Sony Goes Game Pass By Putting Shadow Warrior 3 on PS Now at Launch

An unexpected move, but a welcome one.

Cool. Still no PS Now in half of EU though.

thats more like it

cant beat a bit of Lo Wang

That explains why it isn't launching onto Game Pass on day 1. It's launching onto PS Now instead.
Not entirely unprecedented as Fall Guys also hit PS Now day 1 but that was a multiplayer title so made sense then. Devolver Digital seem to be very partisan with their releases.
So long as Sony understand that the day 1 is a big draw of Game Pass then their own alternative should do well.
Edit: Thanks for the clarifications. My bad. I was confusing PS Plus with PS Now

Very cool actually! These games are genuinely good fun. As @Voltan says though, they really have to roll out PS Now across the world first.

I really enjoyed my time with SW2. This is great news indeed.

@pip_muzz Fall Guys launched on PS Plus but I'm fairly certain it was never on Now

Excellent! I've always subbed to 'Now' so I'm happy to get this.
Now if I only I could find time to play it....

Now if only PS Now had a PS5 category.. bliss.

Well this looks bonkers. Never played one of these before.

I thought everything was pointing toward Sony shutting down PS Now as they merged it into PS+? Didn't they stop selling yearly subscriptions to Now? Why promote Now now if they are rolling it into a level of PS+, probably called PS+Plus. 😂

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2022/01/sony-removing-ps-now-subscription-cards-in-uk-ahead-of-supposed-ps-plus-overhaul

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2021/12/sony-set-to-combine-ps-plus-and-ps-now-to-create-xbox-game-pass-competitor-on-ps5-ps4

Edit: Skimmed thru the trailer. Less like Doom, more like Serious Sam.

I won't be playing Shadow Warrior 3 -at least not at launch as I don't have PSNow and not subscribing just to get it either...

I'm happy to wait until the price is 'right' for me to consider buying the game or wait until Sony announce their plans, their pricing and 'benefits' of their 'new' Subscription model because right now, PSnow doesn't appeal to me and PS+ is 'compulsory' if you want to play any game and/or game modes you have 'paid' for but can't access without you having to give Sony money every month too.

I've never been an XBox user so I'm not fully sure on how Game Pass works, is it a merging of subscriptions as well, so to play online you need Game Pass, as well as if you want to play the games on there? Or is there an online pass / PS+ equivalent as well? I would rather Sony give the option as they do now but just beef up PS Now as a competitor, than take away what PS plus offers for its price.

Oh no! Now it's Sony's turn to destroy the game industry! lol

Great addition by the way

@Junosbetterhalf I believe Xbox Live Gold (the online pass) is still a thing - it’s inlcuded in Game Pass Ultimate but not in the lower tier.

@Voltan XBox live of course sorry, even I had heard of that before haha

I mean this game is coming out in the middle of Horizon, Elden Ring, Elex 2, triangle strategy FF origins, Ghost Wire, Relayer to name a few

@Junosbetterhalf Game Pass is a 'two tier' sub service on Xbox Consoles. The 'basic' Game Pass subscription (£8 per month) just allows you to access any game on that service on Xbox. You still need Xbox 'Gold' to play games online (like PS+).

However, MS offer Game Pass Ultimate (£11 per month) that includes Xbox Gold, Game Pass for PC & mobile, Cloud streaming (which you'll need to 'stream' next gen games to Xbox One hardware for example) and EA play. its basically the 'only' subscription you need to play ANY Game Pass title on ANY platform anywhere. If you have 'Ultimate', you can play FH5 on ANY GP Platform without having to buy multiple copies (PC, Console, Mobile) and keep your progress across all too.

Game Pass on its own doesn't come with Gold but Ultimate does and offers a lot more on top. The 'only' Subscription you 'need' is GPUltimate and that will let you play Game Pass games on any Game Pass enabled device at no extra charge.

Hope that helps

I just want to know the March PS+ games. PS Now is good and all but yeah, not as accessible.

It's very disappointing to see that Sony is joining the race to the bottom of day and date releases.
I'm really looking forward to Shadow Warrior 3, but I will buy it rather than get PS Now.

A good move. It seems Sony's Devolver Digital investment is already paying off.

@EquiinoxGII They are awesome. If you like the personality that old games used to have before everything became a bit PC and corporate in Western games then you will love them.

@BAMozzy
A great explanation, but I'd argue there is a third tier because you can get PC Game Pass á la carte, too.

I really don't care if a game launches on the service or comes in later, just that there's games I'm interested in (which this is not something I'm even remotely interested in).

I am half expecting Shadow Warrior 3 to be one of the PS+ games now. That would be cool, but it's terrible when Sony overlaps their services.

I hope this doesn't mean it's a mediocre game. Looking at it a second time, it seems the game hasn't shown many areas, recycles enemies too much. Might be a short game.

Looking at third party AAA games on gamepass like DnD, Extraction, B4B, Outriders, The Medium... a lot of those are very average games I wouldn't bother even renting them for $15.

I hate this. I know what Game Pass will lead to and I want nothing to do with it. Think NBA 2k when it would come out for well below the regular price of a new game, and the disgusting mess that it is now. No thank you.

Awesome I hope Sony continues this trend. I can't wait for them to finally reveal Spartacus

@Quintumply Didn’t one of the GTA remasters launch on PS Now?

@Foxx_64740 They will if they put 200m budget games like Horizon and God of War in there.

@Rmg0731 Yeah. FF origins, gt7, horizon and elden ring are big.

Nice to see it coming to PS Now for those interested, but as with the previous two games, I’ll just buy it on release to add to my collection. Plus, I hate time constraints when it comes to hobbies I use to chillax. Having to worry about playing and finishing a game before it leaves a service is just no good.

@Voltan GTA trilogy came out November 2021, but GTA3 wasn't added until December 2021. Vice City may've launched on Gamepass though, not sure that timing.

@Milktastrophe oh, I see. Thanks.

@TheCollector316 There is both Game Pass for PC - Which is equivalent to Game Pass on Xbox and Game Pass for Mobile. Each platform has its own 'app' but the question was asked primarily from a 'Console' perspective.

On each platform, there is a 'base' Tier price, however, if you pay the 'Top' Tier price for 'Ultimate', it lets you play on ANY platform at 'no extra' charge - so for a PC gamer with Game Pass Ultimate,they can buy an Xbox for another room and jump straight over - no extra 'online' access costs because Gold is included. For Console gamers, that means they can now play 'anywhere' too and includes Gold -but now may try cloud gaming on their mobile/laptops or maybe wanting a PC too for some of those PC only games to play...

There is basically a Base Tier for 'each' platform and a high tier that includes all Base Tiers in one, and Gold, EA Access so that whichever platform you play on, there is 'no' additional costs required to play any game anywhere - and that includes 'Cloud' gaming which is how next gen games will be 'playable' on hardware it can't run 'locally' on - like mobiles, tablets, laptops, last gen Xbox consoles...

Gameplay, Graphics look good, but what happened to the voice acting?

Those are the most cheesy jokes I've ever heard lol.

@Royalblues That's the thing, since you can't buy all the games, publishers and devs will try to make something of quality to make you choose their game over others.

Like everything in life, you buy things "blindly". I think we're used to this hehe. Personally, reviews have been good enough for me to not make a bad purchase. Along with me being interested in what I'm seeing. Has worked for me.

And thats it.... whole project Spartakus... 🤣🤣🤣

I’m looking forward to SW3, but not enough to subscribe to PS Now. Good move by Sony though, and definitely a step in the right direction 👍

Both sony and Microsoft having decent subscription services is only going to end one way, both buying timed exclusive rights to games hitting their service first like Microsoft have done with STALKER 2

Going to play this after I finish and platinum horizon forbidden west, the other shadow warrior games were alot of fun.

Cool to see a game release Day 1 on Now.

Amazing how many people are saying this is great news considering the amount of trash Game Pass had been getting from PlayStation only gamers here.

They wish they could do gamepass🤣🤣🤣

Then again, it’s been so poor lately they probably could with the same drivel that’s multiformat

@trev666
Can't beat the Wang

Wait....

Does anyone know if it will be downloadable or streamed?

@trev666 I’m so happy about this. It’s a really busy season so it will help this game get eyes plus my pockets need a break from HFW, ER and GT

wow this is great

Very cool, looking forward to it! Just need PS5 games there now…

Out comes game pass ...ppl on this forum day one games are stupid and should be stopped before they destroy the world blah blah

Sony do it ...what a great idea give us more day one games

Wouldn't this be a first for a PS5 game as well on PSnow?

@Martsmall you are aware that different people can have different views right? The posters on this forum isn't just one person with lots of different names.

@Balosi did I say all people at all ?

PS Now lets you stream games (like Netflix?). Does Xbox game pass let you do the same or can you also download games to keep in you hard drive as long as you're subscribed?

@Fredendil both you can stream to phone/Xbox/pc or download to the console /pc , handy to stream if you don't know if you like the game first

@BrotherFilmriss Shadow Warrior 3 is a PS4 game. You need to be careful these days, many outlets are calling PS4 games PS5 games simply because PS5 can play them.

Well... PSNow is not available in a lot of countries and regions, so it's actually a smaller move than making it a PSplus game.

@RevGaming I get what you're saying, but you can't really compare Shadow Warrior to the games in that list lol cmon
As for the voice acting, they hired an actual Asian dude for Lo Wang this time around, I think he sounds the same but that's about the only difference I believe. And according to their twitter post, post-Dying Light 2 marketing this game should be in about the 8 hours range. Which sounds good to me as it's a first person shooter. Also be mindful of the fact that the game is just €$50.

Not streaming games or movies. No thanks.

@Cherip-the-Ripper We'll see. There are stuff like rocket league and fall guys that were free, but plus gives two games per month so that's more beareable. I mean the other character that is talking to Wang. He sounds awful and the jokes are bad besides 2 or 3.

8 hours is fine for a double A games. It includes the first two games so it's a good deal in my case.

@Royalblues People who play the game in the service never buy the game after beating it while subbed to the service though. That's a very small amount.

Imagine a game that you thought it was a 7 (whatever game is) it's now a 9. We will always remember how fully complete multiplayer games were back on ps3/360 days. That's something I don't want it to happen to single player games. Imagine God of War being episodic or making leveling up harder so you spend on mtx... Or being as long as re3 remake.

Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate was also day and date in PS Now last year, so this isn't the first time, but admittedly that was overshadowed by it also launching as a PS Plus game for that same month. Perhaps for that reason this is a little more important.

Remember when (Former) PlayStation exclusive MLB the show was a day 1 game pass release last year? People reacted strongly to that it seemed.
Did it come to PS now? Or is it more like PS Maybe later?

PS Now is not available in more than half of Europe. Like Xbox Cloud Gaming companies need to build new datacenters that will establish more cloud regions and that can take years. I would prefer Sony to make PS Plus a real Game Pass killer

@Royalblues The industry will only head in that direction if the leading platform follows in Microsoft's footsteps. To me streaming is just a race to the bottom. I've got too much going on in my life to play that much recently anyway, so maybe when the dystopian gaming future comes it will be time for me to quit gaming.

@Torque ok, so just download it then.

And so it begins.
No thanks, Sony. I don't support digital and services. I'll stick around so long as physical media exists. When that ends, and it will, and everything is service and digital only, bye-bye PlayStation, so-long Microsoft.

I'll stick with Nintendo until they follow suit then back to my vast retro library when the industry is a shadow of its former self.

It's upsetting to see where gaming is headed. Greed, mediocrity and licenced service crap full of MTX and NFT's with no rights to the consumer.

SONY need to combine PS NOW with PS PLUS really and give it a new name. Have one service that does it all. Saying that I only get PS PLUS now because I feel like I am forced to because I can't back-up my PS5 game saves to USB for some stupid reason SONY don't let you do that on the PS5!?!? :-/

Shadow warrior is excellent.and shadow warrior 3 looks even better. Cant wait for this game.word up son

@RevGaming Pretty sure cheesy jokes were part of Shadow Warrior's identity since 1997
The original game was basically Duke Nukem 3D but somehow more inappropriate

@Royalblues My main concern is not that good games won't be added to the service, it's more about the incentives and rewards that the subscription model results in. The a la carte model is the most direct way that developers are rewarded for making good games. A lot of games can make money by just making up the numbers. There are so many quality games available that I see no value on wasting my time on games that I wouldn't pay for. Another major concern is that the subscription model turns a game (or whatever the medium) into content, which is indiscriminate. A great game and an average game of the same length are basically equal as content. The subscription model only works at a low price, so in effect games are being devalued at the same time that production costs are skyrocketing. For the companies, they will miss out on speculative purchases, that is, games that you want to play, but you don't have time to get round to and still buy them on sale.
One major positive of a subscription model would be if it reduced the length of games. If I could play more games that were reduced in scope by half or even more, then it could be really appealing. Imagine if Assasin's Creed were a tight 10-15 hour experience then I could play something else rather than being sucked into 80-100 hours for one game.
Sony is already doing interstitial games like Infamous Second Light, Horizon Frozen Wilds, Ghost of Tsushima: Iki Island, Uncharted: Lost Legacy, and Spiderman: Miles Morales, so that kind of content is already out there in a form that doesn't require a subscription service.
In sum, I see a whole lot of negatives about the subscription model, and not really any positives.

@Martsmall was thinking the same thing as you haha

Looking forward to SW3! I was taken by surprise at how good SW2 was. Haven't genuinely laughed that hard at a game and enjoyed the gameplay at the same time as I did with SW2. Except maybe MARVEL'S GotG - that was hilarious and fun too!