Originally posted by MartyG
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I did as you suggested here Marty and to be honest I can’t fault Jim’s turnaround on this one for me. -
I stick by what I said a year ago. I think if Sony go down the subscription route they'll do something like guarantee the big games hit the service within 6m or 12m and stay there permanently. Building up a nice portfolio as the generation plays out and similar enough to game pass without losing that day one £70 model.Originally posted by hudson View Post
Then they'll back it up with the same titles hitting PC in <2y to get a second payday on every one.
It's not quite the same as what Xbox is offering with equal service to every platform in the ecosystem and day one release, but it's enough to not break the model they have and still improve the overall subscription services.
As for MS being in last place. It really depends on what you're basing that on... If its just console sales then maybe. But remember the plans and strategy Xbox is employing now were borne out of a complete redirection after the Xbox One launch disaster when Spencer took over. It really was a huge shift in how they operate and they clearly have a long term strategy.
I don't think it's fair to evaluate them on past generations as a result but I guess it's to be expected.Comment
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MS have to evaluate Xbox on past generations. It's not a pop at MS, just a fact.
It's a product designed to make money after all. They've put a lot of time, money and effort in to the Series consoles and they need them to make as much money as possible at the end of the day.
PS5 is already outselling Series 2/1. MS need GP to be successful to generate cash. At the moment it's all they have over Sony. It's possible by the middle of the generation, they'll have an epic line up and they'll start selling consoles hand over fist. Who knows. But right now, a GP competitor wouldn't be great for MS.Comment
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At the moment MS are simply running GP to try and drag customers away from Sony & Nintendo, their bankrolling everyone’s fun right now, this won’t last forever so they will need to build the service to a level where guys like us that have got it for £1, basically nothing, actually want to pay full price as and when that happens. Which is fine when your one of the biggest companies in the world and can afford to out spend the competition with no repercussions.
I think Sonys approach will be, here’s all the back catalogue for 1st party, plus stuff from 3rd parties we’ve managed to negotiate, new releases will not be on the service day & date.Comment
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I have friends who were turned off by the new £70 pricing and no mostly sit on game pass. I dunno, I reckon he won't be the only one. I feel like Sony need to do the day one on Sony plus pass to really turn some heads back.Comment
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See, it works.Originally posted by wakka View Post
And haha. Of course Sony are now following suit on GamePass, because once you get to the break even line, every single subscription after it is profit. There's some crow to eat laying around right now.
It'll pretty much mirror what GamePass offers because of this.Comment
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The funny thing is the more successful Sonys service is the more Microsoft pockets through its Asure server services as I believe PS Now fully runs off Azure and I think (correct me if wrong) so does PS+...Originally posted by MartyG View Post
Agree once you're past the break even it's all gravy, and those numbers are high so a console only approach probably doesn't stack up. That's why I think Sony will go the cinema route, with new releases hitting retail first at £70 a pop, and then have their subscription release some months later...
I'm definitely interested in this because for me I like to consume my games digitally, but I'm only interested in Sony first party, and a subscription means I wouldn't have to buy everything, just rent.
To that end the timing of new releases is key.Comment
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Damn, physical games are gonna be even more dead.
Rumoured the service will feature PSP games too. Would be great if Sony has been busy working on this over the past year to bring a very strong line up of their past back catalogue. That would be sick.Last edited by hudson; 04-12-2021, 11:53.Comment
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There's definitely not going to be any short term or hard and fast rule on when a game hits the service for PS5. Like currently it would make sense to put TLOU2 on there but not Ghosts of Tsushima and they released in a similar time window. I really wouldn't bet hard on newer titles hitting till they either bomb or pass 'Platinum' value, Sony's in an incredibly different position than MS on that front.Comment
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I'm not sure but someone told me Last of Us 2 is on PS Now. I tend to prefer lesser known games, but he likes the big titles.Comment
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Well it's not a Game Pass competitor then, it's a half baked re-brand potentially merging PS+ and PS Now with higher tier access to backward compatibility titles.Originally posted by Neon Ignition View Post
To me that sounds more like the Nintendo style of service than anything that can be compared to game pass.
Game Pass is good because everything in it is included and because you know the rules around new first party additions to the service ahead of release.
I wouldn't sign up to anything long term if I didn't know what it offered. That would be like signing up to Netflix because when the Witcher season 2 releases they might let you access it.Comment
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To be fair, I doubt they will be asking you to sign up to it long term. It'll be a monthly subscription on a rolling 30 day basis like everything else I'm sure.Comment
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Who knows. It's all speculation. Sony might not even bother, or the rumours aren't true.Comment
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Yeah true, but where there is smoke and all that... I know there was a lot of speculation months back as Sony was negotiating Azure contracts with MS which might have had something to do with this.
To be honest if they do anything in the space I'm interested as it fits how I like to consume games now but I do really hope they don't half ass it and go closer to parity with what Game Oass is like.
As it's rumoured to come out early next year we won't have long to find out.Comment
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Yep, I think that's the danger with expectations. Absolutely nothing about this has at all sounded like a Game Pass competitor compared to simply being a PSNow/PS+ merger. From that perspective it's not a Game Pass equivalent anymore than anyone ever called Game Pass a PSNow competitor.
If Sony plans on rolling out Azure support to expand the selection with PS1, PS2, PS3 titles on top of a wider range of PS4 and PS5 titles then they instantly revitalise PSNow as a prominent service with a much larger selection of titles across generations than Game Pass, all without sacrificing first party sales. In the same way no-one is going to see Nintendo tossing away their 10+, 20+, 30+ software sales for a sub service either.
If PS+ is standard £50 a year then this would be like having another tier like Ultimate on Xbox where you get 12 months of PS+ and a rebranded Now under a new monikor like PS+ Premium for something like £79.99
Less money than selling Now seperately but a lot more subs than the current stagnant userbase for Now draws inComment
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