A major PlayStation Plus overhaul has been announced, with this PS Plus Premium service set to feature “700+ games and more value than ever,” according to Sony. However, unlike the Xbox Game Pass service, this won’t include major first-party games being pushed to the service on day one.
Why does PS Plus premium not have day one first-party games?
This “all-new” PS Plus will boast many benefits for subscribers, though those won’t include first-party releases making their way to the PS5 and PS4 on their release dates. This means that upcoming games like God of War Ragnarok and Forspoken will be retail releases first and foremost.
Sony says that its decision to not follow in Microsoft and Xbox’s path is due to such a move leading to less investment in its first-party games. Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan explained how day one first-party games on the new PS Plus would be problematic:
[In terms of] putting our own games into this service, or any of our services, upon their release… as you well know, this is not a road that we’ve gone down in the past. And it’s not a road that we’re going to go down with this new service. We feel if we were to do that with the games that we make at PlayStation Studios, that virtuous cycle will be broken. The level of investment that we need to make in our studios would not be possible, and we think the knock-on effect on the quality of the games that we make would not be something that gamers want.
However, Ryan also added that the gaming industry moves quickly, meaning that this position could be subject to change in the future.
With the new PS Plus lacking the Xbox’s level of day one releases, it remains to be seen what Sony aims to provide that will make the service stand out in the market. With its PS Plus Premium tier costing $17.99 monthly compared to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate’s $14.99, PS5 and PS4 owners will be hoping that the 700+ games offered will provide more quality than quantity, especially with the absence of first-party games on their release day.
In other news, the PS Plus games for April 2022 have been leaked. It has also been revealed that PSVR 2 is much faster than its previous incarnation.
