Xbox boss Phil Spencer has responded to the rumours of Sony's plans to combine PlayStation Plus and PS Now into a single service, currently dubbed Project Spartacus. Whether it's a proper competitor or not to Microsoft's celebrated Game Pass membership still remains to be seen, but Spencer believes this sort of subscription service is the "right answer" for delivering games to consumers.
In a new interview with IGN, the Xbox head explains why he thinks a future with Game Pass-like services at the heart of it is the correct approach. Spencer speaks of allowing members to play the games they want to play wherever they like and allowing them to curate their own library of titles. "So when I hear others doing things like Game Pass or coming to PC, it makes sense to me because I think that's the right answer."
Alongside the rumoured new service, Sony has been bringing a select few of its first-party titles to PC. God of War — the most recent port — recorded an impressive 75,000 concurrent players over the weekend.
However, while some will see the rumoured Project Spartacus as Sony's attempt to copy Game Pass, Spencer says he doesn't want to take the plaudits. Rather than considering it validation, he sees it as an inevitability that the industry will eventually take this route. "So for us, we should continue to innovate, continue to compete, because the things that we're doing might be advantages that we have in the market today, but they're just based on us going first, not that we've created something that no one else can go create."
Game Pass brings all of Xbox Game Studios' titles to the service on the same day they release, and contrary to comments made by Jim Ryan, Spencer actually believes Sony will do the same with Project Spartacus. "Because I think the right answer is to ship great games, ship them on PC, ship them on console, ship them on cloud, make them available Day 1 in the subscription. And I expect that's what our competitor will do."
Whenever Ryan has been asked about the possibility of Sony creating its own membership to rival Game Pass, the PlayStation CEO has always shied away from putting first-party titles on the service from day one. "We are not going to go down the road of putting new release 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," he said back in 2020.
It certainly looks like Sony is planning to roll out its new service in the near future, however. Since the Bloomberg report was posted back in December, the company has pulled PS Now subscription cards from UK store shelves. In a recent Push Square poll, you voted "a large and growing catalogue of legacy games" would be the subscription's biggest selling point. "New, day one first-party games" was placed third, meaning it seems you know what to expect when Sony finally unveils what it has in store.
[source ign.com]
Comments 110
I mean it's hardly a surprise that the boss of Xbox thinks his business model is the best business model.
Like I wrote in that Talking Point the other day, though, Sony's going to have such a headache with this. I'm not sure they can preserve their existing and successful business model while still offering something that doesn't look rubbish in comparison.
Nintendo has the right idea: they've somehow been excluded from these conversations entirely and are selling millions upon millions of copies of Wii U ports at full-price without any questions.
I think people are already setting themselves up for disappointment. The longer Sony takes to announce this new service, the more people are going to expect from it.
“make them available Day 1 in the subscription. And I expect that's what our competitor will do."
Sounds like a good line to hype it up, in the hope they don’t, so they can boast they do. Haha.
@ATaco Agreed, but I guess there's not much they can do now with the information leaking out.
I don't think he really believes Sony will put first party stuff on it day one - it's smart for him to say it now so that when they don't, he can come back and say 'how shocked he is, how he expected differently, how it's a poor decision for playstation gamers' etc etc
edit: just seen @SoulChimera shares my cynical worldview!
I just don't see Sony taking the "release brand new game at full price and simultaneously on a subscription service day one" route.
I thought their main competition was Google and Stadia and suchlike?
🤔
Also, Sony games are in the main SP titles with no MTX or MP content. They're also not short experiences that will last a week at most. IF Sony plan on releasing their PS/PC exclusives Day One, these will be severely compromised games to what they currently make.
Uncle Phil know this, it's what he and MS are counting on.
Edit - seriously is it only just me that finds this guy to be extremely annoying, as well as a massive hypocrite that's completely full of himself?
Removed - unconstructive
Sony head saying no new games in a subscription service reminds me of Nintendo heads saying no mobile games, and now they have about 5 big ones, and no dlc, and now the SSBU dlc costs more than the game.🤑
That's the thing about ramifications, when there aren't any, you get to say whatever you want and then contradict yourself right after.🤷
That said, I think Sony will give itself a 12 month / 1 year window on new games. Long enough that some people will still buy them day 1, soon enough to keep people paying monthly for the service.
@SoulChimera @redcorpuscle It's not cynical, you're both absolutely on the money. But like @ATaco says, the longer these stories and rumours swirl, the harder it's going to hit them.
It's funny because I genuinely believe a big part of what they're doing is to jettison the PS Now baggage, which is a fine service but generally has a terrible reputation.
But they're literally walking into a situation where their rebranding is going to have a terrible reputation from the off as well, making it all moot.
While I absolutely wish they would, I really can’t see Sony’s big first party titles turning up on their new Game Pass rivalling PS Plus service day and date any time soon. Maybe when they’re a year or two old at best, but certainly not at release.
I expect it to disappoint, be a terrible comparison, produce terrible "optics", and then...succeed as people who own a PS will consider it to be a good value for the money.
Really, Sony would be best to emulate what gamepass does, but just leave out their own in house big hitters. I personally don't want their major franchises to reduce the quality. I'd rather pay for them and have a good decent game, most Xbox games that are released are not all good. Some are, but just not enough. But get third party new releases available on the service like gamepass does. That will level the playing field a little but keep their big hitters at a very high quality rate.
@get2sammyb
Nintendo is definitely an anomaly. Don't try to understand what makes them successful. It's a mystery I don't think I'll ever understand. I say this even though I own a Switch. 😂
@get2sammyb Agreed they have a hard job with this. If it doesn't match Game Pass (which it won't) it will look bad.
Also agree PS Now needed a rebrand, i've been harping on about this for ages. Even among apparently informed people here and on other gaming sites many STILL think it's streaming only for example. Needs a completely fresh coat of paint so people can see it as if for the first time.
Convincing people to change their opinions on something is harder than making them form new ones on something new.
@Master_Shake I think Sony would consider that an excellent outcome to be fair.
Just let me play Jade Cocoon on my PS5 already!
@Master_Shake I also expect it to do fine. Like most PlayStation things Just don't think it will set the world alight like Microsoft's approach did.
@get2sammyb it's all on the pricing on how they navigate this, isn't it? Currently you can get GP Ultimate for about £100-120 a year, depending on deals. If Spartacus is, say, closer to £60 a year, and includes Plus, a decent and expanding library of PS1-3 games, plus older PS4-5 games, but not Day 1 releases, I think it will be fine.
If they get closer to that £100-120 pricepoint, and on the other side of the fence that price gets you Day 1 exclusives, EA Play, PC games etc, comparisons will be inevitable, and yeah, way more tricky to navigate.
I don’t really get the argument that this will somehow reduce the quality of Sony exclusives. If anything, it means they won’t just rely on big sellers and stuff like Gravity Rush would get a second chance. Besides, Sony initially were selling Destruction All-Stars for £70 so clearly they have absolutely no idea about value proposition.
@SoulChimera my thoughts exactly. He know they won't do that so he's preemptive making the point
@get2sammyb This is such a logical comment I'm not sure it should be allowed on the internet... a place that only allows hot takes haha
@nessisonett I think it's more a question of "Is this business model feasible without bottomless pockets funding it?"
I know Microsoft has said many things to the contrary, but it continues to obfuscate the numbers to my knowledge.
The way I see it this is aggressive business from Xbox. They're doing the thing that Microsoft has historically always done in the past: outspend the competition until they can't possibly compete.
I'm happy to be proven wrong, and it would be interesting to hear some unfiltered opinions from the executives at Nintendo and Sony, who clearly will have a much better feel for the financials than any of us do.
I think the reality is only Microsoft can afford this model. While Sony can certainly afford to offer far more than what’s on PS Plus lately it would be insane to think they have the money that Microsoft does, especially looking at government contracts they hold globally.
As long as we have good value for the money people will buy, they may cry initially but anything is better than the current model. I’m setting the expectations low and hoping for the best. It’s probably better we don’t all start rooting for a race to the bottom here and end up with trash.
Meanwhile, other major video game publishers sell 20+ million copies per title plus DLCs, without big discounts even after a couple of years. Phil would never admit that THIS is the best business model for obvious reasons.
@Col_McCafferty He is absolutely a major hypocrite and one of the most self absorbed people in gaming talking as if he does everything right. All he's done is use big daddy Microsoft's money to buy out competition. People praise this guy like he's a hero, yet he was on the same round table as Don Mattrick. It's just that people are so dense and fell for MS making Mattrick the scapegoat. When the future is mostly live service junk that comes out half baked so they can make their money from the back end, people can thank MS and Phil for it.
He doesn’t expect this for a moment because he knows the quality of games Sony make would have to take a drastic dive before that made any kind of business sense.
Wonder if they're going to end up doing a "play anywhere" deal where you get the game on ps4/5 but also get the relative pc port with this model.
@AdamNovice I think it annoys you more because he doesn't play for your favorite team, If Sony and Jim would speak to us more about...anything really Jim specifically would be looked at in a more favorable light.
“Spencer speaks of allowing members to play the games they want to play wherever they like and allowing them to curate their own library of titles.”
Cool. I’d love to be able to play Forza Horizon 2 and 3 on an Xbox Series S. Can I do that Phil?
I really can’t see Sony releasing day one exclusives as it wouldn’t make sense seeing as most of their exclusives are third person action adventure single player games that can be done and dusted over a weekend. As well as being far and few between releases, there would be no reason to keep the subscription when there isn’t any multiplayer to keep you engaged.
I do expect Sony to bring third party games to the service day one for a certain amount of time before it leaves then Sony making more deals to bring other third party games, just like how Game Pass works when they rotate games by having some leave while new games get added to replace them.
@get2sammyb I didn't get a chance to read rhe article, so only saw the headline, but didn't ye publish an article a few days back that Sony made £116 billion on mobile gaming alone the other day? Surely they have some money to spare, even if Jim Ryan keeps saying a gamepass-like service is unfeasible???
It’s what suits what company.
Sony and Nintendo maybe happy selling games the way they do it may suit their business as they survive in console and game sales the way they do it.
If people keep buying Sony and Nintendo consoles and games that way and they make a good business profit that is good.
Let’s be honest both Sony and Nintendo will sell more consoles and games than series consoles will.
Who’s to say the Xbox business model just works best for Microsoft and that’s ok.
Just because we have Netflix etc we still have Sky Q tv and terrestrial channels like ITV that works for them.
Who’s to say Microsoft might have it wrong and may need to go back to standard way.
Will be interesting to see what happens.
Nothing Sony does is going to best or even equal Game Pass as a value proposition, but I do think giving PS Plus subscribers a discount on new games if bought within the first month of release could be a unique answer.
Regardless of any opinion on such a service, I appreciate how eloquently he speaks about Sony and Nintendo. Reading Console Wars years back and learning how toxic the relationship between Nintendo and Sega was in the 90s, I’m glad to see this.
@SoulChimera @redcorpuscle
Was thinking the exact same thing 😂
Phil Spencer is always playing the PR game.
Hype it up to something you know your competition can't do, then be disappointed afterwards. "Oh they didn't do it? All good. We do it 😌"
@MaccaMUFC The likes of God of War and The Last of Us Part II done over a weekend?
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.
@mucc absolutely true. Personally I cannot stand the guy. Also was a reason why I don’t go on purexbox. Anytime phil talks & there’s an article about it. It just ends up being magic sock time for a lot of the posters on there
Used car salesman declares used cars are great!
I have to wonder if Gamepass actually makes profit, they are quick to shout about number of subs but never reveal if Gamepass makes them money.
Honestly while i love Gamepass i can see it suffering hard once others Publishers start to do their own thing and pull games from Gamepass to have on their own service, bit like how Netflix was top dog until everyone else came along.
You need Microsoft levels of money for this to become worth it and record such a loss until they reach around 100 million full paid subscribers then will it only become profitable. Microsoft are losing a lot of money right now compared to the money they use to make their first party games, and paying all the devs who put their games on thee service, plus all the free trials and promotions where people aren't paying full price.
Perfect example is Netflix, surely they have 100 million subscribers yet they are making a loss and have a huge debt. But Microsofts big pockets and money they have spare to spend means they can take a loss for many years whilst they build up their subscribers and take consumers away from the competition.
Also give it another year or two and the price of gamepass will increase and will do so every so often.
So yeah this type of service is wonderful for the gamers....... at first
But it will massively hurt Sony in the long run.
This is why I would prefer them to ignore the subscription service and focus on making bigger and newer games available on playstation plus, Sony don't need this subscription service to thrive and gamepass won't effect playstations sales, especially as gamepass doesn't get the biggest AAA third party single player games on release either.
I will be hugely surprised if we see first party games on the new service on Day 1.
I'd be surprised if we see them on it before they launch on PC.
PlayStation games sell, and they sell really well. Sony won't throw that away. They'd be crazy to.
I could see them putting PS5 titles from the console's launch window on there when the new service goes live, just to bring people in and give them a taste.
Combine that with the PS4's first party library, and that would be a decent selection.
As @LazyLombax was saying the other day, given enough time the library on the new service could be very hard to say no to, regardless of when new first party games are released on it.
I have to agree with Sammy overall, I don't see any scenario in which the hype for this doesn't blow up into more bad optics for Sony. People are expecting a GP competitor, and I doubt Sony has any intention of a day 1 release service. Or if they do I can't imagine their pricing not looking insulting to the point there's little value at all (See also, PS Now's original pricing...) PS Now just doesn't have a great history, but if this isn't any better, it's new paint on a still unloved product. I'd love to see a viable value-added service from Sony, because as-is I intend to just sit on their games until discounts kick in, and they could make me a much more engaged customer. But I can't imagine doing that, and including Vib-Ribbon in a premium tier subscription really isn't going to help that much. I'm curious what we'll see but I'm not very optimistic.
I'm still always amazed at the dislike Phil gets on this site. I've had a few moments in the past few weeks where I haven't agreed with or took a cynical stance at what he said on a few things, but historically I've always found him to be super genuine and straight-forward, and the kind of exec we'd want in a gaming company. He's not Iwata or House, but between him, Ryan, and Furukawa, let alone Kotick? Come on.
@UltimateOtaku91 GPU is $180/yr and includes online and all first party. 2 Sony games are $140 and that doesn't include online. Even if GPU prices rise, stand alone game prices are rising, too. It would take quite a dramatic shift for pricing to stop being a good value on that type of service. Where things get bad is if every publisher ends up setting up their own sub. Ubi+ is a terrible value, at Game Pass money for only one publisher's games.
@get2sammyb Things can get dicey in the console war between PS and XB fanboys, but at least we all have one common ground: Acknowledgement that Nintendo has been milking milking a dry cow for years and people are throwing money at them for it...
Something that @get2sammyb touched on though really interests me - Nintendo are just staying away from this conversation entirely and benefitting from doing so.
Would love to see PlayStation do the same.
Do your own thing, release your own service, and leave it at that.
Maybe the best way to advertise this service is to aim at the people who already have a PS4 or PS5, rather than aiming it at gamers in general. Similar to Nintendo with their own service.
@NEStalgia I used to be a fan of Spencer. Genuinely.
But the more time that passed, the less interest I had in him.
I studied PR hard in college, and that pretty much ruined him for me - Once I realised he was a PR machine just like all of the other execs in the industry I was done with him.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not singling him out in particular. I just think he's the same as all the others.
The closest PlayStation will get to day and date exclusives on a subscription service will be the combination of a fixed digital discount on exclusives at the higher tier and a promise to drop titles into the service after 1 to 2 years - at which point they simultaneously release them on PC to extend the life of the revenue stream.
And this will be an entirely financial decision, because they can't afford to lose the revenue that exclusives generate, whereas Microsoft absolutely can.
Game Pass continues to be an attractive looking loss leader (in truth predominantly stuffed with 6 and 7 out of 10 filler experiences, Netflix style) and once the adoption rate tips over the required edge, that subscription will go up to close the revenue gap. Uncle Phil already knows what that subscriber number looks like, trust me.
When your competitor thinks copying them is the right thing to do, it's probably the wrong thing to do!
Guys my PS Now expired a few days ago. Do you think it's a good idea for me to get it again or hold out until whatever this Spartacus is going to be first? I don't want to get it again and it's messed something up with Spartacus.
I also don't see why there is so much pressure to copy 3rd place.
@Col_McCafferty It doesn't help that he looks smug and has all the buying power in the world. And looks to try and remove competition that isn't in the same wealth bracket.
I kind of wish Sony leant away from the sub model to catch all the people like me who are fed up with them. I know they haven't, and will try, and fail, to match Microsoft. A suprise would be nice, something unexpected that offers quality and actually adds to the industry.
@killileahihoo
Didn't read either article, huh? The global mobile gaming business made 116 billion, not Sony.
@NEStalgia I'm not saying gamepass isn't good value, it's really good value for us gamers but I'm sure Microsoft are currently making a loss from it until they reach a certain subscriber count
@killileahihoo No, mobile games in general made 116bn. Not just Sony ones 🙈
@Old-Red I'm in the same boat as you. I'm exhausted by subs now.
Sony did say that their service would be unique, so hopefully you'll get what you want. Although that could just mean it's the only service that let's you play Bloodborne 🤷♂️
Also theres nearly 50 million playstation plus subscribers plus around 4 million ps now subscribers so that's around £350 million per month off subscriptions alone plus all the sales from their exclusives which the majority pay for in the first few months at full price.
Sony don't need to change
Perhaps games like Kena, Bugsnax, and Dreams day 1 on the service, while the blockbusters like GoW, Uncharted, Spider-Man, and Horizon will not be day 1, I suspect. (The only wrench in my theory is that MLB The Show is one of their bestsellers and I suspect it will have to be included since it’s on GP).
Whether it’s a 6-12 month wait for them to show up on the service or maybe they never do, but I think some kind of compromise between the GamePass model, the Nintendo model, and the current Sony model.
To save face on not including the big games day 1, they might leverage the anime and movies services that they have to make it seem like it’s not a 1:1 competitor with GamePass.
Phil Spencer setting PlayStation owners up for disappointment by saying this. A little underhanded advert for Game Pass if ever I saw it. I find it very hard to believe that Sony will offer their big titles on this rumoured service day 1.
Obviously Spencer saying this is a great way to get the hype going for what will probably be a disappointment. I think Sony does need to rival GP and offer Day 1 releases of 1st or at least 3rd party games. No matter what Sony's new sub service will get compared to GP and the backlash with be swift and brutal but will eventually die down. The question is, is what Sony doing going to bring more people over to PS or will people still thi k they get better Value with GP? At the moment I do believe that GP is an amazing value for what you get so I hope Sony can make me feel like that with thier new Sub service.
@Shepherd_Tallon thanks for the mention!
I know personally, I would have tried a lot more games last year if we had this service. I skipped out on so many great games because of the steep price tag. I waited on Returnal, Psychonauts 2, and Kena.
@Col_McCafferty Yeah both God of War and The Last of Us Part II can be finished within even a day.
‘when I hear others doing things like Game Pass or coming to PC, i’
Big brother Phil never changes.
Good thing Sony never talk about the competition even if some of the press wrongly think they would answer a question about them
Maybe just stop reporting about this superstar of media chat. 😅( I know it’s impossible because the press love him so much for it which he knows)
@MaccaMUFC a lot of games can be completed in a day, mario games, halo, gears, recore etc
If its not an Rpg then I'm sure it can be completed in one day
I really hope Sony doesn't copy Gamepass. I agree with Ryan about it not being sustainable which means at some point in the future the other shoe is going to drop, and that will suck for gamers.
Wonder how long before the entitled babies start moaning thst it's not as good as gamepass. I don't think Sony Cs compete with Microsoft, due the massive scale it's like David vs goliath
So, if games are too expensive costing 100 million and above to be included in a subscription service, how do you fix it? You drop the quality, drop the cost and get the games out.
I’ve said it before, if Sony follows this route, the overall quality of games will take a hit. The improvements to gameplay and the overall experience will stagnate.
You can’t afford to provide the highest of quality by maintaining a cheap subscription service and you can’t maintain a high cost subscription service because people won’t pay it.
As if it really matters what phil sphincter thinks..
@UltimateOtaku91 I know but try telling that to Col_McCafferty who thinks otherwise.
As for people commenting negatively about Phil Spencer, at least he engages with the gaming community and is a fellow gamer himself that is passionate about the gaming industry. The same can’t be said about Jim Ryan and others who are simply just businessmen in suits that only care about sales and money.
@Col_McCafferty Can't stand him either. Always cringe when reading the comments over at purexbox where they brownnose him every chance they get
You all complain now, but I'd bet big money that if Sony were to offer a near exact copy of what MS offers, you'd all pay and praise it.
Please Phil just keep your head down. If it hadn't been for gamepass, Xbox wouldn't even have existed anymore. And no please Sony, don't go after Microsoft. Stay focused on the high quality and throw playstation 1,2,3 & 4 titles on the "spartacus service"
Butt no Day one games for free please. Go for quality not quantity.
@Richnj Don't think so because some People do want top pay for quality. Playstation sells xbox would have been almost dead anyway so I understand Microsoft's move.
There has to be a middle ground between the gamepass model and paying an eye-watering $70 (yes I'm still crying about that) for a game, I'm not really interested in renting games or going bankrupt buying new Sony games.
@Enigk It's not a disappointment because Sony has already confirmed that they're not going to do that. But I don't know what year most of this site comes from but playstation has 27 years of experience. And if Sony creates a service with ps 1,2,3,4 games then you already have a library of games that is 10 times bigger than the whole game pass.
I don’t think we can compare the offerings between the three big hitters as they all use very different business models. I’m happy with PS plus as it is and think it’s great value. If they focus on a larger combined library with some third party day 1 releases I’d still be happy to buy a physical copy of Sony studios exclusives as I generally re sell once played so that is very good value for me. Games pass is ok, but there’s nowhere near enough good new games to make “day 1” worthwhile for me.
@Juanalf Bankrupt? What nonsense. You can also just wait a while and not pay 70. Games have always been more expensive and that's normal, right? There are people working on these games that have families. And they have to make, sell en earn to survive in the world. It's called money!. Not everything in the world is free. Welcome to the great people world. Then you save money to buy a game.
As if he knows the right answer to anything! I can't stand the guy and his company at all :-/ PLEASE SONY DON'T COPY MS!!! :-/
@MaccaMUFC I would prefer if these executives would just stop talking. Phil isn't any different as any other corporate suit. He isn't your friend nor does understand you. He is just full of BS like any other one. He has one goal and it is to sell you a product by any means (just like a typical car salesman).
@OmegaStriver So this. It's not a profitable thing to do. So don't do Sony! Phil
@MaccaMUFC Well yeah BUT those are speed runs and are far from the norm.
If you play on average an hour or two per day it's going to take weeks to finish either game, not one day.
We're not talking about The Gunk here!
@TommyNL If someone believes what Phil said it would be a disappointment. He is politely criticising the competitor as he knows they won't be doing it as they have said they won't.
I’m not expecting anything even close, as Game Pass is not profitable.
Phil keeps repeating its “sustainable”, but that doesn’t mean profitable and he’s very specific in not using the P word.
If Sony keep doing what they’re doing and releasing the best games around, and revise the PSPlus system to include the rumoured Spartacus, then that’ll do me.
Good lord, the salt levels in here are off the charts. Which is especially funny given how non-confrontational the statement actually was.
I can definitely see why Team Xbox would take Sony's recent moves as vindication of their approach. Especially given Sony's messaging the last several years.
Nintendo doesn't have to play ball, but that's primarily because Nintendo already wildly distinguishes itself from the competition as is. Almost nobody is going to be choosing BETWEEN Nintendo and the other two. They are their own little sub-market that succeeds or fails irrespective of what the competition is doing.
Man, PS fanboys continue to be the saltiest of the bunch over what amounts to a nothing statement.
@mucc
Totally agree. He became the boss early in last gen but the press rewrote history to make him a saviour. When something was wrong it’s Ms fault and everything positive was from him they go. I remember he was the one bragging about Kinect before xb1 launch.
Edit
Observe toxic people calling people ‘fan boi’ because they dare expressing freely what they think which is what the site is asking. Tell us what you think like. Yea right. Sad attitude.
Be quiet Phil.
This coming from the all talk no walk guy.
@get2sammyb Nintendo has the right idea FOR THEM. Not for us consumers, tbh. I mean I love Mario Kart 8, but for the love of god move on xD
Also I think Sony will not put the first party games on their service, it's what sells the consoles imo.
Xbox sells for the multiplayer experience (which is bafflingly bad if you own both consoles wtf, it's so counter-intuitive). But to be fair, Xbox is now better equiped in the studio sense, they have many interesting upcoming games.
I was hoping something from Sony soon, since we're at the start of the year, but I think they will release Horizon and GT first.
@TommyNL Everyone knows the developers are mostly paid upfront and all the extra money and revenue goes directly into the pockets of the big wigs which I'm sure makes you jump for joy.
Also don't know why you mentioned the free stuff part, no one is talking about free PS5 games for everyone but it does make a great straw man when responding to someone so props 👍
PS now had a bad launch and for the first few years it was half baked and all round underwhelming. It was pushed mostly on PS3 and Vita in a time where the PS4 just launched. Streaming only, global internet speeds were not great at the time. No downloads. It really got no soft reboot and I guess, rightly so, people just kept their reservations about it. That it was a weird, laggy, inaccessible, experimental service.
What’s a shame is that people kept this and even though it evolved into a great service, one that has crazy value, Microsoft were able to reiterate on it and launch their service with great reception as they just get it. AAA game on launch? Done. 360 games? You got it. Stream? Done. And then the price was the killer.
Don’t really think Sony can come back and no matter how they try, seems like Microsoft’s to lose. Sony did great to begin the revolution but they could not capitalise on what the people wanted. I don’t see project Spartacus or whatever it’s called being as successful as game pass will become. However, if they let us do tiered subscriptions where we get PS Now bundled into PS+ at a relatively affordable price then that’s a win in my book.
@nessisonett If you cant see what it can do to destroy the complete firstparty games then your blind. What MS triple A title is not monetized or a liveservice? I hope they dont go down this crap shoot. Where your platform biggest selling point is putting value of quality games.
@Flaming_Kaiser Psychonauts 2, Forza Horizon 5, Age of Empires IV, Flight Simulator for starters just from last year. And then there’s a Fable, Forza 8, Perfect Dark, Hellblade 2, The Outer Worlds 2, Starfield, Elder Scrolls VI and more on the way. Quality single player experiences alongside more experimental fare. You’re the blind one determined to shovel your fanboy sh*te instead of keeping an open mind. Microsoft bad is such a lazy argument when they’ve clearly stepped up their game.
@nessisonett You could technically also add Deathloop to that fine list 🙂 Does Microsoft have as many high quality games as Sony? no! do they still have high quality games though? yes!
@Juanalf
‘Favourite team’ ?
I think your projecting a ridiculous motion of ‘team’.
Phil good keeps talking about PlayStation. He should focus on PC Xbox.
What If Jim Ryan said for instance ‘ we don’t sell PS4 low capacity disc with a PS4 game in a box marked as PS5 that you buy thinking the next gen game is in it and buy to own the disc like ‘other company’. It’s anti consumer and we should get sued if we did ‘
Yea no. That’s not what you want those big hats talk about and pretend they don’t want to bring down the other. Even worse when they give back handed ‘compliments’ which Phil is very good at.
@Cyrus29
I actually check out Purexbox from time to time. But I never comment because I’d get stoned to death haha
Goaded into a market that’s not sustainable and big Phil just keeps on putting in the digs. Sony would do well to bury their head in the sand , I for one never wanted this .
Just keep squeezing out the exclusives as they do at regular intervals maintain good titles or improve those that come to plus .
Just focus on what makes Sony good let MS do what they want , PS5 still the best selling console , still the best place for third parties to make money , let’s all make a pact to move on and keep supporting Sony doing what they do best
Yup, devaluing art/games as much as possible and make them more and more worthless fast food crap (just like Netflix movies etc) is always the best answer
Of course Lyin' Phil Spencer would say that. Dude's playing everyone. And he's doing an excellent job of it. It's not the right move for the industry. It's the right move for him and Xbox and completely unsustainable for any company that can't just ring up daddy for another handout once they're spent up. It would be insane for Sony to put their own games up on a subscription service on day one.
Maybe Sony will go half way and give us free expansion packs 🤣
@Northern_munkey
Man he made so many goofy statements VR, SP games, PS is no competition, bringing more quality games to more people than PS, Feeling good about launch titles, yadi yada that the press fires and forget after a few weeks but keep firing on Jim Ryan for the same quotes whereas they are actually the ones poorly reporting and butchering his quotes.
🙄
Sony have bumped games up to £70 RRP
Subscribers to Spartacus (or whatever it ends up being called) get a discount on 1st party games up release, bringing them down to a more palatable £50/£55.
Unlikely but it would be a hit with a good chunk of people. And yeah, I have no idea if it's sustainable but certainly more sustainable than full release day 1 you would imagine.
As well as merging Plus and Now into one service.
@lolwhatno lol, what? No. (I'm not going to get a better chance to use that).
Sorry my dude I mean no offence but I likes my Peter Griffin butt floss. Unfortunately it's either that, or a turtle with the face of an old man from the same video as the coconut fella so I'm sure you can imagine.
@lolwhatno https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.rj__0LPJng8MA5Y2XsouJgHaFI?pid=ImgDet&dpr=3.38
Haha good one Phil. Sony don't need to put brand new releases on their subscription services as even at £70 they are doing great numbers. All the same though I'm intrigued to see how they streamline it. I'm still on the fence about Xbox but those exclusives need to be proper bangers (not fussed about Halo, Forza) I'd love to see Rare bring back all their old IP's but that's not looking likely and if they do they're handed off to other developers!
@nessisonett Well i can start calling you names but youre not worth it. We will see how good their games will be Psychonauts 2 was already in development before MS. As all big US based companies they are quite good in killing of competition by pumping massive amounts of money to undercut the competition bleed them dry. Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Walmart its way of the US. Even more that all these companies get fines they laugh about from the EU so yeah i dont trust these guys for a bit. Phil is just a annoying ass because he knows the only way they can get things done is by using bad press. We all know what his agenda is that is making sure they all come to gamepass and in the end they ripp them off.
Lets not forget that in most areas PS Now has more than rivalled XBGP for the last 2 years. And with more games and lower prices.
The only real difference, and its the big one Phil details, is that XBGP has first party games on day 1. Thats not been a problem for MS as they have perhaps 2 a year. Sony is quite different, it has many more first party games and thus would be sucking up a lot more 'didn't buy it as on the sub' lost revenue.
I'd love to see a more expensive PS+ sub with day 1 first party games, but I do see how its harder for Sony to make it work.
This definitely feels like Phil Spencer setting PS fans' expectations sky high so that when Sony for certain doesn't reach that (day 1 1st party releases ain't happening for sure but honestly think Spartacus will be more like NSO than Game Pass), people choose to subscribe to Game Pass instead.
@JJ2 lol. Yeah I use to post on there but found it too toxic. Also not a fan of certain articles, but whenever phil articles came up, most people would act like it’s the 2nd comming. Don’t get me wrong, a few people on there were cool-but I just couldn’t bother with the phil groupie gang.
@nessisonett It's still a personal choice I would buy Flight Simulator defiantly! Psychonauts 2 maybe on a black Friday sale. Grand Turismo 7 over Forsa Horizon 5 it's just what I play and enjoy on PlayStation. In the US GP ultimate is $180 a year. That is over my price limit for games I don't know if or when I could play them. I see the best option would be to buy a month of gamepass ultimate only when a game came out that I wanted to play.
I see GamePass as a great option for Microsoft It seems to be helping them in console sales. I also hold no animosity for any XBox players or owners the are gamers just like me.
@ATaco
Only now, Sony is probably thinking whatever they were going to announce isn't good enough. I wonder if this will further delay their reveal.
I dont care about any of the ActivisionBlizzard games, so no loss for me, but this is a big loss for gamers as a whole.
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