I mean, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan has actually said that the Japanese console maker can't do that as "the level of investment that we need to make in our studios would not be possible" otherwise. Sony's weaker position right now is, in part, down to historically bad decision making, but even if it had followed Microsoft's lead much earlier and moved into cloud gaming and Netflix-for-games subscription services sooner and in a more comprehensive way, it would likely still find itself unable to offer AAA games on day one.
Not only is Microsoft as a company significantly bigger than Sony (Microsoft has a market cap of $315.41 billion compared to Sony's $105), a fact that means it can make huge gaming industry shaking deals such as the $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard), but Sony is also lagging notably behind in the Netflix-for-games streaming service war. Here's why.Īs T3 has written about before, the playing field is not very equal right now between Sony and Microsoft. However, in my mind at least, any loyal Sony PlayStation gamer should jump on board and sign up to the new PlayStation Plus as soon as possible. And, well, there's no way to spin that any other way – they absolutely are. On paper, then, it looks like Xbox Game Pass gamers are getting a lot more value out of their yearly subscription service cost than PlayStation Plus gamers.
This differs massively from Microsoft's current strategy with Xbox Game Pass, which has massive exclusive games like Halo: Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 launching on day one on the service. Where, though, the new PlayStation Plus announcement felt a bit anti-climatic (aside from the naming I mean, really, PlayStation Spartacus sounded so much cooler!) was that Sony confirmed that the new PlayStation Plus is not going to have major AAA Sony studio games launching on it day one.