Sony has been tossing the proverbial truth-bomb, further setting gamers against one another-Sony cannot be coerced into changing its PS Plus positioning. First-party games will never be released day-one on PS Plus. And in the occasion that Microsoft goes and pours Halo and Starfield into Game Pass, Sony is all “No, we’re good.”
So, here it is: Sony feels that adding first-party bangers into PS Plus after about 12-18 months is “working really well” for them, so an alternative logic is simply not reached deep in anyones’ thought. They will indie or so at launch-small indie games in the realm of 4 or 5 a year-will be Experimental launch. God of War Ragnarök or Spider-Man 2; that’s a no for launching on PS Plus day one.
InEventsAreTriggering.com: That one doesn’t sit well for a couple of them. An nameofsite spokesperson maintained, “Sony, the greedy is what we say!” while another maintained rather emphatically, “Loss leader, bro; that’s what Game Pass is. Microsoft is just burning cash to stay relevant.” Neither could really be wrong.
Then, there are-way-at-a-distance claims, “@Tarkanome Gamepass looks good on the consumer side, but day-one games are bad for studios: They don’t make money, and Microsoft has to cover the losses.” In opposition to this claim, @AlexShayatovich hits back very hard with, “Helping customers play day one? Not like Sony.”
Then, comes the whole “Xbox is failing” debate-The in-unambiguous-terms kind of phrase, “Xbox did this and failed. Why would PlayStation follow?” To which, @authenticalex72 returns with, “Game Pass is the only thing keeping Xbox alive-console sales are the real issue.”
Sony stands for quality>premature release. They believe really, really strongly that every one of their exclusives is worth waiting for-and paying full price for. How do you support that when THE heavy hitters selling like hotcakes: Last of Us Part II, Rot Hard, Horizon Forbidden West?
Clearly, the money thing ain’t the centerpiece anymore; what’s relevant now is value. The PlayStation line is: You don’t call your game an event by tossing $70 day-one blockbusters into subscription services. The game must be aired, and hype should build for further gains.
Meanwhile, Xbox is playing the long game with Game Pass. They are working subs instead of sales. And it seems to work for them-Boom, 35 million show on numbers! But is it sustainable? That is the billion-dollar question.
Days later, the stance will die down, albeit never on day-one exclusives on PS Plus.
The more backlash that comes, the more they will get firmer in their stance, and honestly, they might be onto something here, considering Game Pass is indeed a killer deal: PlayStation still has exclusives in competition that absolutely must be played.
Therefore, if you harbored any hopes for a surprise Spider-Man 2 drop on PS Plus, those hopes will need to be suspended, at least for now. They might roll classic exclusives onto the service at some point…maybe.
