PlayStation believes it would need to reduce the quality and budgets in order to release AAA exclusives on its tiered PlayStation Plus service. Xbox Game Pass has been a major game-changer for the industry in recent years. The subscription service gives players access to hundreds of games at no extra cost and automatically allows users to play Xbox exclusives like Halo, Starfield, and many more on day one without outright purchasing the game. It’s a heck of a deal and left many to wonder if PlayStation would ever make something that could rival it. Earlier this year, Sony announced a new tiered version of PlayStation Plus which does offer a library of games from many generations of PlayStation consoles, but it will not feature day one releases.
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Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki stated during an investors call (via @Genki_JPN) that he believes PlayStation would have to reduce its investment in AAA games in order to justify offering them as day one titles on PlayStation Plus. Totoki notes that he believes this would also “deteriorate” the quality of PlayStation’s first party offerings, something the brand prides itself on. Former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden responded in agreement to a tweet with the quote. Layden has previously stated that he believes video game budgets are becoming unsustainable and expressed skepticism over the Xbox Game Pass model himself.
“I will refrain from making comments on the competitors’ strategy,” said Totoki. “Our current thinking is to have development costs/appropriate R&D investment for quality products and that will improve the platform and also improve the business in the long run. AAA type titles on PS5, if we distribute that on the subscription services we may need to shrink the investment needed for that and that will deteriorate the 1st party title quality and that is our concern. So we want to make sure we spend the appropriate development costs to have solid products/titles to be introduced in the right manner.”
With that said, unless the cost of game development significantly changes, PlayStation users probably shouldn’t expect day one titles on a service like PlayStation Plus. Xbox has been coy with its Xbox Game Pass stats, so it’s hard to tell how worth it has been for them on a financial level, but the company has continued to expand on the service.
What do you think about PlayStation’s reasoning for no day one titles on PlayStation Plus? Let me know in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
