Can PlayStation Plus Keep Up With Xbox Game Pass?

Maybe, but Day One sacrifices will have to be made.

[PhoenixUp]

"With the creation of Game Pass, it was only a matter of time until Sony got into the arena, and now it’s done so with its totally revamped version of PlayStation Plus"

Sony has been doing game subscription services since 2014

[peppeaccardo]

XGP is the excuse MS is using to sell consoles given that they do not have one exclusive game worth playing on theirt hardware. XGP is mainly a collection of crossplatform games already playable on PC. All smoke and mirrors as most of the capitalistic american corporations.

[sparky77]

"XGP is mainly a collection of crossplatform games already playable on PC"

That's exactly the same thing as Sony though. Exclusives are a thing of the past every game is at least on PC as well Sony has already confirmed that.

[gamer7804]

I don’t think you live in reality. It’s a feature to sell consoles of course. Exclusives will come but they are behind schedule.

Then you take a hard left turn on to crazy lane saying American companies are capitalistic insinuating it’s a bad thing that companies desire to make money….

[headshotfrosty]

Excuse? Lol A good thing is a good thing. You can’t deny GP benefits and value. Just not possible with so many day ones and other non exclusive titles. Several are actually Sony built games too!! Denial is a strong cocktail

[Aloymetal]

These biased journos don't even know they're playing with fire, imagine for a second that Sony releases all their old and new arsenal of 1st party-award-winning-goty-conte nder titles 1st day in their service (never gonna happen) there won't be any competition at all, that will embarrass xbox/gamepass even more.
They need to be careful what they wish for, let that beast alone lol.

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

I would not trade Sony’s AAA lineup for XGP, ever, but I can see why others might: $15 a month never offered so much access to games.

But, for people willing to pay $70 for a great game, Sony offers MORE. It’ll just cost ya more than $15/month to enjoy all of it.

I’ll happily pay more to own “great” games instead of subscribe monthly to a revolving pool of ~100 “good” games.

It’s a quality vs quantity competition, and I and many Ps5 owners chose the former over the latter. Any XsX owner who thinks THEY chose the former as well is not an informed consumer. Enjoy GotG and Hades for $15/month, I’m gonna continue playing Returnal for the 15th month in a row (it would’ve cost me $225 to have been playing it since day 1, so I’m glad I just dropped $70 on it Day 1).

[Exthun]

https://www.metacritic.com/...

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

@exthun M$ is rated there across only 5 distinct titles, while Sony is rated across 10. And 2 of those 5 M$ games are racing and flight sim games. I know they are great for their genre, but I have zero interest on their genre as a whole, personally.

So, for me as a consumer, Sony had a better 2021 for game releases. They had double the amount of distinct titles, and, just looking at the games I care about, Sony has better games FOR ME. If you want a racing and flying game, then sure PC or the XsX should’ve been the default platform for you for 2021.

[onisama]

One exclsuive!? Forza horizon 5? Psychornaut 2? Halo infinite ?

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

@onisama

All 3 of those games can be played on last gen consoles, and PC.

All 3 are NOT exclusive games to XsX. Starfield will be the first exclusive for the $500 console, one full year from now, and 2.5 years after initial launch of the premium hardware.

[wiz7191]

Say what you want about the exclusives they definitely need to show up in that regard , but to downplay XGP value is pure fanboy hate. You obviously don’t have a subscription because you would know they have exclusives for both platforms , as far as XGP games. If it was all smoke and mirrors Sony wouldn’t be trying to emulate the same service. There are plenty of AAA games on the service , games I wanted to try o can rush free. I can even purchase the game if I want to show support with all DLCs for a discounted price.

[CrimsonWing69]

I think Xbox Live was the first subscription service…

[CrimsonWing69]

@cluclap

Who was the first to do game subscriptions?

[shinoff2183]

Nope ps now was 2014 and gamepass 2017 i believe. You can look it up

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

Maybe? It did change the landscape.

[CrimsonWing69]

@shinoff2183

Apparently, we’re both wrong.

Took your advice and looked it up:

https://sea.ign.com/netflix...

Mattel’s Intellivision console in 1980 and after that Nintendo (Satellaview) and Sega (Sega Channel). Dreamcast being the more comparable to what we see now.

Eh, the more you know.

[Soulrakk]

And supported it like a red-headed stepchild.

Sony's lack of vision allowed Xbox to surpass them tenfold when it comes to subscription services.
To the point where they had to completely revamp & rethink their services.

[Army_of_Darkness]

Yeah, what was Sony thinking into focusing more on actual video games?! Then to finding ways of keeping their customers locked into a subscription service for continuous cash flow...

[Silver-Noise-X]

You are so funny

[DOMination-]

Sony paid 400m for Gaikai which turned into PSNow so I'd say they focused on it a lot before it launched. Then dropped it like Move, Eye, PSVR, Home and the ability to move tiles around on the homescreen

[ApocalypseShadow]

Dom, PSVR works on PS5. PS Move works on PS5 either with PSVR or games like House of the Dead on PS4; a flat game. PS Move is still being used over a decade later. PSVR and PS Move don't work without a camera. PS Camera is the evolution of PS Eye. PS Now is Gaikai and is a part of their new service with a new name. Home is the only thing you mentioned that was discontinued and not on PS4 or PS5. But there might be a version of Home type interaction with PS VR 2.

You just lied multiple times. And soul above doesn't know what they are talking about as well.

[DOMination-]

Those accessories may still be around but Sony stopped supporting them very quickly. How many PSVR games did Sony develop after the first year? How many Move or Eye games did they develop 12 months on?

They launched those projects and dropped them pretty quickly. Vita is another one.

[itsmebryan]

@Phoenix

Sony doesn't offer games day 1, until it doesn't it's comparing apples to oranges. PS+ is a paid BC service with all old games that you may have played before. I don't understand why the didn't add day 1 games to PS+.

[ShadowWolf712]

Maybe if you ask them nicely they'll explain it yet again for the fifteenth time.

[ApocalypseShadow]

Keep beating that dead horse. It's bound to show signs of life and get up off the ground. Right?

Either that or make slow cooked bratwurst with it.

[Eonjay]

Just start adding reports. These are all dead horse topics.

[Terry_B]

Dualshockers is such a lousy site now. Is anyone from 2019 and before even still writing there?

[neutralgamer1992]

You can't be serious. I know all media gets paid to write stuff but Ms must be writing some heft checks for all this fluff pieces they been getting lately

As someone who has been a GPU user and has years of subscription already signed up this is just complete and utter nonsense

We need xbox360 era MS that went toe to toe with PlayStation and that's why many consider it one of the best generations in gaming. Even as a exclusive Xbox owner(will get a PS5 later) GPU so far has been filled with 3rd party games and bunch of backwards compatible games. I just finished gears of war ultimate and started the 2nd. After this series I plan to play through halo franchise and fable. But I also own all those games and didn't need GPU to play them

Real value will only come when Xbox is delivering high quality exclusives because only than will Sony really feel any heat. So far this generation Sony has run circles around Xbox when it comes to AAA exclusives. I bought XSX for starfield and now that's delayed, I tried playing halo infinite MP and that feels so soul-less and empty and those micro transactions are right up in your face

Talking about being gamer friendly is one thing but over the past 10 years that's all Phil has done is talk. And he is praised non stop on social media like he saved Xbox or something. To me don matrick was the best Xbox head so far because under him Xbox brand did well and he made sure there were high quality exclusives

No one will have an issue with GOW being $70 because that's 40+ hours off high quality content while the best thing we may get this holiday season is death loop and a gears of war collection

This is an opinion of a long time Xbox fan, I originally bought Xbox over PS2 and now I have XSX before PS5

If there was no supply chain issues PS5 would be 8-10 million ahead of XSX and this generation and market share would have been over and done with. PlayStation knew from day one they need must have games and this is something Ms and Phil just figured out 4th home console in the business. Simply buying studios won't help because Ms have a track record of ruining studios

343I were given 5 plus years and more budget-resources than they needed yet it's a halo game still missing key features

[Viljong]

343 made halo 4 which is better than previous halos ever made and infinite is no worse but evolved to better

[neutralgamer1992]

You are the first person I have seen praise halo 4. That's your opinion but most agree some of the best games were made under Bungie

[shinoff2183]

The 360 went toe to toe with ps3 because the year head start and 600 dollar price. At the time ps3 was loaded. Released same time and a lower price ms wouldve been mopped

[neutralgamer1992]

That's true but you did have great exclusives and blockbuster announcements

Bioshock
Original mass effect
Original saints row
Splinter cell

Launched exclusively on Xbox 360

[wiz7191]

The 360 was an amazing console , so no it wouldn’t had got mopped. It was more developer friendly and had a better online service. The only thing that really held the 360 back was the fact they used DVD media for storage. That lack of disc space was it’s Achilles heel we could of seen first party games with better graphics fidelity. It just took a load of space which just wasn’t fitting on a DVD-ROM

[Pyrofire95]

1. It's not trying to be.
2. It's still in it's infantcy. I think it'll get much better even within a couple of months and greatly in a few years.

[boing1]

Give it time and it will surpass it. Deals will be made.

[crazyCoconuts]

If you believe that GP is not sustainable in it's current form (like I do), then Sony would have to make their service unsustainable as well in order to surpass it. I don't think they'll do that. I don't think they want to get into the race to the bottom, though MS is definitely pushing them there.

[FallenAngel1984]

“While both do offer access to older games, there is one major hurdle Sony still has to get over outside of its multiple price tiers (for God’s sake, guys, let’s just have one tier and make life simpler for everyone)”

Nearly every subscription service has numerous tiers, including Game Pass with which you seem so fond of praising. Seems like an unnecessary dig if three tiers is somehow so incomprehensible to understand.

“but if you are Sony and charging $3 more than Microsoft at $18 for ‘full access’ and the ‘full experience,”

How convenient to only bring up the monthly price but not the annual price.

“At the end of 2021, Microsoft put Halo Infinite up on Game Pass at launch and that right there was them throwing all of their chips in.”

It was also Microsoft throwing out an unfinished product of their flagship series, undoubtedly under the belief that as long as it’s on Game Pass people will add a title like that to their list wars. Not saying all Day 1 GP titles are like that, but Halo Infinite is not the title to be singing the virtues of GP.

“If Sony’s main focus is to build up a reputable subscriber base and lure people in with more than just nostalgia, there should be one or two exclusive titles a year at least”

I weep for people who disregard the 800+ titles already on the service. Plus Sony is releasing Stray on PS+ Day one but I bet that will go unnoticed by authors like this

[Spartacus10]

Because when you pay annually, you pay for months even when you dont like the new additions to the service and you arent playing any other games on the service at that time.

Dont believe the shills when they say people with subscriptions dont buy and play other games because we still buy and play other games and during that time we dont want to be paying a subscription that we're not making use of.

Pay monthly is a far superior option. Sony need to be a bit more reasonable in their monthly pricing.

[GamingSinceForever]

You already have to pay $60 per year (PS Plus Essential) to play online, so for $30 more you get Extra.

Not knocking anyone but you’d have to be extremely cheap or broke to pay for the month or months with the game you want to play. Even still you’d be on the clock to finish the game before your month is up.

[andy85]

Paying monthly is dumb as hell in my opinion. The original PS plus was £7 a month but if you wait until deal day you're getting 12 months for around £20. Even if you get a few bad months you'd need 9 of them equate to that. And thats without having access to the other services for 9 months.

[darthv72]

To be fair, Stray is not a 1st party game. It is a 3rd party game and isnt even the first day 1 3rd party game offered in PS+. No offense but there are far more day 1 releases on GP than there is on PS+.

As for the 800+ other games, I own over 470 of them between PS1/2/3/PSP so I wont pay extra for games i already own. i will just play my originals on PS3 and stick to + Essential for now but as they add more newer gen games i may consider switching. On GP I only play games i dont already own and if i like them... i will buy them. That's just me though.

[kryteris]

Paying yearly for the deep discount is the only advantage. Can't do that on Xbox.

[Spartacus10]

Yeah only if you actually use it. But if you buy other games throughout the year and spend months playing those, you've paid for 12 months but used far fewer than that which means you would have been better of with a monthly sub.

An annual sub is effectively a lootbox where you dont really know which games you've paid for or will like, and thats why its cheaper. You're locked in even if you dont like it or you dont use it.

[GamingSinceForever]

Essentially you are right but we’re talking $10/mo max. You’re being difficult for the sake of being annoying here. 😂

[S2Killinit]

Its beating it in my opinion.

[jznrpg]

Zzzzzzz

[rlow1]

At the end of the day…. Who cares?

[Bathyj]

Game pass only exists because Microsoft can't keep up with Sony.

[Brazz]

You see... Imho, day 1 releases is the only advantage of gamepass. Aside from Day 1, PS+ is a much better deal, cheaper, more games, better exclusives. This can change, but ATM PS+ is just better when there's no big "day 1 AAA" on Xbox side.

[ocelot07]

In all honesty. All Sony need to do is improve the PS1,2,PSP collection and a better menu system to orginise games on the PS+ menu. Like sort by PS5 games and sort by PSP games.

I know they are adding Stray day one. But for the sake of future first party IP's I hope they never add the big hitters. If 3rd party Devs or indie titles want to throw their games on their day one then fine.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Sony has an insane library of games, just filling out that catalogue of PS1/PS2/PSP games would be devastating, I really hope they lets us buy/download some of those classics to keep forever, there's alot of games I missed the first time that I would shell out for.

[darthv72]

Stray isnt 1st party, it is 3rd party.

[PapaBop]

I don't see either as a deal breaker. I have Game Pass on PC and certainly happy with the value it provides but ultimately it wouldn't be my deciding factor in buying a console. Dual Sense and soon PSVR 2 are both game changers and will be reason why I buy a PS5 this year, the fact there is a huge gaping gap the size of Paris Hilton's *beep* between the quality in PS exclusives over Xbox ones makes the difference too.

[Father__Merrin]

Pathetic articles. Plus membership is absolutely collosal and growing. The new tiers gives you a good deal

[Silly gameAr]

What's up with the PS sites on N4G writing click bait so much now? Do they not have any integrity or pride in their hobby anymore?

[ChasterMies]

Day one sacrifices do not have to be made. It’s cool to know the game you are playing was just released, but that’s now the draw of these services. What is the draw? The hundreds of games! It is nice to get in on the ground floor of a multiplayer game, but the the most popular of those have been going free-to-play anyway.

[ichdich]

No , The new PS PLUS sucks.

[kindi_boy]

XGP has relatively newer games, & day one releases & M$ exclusives. PPE has old games that everyone played already.

[BlackTar187]

Lol

[obidanshinobi]

It doesn't need to.
PS has much better exclusives that are released in a timely fashion.
My Series X has been gathering dust since I got a PS5 and Switch OLED.

Seriously MS, where are the exclusives?
It's always "wait until next year, wait until next year". Feels like MS have been saying that for the past 3 years.
Well I'm tired of waiting Phil.
When are they ever going to arrive?
Fable, announced in 2018, surely we should've seen something substantial by now.
Forza MS, now 2023 release but really should've been late 2022 if they were half way competent.
Perfect Dark, announced in 2020, would've only gone into production this year with Crystal Dynamics taking charge. So nothing has happened in the 1 - 2 years since announcement. What the F have The Initiative been doing for over a year? Seems like they lack initiative.

MS can't manage an exclusive Xbox project to save their lives.
Look at the Crackdown 3 mess, or Recore and State of Decay 2 which should've had a lot more investment to up their quality but were released as if they were budget AA games.
They don't know what they're doing. Sony don't have to worry at all. MS just can't compete with Sony's quality first and third party exclusives.

And the last 2 MS exclusive games came out on the PS5 and PC only - Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo, it's ridiculous, you couldn't make it up. Timed, but still.

Matt Booty, head of Xbox Games Studios, needs to get the boot.

[GamingSinceForever]

MS doesn’t get credit for Deathloop and Ghostwire because those were already made prior to the acquisition.

[obidanshinobi]

Not to mention the Halo Infinite mess.
How can a game released 6 years after the previous one, with well over 500 people working on it, not be fully finished on release?
What the F were they doing for 6 years.
SIX YEARS !!!!
Possibly up to 1000 people working on it if you include contractors and support studios.
SIX YEARS !!!! for that unfinished, shallow, one or two environments in the campaign mess.
How is this incompetence even possible when you have so much resources and time at your disposal?

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

You really have to wonder, there must have been some spectacular mis-management there to get the final product we got (multi-player is still kinda borked).

[TheTony316]

No matter how many studios they own, they're just incapable of releasing (good) games in a timely manner. They only have Forza and maybe Gears. Everything else is mediocre at best, even Halo got to this point.

[Hikoran]

Gamepass unfortunately is all Xbox really has. The fact that PS' is even comparable to Xbox's is trouble for Xbox because PS have great exclusives and now a pretty great subscription service too.

[Ninver]

Can xbox keep up with Sony AAA exclusives?

[moriarty1889]

It doesn’t have to. Two different services each good in their own way.

[ooquis]

MS invested Billions to convince people that subscriptions are the future. Sony didn't spent a penny on marketing for their subscription service, thats gangster right there.

[Viljong]

No it cant unless sony start putting its exclusive gotys in it day one. Now it have great exclusives but those who have ps5 have played those ages ago.

[Father__Merrin]

Gamepass is an indie, AA game dumping service. It works if utilised properly eg always wanted NG3 finishes it with pc trainer.

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

It doesn’t need to.

Can Xbox game development keep up with Sony’s output?

Ps5 exclusives:
Demon Souls
Returnal
R&C

XsX exclusives:
Coming in 2023, 2.5 years after the console launched, almost half of the generation…. Remind you of any other consoles? ARE they coming, Phil?

[gold_drake]

same question, same conclusion, different website.

rinse and repeat.

[Silver-Noise-X]

Xbox Gamepass is Microsoft's lame excuse to stay relative with all the lack lustre first party line up. Without gamepass microsoft wouldn't be around till this day , it is what makes the Xbox slightly relative , it almost feels like Microsoft is bribing people to stay on their platform

[anast]

I've noticed a trend: hail subpar entertainment models.

[TheTony316]

It doesn't need to since games are actually selling on PS :D

[darkrider]

Nope. That kind of subscription model isn't sustainable. Sony gamers buy games. That's the big diference. You cant lose hundreds of millions, even a billions by putting a triple AAA game day one on a subscription with low numbers of subcribers. GP was launched at 2017 we are at 2022 they say they got 25 millions or at same time got 25 millions. That's a very low number for something that you can get almost for free. The moment they increase the price...

[EvertonFC]

"Can PlayStation Plus Keep Up With Xbox Game Pass?"
It already has surpassed it, at least PS plus actually has lots of AAA unlike GP.

[WheatBread]

No.

[andy85]

Honestly from trying it out the new service I'm pleasantly surprised, they overdelivered on what they said, Stray is day one in a couple of weeks and I've downloaded about 15 games that were in my wishlist to buy one day that are now included. Given its only week one (in the UK) its a very good start. Obviously there won't be many day one games but at the price point I don't expect there to be, it seems very good value to me.

[northpaws]

Can XBox Studios' games ever reach PS's quality?

[headshotfrosty]

All kinds of goofy on this thread. Like Xbox=bad like Sony=good. I think some of you have some serious mental problems. The blind loyalty, can do no wrong, attitude is so transparent it’s laughable.

[mastershredder]

Yaaaaaawn.

[Truplaya]

Not seen one person mention that with ms rewards gamepass is basically free. Can’t beat that in my opinion. Had gamepass for free since launch and in that time only bought 4 games. Played hundreds for free.
And for those saying it’s all mediocre games, for me Doom Eternal, Gears5, Halo infinite, no way out, hitman collection, forza, are all some of the best games of recent years. They’re worth it alone. Yes PS has some amazing games too but for me it’s not worth the £100s of extra I’d have to spend

[SonyStyled]

You don’t think it could be bad for the gaming industry or quality of games if you’ve only supported a developer 4 times since 2017? I know you’re not everybody but 4% purchases doesn’t sound the most sustainable

[Spartacus10]

Nothing is sustainable in life. You take a good deal when theres a good deal going.

[YourMommySpoils]

More like can subscriptions keep up with gamers..Better off buying games I like.

[John_McClane]

No

[Smellsforfree]

The Day One on these titles really does make the difference for me on why I subscribe to Game Pass but not to PS Plus (yes I have both consoles). By the time PS Plus gets the game I'm interested in, I've already purchased it. All of the PS Plus games that I'm at all interested in, I already own. That's a problem.

[headshotfrosty]

Thanks for being honest. Both are cool but GP has some added benefits. The world will be all digital in 10 years. They are prepping us for where we all eventually want to go. More flexibility, control, portability, power, and options all at a reasonable price.

[purple101]

Day one , day two, day 3025 Still no good games

[Harryvok]

Big games I personally want to play coming to these services day one is what would make them valuable to me. There's no point a game like Guardians of the Galaxy coming to a service months after I've bought and played it, it doesn't add value to the service at all in terms of how I play games. It's why I've cancelled Game Pass and won't upgrade my PS+ for now.

Xbox getting first party games day one is cool, but if they aren't games I actually want to play (I have no interest in Forza or Halo or anything from Activision), then the service is still of no use to me. In a couple years when Xbox finally have a decent, regular output of games, maybe then Game Pass will be worth my money. And unless PS+ either starts having day one first party games or secures deals for third party AAA games day one, that service won't be for me either.

[GamingSinceForever]

GamePass is a no brainer imo. Why would you not have the service if you have an XBox? I mean really why not? The day one games is an excellent selling point. Whether or not the games are good is debatable but at least you have the option to see for yourself without spending a lot.

As for PS Plus for me it isn’t a must have but since it is a few dollars more than what I have already been paying for PS Plus it’s no biggie. I figure I will find at least a few gems to play here and there. If Sony offered online separate from Plus then I’d probably pass.

However Sony doesn’t need a subscription service to be successful. It is just an extra. For MS it is essential.

[poppatron]

What a boring and redundant played out argument.

As consumers we’re all winning, who cares about which one is better. It’s Pretty subjective really isn’t it?

As gamepass user for 12 months now, when I first got it I loved it, now though I’ve played all the games I wanted to play and there’s not much I’ve been into coming out on it this year.

I considered upgrading my ps plus to play demon souls and death Stranding but have held off for now, don’t think it makes sense to me to subscribe to both. But almost certainly will upgrade to psplus extra when the time is right.

I do think however that at times these services will both be fantastic, but it all comes down to content, and that really boils down to personal taste doesn’t it.

There’s no question of the value both services offer though. So stop wasting your time arguing.

You’re boring

[SeTTriP]

The real question should be why does it have to?