PlayStation Now Downloads Reportedly Coming in September

Sony's streaming service called PlayStation Now will reportedly allow subscribers to download PlayStation 4 games starting in late September, sources say.

Following a rumor that surfaced days ago, Kotaku UK reported that an industry source familiar with the reported PlayStation Now feature was able to confirm its upcoming release along with new details. Kotaku UK said that the source claimed the feature will be available in September, though it'll be limited to only PS4 games, not the full PlayStation Now library. This means that while you can still play games like the classic installations in the God of War series with PlayStation Now, you won't be able to download games like God of War II to your PS4. Instead, you'll have to stream these titles like you normally would, but any PlayStation Now games that are available on the PS4 should be downloadable.

The report also said that the download option will operate with the same restrictions that free games with PlayStation Plus have. So long as you have an active PlayStation Now subscription, these games will stay in your PS4's library and remain playable offline, but failing to renew your subscription will render these games unplayable until you reup for more PlayStation Now.

The omission of downloading older PlayStation games does cross off a large selection of games that PlayStation players are probably using PlayStation Now for, but with no news of any way to emulate the older systems on the PS4, the news shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. That doesn't mean that there's not some possibility of such a feature to be added way, way in the future, but it doesn't look like anything of the sort is coming in September when the download feature will reportedly roll out.

Initial rumors of the supposed feature came just a few days ago when someone noticed that a new option had been added to the PlayStation Now pause menu. Between the "Browse Games" and "Return to Home Screen" options, there was a new "Download Game" selection that fueled speculation about the new feature. However, it is worth pointing out that the download option apparently appeared on a non-PS4 game. The Redditor who shared the image said that the screenshot was taken while streaming Alpha Protocol, a game that people will remember as a 2010 title that was released for the PS3 and Xbox 360. If the feature wasn't supposed to show up in the menu at all, it's entirely possible that the download option is showing up on non-downloadable games throughout the library since the poster said that it wasn't there for every game, but this does help keep some hopeful players' dreams of emulation on PS4 alive.