Sony put an end to the rising tide of rumors by introducing the playstation plus renewal, which will merge the existing service with PlayStation Now to offer a catalog of games from different generations. Although for several months we described it as PlayStation’s answer to Xbox Game Pass, now that we know a good part of its offer we realize that, in reality, they don’t even compete with each other. Why?
The fact that both proposals provide a catalog with a certain number of games, and that access to it is subject to a monthly payment, it is not enough to say that they are direct rivals. Before reaching that conclusion, it is crucial to analyze and understand what is the main offer that both Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus offer. That is, those characteristics for which consumers are willing to make a recurring expense.
In the video game industry, regardless of whether we are talking about consoles or services, what matters most will always be the games. Without titles, a platform cannot grow. Building on the foundation above, we find that Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus underpin their strengths in an extensive library of games. However, they do it in a vastly different way.
Xbox Game Pass has established itself as the best service in the industry for a simple reason: all exclusive Microsoft games are available at launch on the service. The same day they are released at full price – in physical or digital format – you can download them on Xbox Game Pass without paying an additional fee. Psychonauts 2, ForzaHorizon 5 and halo-infinite are some of the titles that, during 2021, led the line up of the Microsoft subscription.
This is precisely the greatest strength of Xbox Game Pass. Its cost / benefit ratio, at the moment, is unbeatable. So confident are those of Redmond in this strategy that they will continue launching the games of Call of Duty on PlayStation consoles – if regulators approve the purchase of Activision Blizzard, of course. The real coup is to offer the new releases of this franchise, one of the most popular in the industry, from the first day of its service.
PlayStation Plus, on the other hand, will not offer exclusive AAA launch games. forget to enjoy God of War: Ragnarok or Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 — to mention just a couple on the way — without paying full price. Sony has decided to follow a very different strategy, supported by offering a classic games catalog —exclusive and third-party—instead of their most recent productions.
Thus, you will have access to titles from PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4 and even PSP. In the case of PS5, there will be a special selection led by returnalthe challenger roguelike shooter by Housemarque. This title was released on April 20, 2021 and will be the most recent PlayStation 5 exclusive proposal that you can find.
PlayStation Plus bets on the legacy
So what is the main strength of the new PlayStation Plus? The legacy that the brand has built for almost 30 years. In this sense, for a longevity issue, the service is quite strong. According to Sony, the new PlayStation Plus will have more than 700 games during its launch in June. Among them 400 PS4 and PS5 titles, in addition to 340 belonging to previous generations. Of course, the list of games is still pending.
As you can see, the renewal of PlayStation Plus not a direct response to Xbox Game Pass. The greatest appeal of PS + is based on the distinguished legacy of the Japanese firm, while Xbox Game Pass is committed to offering the latest news from internal Microsoft studies.
Contrary to what some expected, Sony didn’t follow in Microsoft’s footsteps by completely changing the way it offers its new exclusive titles. They honestly don’t need to. The reason? In most cases, the income generated by your titles first-party are enough to maintain the traditional sales business. Therefore, do not require significant changes nowadays.
Prior to the launch of the PS5, Jim Ryan, director of Sony Interactive Entertainment, had already warned that the Xbox Game Pass business model is not profitable for them:
“For us, having a catalog of games [como Game Pass] it is not something that defines a platform. Our pitch, as you’ve heard, is ‘new games, great games.’ We’ve had this conversation before, we’re not going down the road of putting new titles on a subscription model. These games cost many millions of dollars, over $100 million to develop. We just don’t see it as sustainable.”
Now, after the announcement of the new PlayStation Plus, the manager remained in the same line:
“We feel like we’re in a nice virtuous circle with the studios, where investment brings success, which enables even more investment, which brings even more success. We like that cycle and we think our players do too. Putting our own games in This service—or any of our services—after launch, as you well know, is not a path we’ve traveled in the past, and it’s not a path we’re going to take with this new service. [PlayStation Plus]. We felt that if we were to do that with PlayStation Studios games, that virtuous circle would be broken. The level of investment that we need for our studios would not be possible, and we believe that the effect it would have on the quality of the games we make would not be something that gamers wanted.”
The importance of services for Sony
Certainly, maintaining a hypothetical PlayStation Plus with the latest releases from the firm, as Microsoft does with Xbox Game Pass, would be impossible for Sony. First, because the development cycles would have to be reduced to keep an updated catalog with news. That entails prioritizing quantity over quality, and in PlayStation Studios they have been characterized by the opposite.
Perhaps at this point you are wondering: So what is the point of renewing PS + if Sony follows another course? If you analyze the financial reports of PlayStation in recent years, you can see that its services division has become a major source of profit. Only the previous fiscal year generated revenues of 24,400 million dollars, being the most successful period in the history of the aforementioned division. In fact, the services are the brand’s current lifeline in the face of the lack of availability of the PlayStation 5 in much of the world.
Consequently, Sony didn’t need to turn PlayStation Plus on its head; but it does renew its offer to keep it attractive in the eyes of the market it already owns. The new PS + does not seek to snatch consumers from the competition, but cause current members of the service to migrate to a higher priced subscription; and that those who do not yet belong to PlayStation Plus, finally subscribe.
Yes, PlayStation are also reinforcing their commitment to services, but in a very different way than Xbox.