PS Plus doesn’t work exactly likeXbox Game Pass, despite being a very similar model. You pay a monthly fee and gain access to a library of games, but where Game Pass lets you try first-party titles on day one, PlayStation makes you wait. And while this has proven controversial, Sony says the strategy works.
“We’re happy with our strategy,” vice president and global head of subscriptions Nick Maguire said in an interview withGamesIndustry.biz. “Putting games in a bit later in the life cycle has meant that we can reach more customers 12, 18, 24 months after they have released.
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“We’re seeing customers still excited about those games and jumping in. For us, that’s working. Occasionally, there will be an opportunity to invest in a day-and-date likeStrayand we will jump on those when they come in. But for us, letting those [first-party] games go out to the platform outside the service first… that’s working and that will continue to be our strategy moving forward.”
There isn’t a clear timeframe for when new games will come to the service.PlayStation’s head of independent developer initiatives Shuhei Yoshida said, “We believe in the premium release of a title at launch and maybe six months, or three months, or three years, when the game’s sales come down, inclusion into this service, PS Plus Extra, can help introduce these games to new, broader audiences.”
Sony has also said in the past that it believes launching first-party games at no extra charge on PS Plus would break the “virtuous cycle” and reduce investment to studios, resulting in lower-quality games, which is why we’re seeing this alternate approach to Xbox. For comparison,Redfalllaunched on the service on day one, andStarfield is set to do the same this September.
Maguire also shed light on what has proven to be PS Plus' most popular model, revealing that, surprisingly, it’s the most expensive of the three - Premium.
“Premium has ended up being a bigger share of the base than Extra,” Maguire said. “We all thought that Extra would be where the majority of people went to first, but actually Premium has been more popular and bigger. That’s a pleasant surprise […] I don’t think anything has told us we need to change course.
“It’s now about finding how we add new features that players want, new games that people are asking us for that we don’t have, other benefits that they are asking for… how do we keep the service relevant, make it more valuable and bring more people in.”
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