PlayStation Takes On Xbox With New Subscription Service (bloomberg.com) 20
PlayStation's revamped version of its video game subscription service went live on Monday, giving members access to a catalog of several hundred games both new and old. From a report: PlayStation Plus, once code-named Spartacus, is Sony Group's attempt to compete with rival Microsoft's popular Xbox Game Pass as both publishers jockey to be the Netflix of video games. The new service combines Sony's previous subscription offerings into a three-tiered system. The most basic level, Essential, costs $10 a month and replaces the old PlayStation Plus, offering two downloadable games per month, a smattering of discounts and access to online multiplayer games. It's the top two tiers that are new for PlayStation users. The Extra tier, at $15 a month, offers a library of about four hundred PlayStation 4 and 5 games, while the $18 a month Premium level adds a few hundred classic games to the pool, mostly from the PlayStation 3. The service only has around thirty PS1, PS2 and PSP games, which has been a disappointment for retro gamers.
"Playable only on PlayStation 5" (Score:4, Informative)
The article doesn't bother mentioning what platforms this supports, but the answer appears to be that the new stuff is only on PS5, the console that might as well not exist because Sony still can't be bothered to sell it to anyone but scalpers, and Sony doesn't appear to actually care that no one can actually buy their product.
From what I can tell some parts do work on PS4, but if you don't already have a console, this service is worthless. Which makes some amount of sense, I suppose, except Xbox GamePass works on PC and mobile devices as well. This does not.
It also doesn't include new games, the only games available are ones that have been released for a while.
So it may be "taking on" Xbox GamePass but it's doing a really bad job of it.
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I have a 360 controller dongle on my potato and it comes in handy for certain activities in some games. Strange as it might seem, it's occasionally nice to pick up the controller. It's also nice to put it back down again and use the keyboard and mouse most of the time, though.
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The article doesn't bother mentioning what platforms this supports, but the answer appears to be that the new stuff is only on PS5, the console that might as well not exist because Sony still can't be bothered to sell it to anyone but scalpers, and Sony doesn't appear to actually care that no one can actually buy their product.
From what I can tell some parts do work on PS4, but if you don't already have a console, this service is worthless. Which makes some amount of sense, I suppose, except Xbox GamePass works on PC and mobile devices as well. This does not.
It also doesn't include new games, the only games available are ones that have been released for a while.
So it may be "taking on" Xbox GamePass but it's doing a really bad job of it.
Sony has sold 20 million Playstation 5s [gamesindustry.biz], and in this context scalpers can be ignored - they resell the PS5s as fast as they can, it's not like they hoard them. And it's not like Sony doesn't care about the scarcity, they are leaving a lot of money on the table - not just for the consoles, but also for accessories, games, and services. For comparison, Microsoft has sold about 5 million less of the XBox Seriex X [vgchartz.com].
That said, Xbox Gamepass seems like a much better deal since it includes first party games - incl
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Really? (Score:1)
Don't even know what to do with gaming anymore (Score:2)
But Sony, by releasing the new Gran Turismo to great reviews and then changing it through forced patches into pay-to-win, has destroyed my confidence in buying a game at all, since they might decide to ruin it at any time.
https://www.laptopmag.com/feat... [laptopmag.com]
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Yeah, there's a reason why I gave up after GT6 came out. The "always online" mentality of Sport turned me off big time. It's sad to see GT7 doesn't improve anything.
As the link you provided shows, my main beef with the new model of online/subscription gaming is that the developers reserve the right to change the game after you bought it, and you can't go back to the old version. Steam does pretty much the same thing now, and quite a few games I used to enjoy have effectively been gimped or otherwise ruin
Even if it were a great value, no thanks (Score:2)
After I bought a PS3 because they sold it as being able to play Ps2 games AND run Linux, they pulled the rug. Sure, I could still do those things with custom firmware, but that would opt me out of the general system, and built-in apps, which I also bought it for.
Later on, I was given a PS4. I pay for my Internet connection. I paid for Minecraft. I pay for a personal Minecraft server. But I cannot use my machine to connect through my Internet connection to a server that I own unless I give Sony a cut? I can
Lemme get this straight (Score:2)
They have a subscription service exclusive for a console that's basically unobtanium currently.
Yeah. That's gonna work out great.
Or is their train of thought that people willing to pay twice the retail price for a console will swallow anything anyway?
In other news (Score:2)
Playstation and Xbox take on consumers with thier subscription services