Sony prefers to let premium games go through the usual lifecycle instead of releasing them on subscription services like PS Plus.
Xbox Game Pass subscribers enjoy the benefit of being able to play first-party games from Xbox Game Studios directly through the service at launch. This also includes AAA games like Forza Motorsport 8, Starfield, The Elder Scrolls VI and many more.
Sony still doesn’t think releasing premium games on subscriptions is a good idea. Even after revamping its PS Plus service, which restarted in July.
Shuhei Yoshida, responsible for PlayStation Indies, reiterated this statement in a recent conversation with GamesIndustry.biz, saying that Sony still believes in a premium release for games.
Yoshida compares the exploitation of games and the paths that a title takes in the months and years following release with the exploitation of cinema films
“The new PS Plus has tiers and it’s basically like the old PS Plus, we’re still releasing two or three new games a month and a new tier, Extra, has a catalog of hundreds of games for people to play . Our approach to Extra is that we want to help publishers with lifecycle management. I was [bei PlayStation] responsible for first-party management and therefore knows that it is like cinema: a film is released in cinemas first, then it is shown on pay-per-view, via a subscription service or on free-to-air TV, where generating new revenue and reaching a wider audience every time.”
“In the same way, we believe in premium release of a title at launch and after maybe six months or three months or three years when the game’s sales start to decline, inclusion on this service, PS Plus Extra, can do that help introduce these games to a new, broader audience. Some people may have missed these games when they came out and it’s a great opportunity to play them and spread the word by word of mouth, or if there’s DLC or a sequel we can help generate interest in the game from a wider audience series.”
“As such, we encourage publishers to use these services to manage the lifecycle of each title.”
For Sony itself, its own subscription service is still an experiment, as Yoshida says. That also explains the experimenting with the game Stray, which was also playable via PS Plus Extra at the time of release.
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