Xbox Game Pass vs PlayStation Plus
In recent years, video comparisons of various versions of Xbox, PlayStation, and PC games have taken hold on YouTube. Often they are very useful, showing those who have more platforms on which a particular title runs best at launch, but it is the first time that a real comparison between services has arrived.Published by YouTube channel ElAnalistaDeBits, which has already dealt with various comparisons and tests for games in the past, the video is a comparison between Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PlayStation Plus Premium. A comparison that is perhaps not so necessary: both services, in fact, are very different from each other, both in terms of advantages and characteristics. On the purely technical side, therefore, it doesn't make much sense, but instead becomes useful as a buying guide.| ); }
PlayStation Plus Premium premiered on June 23, 2022 in Europe. Xbox Game Pass has been available since 2017 and the Ultimate tier has expanded over the years, also including Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Cloud Gaming, which allows everyone to be able to play without having a console but using a smartphone or a PC. all thanks to streaming. Keep following geekinco for all the news and announcements in the pipeline from the world of video games.
Can PlayStation Plus Keep Up With Xbox Game Pass?
In June 2017, Xbox Game Pass was released, revolutionising the way we consume our games with its subscription-based model – the ‘Netflix of Gaming’ was an apt description. 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. Now, with Sony and Microsoft both making their console libraries available to us for a reasonable monthly fee, it is time to compare and contrast.
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!). While Sony has a longer backlog of consoles and games to make available on its service, Day One first-party games are still the big trump card that Microsoft has over Sony. Don’t get me wrong: I love playing older games and rekindling memories of my childhood, but if you are Sony and charging $3 more than Microsoft at $18 for ‘full access’ and the ‘full experience,’ you have to have Day One releases on there too. This may yet happen, but the lack of announcements on it makes me skeptical.
DUALSHOCKERS VIDEO OF THE DAYAt 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. Now is not the time for Sony to rest on its back catalog and hope that those alone can bring in new subscribers. PlayStation Plus currently feels lacking when compared to Game Pass. We may not have a release date for God of War: Ragnarok yet, but even so Sony should’ve confirmed that it’ll be coming to the company’s subscription service at launch – it’d have been a great statement of intent. It’s one of the most anticipated titles for the PS5, but not making it available on your subscription service is a serious disservice.
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; chucking Horizon: Forbidden West on there, for example, would’ve been a great start (instead, all we get is a trial).
I’d rather pay $18 a month and play God of War: Ragnarok as part of a subscription rather than pay $70 for the game by itself. With inflation as high as it is and things costing more you have to be conscious of where and how people are going to be spending the bulk of their money – not having them pay $70 for something goes a long way, both financially and by securing a longtime customer.
In the end, Sony’s decision to not put day one games on its service comes down to one thing: money. It’s not exactly greed, because the bottom line is that Sony does not have the cash flow Microsoft does. I think PlayStation Plus can compete with Game Pass, but Microsoft’s net worth at the time of this article is $456 billion, Sony’s is only $135 billion, and their total amount of assets is $260 billion. Microsoft can afford to lose money on sales and on Game Pass because they are a software company (hello, Windows) and will always be raking in more cash than Scrooge McDuck’s vault could hold.
Microsoft can afford to make Starfield a Day One release on Game Pass. They can spend billions acquiring studios and take a loss in physical and digital game sales. Sony cannot do that, but at least in the short term it feels like a sacrifice has to be made. So what is it going to be? God of War: Ragnarok, Marvel’s Spiderman 2, Wolverine, all three? The man who can make that decision is PlayStation CEO, Jim Ryan.
Right now, Sony is like a victim in one of the Saw movies: they want to get in on and expand their reach in the streaming and subscription markets, but in order to do so they must give up something of value. This is not a live-or-die scenario, this is a do-you-want-to-be-battling-for-first-or-second-place scenario. That is the choice Jim Ryan and the folks over at PlayStation and Sony have to make. Sure, Playstation Plus can just have older games and add current-gen titles a year or so after, but again that devalues the potential of the service, especially next to its big green rival.
Can PlayStation Plus compete and keep up with Game Pass? Unless Ryan and company add day one releases for console exclusives, I doubt it.