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Sony PlayStation (Games)

Sony To Unveil PlayStation Subscription as Soon as Next Week (bloomberg.com) 22

Posted by msmash from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.
Sony is preparing to introduce a new video game subscription service for the PlayStation as early as next week, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing people familiar with the plans. From the report: The service, which has been in development under the codename Spartacus, is Sony's answer to Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass, a sort of Netflix for video games that has amassed more than 25 million subscribers. Sony's will debut with a splashy lineup of hit games from recent years, said the people, who requested anonymity because the plans are private. Sony's new service will combine two of its current offerings, PlayStation Now and PlayStation Plus. Customers will be able to choose from multiple tiers offering catalogs of modern games and classics from older PlayStation eras.
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Sony To Unveil PlayStation Subscription as Soon as Next Week More

Sony To Unveil PlayStation Subscription as Soon as Next Week

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  • I'm going to pirate it all anyway because I'm entitled to whatever entertainment I want for free!
    • No different than the current status quo as owners of Gran Turismo 7 found out recently when Sony's DRM servers took a shit and people couldn't play the single player game they'd bought and paid for for over a day.

    • So, games are now falling under the category of streaming services. Let's stop pretending society didn't welcome that.

      Is it really rent seeking, or merely Capitalism responding to yet another shift in demand? Society hasn't bought the full CD in decades. They were buying entertainment 99 cents at a time long before that turned into an unlimited per-month service.

      No surprise other forms of entertainment followed. Sometimes Capitalism isn't nefarious; it's just going where the demand is.

    • How often do you really go back and play games from 5 or 10 years ago? If never, then leasing your games is probably a good option as owning would provide no additional value to you (assuming the monthly fee vs. your purchase budget is similar).

    • pay pay pay...
      pay pay pay...
      pay pay pay...

    • Don't own, just pay.

      We used to rent NES/SNES/Sega cartridges in BFE back before most people had a computer or Internet. I suppose that continued all through N64, PlayStation probably ending with the GameCube, PS2/Xbox generation before all the video rental places shut down for good?

      Anyone who grew up with rentals isn't like thank god that's over, I hated trying a new game for a weekend to see if I like it instead of dropping all my birthday money at once or a dinner for four and then testing the store return policy if I didn'

  • This has been leaked a while ago. Unless it's cheaper than a Gamepass subscription it's still going to be poor value as Microsoft put all their first party titles on Gamepass on day of release and sometimes before general release and there's no sign that Sony will be. Also with Gamepass the older generation titles can be downloaded and run locally whereas that's just not an option for PS3 titles on the PS4/PS5 so you get Sony's less than stellar cloud gaming.

  • Sony's new service will combine two of its current offerings, PlayStation Now and PlayStation Plus.

    I actually don't care much about a game subscription, I'm happy to see Sony simplify service offerings. It's kind of confusing at the moment.

    Currently I subscribe to Plus only and I enjoy the free games they have month, but mainly I like it for the game save backup feature.

    So I'll probably end up paying a bit more for this new subscription just to continue that aspect of the service, without taking much advan

    • I'm kind of at the other end of the spectrum. I'm old and research my game choices before I buy. While I understand the "try before you by" approach, that's never really appealed to me. Why invest bandwidth/space/time with something that you ultimately abandon? So, it's no surprise that I don't care about PS Now nor PS Plus (nor even the save data backup "feature" - don't get me started on that!). Nothing either of these have ever offered interested me in the slightest, or if it did I almost always ha

      • Why invest bandwidth/space/time with something that you ultimately abandon?

        Yeah I don't do this often and totally agree with you about not wanting to waste much time, but some games I just want to see a sampling of what they look like visually... Godfall was one of those I found fun to try for a little while in a free version just to enjoy the art, but I would never have bought the full game.

        There's also a more practical matter, some games made by smaller studios have a real risk of making me sick when pl

        • I've seen how FPS motion-sickness affects people, so completely agree that, in your case, being able to test-drive the game is an advantage. My main point was that combining all services into one big subscription is likely going to be too expensive for someone like me who just doesn't want 95% of what it offers. If I get forced into moving to this new sub model (at a higher rate) I'll likely have to drop it, because it's just not worth the money to me. If Sony were smart (wishful thinking, I know!) they

          • If I get forced into moving to this new sub model (at a higher rate) I'll likely have to drop it

            I can see that might happen but for me, whatever Sony charges I will pay because PlaystionPlus once recovered 60+ hours of gameplay in a cloud backup of the save game, so I am really reluctant to go without that service.

            The price would have to be really high to kick me out, I am guessing because of MS pricing it will be just a bit more than PS Plus is today.

            Yeah you can do manual backups but I just don't have the

            • So, I just got the email telling me about the new service. Here's what it said:

              We want to let you know that the PlayStation Plus service is changing.
              PlayStation Plus will soon evolve into a new service, offering members greater choice with an exciting new range of benefits.
              What this means for you:
              Your membership will au

              • Yep there is also a whole story on Slashdot now, I only care about cloud storage myself but I feel like $10/month is pretty reasonable for that, plus a few free games per month - it's the same price PS Plus is today, with one less free game per month which I hardly used anyway. I do use multiplayer sometimes as well, though not very frequently. So I'll not be paying any more than I was, sounds good to me.

                I am just happy they still have a low tier like this at all, if you don't care about getting extra gam

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • I think this may be probably never. Sony seems to want PS5s to be valued, so underselling is a viable market tactic. This ensures people will get some cognitive dissonance, and thus "value" the platform... which means they will be happy to pay for monthly subscriptions, just because they paid 2-3x the price for the console.

  • According to the published numbers *everybody wins*. At least for the game pass. At least in the recent times...

    Yes, I know "embrace, ..., extinguish". Microsoft is prone to doing that. And one team making good can be broken by another... Yet...

    The model is viable. Gamers play about 3x more games, but pay something like 30% more. So, yes, on average games get cheaper, but they make more money overall.

    (There was a presentation the other day with more details).

    Can Sony achieve similar results? Who knows. But

  • I will never finish all the games I already own. Why should I add to that list with games I'm paying just a couple dollars to "rent"?

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