PlayStation not planning to imitate Xbox Game Pass strategy

Sony isn’t currently planning to imitate Xbox’s Game Pass strategy, which sees Microsoft release all first-party games on its subscription service at launch.

While Xbox Game Pass subscribers receive access to titles like Gears 5 on the day of their release, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan says PlayStation is taking a different approach to its treatment of leading first-party games.

New AAA releases from PlayStation studios like next year’s The Last of Us Part 2 will take longer to show up on Sony’s own subscription service, PlayStation Now, he told GamesIndustry.biz.

“It’s an area that is fast changing and fluid,” Ryan said. “The nature and scale of some of the first-party games that we are making leads us to think that, right now, it’s better to spend energy on making sure that the launch of those games is a massive entertainment event. I would cite God of War and Spider-Man, and The Last of Us 2 next year will fall into that category. That’s where we stand right now.

“But our stance on the inclusion of first-party games in PlayStation Now in terms of what we’ve done this month is very different to our stance 12 months ago,” he continued.

“I don’t want to say this is what PlayStation Now is going to be like forever. But certainly right now, given how some of our first party IP is incredibly special and valuable, we just want to treat them with amazing care and respect, and have those launches be clean and pure.”

Sony slashed PlayStation Now prices in early October in a bid to be more competitive with rival streaming services.

It also started adding “blockbuster” games to the PlayStation Now catalogue, available for a limited time, beginning with God of War, Grand Theft Auto V, Infamous Second Son and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.

November’s limited time additions to the PlayStation Now line-up include Persona 5 and Middle-Earth: Shadow of War.

PlayStation Now reached one million subscribers in October 2019, up over 40% since April, when the service had 700,000 paying members.