The PlayStation 5 prices have been revealed by Sony Interactive Entertainment for both digital and standard versions together with announcements and reveals from different games. There was one different announcement that no one predicted or leaked: the PS Plus Collection.
This is a benefit for consumers who have subscribed to the PlayStation Plus subscription service and will be getting the next-gen console on day one. It offers them 18 popular and classic PlayStation 4 games that can be played on the PS5.
Sony Interactive Entertainment President and CEO Jim Ryan said that they are “delighted to be able to do that.” It will include an array of first-party titles and a few third-party ones. It would be the best way to add to the library in case on a few launch titles were purchased by the consumer.
Speaking of the PS Plus Collection, people have been thinking that it seems to be a counter to what the popular Xbox Game Pass subscription service offers. It allows its consumers to play all of its games on day one, but will be removed and changed later on. It just allows them to have a glimpse of what they can do. If they like it, they can just purchase it.
Some PlayStation fans were hopeful that with the reveal of the new PS Plus benefit, SIE would go with the same route as the Xbox Game Pass. Ryan firmly gave his answer to Games Industry, which seems to be the same from before:
For us, having a catalogue of games is not something that defines a platform. Our pitch, as you’ve heard, is ‘new games, great games.’ We have had this conversation before — we are not going to go down the road of putting new releases titles into a subscription model. These games cost many millions of dollars, well over $100 million, to develop. We just don’t see that as sustainable.
We want to make the games bigger and better, and hopefully at some stage more persistent. So putting those into a subscription model on day one, for us, just doesn’t make any sense. For others in a different situation, it might well make sense, but for us it doesn’t. We want to expand and grow our existing ecosystem, and putting new games into a subscription model just doesn’t sit with that.
So, the dream of having the same services as to Xbox Game Pass has been shot down the drain again. In a business standpoint, it makes sense since they want their first-party titles to be purchased on day one. They are actually losing money if the consumer would just try it out for a while, complete the game, and then decide not to buy it anyway.
As a consumer and a fan, it saddens me that they would not offer this type of service. While Microsoft is losing a bit of money, they are gaining more customers with this service. So you win some and lose some in both sides, just in a different sense.
PlayStation 5 will launch on Nov. 12 in the US, Japan, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea. The rest of the world will get it on Nov. 19.
Interview source: Games Industry