PlayStation Now open beta coming to PlayStation TV, Vita on Oct. 14

Sony's streaming game service, PlayStation Now, will be available in "open beta" on the PlayStation TV — and the PlayStation Vita, whose hardware it's based on — when the micro-console launches in North America on Oct. 14.

Currently available on both the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, PlayStation Now offers gamers "over 150 PS3 titles" to rent at prices that range from reasonable ($7.99 for 30 days) to crazy (as much as $4.99 for four hours).

Sony has said that pricing for PlayStation Now is subject to change and that this open beta period is designed to gather feedback.

"These are the early days, so we're always listening to feedback," Sony's Jack Buser told Polygon in July. "Over time, new content and a lot of other changes will be based on feedback and usage we'll see in the beta."

Must Read

Huge companies, tiny consoles: The upcoming console war will be micro

PlayStation Now started as a closed beta, first on the PS3 and then the PS4 before becoming "open" in July. With the inclusion of the Vita and the PlayStation TV, Sony will have PlayStation Now available on every currently shipping PlayStation platform, even while it retains the "open beta" classification.

"One reason we're going into open beta is that we're expecting millions of customers to try this," Buser said in July. "We've been gradually stepping up the number of users and we feel we're at a very good level."

At Polygon, feedback to the service ranged from disappointment that the rental prices barely compete with used game pricing at GameStop to disappointment that a free demo wasn't available to test bandwidth, potentially saddling would-be players with a rental that won't work on their broadband connection.

A just-released FAQ includes plenty of information on the upcoming micro-console's North American release.