PS Now. Unable to buy a game on the service, Sony response, wait for subscription to end.

[Valkyria]

Hello Everyone. I live in Spain and I have a subscription for Ps Now. As some of you know Persona 5 is on the service until February. The game right now it's on sale in PSN for 21€. As the game is gonna leave the service I wanted to buy the game.
The first problem it's that if you go to the store there is no option to buy to own. With this I contacted assistance here in Spain. Twice they told me that they removed my license of Persona 5 in order to buy, both times the game still appeared as owned by me with no option to buy.
After more mails a received the final answer, wait until the end of your subscription to buy the game, obviously missing the sale price.

Basically Sony told me that the only way to solve their lack services is to not use it. So be it, they have lost a Ps Now user.

Maybe we can make some noise and Sony can step up their game with the services, because is lagging by a lot with the competition.

 

[Natels]

Well that sure is messy. You tried buying it on PC?

 

[starblue]

Did you tried to restore the licences ?

https://support.playstation.com/s/article/PS4-Trouble-With-Downloadable-Content?language=en_US

 

[TitlePending]

Sony had better figure this nonsense out by the PS5 launch!

 

[Valkyria]

Well that sure is messy. You tried buying it on PC?

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Did you tried to restore the licences ?

https://support.playstation.com/s/article/PS4-Trouble-With-Downloadable-Content?language=en_US

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Yes, I tried both. Always the same.

 

[Prine]

Holy shit, I hope PSN cycle of games don't globally block thier purchase from the store, must be a caching error or bug.

 

[Sacul64]

Yeah I have always been annoyed that even when a game is on PS+ you loose the option to buy a the game. Its an issue I have had the few times I have had a monthly plus. MS as far as I know lets you outright buy a game pass game for comparison.

 

[Deleted member 23212]

Wow, not a good feature, that's for sure.

 

[Prine]

Yeah I have always been annoyed that even when a game is on PS+ you loose the option to buy a the game. Its an issue I have had the few times I have had a monthly plus. MS as far as I know lets you outright buy a game pass game for comparison.

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Dear god. This is some brain dead implementation if true. That's alot of lost sales potentially.

 

[Valkyria]

Dear god. This is some brain dead implementation if true. That's alot of lost sales potentially.

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Yeah, and they outright told to wait for subscription to end. Do they think I will resub after???

 

[Sacul64]

Dear god. This is some brain dead implementation if true. That's alot of lost sales potentially.

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Well its all because sony wants people to always sub to PS+ I dont play online so the only times I have subbed is when I did Destiny 2 with my roommate and another time when I got a month durring a big PS+ PSVR sale where I got over 10$ that it cost to get it. And I know during the VR sale somthing I had gotten as a plus game free was also on sale and I just could not buy it.

 

[ghostcrew]

For those of us tied into a year sub, this is reeeeal shit. Scanned through the January sale and there are loads of things that it won't let me buy because they're on PS Now.

For games that'll be on there forever/for the long haul I don't care. But the majority of the new things they add now are three months limited. You know when they're leaving (like OPs Persona 5 example) yet you can't buy them. It's so weird. I assume Persona 5 will suddenly unlock for sale for Now subscribers once it's left Now (and after the sale is over...)

 

[Valkyria]

Well its all because sony wants people to always sub to PS+ I dont play online so the only times I have subbed is when I did Destiny 2 with my roommate and another time when I got a month durring a big PS+ PSVR sale where I got over 10$ that it cost to get it. And I know during the VR sale somthing I had gotten as a plus game free was also on sale and I just could not buy it.

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I can understand that on Ps+ as the games will be always available as long as subbed, but on PS Now games leave the service.

 

[TechnicPuppet]

I don't think it's something Sony would like to happen so there must be something preventing them offering this that's difficult to fix.

 

[Firima]

Yeah I have always been annoyed that even when a game is on PS+ you loose the option to buy a the game. Its an issue I have had the few times I have had a monthly plus. MS as far as I know lets you outright buy a game pass game for comparison.

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Wait, it STILL does this? This is one of reasons I let PS+ lapse. Embarrassing if true.

 

[JaseC64]

Dear god. This is some brain dead implementation if true. That's alot of lost sales potentially.

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I was told around here that its "silly I want to buy a rented game" when I complained about this long ago.

Seriously I'm the one who likes to buy something if I really enjoy it. This is my #1 complaint with PS+ so far and the reason I dont get the monthly rentals just to have the option to buy them on sale throughout the year. It's so fricking dumb.

I just got an xbox and have Game pass and they let you buy the game on the service and with a discount to boot! Holy shit that is what I'm talking about!!! Why would Sony block the individual sale option? So dumb. Screw PS+.

 

[Kris1977]

Create a new PSN account on your ps4 for a different euro country, make account primary on PS4, buy game in sale = profit

 

[zedox]

Wow. That is just horrible design...

 

[Clive]

Yeah, it's unacceptable how this is handled. I remember not being able to use a voucher code from a Humble Bundle for a full game download for Remember Me (PS3) because I had the game with PS+. That voucher code would have given me permanent ownership of the game without subscriptions and I had to wait a year to use it.

Hopefully they will change the way licenses are handled for PS5 games.

 

[HighFive]

Same thing happen to me a while ago. Bloodborne was one sale, couldnt buy itbecause i decide to get it on ps plus....

 

[Deleted member 30124]

.

 

[2Blackcats]

Create a new PSN account on your ps4 for a different euro country, make account primary on PS4, buy game in sale = profit

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Why different country?
If I subscribe to now I'll put it on a second account and play on my normal account

 

[JaseC64]

Create a new PSN account on your ps4 for a different euro country, make account primary on PS4, buy game in sale = profit

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After what they pulled on Ps Vita, I dont trust Sony with that. If you recall, on Vita you can only have 1 psn account used at a time. This screwed me up so much I stopped buying shit for vita and gave up on the console. Again...stupid stupid stupid Sony!!!

God I hated that.

Never keeping 2 psn accounts running just for purchases. It's unlikely that a main console would have this limitation but I do not trust them on that front.

 

[Yearsoflurking]

Yeah this has to be fixed very dated archaic infrastructure

 

[Manmademan]

buy a physical copy? They're easily found for less than $20 around here.

 

[Panic Freak]

It's shocking that they didn't think of this scenario when incorporating PS Now into their ecosystem.

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Is it?

 

[xabbott]

buy a physical copy? They're easily found for less than $20 around here.

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Thats a poor work around especially since Playstation treats disc and digital games as two different items. So you end up having to delete one and reinstall the other. Xbox doesn't have this issue. I think PSN (and PSNow) just needs some major changes and hopefully we'll get them for PS5. I just want to be able to play my purchases/dlc in PSNow. :(

 

[BGA]

The same thing happens if you want to buy a game that's you already "own" on plus. Bad design.

 

[crazillo]

I've had this issue in the past, too. It's systemic and unless Sony finally fixes PSN and the webstore, I don't think this will be an exception but rather the norm to anyone who wants to buy a game that before was claimed 'for rent' through a subscription. On top, some PS games treat physical and digital licenses separate and it's not guaranteed that your savegame will transfer smoothly or at all, this is especially true for older games. So you should always check that first in case you intend to digitize your library at some point.

 

[Deleted member 5028]

No way they go into a new generation without trying to make a full on improvement of their infrastructure

 

[mztik]

You would expect they have experience running an online store after almost 14 years of the PlayStation store being available.

It took them almost as much to let us change PSN IDs, maybe in 2025 they let you buy to own PS+ and Now titles. Microsoft has let you do these things for quite a while. I can only imagine Sony is just doing the minimum, which is just maintenance.

Is Chen still updating the store whenever she wants on Tuesdays?

 

[Governergrimm]

Well its all because sony wants people to always sub to PS+ I dont play online so the only times I have subbed is when I did Destiny 2 with my roommate and another time when I got a month durring a big PS+ PSVR sale where I got over 10$ that it cost to get it. And I know during the VR sale somthing I had gotten as a plus game free was also on sale and I just could not buy it.

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MS do to but it's one area where they don't take your option away. Hell, they offer a discount on Gamepass games.
It's a bad precedent that I hope they resolve when things are retooled for PS5

 

[Windu]

It's shocking that they didn't think of this scenario when incorporating PS Now into their ecosystem.

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I believe Microsoft had a similar issue with their store and game pass as well. Took awhile for them to fix it.

 

[Ascenion]

PSN needs a 3.0 reboot Jesus Christ.

 

[Deleted member 11008]

It is still the most stupid decision for PSN.

Thank god when I got Plus I don't claim the games to avoid this shit.

 

[Graefellsom]

I was able to buy elder scrolls online after playing on psnow.. maybe it was because I was buying the elseware bundle but fairly sure I had the option lf buying the basegamw.

iirc some people said if you delete the game icon off your home screen you can then buy it off the store?

 

[NewDust]

Why different country?
If I subscribe to now I'll put it on a second account and play on my normal account

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No need for another country, just another account. P5 is on sale till the 17th and I don't think it rotates out of PSNow until February, right? So buy P5 on the other account.

I occasionally run in the same issue, but I'll be going to use your idea of subscribing to PSNow on my secondary account instead of buying on a secondary account.

 

[Valkyria]

Thanks for the replies. Another account means not every game it's on the same account. And physical probably means that I lost progress.
Really is a big hole and a warning for those who thiks about joining PS now and continuing a game later on.

 

[Chille]

wait it says you have ps now active right? chances are they dont want people to accidentally purchase it when it is currently free to them due to an active sub.

 

[NewDust]

Thanks for the replies. Another account means not every game it's on the same account. And physical probably means that I lost progress.
Really is a big hole and a warning for those who thiks about joining PS now and continuing a game later on.

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I have P5 on disc and have PSNow, I can check later today if the save is compatible with both versions if you want?

Might be a good reason to finally start playing, lol.

 

[ghostcrew]

I have P5 on disc and have PSNow, I can check later today if the save is compatible with both versions if you want?

Might be a good reason to finally start playing, lol.

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I can already confirm, saves are compatible between disc and PS Now version of Persona 5. I've done it!

 

[Huey]

wait it says you have ps now active right? chances are they dont want people to accidentally purchase it when it is currently free to them due to an active sub.

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But that should just be a warning. OP's situation should really not be happening.

Silly question, Valkyria - is the game installed?

 

[Valkyria]

I have P5 on disc and have PSNow, I can check later today if the save is compatible with both versions if you want?

Might be a good reason to finally start playing, lol.

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I can already confirm, saves are compatible between disc and PS Now version of Persona 5. I've done it!

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Thank you guys for the help. Yo have done more than Sony's support.

HueyFreeman: Yes, I tried with the deleted, restoring data base, etc... At the end the final mail for Sony yesterday told me to wait until the sub ends.

 

[MinusTydus]

EA Access does the same thing.

Subscribed during the Holiday Sale, and it locked me out of buying Battlefront II.

Had to contact Sony Support, have them cancel the membership in order to be able to make a purchase.

It's insane.

 

[Deleted member 21411]

Similarly I can't buy ps plus games until my sub runs out. It's honestly so dumb I have 2 accounts just to make sure I can buy a game when I want to

 

[XSX]

PSN needs a 3.0 reboot Jesus Christ.

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This. But I have a feeling it won't and will continue to be held together by sticks.

 

[tolkir]

PSN needs a 3.0 reboot Jesus Christ.

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Yep, this shit is coming from PS3 and Vita era with PS+.

 

[ghostcrew]

EA Access does the same thing.

Subscribed during the Holiday Sale, and it locked me out of buying Battlefront II.

Had to contact Sony Support, have them cancel the membership in order to be able to make a purchase.

It's insane.

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What the hell. EA Access doesn't do that on Xbox One. I've bought loads of EA games while being subbed. Same with Game Pass. They give you a extra discount if you're subbed to Game Pass and choose to buy one of the games outright.

 

[Valkyria]

What the hell. EA Access doesn't do that on Xbox One. I've bought loads of EA games while being subbed. Same with Game Pass. They give you a extra discount if you're subbed to Game Pass and choose to buy one of the games outright.

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Exactly on game pass I can buy the game with discount before leaving. Actually I have never used the feauture because games stay for a lot longer and I'm able to finish them.

 

[Chille]

But that should just be a warning. OP's situation should really not be happening.

Silly question, Valkyria - is the game installed?

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I thought it was pretty much the same thing on any sub service? technically while on ps now you own the game and can play it anytime you want