PS Now: Sony can't afford to pay for streamed content like Netflix does, argues Pachter

PlayStation Now was branded "a joke" by Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter last week, and it seems he's at it again. He has now questioned Sony's ability to pay publishers for content to fill out the cloud service in the same way Netflix does.

Now; as part of the Bonus Round cast, Pachter discussed Sony's need for content on PS Now, adding to fears that publishers won't want to limit their own profitability by offering their games on a subscription-based streaming service. He fears that studios and publishers will lose out on 'per-sale' income by entering into Sony's unlimited streaming model.

Speaking on the webcast he said, "The math doesn’t make sense for the content owners. If the math doesn’t make sense for the content owners, it isn’t gonna happen," and added, "So The lower the subscrition price, the less likely this thing will work. If it’s a thirty dollars subscription price, which the publishers will embrace, then no one’s gonna sign up."

Comparing PS Now to the Netflix model, which includes original programming, Pachter continued, "I don’t think you could make it work. Netflix is the anomaly.The low price subscription plan with tons and tons of content… They did a bunch of really clever deals early on to make that happen, and then they got big enough that they can afford to pay.

"Sony’s not big enough to afford to pay that kind of dollars. They don’t have that much money."

What do you make of Sony's ability to snap up enough content to make PlayStation Now a viable prospect? Let us know below.

Via DualShockers.