How The Hell Am I Supposed To Watch The New PlayStation Original Series â€˜Powersâ€™?

Powers, based on the comic book series of the same name, marks the first original series from Sony PlayStation and stars Sharlto Copley (Chappie, District 9), Noah Taylor (Peaky Blinders), and Michelle Forbes (The Killing). It takes place in a dystopian world where humans and superheroes co-exist, but not harmoniously. Homicide detective Christian Walker (Copley) is in a special division of the city police force, known as the "Powers" sect, which investigates crimes involving superheroes and supervillains against humans. Think noir cop drama plus a pinch of Kick-Ass mixed with something you might see on the Syfy network. But here's the catch: you can only watch it if you own a PlayStation.

The pilot episode was made available to the masses on YouTube on Tuesday, the same day it premiered on the console. But if you're totally hooked after the first episode, you have to go out and buy a PS4 in order to watch the remaining nine episodes. Unlike series that are exclusive to a specific streaming platform (like House of Cards is to Netflix), PlayStation Network (which includes all of their consoles and games) and their subscription service, PlayStation Plus, are dependent on one another. If you want to watch a Netflix or Hulu original series, the lowest subscription is $7.99 per month. Amazon Prime, whose initial cost seems steepest at $99, boils down to just $8.25 per month and includes other perks like free shipping in addition to streaming movies and TV. But PlayStation's approach is unique in the sense that watching Powers requires owning a $400 console and paying an additional annual $50 fee for PlayStation Plus. Similar to recent news of HBO Now's launching exclusively with Apple TV this April, bundling services with infrastructure seems daunting at first, but it actually comes with built-in audience members. For example, Sony has sold over 20 million PS4s since its November 2013 release date, so if everyone who owns the console watches Powers, their audience would be greater than that of Empire.

Also unlike most streaming-only series, PlayStation confirmed to Decider that Powers will be released weekly rather than all at once — plus, they're offering the series free to their PlayStation Plus subscribers. They also predict that, in the near future, the series will be made available to other consoles in the Sony network, including PS3 and PS Vita (which is basically a revamped PSP), but dates are currently undisclosed. It's likely that Microsoft and XBOX One will pull a similar bundling stunt when the Steven Spielberg-backed Halo series adaptation comes to the network, but we'll have to wait and see come December. In the meantime, you can enjoy the pilot of Powers below.

If you're a PlayStation user, look forward to new episodes every Tuesday, and if you're not, well… there's always House of Cards.

Like what you see? Follow Decider on Facebook and Twitter to join the conversation, and sign up for our email newsletters to be the first to know about streaming movies and TV news!