Pach-Attack: Is PlayStation Plus Profitable?

GT:Is it a profit deal for PlayStation Plus or does Sony just “eat the cost”? What about Nintendo’s eShop? Find out.

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

I want his job.. I swear I can do it..

Does he make 6 figures for this? 7 figures? I have a feeling he is rich.

[animegamingnerd]

anyone who has posted a comment on this site does a better job at predicting then patcher yes even the spam bots

[NewMonday]

what is his record so far?

as for PS* it gives me the chance to play some good games that I had to pass over because of my budget. and also a classic game that is out of stock called Psychonauts.

[TemplarDante]

^ HELL yes!
You know, whats worse, he reads N4G and Gaf and jacks opinions and make it his own.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Lol

[Rhythmattic]

I'm a gamer and not an analyst, but I suggest you check out the episode where he explains what he actually does day to day week to week...

There's more paperwork than you might think.

Yes, He is a lucky guy and he loves his job, but remember he worked hard to get where he is...

I'll get disagrees, but I actually respect the man.

[Nicaragua]

I think that seeing what he does gives even more reason not to respect him.

Predicting gaming trends and announcements is his career, he has access to market data and insider information that we don't, and yet despite all that he is consistently wrong or talks complete bollocks.

[FriedGoat]

@nicaaragua

He is right more than he is wrong, otherwise he wouldn't be a very good investor would he? Infact, he'd have no money if he was wrong all the time.

[ThatXboxGuy]

Pachter is actually a really cool guy who is actually bang on with most of his predictions.

Random no name websites just like to take things he says out of context and make an entire article about it.Nobody (at least on N4G) bothers to source check.People hate him just because other people say they hate him.A perpetual stereotype.

[Rhythmattic]

ThatKansasGuy

Im with you...

Im sure he has friends in the indusrty that had "failed" with all their best intensions, but also has friends "of extra-ordinary Magnitude" (yes, A Kentucky fried movie ref) whom have delivered..

And most important, I believe Pach "respects" the game industry...

[ALLWRONG]

This isn't a case of "right or wrong" it's more of a case of "you don't like what he said"

[clintagious650]

I think ps plus & home will improve even more with the ps4. I just hope that sony succeeds with these 2 things even more with the ps4 because with the games they gives us core fans, they deserve it. I might not be a stock holder or own any sony shares but as a core gamer i feel like sony has given us so much to be a happy owner of their system. I really am looking forward to the ps4.

[DOMination-]

I think it would be neat to have home more closely integrated into the ps4 os.

[Oschino1907]

From what I have already seen being talked about PS Home will be much bigger and more intergrated with PS4. I don't use it much but those that do love it for sooooooo many different reasons cause it offers so much and a majority of it is all free or very affordable. Also a great place for new players to meet others and launch games.

Not so sure on anything about PS+ yet but I would expect it to expand even more as Sony overall is intergrating all of it's entertainment divisions together under SEN.

[DOMination-]

Yeah, I have hardly any friends who own a PS3, but if I did, I think I would have used Home a lot more. It was a great idea by Phil Harrison and sadly it was not backed enough by the Japanese who thought online was never going to be important.

I would certainly like to see it expanded on next gen. Would be a tragedy if Sony abandoned it, which thankfully doesn't seem to be the case.

[GreenRanger]

I'd get PS+ if i had decent internet, but i don't.
My connection is crap.
I have tried different ISPs and they were all crap.
I think it might have something to do with the location of my house.

[Dixon]

tramp

[Sharius]

you know, even with trashy internet conection, the PS+ still worth every pennies you pay, i don;t think yours worth than mine, it take me more than 2 day to down load game like warriors orochi 3, ressident evil 6.... but i still enjoy my plus

[MasterCornholio]

I have a crap connection as well but that doesnt stop me from getting plus.

Because unlike XBOXlive plus is still useful even if you have a crappy internet connection. I can still take advantage of the automatic updates, cloud saves and the monthly catalog of games. I never play online due to my internet connection which is why i never had gold when i had my 360. However with plus its a different story.

[JD_Shadow]

If people buy it for special things knowing that primary functions of the PSN (like, I don't know, playing games online) remain free, then it's making them something, right?

What I want to know is why in the blue hell do we continue to give Patcher press? The guy is constantly wrong, yet he continues to be asked about things and is given spotlight after spotlight. What is game journalism's hard on for this guy about?

[yeahokchief]

i miss the old playstation store. the new one sucks.

[MrBeatdown]

I don't see why Sony or publishers wouldn't be making a profit.

Odds are Sony is basically just buying the games in bulk at massive discounts.

A ten dollar game would normally have to sell one million copies to bring in $10 million. Then Sony gets there cut of that.

Now, let's assume there are 10 million Plus subscribers. If Sony pays the publisher just 50 cents per PS+ subscriber to offer the game through Plus, that's an additional five million dollars the publisher sees, and the vast majority of it probably came from people who were never going to buy the game anyway. If Sony does that four or five times per month, that's about $2.50 per user out of the $4 or $5 Sony gets each month per subscriber.

The numbers are obviously just examples, but that's likely the way it works.

[BrianC6234]

I think US gamers are making it profitable. Europe gets some big games for free. We get some decent games but the big games are always old games. What's with these third party publishers giving Europe great free games and not US gamers? That's the big problem with PS Plus. Sony gets a lot of complaints from people on their blog over that but I say it's the third party publishers we should blame.

[talisker]

How about the idea thet PS+ in EU gets better content because more people subscribe to it? That's why Sony can get better deals because they have better figures to show publishers in negotiations.

Somebody mentioned Borderlands. I got it at first used, I didn't like it. When it got released in PS+, we gave it another try with friends just because everybody had it and then we discovered the beauty of co-op in this game. The result? Each of us got BL2 day 1 and then a season pass. 2K profited from us in a very good way and we profited getting about a 100 hours of great entertainment.

[xursz]

Agreed. More subs equals better content.

[BrianC6234]

Do you have numbers to back that up? There's a lot more gamers in the US so I doubt Europe has more subscribers.

[talisker]

No I don't. That's why I wrote it's an idea, not a fact. On the contrary, do you have numbers to back up your statment that there are more gamers in US than in EU?

[Hingle_Mcringleberry]

Can't be that profitable, they made like 40 million in profit during the holidays and Nintendo made 10 times more without a subscription service.

[tweet75]

it is profitable why? because most of the major games free or disconted on playstation plus fans have already bought before they went on sale. Sony knows this i believe.

[TemplarDante]

Im looking foward to 2/20, Patcher says next gen games are defined by
"Hyperealistic graphics" and "240Fps"

[DigitalSmoke]

Not this clown again...

[EffectO]

Sony is eating the cost,obviously.Third party developers are not a charity.