yesterday Sony has officially announced the relaunch of PlayStation Plus, which will include new tiers and features such as a library of vintage games and cloud gameplay. However, there is one thing missing from Sony’s Xbox Game Pass rival: new release first-party titles.
While Microsoft adds all of their games to Game Pass on Day 1, including popular ones like Halo Infinite, Sony will continue to hold back. PlayStation boss Jim Ryan stated in a new interview with GamesIndustry.biz that it would be impossible to continue developing massive blockbusters like God of War Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West if they were released on PS Plus from the start.
[In terms of] putting our games into this service, or any of our services, upon their release… as you well know, this is not a road that we’ve gone down in the past. And it’s not a road that we’re going to go down with this new service. We feel if we were to do that with the games that we make at PlayStation Studios, that virtuous cycle will be broken. The level of investment that we need to make in our studios would not be possible, and we think the knock-on effect on the quality of the games that we make would not be something that gamers want.
In truth, Sony and Microsoft are in quite different commercial situations. Microsoft is in a position to grow its subscription business by leveraging a large game like Halo Infinite. Sony, on the other hand, cannot afford to lose money on the upcoming God of War. However, the games industry is always changing, so Ryan isn’t completely ruling out Day 1 PS Plus releases…
The way the world is changing so very quickly at the moment, nothing is forever. Who would have said even four years ago that you would see AAA PlayStation IP being published on PC? […] So I don’t want to cast anything in stone at this stage. All I’m talking about today is the approach we’re taking in the short term. The way our publishing model works right now doesn’t make any sense. But things can change very quickly in this industry, as we all know.
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Rockstar announces GTA+, the new subscription plan for GTA Online
