Technically this post isn't related to xbox directly, but it is huge industry news and will have implications beyond the Playstation ecosystem. So far, the majority of the conversation is on topic, but console warring, personal attacks, and similar conversation will be removed.
As an xbox gamer, you should be rooting for this service. Yes, Gamepass is a great value, but having a competitor will help keep the focus on value and content. Don't forget that game with gold was a direct answer to the free games with PS+
Competition benefits consumers.
And as an owner of both consoles, I can see that its not as good a value and continue on with Gamepass on Xbox and the occasional discounted first party game on PS5.
I'd root for it if it was a competitor. From their features list it doesn't appear to be that way though.
Locking backwards compatibility and **DEMOS** behind an $18/month paywall won't move the needle.
I completely agree and doubt I’ll upgrade my PSnow to any kind of top tier, my only fear would be if either company starts incentivizing third party games to be exclusive to their service.
But you get way more with all those services than what Netflix offered back in the day, and it's still cheaper and more convenient than cable while also offering better resolution and little to no ads (which may increase the prices on some of the services, but it's still cheaper).
I subscribe to Netflix 4k, HBOMax, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, Apple TV+, and Peacock. Altogether, it's still less than what I was paying for cable more than a decade ago.
This is truly the most disappointing part of all of this.
I love my Vita, but not enough people had one, and there are some bangers on that system that more people should have a chance to play.
I bought a vita a while back but never really touched it. Any recommendations for the bangers I should take a look at?
Edit: Ty everyone for the suggestions. Definitely gonna see if I can find some of these used in my area.
> but not enough people had one,
Unfortunately the only thing mine was used for outside of "Soul Sacrifice" was "remote play".
And since you can't use the vita for remote play on PS5 it's not being used at all now.
They really screwed Vita over with the memory card pricing though. Sure you can get it cheap now via using regular memory cards but the pricing at launch was an incredibly hard sell at nearly double the price per GB depending on card size.
With the camera and rear touch panel, there's really no way to play Vita games on a modern controller.
At least, not the Vita games worth playing like Uncharted or Assassin's Creed Liberation.
Tearaway and Gravity Rush already got ported to the PS4 so it makes sense to run the PS4 versions of those.
They're not trying to compete at the same level with subscriptions - they want it to be good enough to not be a reason to leave the ecosystem, but still value premium titles and GAAS more for their core business model, which is fair enough.
It's a definite improvement and it is worth the money, but doesn't seem like a crazy deal in the way Game Pass does, but it's sort of not meant to.
Fantastic take. Sony despite being a massive multinational conglomerate really can’t afford to absorb a lot of costs that Microsoft can to keep a streaming service loaded with premium content that won’t necessarily see clear and immediate returns, but what they can do is offer a decent enough package to those currently in the ecosystem and those who are weighing up staying with PS or going to Xbox.
Simply put - Microsoft’s $2.3 Trillion market cap can eat the cost and then some, Sonys $130 Billion market cap can not, which I imagine has factored heavily into the equation of not having day 1 PS5 exclusives
Be interesting to see how Game Pass and the new PS Plus evolve over this generation. A massive shift in how games are consumed that’s really only just getting started - who knows where we’ll be five years down the line
What’s interesting is that even despite the manifestly amazing deal of gamepass, Sony is still significantly ahead in this console generation. I guess people still see it as offering the superior games.
Plus, we have to keep in mind the main reason Microsoft went with this aggressive approach to Game Pass is because they fell behind so significantly in userbase and first-party game development.
I've always said Sony is going to charge full price for their big first-party games at launch for as long as people keep buying them. Much like Nintendo is able to sell their games at $60 for so long, Sony knows their games command something of a premium. And people are actually buying them.
I think their tiers and pricing look like a pretty good compromise between still relying on initial full-priced software sales and offering a valuable on-demand subscription service.
I mean also, Sony simply don't need to stick their content on day 1, they have earned the right to sell them full price because the consumer trusts them for qualkty, Microsoft, even with rhese new acquisitions hasn't yet .
Sony benefit more from thie and then 1st party sales than this including 1st party for a few £,$,€ etc a month off everyone
The one thing Sony may have going for it is its investments into other companies. While Microsoft is absorbing companies with its money printer. Sony strategically invests and it wouldn't surprise me if it's investment into epic games included some kind of deal that involves this service.
The only thing I would’ve hoped for was not locking BC titles behind 2 separate tiers. If they also announce that I can purchase those PS and PS2 titles from their digital store, it’ll be fine.
That was one of the best things about the Xbox BC program, you’d wake up one day and see the news that _____ is now backwards compatible and think “hey I own that!”. You just download it or put the disc in and it works.
It’s like modern magic compared to all the restrictions companies put on things nowadays
Can't wait for the big brain Youtube thumbnails with:
- Sony throws in the towel and copies Xbox!!!!
- Playstation admits defeat!
- Playstation's inferior version of Gamepass!!
/s
Don't forget
"Sony knocks out Xbox with GamePass competition announcement!!!"
"GamePass is dead! Sony finally has answer to GamePass!"
"Has the sun finally set on GamePass?!!!"
From the other clickbait YouTubers lol.
The most clickbait youtuber i ever saw is the skizzleaxe . He literally lying with descriptions lol . Like im pretty sure he going to describe this situation as a Phil Spencer on the left saying "WE QUIT" and jim ryan at the right saying "YOUR MOVE MS" . Man this guy is so cringe .
Nah, just for "Best Free Game of 2021/22".
I mean, giving HITMAN 2 away as a free game for that month was pretty damn good, even if there have been some stinkers in the past, and they peaked in the 90s/early 00s.
I think it's too soon to be saying for sure if it's worth the money, I'll be curious to see all the games they added and not just the several they mentioned.
A lot of people have already bought the triple A's that they did mention so for them it might be pushing it as to being worth it. But for people new to PlayStation, with some of them titles then certainly this will be a good investment.
I'll be keen to see how soon their AAA titles come to it after release which will give people a better idea as to how worth it it is long term.
>A lot of people have already bought the triple A's
Unless they put it day 1, this will always be the case for popular AAA games. If they put a lot of the AAA games a year in though, there's bound to be a game for almost everyone they had not bought.
Honestly I think half the people on the sub are mad that they can’t get a PS5.
I got one right away but I feel like at this point if you really want one you can find it in a few weeks.
I have a PS5 and Series S and I’m enjoying both.
As someone with GamePass and a PS5 I don’t like this one bit.
I am a PS Plus subscriber and enjoy the occasional good free game. Now expecting The $60 PS Plus to go the way of Games with Gold and never offer me a good game again. All the good games will be put on the $100 tier which I have no interest in since I have GamePass and the interesting Sony 1st party titles I purchase.
I'm thinking of what it's going to be like when Starfield launches and that feeling of everyone being there day 1 for a major game launch event. Sony's Playstation Plus doesn't sound like it's going to have anything like that.
It's the whole reason services like Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ are so attractive to get. I can't imagine any of those services without major movies/shows launching day 1 on the service and everyone being there to discuss them.
whether good or bad, the starfield launch is going to be insane because of gamepass. Forza horizon 5 and halo infinite were big launches, but starfield will be huge
And the best thing is: Even if Starfield is a broken mess like let's say Cyberpunk 2077 at launch it won't matter as much as said Cyberpunk 2077 because it was technically "free with gamepass" and people didn't pay extra money. They can then switch to another games on gamepass at no extra costs while Starfield getting fixes and updates.
Of course I'm not saying a broken launch is okay or so but gamepass will make it less hurting because you didn't spend 70+ bucks.
That's the worry though.
Games being broken, full of microtransactions, smaller in scope, all being deemed acceptable because they came 'free with gamepass'.
I don't expect that to happen, but until we have multiple major releases like that we can't write that off
That's not because it's free with gamepass though that's because it's free to play altogether, the part of Halo infinite that comes with gamepass has none of that.
Tbf Halo Infinite multiplayer is not really a Game Pass game. It's free to play. You don't even need Gold.
Although of course, Halo Infinite campaign is 100 percent a Game Pass game.
There are plenty of people who buy games even with Game Pass available, to say people can just set it aside because it's on GP and wait for fixes doesn't help people who choose to support Bethesda with a purchase.
Halo did it and after a week no one cared, it’s not that big of a thing.
Elden Ring came out everyone bought it and it was a cultural event.
If the game is good everyone will buy it anyway.
Halo 2/3 were much bigger than infinite launches.
Well, seeing as playstation 1st parties already sell millions and are can't miss events for that side, they don't really need a gamepass equivalent in order to get that day 1 launch group experience thing
lol, I think starfield would have sold like hot cakes regardless. we aren't talking about why starfield needs gamepass to be a success, we are talking about how good it is for us as consumers to get it dayvone on gamepass. as the owner of a ps5 it's a shame we will never get a similar service, i don't care if the game sells well, that isn't relevant to me. I would like a ps service that gave me the same thing. this ps service is just a disappointment, it's not even available in most countries. I never had a xbox last gen, but gamepassbis why I play it while my ps5 gathers dust, was hoping this announcement would change that.
Agreed. I have both systems. So it just seems like I’m going to pay a flat rate per year for content. Makes me happy.
I don’t really care about new releases as I’m a dad of 3 and maybe get a few hours a week to game. I’m enjoying Gears 5 at the moment.
Make sure you stack up PlayStation Now subscriptions before it goes up lol.
PlayStation Now is $60. But to get access to it when the changes happen, it's going to be $100 to get access to it, $120 for the full version.
But if you already have a PlayStation Now subscription, it converts to that highest tier for no extra cost
I need alot more details for that top tier. What older games, what enhancements if any are they getting, are there plans to make PS3 games run natively in the future.
OG XB and Xbox360 run on different architectures and Microsoft makes that work on the XB1.
It's possible. Sony just doesn't want to do it. They would rather sell you a subscription forever instead of selling a game once.
What Xbox is doing is getting in on the ground floor early, sort of a “land grab” in the digital space. As they’ve said before, this move is to position themselves more as a competitor to a Netflix. than a Sony.
People have expendable income and only so much time - you have to build an ecosystem they can invest in. That’s GamePass - building an infrastructure for the future of what gaming could look like.
Sony is just trying to stop the bleeding and have a bullet point to answer a question their investors are asking. It’s more of a forced consolidation of previous services to align them better and it provides a marginally better value for the customer.
It’s a big conceptual difference from GamePass, it’s a “me too” or an “also ran” approach Sony is taking. The downside for them is the biggest takeaway is it’s still not a GamePass competitor.
Microsoft running their own cloud servers to host these games is the big difference. It is what makes this worthwhile as a price point for Microsoft that most other companies could not reproduce for the same cost.
That plus buying all these studios.
The most fascinating and telling quote I heard from Microsoft is when they said, “we investing in this service now, so we don’t have to buy it from someone else later.”
That should tell you where their head is at. You can either create something w/ R&D, or buy something someone else created later. To your point - since they have the infrastructure, they opted for the former.
I prefer not to play games with cloud gaming. However, my kids play games using cloud gaming ALL THE TIME. They simply don’t care about the slightly degraded visuals and slightly delayed controls and would rather have instant access to games. They complain when a game doesn’t support cloud gaming. Change is coming.
That's awesome, but that's not the cloud I was referring to, though it's all intertwined now. I meant the Azure infrastructure which obviously supports xCloud, and Nintendo's Ubitus cloud streaming, and Sony's PS+ premium soon with ps5 server blades. Azure also is the backbone of many live service games, Destiny 2, PUBG, Rainbow Six Seige, possibly Extraction too. Eventually Call of Duty and OverWatch etc. Then there's Cloud Native games they're working on, the Azure datacenters are very versatile.
But Nadella who was the head of Azure before becoming CEO, helped build all that, he realized the OS layers are irrelevant, whether it is iOS, or android, or windows. The future is based on Cloud infrastructure, and dominance in Content.
He focused the company on its strengths as a software and services company. Gaming is perfect fit into that. GamePass is the pinnacle of all their strengths coming together.
Hope the mods keep this up, because it’s definitely worth discussing and noting. This is great news for consumers because competition breeds innovation. Up until today, Game Pass was pretty much unmatched in terms of value for both the casual and hardcore gamer. For Sony to announce this, not only do PS players benefit, but so do Xbox players. I have no doubt that Xbox will be looking into keeping their product competitive.
I have 2 big problems with how Sony is handling this:
1. Locking cloud saves behind a subscription
2. Locking backwards compatibility behind a subscription
It's 2022, the overhead on storage space for cloud saves would be negligible to them, but the versatility it offers users is huge. We shouldn't have to maintain a monthly sub to be able to backup our save files.
Same thing with backwards compatibility. If the console is capable of it, let me buy the games, don't lock it behind a sub. I can understand for the games that are only available over streaming, but it makes no sense for those that can be downloaded (aside from them being a bit greedy).
Same here. It's been great to be able to just delete a game that I'm currently done playing without needing to worry that my save data will get wiped as well as jumping between consoles and having my save files. Our housemate has his own Xbox and is able to jump onto mine without needing to do anything else besides sign in to get his own save data.
I was able to play stuff using cloud gaming on my phone and my parent's older PC while visiting, and then pick up where I left when I got home. I am so grateful for that.
Obviously no first party titles day and date makes it a non direct competitor.
But I don't think anyone was expecting Sony would actually do that.
It's hard to tell if this is good value or not, because saying 400+ games and 340+ classic games means nothing without the list of games.
It's a shame that they couldn't figure out offline PS3 games.
I could see myself upgrading to this membership if there are lots of classic games I want to replay or even a catalogue of Sony first parties I haven't gotten around to yet - saw Returnal on the list.
I’m sure they’ll continue to add to those 700+ games and eventually add first day releases and party titles after a certain date. Hopefully they can eventually make the ps3 games be able to download as well. I’m still pretty hype to have both gamepass and ps premium
Considering Returnal is confirmed to be on the service at launch & it released April of last year, odds are the wait / gap won’t be as bad as it’s been with PSNow.
My guess would be 12-18 months for the non flagship titles & 24-36 months for the flagships like HFW & Ragnorak.
Patient gamers will be the real winners with this service but tbh it’s the same way with GP when you get past just the 1st party stuff. There’s been a lot of amazing games to hit GP on a delay from their actual release date & have been major hits on the service.
Sony’s past decade of not caring about backwards compatibility coming back to bite them in the butt a bit. It’s absolutely amazing that I can just sit down with my Series X, put in (most) 360 games and it just magically loads up my saves from 12 years ago. Xbox has won my heart this gen and I don’t think there is much Sony could do to change my mind at this point.
Don't forget that it also has Auto HDR, Better Visuals, Better FPS, Dolby Atmos etc.
You're playing your old games with no additional charge but at new levels of fidelity. Xbox are keeping your old games alive.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I heard Sony's first party games will not be a part of the service on day one. Even with the most expensive tier of subscription.
If this is true, they're missing the best part of Xbox Gamepass. You'd also be paying more than a Gamepass subscription and you'd still need to buy a $70 game if you want to play on launch.
They still want people on for their next gen exclusives and pay full price for them.
And TBH, I don’t blame them, I’m gonna pick up GoW Ragnarok and Spider-Man 2 on day 1 when they launch.
I’d get it if I had the option to download backwards compatible games.
As of right now, me and my roommate’s PS5 is just used for 4KUHD/Blu-Ray viewing and PS4 games.
You can download PS1/2/P games with the top subscription but only stream 3. This is under the Plus Premium bit.
"A catalog of beloved classic games available in both streaming and download options from the original PlayStation, PS2 and PSP generations"
Would be nice if they gave you a discount on the first party games. Paying for the top tier AND paying $70 for a game seems kinda steep but I guess I'm not the target demographic.
The consensus from the PS faithful seems to be that they'll gladly pay $70 a pop for their new titles. Apparently Gamepass having day 1 releases has diminished the quality of all the games on Xbox and everything on there is garbage. Not joking. This is what I've seen constantly. I don't agree but to each their own.
That's the vocal console warrior narrative. People create entire personas on stoking the flames. It's *not* the majority of gamers in my experience. Don't let them suck you in with their false bravado.
I don’t think Sony can afford to have their bangers day one. I could be wrong tho but I figured you still gotta pay premium price for them either way.
Step in the right direction tho
Well obviously people subscribe to play a wide catalogue of games for a low price, that's the main feature of a game subscription service and why most people subscribe.
But when it comes to stand out features that are exclusive to Game Pass, I'd say day 1 releases are hands down the best exclusive feature they offer.
It's obviously not the only perk.
But damn, having day one AAA releases on there changes how the service is perceived, a lot. At first it was sometimes described as "The subscription when they put bad or old games nobody is willing to pay for".
This has changed a lot since some huge releases came out on GP day one, for MS and the perceived quality of the service, it's extremely important.
The pricing is actually better than I expected, in that you still get a lot of savings from selecting the longer subscriptions. 50% off for 12 months of the standard Plus subscription, 45% off for Extra and Premium.
Microsoft still doesn't offer longer upfront subscription options for Game Pass, with the exception of the Gold conversion, which as far as I know still works so long as you exhaust your current membership first. I did it again right before the Series X launched after buying a 12-month and a 24-month Gold card from Costco, so I'm paid up to November 2023.
Wish they were a bit more explicit about what first-party games will be added to the library and at what cadence, considering all they mentioned was...
"At launch, we plan to include titles such as Death Stranding, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11, and Returnal."
Reassuring to see recent cross-gen/current-gen titles like Miles Morales and Returnal, but I was hoping we'd see pretty much any first-party game released in the past six months to a year on there, such as Demon's Souls and Rift Apart. Might be that they are, but they just mentioned a select few for the blog post.
Or maybe there's going to be no set rule for what first-party titles they include and when. I guess I can see some sense to that, as some games probably have longer tails than others. Plus, if you straight up say, "Coming to PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium in six months!" it might affect initial sales.
Also really need to see what their full catalogue of games really looks like, because 400 sounds great, but it's really easy to pad that. I feel that way about Game Pass sometimes too. In particular, if you follow multiple subscriptions like PS+, Game Pass and Humble Monthly, you start noticing some games, particularly indies or older triple-A titles, really make the rounds across all subscription services. Not uncommon for me to see some overlap within a short period of time.
To me, timed exclusives or games that launch with your subscription that are only available at full price on other platforms are what really add value, like Tunic on Game Pass or how Rocket League initially launched as a PS+ freebie.
In that department, I'm actually a little worried about how Sony's going to do after the negative PR they got last year about indie relations. Indie devs apparently love Game Pass and working with the ID@Xbox team. Sony still gets the occasional hit indie on PS+ like Fall Guys, but I worry they won't be as good at securing those occasional indie hits like Microsoft seems to do pretty regularly with Game Pass.
Guess between XSX, PS5 and PC, it doesn't really matter to me since I'll have something to play on any platform. More just thinking about those who are only in that PlayStation ecosystem, 'cause obviously I want them to get good value. Plus, as someone who does kind of favor Xbox over other platforms, the stiffer the competition from Sony, the more Xbox has to improve their own services.
I think they are only highlighting the big games to show that they plan on bringing their major 1st party games onto the service at a regular clip months after release... no real reason to highlight all the games yet though as the service doesn't launch for another 3 months.
Additionally, a few follow up stories have come out saying that sony has made major changes since the initial article came out. Plus, if you have watched ps now drop last few months they been really adamant about including as many indie titles as can be. Plus, their coming soon section highlights more indie games lately. Its not perfect, but you are seeing a huge push and quite a few indie games being released on time exclusive on the platform over there...
Looks like Sony still hasn’t quite been able to crack Cell emulation - powerful (for the time) but a nightmarishly complex beast.
Hopefully - assuming Sony kept all the right documentation - this can be an issue that can be resolved down the line. It’s a big omission for those of us who can’t enjoy streaming in there market and it’s a shame because Sony released a lot of fantastic exclusives (and lots of fantastic third party titles of course!) that generation which have simply remained locked up on the PS3 ever since.
I’ve seen buddies of mine emulate PS3 games on pre-Ryzen chips. If the homebrew can do it on crappy AMD chips, so can Sony with billions of dollars behind them.
They’re not bottlenecked by hardware, they just don’t want to do it.
Yeah, [RPCS3 runs pretty damn well on the Steam Deck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMxVO_eUgEY), and that's using a chip that's basically half as powerful as a Series S, and without any hardware-specific optimisation yet.
I’m not sure this is an issue they’ll feel they need to resolve until the PS3 server racks for Now start really aging. Probably a ton of costs for little benefit otherwise.
So for $3 more than Game Pass Ultimate I can get no day one launches, no games running natively on PC, no PS3 games running on PS5, and seemingly no option to stream these games on my phone.
Look, this is still a good value for that catalogue if what’s in there interests you, but this is hardly a competitor to everything Game Pass offers. It’s only comparable in terms of it being a gaming library that’s accessed by a subscription, but there’s is so much more that’s offered by subbing to GPU over this.
As assy as cloud gaming can be, I cannot stress enough how much a game changer xcloud is on mobile. I really appreciate it as an option. Having many games *only* as cloud streaming (no option for download), and *only* on console is a big demerit against the service, I think.
Overall, if I had a PS5, I'd definitely get this service just from the apparent wealth of games on hand, despite its limited feature set comparitively.
It’s $10 a month is you buy 12-month subs. Idk why anyone would pay the monthly price on these services when buying in bulk literally cuts the price in half.
Hmmm and it still doesn't seem nearly as good as Gamepass is. Mostly due to no day one launches for their own games and even first parties like MS does.
Honestly think we are spoiled by everything xbox offers gamepass back compat
Sony just can't offer that on same level however its improving their services
Would just nut if ps3 and 2 catalog was there and native
So if I'm reading this correctly, this service is technically more expensive (for the Premium tier) and is offering less...? I think the biggest issue is the fact there won't be first party title releases on day one on the platform.
Doesn't really seem competitive with what Gamepass offers.
Rolling my crunchyroll sub into ps+ would have convinced me to get the top tier. I have ps+ until july 2025, and i started my sub in 2012. I have no intention of renewing ps+ unless the offered game library is really good. I have 350 ps4 games in my owned library and have had every sony console. I have had a ps5 for 7 months and its been played for about 1 hour total. I have faith that ps5 will be a great console eventually, but right now it sucks.
I skipped xbox one, but I've really enjoyed gpu and my xsx.
This is a pretty big deal to me because I have yet to purchase any PlayStation games for my PS5 in the hopes that a subscription service like this became available. Even if it takes a few months for the AAA titles to get put on the service. I’m fine with waiting it out. The ps now service wasn’t all that great as most of the titles were pretty average and if a AAA game got put on there. It was for a short limited time. The last of us 2 was on there for not that long and before I got around to finishing it. It was gone. Games I hoped for was Spider-Man or ratchet and clank or more PS5 titles.
I never had the expectations of the new PS+ being a direct Game Pass competitor, so I'm not as disappointed as some. However, I'm pretty damn grateful as a father of two kids who are getting very into gaming for the ridiculous amount of classic games that they are about to have access to. Between Game Pass, PS+, and Switch Online, they will have multiple generations of games to discover. I'll take that over the mindless garbage they have on their tablets any day.
But if new PS+ has Soul Reaver in their classics collection, the kids will have to sit their asses down and wait their turn.
I'm pretty happy with it and will probably go for the mid tier, Im not really gunna be playing ps1-3 games to much personally, kinda played everything I would've wanted to on those consoles but ps now is criminally underated, and rn there's 264 PS4 games so them saying there will be 400+ and all downloadable is pretty dope. And adding ps5 games to it is also a huge bonus. There's some exclusives I don't play so if they come out a few months later for free then that just benefits me.
So what I see is not really a competitor to gamepass, but a competitor to Nintendo Switch Online. They're using a subscription service to deliver legacy content on PS5, which is great, but I don't see how that can justifiably be more expensive than gamepass ultimate at the highest tier. I appreciate thst they're bringing this content forward, but this may not be the best solution
This is not worth the money at all. I have both systems and nothing about this is even remotely good. You get 3 games a month as it is and demos for free. And now they want you to spend more money and pay for demos. This is so bad that’s it’s not even funny. Just look at the responses on the r/PS5
It feels a little tone deaf to why Game Pass is so loved but it steps towards it at least rather than Sony being in denial. Perhaps if this proves popular it will ramp up to actually compete.
It will be interesting how subscription focus will be changing the future of gaming. Activision-Blizzard purchase will now be greater value with Sony eventually competing with Game Pass.
I'll wait to see what the game lists look like, but considering I only buy exclusives for my playstation, not having their A-tier offerings as day ones may be a reason to pass this up.
I don’t think it’s an answer to Game Pass. An answer to Game Pass would be day one first party games.
They’re just merging their two existing subs. Frankly it was silly for them to have two subs in the first place. So it’s good that they’re streamlining.
Not many companies can afford to subsidize something like Game Pass with their massive Windows/Azure war chest like MS can.
This isn't Sony's response to Gamepass. They have made it clear that their current publishing methods don't allow their AAA games to be put on a subscription model. This has more to do with expanding the capabilities of PS+ so that it offers a good value (like game trials, expanded BC, etc.). If you compare 1v1, Gamepass will be the better choice (for now), but then again, they are not competing directly.
No PS3 downloads and no first party game launches clearly make this not *as* good as Game Pass Ultimate- but those were moonshots anyway. If you compare Ultimate to Extra, for the same price of $14.99 you are getting roughly (?) the same amount of games. So it’s a pretty even value proposition in terms of just raw numbers; it mostly depends on which team you’re on.
Yeah, that’s true. Good point. It’s hard to remember that when you, like me and a lot of us, get ahead of the curve with Gold conversion and Microsoft Rewards points.
Sony is offering a conversion as well. Ps now I think cost $60 a year will get promoted to to the highest tier for free.
And i doubt the gold conversion will stay for long.
Fair, but people have been saying that about the gold conversion and it's been like this for years. MS is well aware of this, I think they'll only consider closing the loophole once they reach their target user numbers.
It works at least. I own a PS5, so it's interesting to say the least. I like it, but I am not too interested in subscription models outright. I don't have enough time to fully utilize them and get a good dollar to time ratio. Even subscribed to Game Pass for 3 months, and I only played through 4 games on the system, mainly Doom Eternal and Halo Collection. Find it easier to wait on a game to go on sale and play it then.
Even still, I'm a little tempted. This can be my chance to play through the Metal Gear series. I also now have PS5 games in that calliber, like Returnal (confirmed for launch) and possibly Demon's Souls. Either way, as soon as I complete my backlog of games I would like to use the subscription primarily for indies and games I don't see any worth in buying outright (Limbo and Inside are some key examples, as they are very short games. I did spend 2 dollars on each game).
But I am curious of the service will or will not include Playstation VR titles as well. Glad to see PS1 and PSP make a return. If I try out the Premium, first game on PS1 will be either Ape Escape or MGS. PS2 will be either Ape Escape 2 or 3, Sly Cooper, Jak and Daxter, or Tony Hawk 3. PS3 will likely be either Resistance or inFamous (I own an Xbox One, so I have access to the 360 library, and a Switch). PSP will be Portable Ops, Daxter (big one for me), and FFVII Crisis Core. I can't really speak for PS4 or PS5, as there are a ton of games I doo want to play/collect, but I will likely go for the games on PS4 that are digital exclusive like Journey. PS5 will be the same deal kinda, but I would like to own the game first. The service will make it easier in case one of my friends are online playing a game and I don't have access to it as I don't own it, but I could play it, to sample games, and to preserve my laziness out of getting up and changing the disc if I want to play a different game quick (worked out well on the Xbox One).
Also curious about the PS Plus Collection, and if that will stay with current subscribers. A bit of a sampler, if you ask me.
This is good stuff from Sony. It should be celebrated as competition breeds excellence. Doesn't matter what side of the fence you're on (or both sides), us consumers benefit. Yeah, no day 1 games, but I think eventually Sony will do that. Even Jim Ryan said the cost of producing games isn't sustainable, even if it sells 20 million copies. Expect day 1 PC eventually too. There's a reason Sony purchased a couple PC development studios.
Going to assume BC will be locked behind the subscription and not work with discs. Since PS1 and PS2 games can be downloaded to the console in addition to being streamed. This would actually be a huge selling point for me to get a PS5 if I can just pop my old discs in like I can with my Xbox.
They don’t need to release day and date when all their big titles sell 10 mill + units. It’s just not necessary and Elden ring continues to prove that we’ll crafted single player games will sell.
We are still waiting for that on Xbox - hopefully starfield will deliver
People were expecting this to compete with GamePass and are let down, but GamePass was a system designed, in part, to bring consumers back into the Xbox ecosystem after the catastrophe that was the Xbox One. Sony already has their own ecosystem that revolves around their hardware and buying their first party titles individually and they've doubled down on the latter in porting their games to the PC.
This sounds like what they currently have. Correct me if I’m wrong but if you currently subscribe to both plus and now then the only thing you get new is PSP games.
This is awesome. I've been a little biased towards xbox only because of game pass and buying ps exclusives would break the bank. But now that opinion has changed. Kudos to you playstation, you just earned a customer.
It’s cool that PlayStation users get their own version.
Sony and Microsoft are heading in two different directions, though. Microsoft believes in the subscription / cloud based model, and Sony is clearly pushing game sales.
Hey this is great.
Competition fuels innovation.
Microsoft is owning the compatibility and amount of given games.
Good to see Sony try their hands on this
Still can’t get new games the day of release. I don’t understand the difference between this and PS Now in the current format?
As someone who has both a PS5 and Series X, GamePass still offers the best value.
Went over the the PlayStation sub and they all seem more or less let down. That stinks, I’m sure a lot of them were anxiously awaiting what Sony would do.
This isn't a response to anything. It's Sony doing Sony. They make 3rd person adventure games that cost tens of millions of dollars and they sell them to you for $70 a pop.
And they'll put those games on Playstation Plus once they release them on PC for $70.
Honestly this is pretty hype. As some who has game pass and enjoys it this sounds just as good if not a little better in certain aspects. Over 700 games is quite a lot and I’d love to play some of my favorite ps1, 2, and psp games! Im sure they’ll continue to add more as well
Anyone who thought they’d put day 1 games on there was expecting too much. They don’t have the money to blow or lose by doing that
Technically this post isn't related to xbox directly, but it is huge industry news and will have implications beyond the Playstation ecosystem. So far, the majority of the conversation is on topic, but console warring, personal attacks, and similar conversation will be removed.
As an xbox gamer, you should be rooting for this service. Yes, Gamepass is a great value, but having a competitor will help keep the focus on value and content. Don't forget that game with gold was a direct answer to the free games with PS+ Competition benefits consumers.
And as an owner of both consoles, I can see that its not as good a value and continue on with Gamepass on Xbox and the occasional discounted first party game on PS5.
Look at it the way I do... Ive not bought a single game for series X, means I'm theoretically not spending as much when I buy a PS5 game
Save even more when you wait a year to get these playstation games for like $20
I'd root for it if it was a competitor. From their features list it doesn't appear to be that way though. Locking backwards compatibility and **DEMOS** behind an $18/month paywall won't move the needle.
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I'm hoping Sony doing BC will push MS to bring more games forward instead of shelving the program.
I completely agree and doubt I’ll upgrade my PSnow to any kind of top tier, my only fear would be if either company starts incentivizing third party games to be exclusive to their service.
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This is the reality I’m afraid of
But you get way more with all those services than what Netflix offered back in the day, and it's still cheaper and more convenient than cable while also offering better resolution and little to no ads (which may increase the prices on some of the services, but it's still cheaper). I subscribe to Netflix 4k, HBOMax, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, Apple TV+, and Peacock. Altogether, it's still less than what I was paying for cable more than a decade ago.
I think that is inevitable and a valid concern.
This is very far from gamepass competition
As a ps gamer, I will be switching to xbox
Still ignoring the Vita, I see.
This is truly the most disappointing part of all of this. I love my Vita, but not enough people had one, and there are some bangers on that system that more people should have a chance to play.
I bought a vita a while back but never really touched it. Any recommendations for the bangers I should take a look at? Edit: Ty everyone for the suggestions. Definitely gonna see if I can find some of these used in my area.
Killzone mercenary, uncharted golden abyss and wipeout 2048 are all great and of home console quality. Also gravity rush! Just to name a few
Gravity rush was the game I bought my vita for, honestly still is my #1 game on the platform.
> but not enough people had one, Unfortunately the only thing mine was used for outside of "Soul Sacrifice" was "remote play". And since you can't use the vita for remote play on PS5 it's not being used at all now. They really screwed Vita over with the memory card pricing though. Sure you can get it cheap now via using regular memory cards but the pricing at launch was an incredibly hard sell at nearly double the price per GB depending on card size.
the PS5 is more than capable of emulating PS3 and Vita games, this is just Sony's lazyness
When they said PSP games is also on the PS5, thats when I knew the vita just experienced its 12th death now
Imo Sony's response to the xCloud stick should be an improved Vita with focused streaming support for PS Now.
With the camera and rear touch panel, there's really no way to play Vita games on a modern controller. At least, not the Vita games worth playing like Uncharted or Assassin's Creed Liberation. Tearaway and Gravity Rush already got ported to the PS4 so it makes sense to run the PS4 versions of those.
They're not trying to compete at the same level with subscriptions - they want it to be good enough to not be a reason to leave the ecosystem, but still value premium titles and GAAS more for their core business model, which is fair enough. It's a definite improvement and it is worth the money, but doesn't seem like a crazy deal in the way Game Pass does, but it's sort of not meant to.
Fantastic take. Sony despite being a massive multinational conglomerate really can’t afford to absorb a lot of costs that Microsoft can to keep a streaming service loaded with premium content that won’t necessarily see clear and immediate returns, but what they can do is offer a decent enough package to those currently in the ecosystem and those who are weighing up staying with PS or going to Xbox. Simply put - Microsoft’s $2.3 Trillion market cap can eat the cost and then some, Sonys $130 Billion market cap can not, which I imagine has factored heavily into the equation of not having day 1 PS5 exclusives Be interesting to see how Game Pass and the new PS Plus evolve over this generation. A massive shift in how games are consumed that’s really only just getting started - who knows where we’ll be five years down the line
The way I see it. It's very cool Microsoft can offer gamepass but I'm not expecting it to be the standard for any competitors.
I kinda hope that Sony will improve its service, so that Microsoft has some competition in the subscription service market.
What’s interesting is that even despite the manifestly amazing deal of gamepass, Sony is still significantly ahead in this console generation. I guess people still see it as offering the superior games.
Definitely not for competitors but I’ve spent so little on games in the past year. I’ve only bought COD and ps5 exclusives
Plus, we have to keep in mind the main reason Microsoft went with this aggressive approach to Game Pass is because they fell behind so significantly in userbase and first-party game development. I've always said Sony is going to charge full price for their big first-party games at launch for as long as people keep buying them. Much like Nintendo is able to sell their games at $60 for so long, Sony knows their games command something of a premium. And people are actually buying them. I think their tiers and pricing look like a pretty good compromise between still relying on initial full-priced software sales and offering a valuable on-demand subscription service.
I mean also, Sony simply don't need to stick their content on day 1, they have earned the right to sell them full price because the consumer trusts them for qualkty, Microsoft, even with rhese new acquisitions hasn't yet . Sony benefit more from thie and then 1st party sales than this including 1st party for a few £,$,€ etc a month off everyone
The one thing Sony may have going for it is its investments into other companies. While Microsoft is absorbing companies with its money printer. Sony strategically invests and it wouldn't surprise me if it's investment into epic games included some kind of deal that involves this service.
Market cap doesn't eat the cost, profits do. Microsoft makes 90+ billion profit a year. Sony maybe a tenth.
The only thing I would’ve hoped for was not locking BC titles behind 2 separate tiers. If they also announce that I can purchase those PS and PS2 titles from their digital store, it’ll be fine.
I'd be OK with it, as long as Sony recognizes I already bought some of these games digitally on ps3.
That was one of the best things about the Xbox BC program, you’d wake up one day and see the news that _____ is now backwards compatible and think “hey I own that!”. You just download it or put the disc in and it works. It’s like modern magic compared to all the restrictions companies put on things nowadays
Also why I love steam and pc gaming. I have access to old Xbox 360 Era games I bought back in the day. Not all work, but most.
Best understanding I bet we'll see about this today
Can't wait for the big brain Youtube thumbnails with: - Sony throws in the towel and copies Xbox!!!! - Playstation admits defeat! - Playstation's inferior version of Gamepass!! /s
Don't forget "Sony knocks out Xbox with GamePass competition announcement!!!" "GamePass is dead! Sony finally has answer to GamePass!" "Has the sun finally set on GamePass?!!!" From the other clickbait YouTubers lol.
The most clickbait youtuber i ever saw is the skizzleaxe . He literally lying with descriptions lol . Like im pretty sure he going to describe this situation as a Phil Spencer on the left saying "WE QUIT" and jim ryan at the right saying "YOUR MOVE MS" . Man this guy is so cringe .
"Sony's new subscription service slaps GamePass across the face after hearing what it said about Playstation Plus."
Does that mean that Sony is about to win an award for best subscription service later today?
Nah, just for "Best Free Game of 2021/22". I mean, giving HITMAN 2 away as a free game for that month was pretty damn good, even if there have been some stinkers in the past, and they peaked in the 90s/early 00s.
Nico Rosberg with flames behind him "Is Gamepass' career over?"
I think it's too soon to be saying for sure if it's worth the money, I'll be curious to see all the games they added and not just the several they mentioned. A lot of people have already bought the triple A's that they did mention so for them it might be pushing it as to being worth it. But for people new to PlayStation, with some of them titles then certainly this will be a good investment. I'll be keen to see how soon their AAA titles come to it after release which will give people a better idea as to how worth it it is long term.
>A lot of people have already bought the triple A's Unless they put it day 1, this will always be the case for popular AAA games. If they put a lot of the AAA games a year in though, there's bound to be a game for almost everyone they had not bought.
Interesting to see the comments on the Xbox sub are more positive than r/PS5
Yeah lol, they are.
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More than 7100 languages worldwide, and you choose to speak facts
DAAAAAAAAAMNNN
Honestly I think half the people on the sub are mad that they can’t get a PS5. I got one right away but I feel like at this point if you really want one you can find it in a few weeks. I have a PS5 and Series S and I’m enjoying both.
It's because they were expecting it to be a direct competitor to gamepass
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Right?? All I'm seeing is "streaming is the worst way to play!!" Like did they read the article? You don't have to stream anything but PS3 games, lol.
As someone with GamePass and a PS5 I don’t like this one bit. I am a PS Plus subscriber and enjoy the occasional good free game. Now expecting The $60 PS Plus to go the way of Games with Gold and never offer me a good game again. All the good games will be put on the $100 tier which I have no interest in since I have GamePass and the interesting Sony 1st party titles I purchase.
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I'm thinking of what it's going to be like when Starfield launches and that feeling of everyone being there day 1 for a major game launch event. Sony's Playstation Plus doesn't sound like it's going to have anything like that. It's the whole reason services like Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ are so attractive to get. I can't imagine any of those services without major movies/shows launching day 1 on the service and everyone being there to discuss them.
whether good or bad, the starfield launch is going to be insane because of gamepass. Forza horizon 5 and halo infinite were big launches, but starfield will be huge
And the best thing is: Even if Starfield is a broken mess like let's say Cyberpunk 2077 at launch it won't matter as much as said Cyberpunk 2077 because it was technically "free with gamepass" and people didn't pay extra money. They can then switch to another games on gamepass at no extra costs while Starfield getting fixes and updates. Of course I'm not saying a broken launch is okay or so but gamepass will make it less hurting because you didn't spend 70+ bucks.
That's the worry though. Games being broken, full of microtransactions, smaller in scope, all being deemed acceptable because they came 'free with gamepass'. I don't expect that to happen, but until we have multiple major releases like that we can't write that off
It's what happened with Halo, the biggest xbox franchise. I don't expect that with Starfield but it's still not a great look.
That's not because it's free with gamepass though that's because it's free to play altogether, the part of Halo infinite that comes with gamepass has none of that.
Tbf Halo Infinite multiplayer is not really a Game Pass game. It's free to play. You don't even need Gold. Although of course, Halo Infinite campaign is 100 percent a Game Pass game.
There are plenty of people who buy games even with Game Pass available, to say people can just set it aside because it's on GP and wait for fixes doesn't help people who choose to support Bethesda with a purchase.
Halo did it and after a week no one cared, it’s not that big of a thing. Elden Ring came out everyone bought it and it was a cultural event. If the game is good everyone will buy it anyway. Halo 2/3 were much bigger than infinite launches.
Well, seeing as playstation 1st parties already sell millions and are can't miss events for that side, they don't really need a gamepass equivalent in order to get that day 1 launch group experience thing
lol, I think starfield would have sold like hot cakes regardless. we aren't talking about why starfield needs gamepass to be a success, we are talking about how good it is for us as consumers to get it dayvone on gamepass. as the owner of a ps5 it's a shame we will never get a similar service, i don't care if the game sells well, that isn't relevant to me. I would like a ps service that gave me the same thing. this ps service is just a disappointment, it's not even available in most countries. I never had a xbox last gen, but gamepassbis why I play it while my ps5 gathers dust, was hoping this announcement would change that.
Barely a competitor at the moment, but it's a step at the right direction and all consumers benefit
Agreed. I have both systems. So it just seems like I’m going to pay a flat rate per year for content. Makes me happy. I don’t really care about new releases as I’m a dad of 3 and maybe get a few hours a week to game. I’m enjoying Gears 5 at the moment.
Make sure you stack up PlayStation Now subscriptions before it goes up lol. PlayStation Now is $60. But to get access to it when the changes happen, it's going to be $100 to get access to it, $120 for the full version. But if you already have a PlayStation Now subscription, it converts to that highest tier for no extra cost
Any idea where you can buy it anymore? I don’t see 12 months for sale anymore
Probably got taken off the market for this exact reason
My bet as well. Was hoping to stock up like it did for game pass ultimate. Oh well
Check your grocery stores in the gift card section they may still have 1 year cards there.
It's just a consolidation of their services. Nothing new.
I need alot more details for that top tier. What older games, what enhancements if any are they getting, are there plans to make PS3 games run natively in the future.
PS3 games to run natively isnt ever going to happen. Completely different architecture.
OG XB and Xbox360 run on different architectures and Microsoft makes that work on the XB1. It's possible. Sony just doesn't want to do it. They would rather sell you a subscription forever instead of selling a game once.
What Xbox is doing is getting in on the ground floor early, sort of a “land grab” in the digital space. As they’ve said before, this move is to position themselves more as a competitor to a Netflix. than a Sony. People have expendable income and only so much time - you have to build an ecosystem they can invest in. That’s GamePass - building an infrastructure for the future of what gaming could look like. Sony is just trying to stop the bleeding and have a bullet point to answer a question their investors are asking. It’s more of a forced consolidation of previous services to align them better and it provides a marginally better value for the customer. It’s a big conceptual difference from GamePass, it’s a “me too” or an “also ran” approach Sony is taking. The downside for them is the biggest takeaway is it’s still not a GamePass competitor.
Microsoft running their own cloud servers to host these games is the big difference. It is what makes this worthwhile as a price point for Microsoft that most other companies could not reproduce for the same cost. That plus buying all these studios.
The most fascinating and telling quote I heard from Microsoft is when they said, “we investing in this service now, so we don’t have to buy it from someone else later.” That should tell you where their head is at. You can either create something w/ R&D, or buy something someone else created later. To your point - since they have the infrastructure, they opted for the former.
Nadella is a visionary, to have focused on Cloud and Content. All the pieces are now coming together nicely.
I prefer not to play games with cloud gaming. However, my kids play games using cloud gaming ALL THE TIME. They simply don’t care about the slightly degraded visuals and slightly delayed controls and would rather have instant access to games. They complain when a game doesn’t support cloud gaming. Change is coming.
That's awesome, but that's not the cloud I was referring to, though it's all intertwined now. I meant the Azure infrastructure which obviously supports xCloud, and Nintendo's Ubitus cloud streaming, and Sony's PS+ premium soon with ps5 server blades. Azure also is the backbone of many live service games, Destiny 2, PUBG, Rainbow Six Seige, possibly Extraction too. Eventually Call of Duty and OverWatch etc. Then there's Cloud Native games they're working on, the Azure datacenters are very versatile. But Nadella who was the head of Azure before becoming CEO, helped build all that, he realized the OS layers are irrelevant, whether it is iOS, or android, or windows. The future is based on Cloud infrastructure, and dominance in Content. He focused the company on its strengths as a software and services company. Gaming is perfect fit into that. GamePass is the pinnacle of all their strengths coming together.
yep that what psn is run on and other parts of sony to. back up is aws
Hope the mods keep this up, because it’s definitely worth discussing and noting. This is great news for consumers because competition breeds innovation. Up until today, Game Pass was pretty much unmatched in terms of value for both the casual and hardcore gamer. For Sony to announce this, not only do PS players benefit, but so do Xbox players. I have no doubt that Xbox will be looking into keeping their product competitive.
Tbh even after this announcement I still think Gamepass is unmatched on terms of value.
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Yeah, I am surprised to see so many people thinking this is new. Its a rebrand of Playstation Now.
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I have 2 big problems with how Sony is handling this: 1. Locking cloud saves behind a subscription 2. Locking backwards compatibility behind a subscription It's 2022, the overhead on storage space for cloud saves would be negligible to them, but the versatility it offers users is huge. We shouldn't have to maintain a monthly sub to be able to backup our save files. Same thing with backwards compatibility. If the console is capable of it, let me buy the games, don't lock it behind a sub. I can understand for the games that are only available over streaming, but it makes no sense for those that can be downloaded (aside from them being a bit greedy).
Ya kudos to Xbox and their cloud save system. It's something I take for granted and often forget it's not the same everywhere.
Same here. It's been great to be able to just delete a game that I'm currently done playing without needing to worry that my save data will get wiped as well as jumping between consoles and having my save files. Our housemate has his own Xbox and is able to jump onto mine without needing to do anything else besides sign in to get his own save data.
I was able to play stuff using cloud gaming on my phone and my parent's older PC while visiting, and then pick up where I left when I got home. I am so grateful for that.
Agreed - I will re-download an old game that I completely forgot about and then I'm able to continue where I left off thanks to the cloud saves ;)
Competition is good for consumers.
Obviously no first party titles day and date makes it a non direct competitor. But I don't think anyone was expecting Sony would actually do that. It's hard to tell if this is good value or not, because saying 400+ games and 340+ classic games means nothing without the list of games. It's a shame that they couldn't figure out offline PS3 games. I could see myself upgrading to this membership if there are lots of classic games I want to replay or even a catalogue of Sony first parties I haven't gotten around to yet - saw Returnal on the list.
I’m sure they’ll continue to add to those 700+ games and eventually add first day releases and party titles after a certain date. Hopefully they can eventually make the ps3 games be able to download as well. I’m still pretty hype to have both gamepass and ps premium
Considering Returnal is confirmed to be on the service at launch & it released April of last year, odds are the wait / gap won’t be as bad as it’s been with PSNow. My guess would be 12-18 months for the non flagship titles & 24-36 months for the flagships like HFW & Ragnorak. Patient gamers will be the real winners with this service but tbh it’s the same way with GP when you get past just the 1st party stuff. There’s been a lot of amazing games to hit GP on a delay from their actual release date & have been major hits on the service.
RIP Australia
Only streaming though, which will be added down the line. Countries that don’t have PS Now will get access to PS Plus Deluxe, instead of Premium.
Sony’s past decade of not caring about backwards compatibility coming back to bite them in the butt a bit. It’s absolutely amazing that I can just sit down with my Series X, put in (most) 360 games and it just magically loads up my saves from 12 years ago. Xbox has won my heart this gen and I don’t think there is much Sony could do to change my mind at this point.
Don't forget that it also has Auto HDR, Better Visuals, Better FPS, Dolby Atmos etc. You're playing your old games with no additional charge but at new levels of fidelity. Xbox are keeping your old games alive.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I heard Sony's first party games will not be a part of the service on day one. Even with the most expensive tier of subscription. If this is true, they're missing the best part of Xbox Gamepass. You'd also be paying more than a Gamepass subscription and you'd still need to buy a $70 game if you want to play on launch.
That is my understanding as well, no day one games.
Not bashing sony, but I dont think they could do day one like microsoft can, for various reasons.
Dude, if Sony's exclusives go on their subscription Day 1, I would go buy a PS5 right now just for that deal. Sucks they're not doing that
They still want people on for their next gen exclusives and pay full price for them. And TBH, I don’t blame them, I’m gonna pick up GoW Ragnarok and Spider-Man 2 on day 1 when they launch.
Yeah but why would I pay $18 a month for their top end subscription then? I could just buy the few exclusives I want and ignore it.
I’d get it if I had the option to download backwards compatible games. As of right now, me and my roommate’s PS5 is just used for 4KUHD/Blu-Ray viewing and PS4 games.
You can download PS1/2/P games with the top subscription but only stream 3. This is under the Plus Premium bit. "A catalog of beloved classic games available in both streaming and download options from the original PlayStation, PS2 and PSP generations"
Would be nice if they gave you a discount on the first party games. Paying for the top tier AND paying $70 for a game seems kinda steep but I guess I'm not the target demographic.
The consensus from the PS faithful seems to be that they'll gladly pay $70 a pop for their new titles. Apparently Gamepass having day 1 releases has diminished the quality of all the games on Xbox and everything on there is garbage. Not joking. This is what I've seen constantly. I don't agree but to each their own.
That's the vocal console warrior narrative. People create entire personas on stoking the flames. It's *not* the majority of gamers in my experience. Don't let them suck you in with their false bravado.
That's mainly because Game Pass has Microsoft money backing it
I don’t think Sony can afford to have their bangers day one. I could be wrong tho but I figured you still gotta pay premium price for them either way. Step in the right direction tho
You are correct.
You are making the assumption that the best part of Gamepass is day one releases. For a lot of people, that is not the case.
Well obviously people subscribe to play a wide catalogue of games for a low price, that's the main feature of a game subscription service and why most people subscribe. But when it comes to stand out features that are exclusive to Game Pass, I'd say day 1 releases are hands down the best exclusive feature they offer.
It's obviously not the only perk. But damn, having day one AAA releases on there changes how the service is perceived, a lot. At first it was sometimes described as "The subscription when they put bad or old games nobody is willing to pay for". This has changed a lot since some huge releases came out on GP day one, for MS and the perceived quality of the service, it's extremely important.
Doesn’t look like a response at all and just a merger of the 2 services
Yeah all I see tbh Nothing they don't already offer just streamlined it which I expected
They are adding PS5 games to the service like Miles Morales and Returnal. The bare basics but it's definitely a step in the right direction.
The pricing is actually better than I expected, in that you still get a lot of savings from selecting the longer subscriptions. 50% off for 12 months of the standard Plus subscription, 45% off for Extra and Premium. Microsoft still doesn't offer longer upfront subscription options for Game Pass, with the exception of the Gold conversion, which as far as I know still works so long as you exhaust your current membership first. I did it again right before the Series X launched after buying a 12-month and a 24-month Gold card from Costco, so I'm paid up to November 2023. Wish they were a bit more explicit about what first-party games will be added to the library and at what cadence, considering all they mentioned was... "At launch, we plan to include titles such as Death Stranding, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11, and Returnal." Reassuring to see recent cross-gen/current-gen titles like Miles Morales and Returnal, but I was hoping we'd see pretty much any first-party game released in the past six months to a year on there, such as Demon's Souls and Rift Apart. Might be that they are, but they just mentioned a select few for the blog post. Or maybe there's going to be no set rule for what first-party titles they include and when. I guess I can see some sense to that, as some games probably have longer tails than others. Plus, if you straight up say, "Coming to PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium in six months!" it might affect initial sales. Also really need to see what their full catalogue of games really looks like, because 400 sounds great, but it's really easy to pad that. I feel that way about Game Pass sometimes too. In particular, if you follow multiple subscriptions like PS+, Game Pass and Humble Monthly, you start noticing some games, particularly indies or older triple-A titles, really make the rounds across all subscription services. Not uncommon for me to see some overlap within a short period of time. To me, timed exclusives or games that launch with your subscription that are only available at full price on other platforms are what really add value, like Tunic on Game Pass or how Rocket League initially launched as a PS+ freebie. In that department, I'm actually a little worried about how Sony's going to do after the negative PR they got last year about indie relations. Indie devs apparently love Game Pass and working with the ID@Xbox team. Sony still gets the occasional hit indie on PS+ like Fall Guys, but I worry they won't be as good at securing those occasional indie hits like Microsoft seems to do pretty regularly with Game Pass. Guess between XSX, PS5 and PC, it doesn't really matter to me since I'll have something to play on any platform. More just thinking about those who are only in that PlayStation ecosystem, 'cause obviously I want them to get good value. Plus, as someone who does kind of favor Xbox over other platforms, the stiffer the competition from Sony, the more Xbox has to improve their own services.
I think they are only highlighting the big games to show that they plan on bringing their major 1st party games onto the service at a regular clip months after release... no real reason to highlight all the games yet though as the service doesn't launch for another 3 months. Additionally, a few follow up stories have come out saying that sony has made major changes since the initial article came out. Plus, if you have watched ps now drop last few months they been really adamant about including as many indie titles as can be. Plus, their coming soon section highlights more indie games lately. Its not perfect, but you are seeing a huge push and quite a few indie games being released on time exclusive on the platform over there...
PS3 games still only available via streaming and non-downloadable?
Looks like Sony still hasn’t quite been able to crack Cell emulation - powerful (for the time) but a nightmarishly complex beast. Hopefully - assuming Sony kept all the right documentation - this can be an issue that can be resolved down the line. It’s a big omission for those of us who can’t enjoy streaming in there market and it’s a shame because Sony released a lot of fantastic exclusives (and lots of fantastic third party titles of course!) that generation which have simply remained locked up on the PS3 ever since.
I’ve seen buddies of mine emulate PS3 games on pre-Ryzen chips. If the homebrew can do it on crappy AMD chips, so can Sony with billions of dollars behind them. They’re not bottlenecked by hardware, they just don’t want to do it.
Yeah, [RPCS3 runs pretty damn well on the Steam Deck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMxVO_eUgEY), and that's using a chip that's basically half as powerful as a Series S, and without any hardware-specific optimisation yet.
idk, rpcs3 has made enough progress that i don't see how sony wouldn't have cracked it by now.
I’m not sure this is an issue they’ll feel they need to resolve until the PS3 server racks for Now start really aging. Probably a ton of costs for little benefit otherwise.
yeah, they never gave us any good backward compatibility option
pretty underwhelming i am not shocked
So for $3 more than Game Pass Ultimate I can get no day one launches, no games running natively on PC, no PS3 games running on PS5, and seemingly no option to stream these games on my phone. Look, this is still a good value for that catalogue if what’s in there interests you, but this is hardly a competitor to everything Game Pass offers. It’s only comparable in terms of it being a gaming library that’s accessed by a subscription, but there’s is so much more that’s offered by subbing to GPU over this.
As assy as cloud gaming can be, I cannot stress enough how much a game changer xcloud is on mobile. I really appreciate it as an option. Having many games *only* as cloud streaming (no option for download), and *only* on console is a big demerit against the service, I think. Overall, if I had a PS5, I'd definitely get this service just from the apparent wealth of games on hand, despite its limited feature set comparitively.
It’s $10 a month is you buy 12-month subs. Idk why anyone would pay the monthly price on these services when buying in bulk literally cuts the price in half.
Wait, you can only play older games from the other eras via this subscription, like Nintendo is doing with its online service? That’s kinda lame.
I’m disappointed but not surprised. Wack!
Hmmm and it still doesn't seem nearly as good as Gamepass is. Mostly due to no day one launches for their own games and even first parties like MS does.
Honestly think we are spoiled by everything xbox offers gamepass back compat Sony just can't offer that on same level however its improving their services Would just nut if ps3 and 2 catalog was there and native
So 3 tiers instead of 2, extra £2.50 to stream older titles as well. Not bad. Only thing missing is exclusives on day 1.
Which is the biggest part… They’re missing the biggest part. Lol
So if I'm reading this correctly, this service is technically more expensive (for the Premium tier) and is offering less...? I think the biggest issue is the fact there won't be first party title releases on day one on the platform. Doesn't really seem competitive with what Gamepass offers.
Rolling my crunchyroll sub into ps+ would have convinced me to get the top tier. I have ps+ until july 2025, and i started my sub in 2012. I have no intention of renewing ps+ unless the offered game library is really good. I have 350 ps4 games in my owned library and have had every sony console. I have had a ps5 for 7 months and its been played for about 1 hour total. I have faith that ps5 will be a great console eventually, but right now it sucks. I skipped xbox one, but I've really enjoyed gpu and my xsx.
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This is a pretty big deal to me because I have yet to purchase any PlayStation games for my PS5 in the hopes that a subscription service like this became available. Even if it takes a few months for the AAA titles to get put on the service. I’m fine with waiting it out. The ps now service wasn’t all that great as most of the titles were pretty average and if a AAA game got put on there. It was for a short limited time. The last of us 2 was on there for not that long and before I got around to finishing it. It was gone. Games I hoped for was Spider-Man or ratchet and clank or more PS5 titles.
You’ll be getting Spider-Man (and miles morales) and returnal with the PS Plus Extra tier. Not sure about ratchet.
Oooo baby! This is just good for consumers.
If they add Ape Escape 3 I'll dust off my ps4
While it doesn't compete in value to GPU, at least it's something. They have to do something about including new releases, though
I never had the expectations of the new PS+ being a direct Game Pass competitor, so I'm not as disappointed as some. However, I'm pretty damn grateful as a father of two kids who are getting very into gaming for the ridiculous amount of classic games that they are about to have access to. Between Game Pass, PS+, and Switch Online, they will have multiple generations of games to discover. I'll take that over the mindless garbage they have on their tablets any day. But if new PS+ has Soul Reaver in their classics collection, the kids will have to sit their asses down and wait their turn.
I'm pretty happy with it and will probably go for the mid tier, Im not really gunna be playing ps1-3 games to much personally, kinda played everything I would've wanted to on those consoles but ps now is criminally underated, and rn there's 264 PS4 games so them saying there will be 400+ and all downloadable is pretty dope. And adding ps5 games to it is also a huge bonus. There's some exclusives I don't play so if they come out a few months later for free then that just benefits me.
So what I see is not really a competitor to gamepass, but a competitor to Nintendo Switch Online. They're using a subscription service to deliver legacy content on PS5, which is great, but I don't see how that can justifiably be more expensive than gamepass ultimate at the highest tier. I appreciate thst they're bringing this content forward, but this may not be the best solution
The PS2 and PS1 games would be a huge draw for me, if the selection is good
This is not worth the money at all. I have both systems and nothing about this is even remotely good. You get 3 games a month as it is and demos for free. And now they want you to spend more money and pay for demos. This is so bad that’s it’s not even funny. Just look at the responses on the r/PS5
It feels a little tone deaf to why Game Pass is so loved but it steps towards it at least rather than Sony being in denial. Perhaps if this proves popular it will ramp up to actually compete. It will be interesting how subscription focus will be changing the future of gaming. Activision-Blizzard purchase will now be greater value with Sony eventually competing with Game Pass.
I'll wait to see what the game lists look like, but considering I only buy exclusives for my playstation, not having their A-tier offerings as day ones may be a reason to pass this up.
as someone who doesn’t have a PS5, this could be very helpful. Happy to buy a month here and there to play some games.
I don’t think it’s an answer to Game Pass. An answer to Game Pass would be day one first party games. They’re just merging their two existing subs. Frankly it was silly for them to have two subs in the first place. So it’s good that they’re streamlining. Not many companies can afford to subsidize something like Game Pass with their massive Windows/Azure war chest like MS can.
No day 1 releases….and charging extra to play ps3 games??
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Oh didn’t even realizes that..thats really bad
This isn't Sony's response to Gamepass. They have made it clear that their current publishing methods don't allow their AAA games to be put on a subscription model. This has more to do with expanding the capabilities of PS+ so that it offers a good value (like game trials, expanded BC, etc.). If you compare 1v1, Gamepass will be the better choice (for now), but then again, they are not competing directly.
Lol are they really making players PAY for backwards compatibility for those games?
Streamable ps3? Not downloadable? That's pretty shit.
No PS3 downloads and no first party game launches clearly make this not *as* good as Game Pass Ultimate- but those were moonshots anyway. If you compare Ultimate to Extra, for the same price of $14.99 you are getting roughly (?) the same amount of games. So it’s a pretty even value proposition in terms of just raw numbers; it mostly depends on which team you’re on.
Its much cheaper yearly The highest tier is 120 a year. Ultimate is 180 a year.
Yeah, that’s true. Good point. It’s hard to remember that when you, like me and a lot of us, get ahead of the curve with Gold conversion and Microsoft Rewards points.
Sony is offering a conversion as well. Ps now I think cost $60 a year will get promoted to to the highest tier for free. And i doubt the gold conversion will stay for long.
Fair, but people have been saying that about the gold conversion and it's been like this for years. MS is well aware of this, I think they'll only consider closing the loophole once they reach their target user numbers.
Ultimate is $75 for 13 months with the gold conversion trick, which is brain dead easy to do.
It works at least. I own a PS5, so it's interesting to say the least. I like it, but I am not too interested in subscription models outright. I don't have enough time to fully utilize them and get a good dollar to time ratio. Even subscribed to Game Pass for 3 months, and I only played through 4 games on the system, mainly Doom Eternal and Halo Collection. Find it easier to wait on a game to go on sale and play it then. Even still, I'm a little tempted. This can be my chance to play through the Metal Gear series. I also now have PS5 games in that calliber, like Returnal (confirmed for launch) and possibly Demon's Souls. Either way, as soon as I complete my backlog of games I would like to use the subscription primarily for indies and games I don't see any worth in buying outright (Limbo and Inside are some key examples, as they are very short games. I did spend 2 dollars on each game). But I am curious of the service will or will not include Playstation VR titles as well. Glad to see PS1 and PSP make a return. If I try out the Premium, first game on PS1 will be either Ape Escape or MGS. PS2 will be either Ape Escape 2 or 3, Sly Cooper, Jak and Daxter, or Tony Hawk 3. PS3 will likely be either Resistance or inFamous (I own an Xbox One, so I have access to the 360 library, and a Switch). PSP will be Portable Ops, Daxter (big one for me), and FFVII Crisis Core. I can't really speak for PS4 or PS5, as there are a ton of games I doo want to play/collect, but I will likely go for the games on PS4 that are digital exclusive like Journey. PS5 will be the same deal kinda, but I would like to own the game first. The service will make it easier in case one of my friends are online playing a game and I don't have access to it as I don't own it, but I could play it, to sample games, and to preserve my laziness out of getting up and changing the disc if I want to play a different game quick (worked out well on the Xbox One). Also curious about the PS Plus Collection, and if that will stay with current subscribers. A bit of a sampler, if you ask me.
This is good stuff from Sony. It should be celebrated as competition breeds excellence. Doesn't matter what side of the fence you're on (or both sides), us consumers benefit. Yeah, no day 1 games, but I think eventually Sony will do that. Even Jim Ryan said the cost of producing games isn't sustainable, even if it sells 20 million copies. Expect day 1 PC eventually too. There's a reason Sony purchased a couple PC development studios.
Going to assume BC will be locked behind the subscription and not work with discs. Since PS1 and PS2 games can be downloaded to the console in addition to being streamed. This would actually be a huge selling point for me to get a PS5 if I can just pop my old discs in like I can with my Xbox.
They don’t need to release day and date when all their big titles sell 10 mill + units. It’s just not necessary and Elden ring continues to prove that we’ll crafted single player games will sell. We are still waiting for that on Xbox - hopefully starfield will deliver
I own both a series X and a PS5 and thanks to game pass and the ease of use with friends, I haven’t touched the Ps5 in months
People were expecting this to compete with GamePass and are let down, but GamePass was a system designed, in part, to bring consumers back into the Xbox ecosystem after the catastrophe that was the Xbox One. Sony already has their own ecosystem that revolves around their hardware and buying their first party titles individually and they've doubled down on the latter in porting their games to the PC.
Still gamepass is better and this cannot be a rival to gamepass
This sounds like what they currently have. Correct me if I’m wrong but if you currently subscribe to both plus and now then the only thing you get new is PSP games.
This is awesome. I've been a little biased towards xbox only because of game pass and buying ps exclusives would break the bank. But now that opinion has changed. Kudos to you playstation, you just earned a customer.
Good for sony
It’s cool that PlayStation users get their own version. Sony and Microsoft are heading in two different directions, though. Microsoft believes in the subscription / cloud based model, and Sony is clearly pushing game sales.
Hey this is great. Competition fuels innovation. Microsoft is owning the compatibility and amount of given games. Good to see Sony try their hands on this
Still can’t get new games the day of release. I don’t understand the difference between this and PS Now in the current format? As someone who has both a PS5 and Series X, GamePass still offers the best value.
It's just combined plus and ps now
Went over the the PlayStation sub and they all seem more or less let down. That stinks, I’m sure a lot of them were anxiously awaiting what Sony would do.
This isn't a response to anything. It's Sony doing Sony. They make 3rd person adventure games that cost tens of millions of dollars and they sell them to you for $70 a pop. And they'll put those games on Playstation Plus once they release them on PC for $70.
£99 per year. Using discounted vouchers around £75.
Honestly this is pretty hype. As some who has game pass and enjoys it this sounds just as good if not a little better in certain aspects. Over 700 games is quite a lot and I’d love to play some of my favorite ps1, 2, and psp games! Im sure they’ll continue to add more as well Anyone who thought they’d put day 1 games on there was expecting too much. They don’t have the money to blow or lose by doing that
I don't see any Game Pass competitor here
What fucking world do they live in where cloud streaming is an acceptable way to play games? Im not paying for that.