on the shopping bag symbol at the bottom, tap on the Subscriptions item (if you don’t see it, swipe left on the upper menu bar) and locate the PlayStation Subscriptions box Now , which resides just below.
At this point, touch the symbol > corresponding to the aforementioned item, tap on the box dedicated to the free trial and tap the Buy button to proceed; at this point, tap the Accept button , put the check mark next to the box relating to the request for immediate access to the purchase and tap the Order and pay button , to conclude.
If you have not set up a valid payment method for your PSN account, you will receive an error message; if this happens, return to the PS App home panel, reach the PS Store section (the shopping bag icon at the bottom), tap the ☰ button at the top and choose Payment methods from the menu that appears.
Now, if necessary, re-enter your password for security reasons, tap the Add payment method button , choose whether to add a credit / debit card , or redeem a prepaid card and follow the suggested steps to associate the your account a valid payment method.
Finally, repeat the procedure again to activate your PS Now subscription, which should now be completed successfully. If you are interested in playing PlayStation titles (including PS Now ones) also from smartphones and tablets, take a look at the specific guide I have dedicated to the topic.
How to turn off automatic renewal of PlayStation Now
At the end of the free trial period, the PlayStation Now subscription will automatically renew on a monthly basis, for an amount equal to € 9.99 / month; to prevent this from happening, you must deactivate the service before the natural expiration of the trial. Please note that once the PlayStation Now automatic renewal option has been canceled, you will still be able to continue playing on-demand games until the natural expiry of the subscription.
From console
After turning on the PlayStation and logging in with your account, use the pad to highlight the PS Now box and press the X button to select it; now, in the same way, press the button (…) which resides at the top right and then on the item Manage subscription , located in the menu that appears.
Once this is done, select the Disable automatic renewal button under the PlayStation Now icon and press the X button on the pad to finish.
From PC
To deactivate active subscriptions from PC, connected to the PlayStation website , click on the Login button and enter your PSN account login credentials, when prompted.
Now, click on your avatar located at the top right, select the item Manage subscriptions from the menu that appears, locate the box relating to PlayStation Now and click on the Disable automatic renewal and Confirm buttons to proceed.
From smartphones and tablets
To cancel the PS Now subscription through the official application for Android or iPhone / iPad , start the latter, reach the PS Store section by tapping on the shopping bag icon located at the bottom, touch the ☰ symbol which resides in top and touch the entry Management subscription located in the menu that appears.
If prompted, enter your account password in the appropriate field, tap the Continue button , locate the box dedicated to PlayStation Now and tap the Disable automatic renewal and Confirm buttons to finish.
