The rumors have been confirmed and Sony has indeed introduced its Xbox Game Pass competitor. After the announcement, gamers are also asking themselves one more question: will there also be new Sony games from day 1 in the new PlayStation Plus?
The speculation surrounding Sony’s Project Spartacus was absolutely correct: the previous PlayStation Plus and the game streaming service PlayStation Now will be merged into a new PlayStatio Plus to compete with the Xbox Game Pass. As we reported yesterday, there will be three price levels for PS Plus in the future, with the lowest level being similar to the previous PS Plus, but only offering two full versions per month.
On the two higher levels, however, you get access to large game libraries with a large selection. The middle tier includes more than 400 PS4 and PS5 games, while the highest tier includes countless classics. But one question initially remained unanswered: will Sony offer brand new first-party titles in the future at no additional cost, at least in the most expensive tier? The answer to that has now been submitted and will not necessarily make PlayStation fans happy.
PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan spoke to GameIndustry.biz about this and confirmed that Sony currently has no such plans. In contrast to Microsoft’s Game Pass, you still have to buy new full versions on the PlayStation if you want to play them right after the release. At PlayStation Plus, the latest blockbusters will probably only hit the market with a considerable delay.
The reason given by Ryan is that they are satisfied with the business model designed in this way; this is so profitable for Sony and has a direct impact on the gaming sector. Ultimately, the proceeds from game sales would give Sony more capital to invest in new games. If you said goodbye to it, it would ultimately possibly also be at the expense of the game quality of future titles.
Sony’s plan in this way applies at least for the near and predictable future. However, it cannot be ruled out that the company could abandon this approach in the future and then offer first-party titles as day-one titles directly as part of PS Plus. At least in the coming months you should not expect such a step because of Ryan’s statements.
The video introduces you to the free games for PS Plus subscribers in March 2022.
