Almost 30 years after it entered the market, PlayStation is gearing up for another push for dominance, this time with its network services to grow its current base of over 50 million content subscribers on PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now. With PlayStation 5 consoles still in high demand and hard to buy even nearly two years after its launch, Sony will be rolling out its revamped video game and content subscription service in June – PlayStation Plus Essential, PlayStation Plus Extra, and PlayStation Plus Deluxe/Premium – all aimed at giving consumers more choice and even more bang for their buck, with Asia getting first dibs, followed by North America, Europe, and the rest of the world.
The Japanese company, which has seen huge successes with first-party titles like Horizon Forbidden West and Gran Turismo 7, as well as recent acquisitions of studios like Bungie and Haven, currently offers two main services for players to subscribe to.
The first, PlayStation Plus, brings cloud storage, multiplayer access, discounts and free games on a monthly basis, while the second, PlayStation Now, which is not available in all markets, is the platform’s answer to cloud streaming games from the PlayStation 2 era to the PlayStation 5. The revamped services are not so much a response to what competitors are doing, but a recognition that the offerings need to catch up to the changing demands of gamers globally.
“We feel that we can improve the way that we offer these services to our gamers. And this is what we’re about to talk about in particular. You know, for example, three-quarters of the people who subscribed to PlayStation Now also have a PlayStation Plus subscription,” explained Sony Interactive Entertainment President & CEO Jim Ryan, who we last spoke with back in 2020, in another exclusive interview with Geek Culture.
“We feel we need to do better by those people and allow them to only subscribe once. So what we’re going to do is to consolidate our services and introduce a combined service under the name of PlayStation Plus.”
As the evolution of console gaming continues, it has increasingly become clearer that platform owners are pursuing their own strategies when it comes to giving gamers what they want. Nintendo continues to do its own thing, which includes shutting access to older games, while Microsoft is aggressively pushing the services front. The PC market has seen the likes of Epic, Steam, GOG and more digital storefronts duking it out and while there certainly is no right or wrong way to go about it, it all boils down to recognising what gamers want as they vote with their wallets.
In the area of pure services that cater to players, there is little doubt that Microsoft’s charm offensive with Xbox Game Pass has helped it lead the way in terms of mind share (with over 25 million subscribers), but for PlayStation, it’s not just about offering an extensive library of games, but on how players will engage with it.
The New Era of PlayStation Plus
PlayStation Plus Essential is exactly the same service that players are getting right now – cloud storage, multiplayer access, discounts, and two free games.
At the PlayStation Plus Extra tier, players get additional access to a curated and downloadable catalogue of up to 400 PS4 and PS5 games from the blockbuster AAAs to the indie hits, and it includes titles from both PlayStation and other major publishers.
The likes of God of War, the Spider-Man games, Returnal, Death Stranding, and others in the game catalogue are part of the attractions. And if you are curious about how the rest of the games are being chosen, data is at the heart of the curation. Leveraging that has allowed Sony to find the right balance between heritage and also new and innovative titles. Ryan agreed that “the curation is really important.” and the team was “spending a lot of time on that” and are “looking to ensure excellence as a kind of consistent thread.”
As for the top tier of PlayStation Plus Deluxe/Premium, it all comes down to whether cloud streaming is available in your market.
Gamers in the US, Canada, Japan, UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden will enjoy the benefits of the Premium tier. This includes everything in previous tiers, together with up to 240 additional games – PS3 games via cloud streaming and original PlayStation, PS2, and PSP titles via cloud streaming and download – and time-limited game trials on selected future AAA titles.
Outside of those territories, PlayStation Plus Deluxe will be priced lower with the exclusion of streaming, but will still have the catalogue of beloved classic games from the original PlayStation, PS2 and PSP generations to download and play, along with time-limited game trials. The omission of the PS3 generation will definitely leave some disappointed.
Still, the lack of support in certain markets is not so much a limitation of what PlayStation wants to do, but what those markets are able to achieve on an infrastructural level, and Ryan promises that the list of markets will continue to grow.
“We obviously look at the network infrastructure in particular countries, the size of the market, and the size of the market in terms of the number of gamers and then the physical size of the market. And, you know, this is a dynamic conversation. We started off in the US, we moved to the UK, we move to a small number of markets in the range of power in the new European markets. And we’re definitely not done with this.”
The Perfect Timing
The noise around backwards compatibility for games and consoles that came before has certainly intensified, especially when the Xbox side of things are leading the way, albeit in reduced fashion in recent months. This revamp of PlayStation Plus will target those that are into retro gaming, but more importantly, it gives players the all-important flexibility of choice instead of a forced bundle.
“We definitely feel that there is demand for this, I’ve seen the lineup and I look at those and I think, ‘It’s 20 years since I played that game, it would be really cool to sit down for a couple of hours and enjoy that game, it’s not for everybody, right?’. And that’s why it’s in the Premium or the Deluxe tier,” Ryan elaborated.
“There is a market for people who either because they were there at the start like me and they remember the original version of the game 20 years ago, or because they read about it or heard about it. We obviously talk to people who think about these things differently, we researched deeply and it shows that there is a real interest and a real desire for people to be able to play a quality catalogue of these classic games.”
The comparisons with the rival service will never end, but in some way, Sony has made a considerable step in bridging the gap between expectations and reality, and the onus is now on the players to make the decision for themselves with the different PlayStation Plus tiers.
That said, from a more local perspective, the lack of cloud streaming support is a glaring omission in countries such as Singapore, South Korea, and many more. While the conversation revolved around network infrastructure and market size, the promise that it remains “a dynamic conversation” is at least some comfort, and as technology evolves and costs go down, the feasibility of parity across regions will only increase.
Ryan also stated that this revamp is not the end of things, and even as the “basic structure remains the same,” there will be tweaks and more “service propositions” be added to the different tiers.
The Dominance of the PlayStation 5
Despite what some might choose to believe, the improvement of all these services will have little bearing if not for the clear dominance of the PlayStation 5 console, and that is a position that Ryan and the team at PlayStation are keen to keep.
“Our overall strategy and the big picture is that we want (the) PS5 to be the best and most loved PlayStation in Sony’s history. And we’re quietly confident that we’re delivering. Demand is at an all-time great, it’s bigger than it’s ever been for any console,” he shared.
“And the other thing is that the way people are enjoying the PS5s is meeting our expectations, they’re spending more time engaged with the console. And there were a number of boxes that we had to tick to bring this about. For example, platform features like the DualSense controller is the best example of many, but then there are the games. You know, we’d wholly submit that the games that you see on PS5 are better than we have ever had on any of our consoles at this early stage.”
It makes perfect sense then to press home the advantage, with the games being at the forefront of it all, supported by a now improved service ecosystem. Even in the face of an opponent that has plenty of cash to burn and amassing studios and publishers under its wing rapidly, PlayStation is sticking to what Ryan termed as a “virtuous cycle” that has consistently delivered thus far.
He pointed out that “with PlayStation studios, we invest, we have success, then we can invest more and have more success. That investment is taking the form of organic investments, or indeed, acquisitions.”
“We’ve always forged a path and that’s what we’re continued to do. I hope you’ll agree that our studios have enjoyed very considerable success over the PS4 cycle in a transformational way. And we really want to build on that and sensed a huge opportunity to turn something that has been for many years, very good, into something that’s really excellent.”
“And we are doing that through organic investment in the studios just by hiring more people and making the teams bigger and stronger, but also by acquiring studios.”
And as the juggernaut gaming industry marches on, the battle lines are drawn even more clearly. While games have always been the centrepiece in the PlayStation crown, the live services department are now looking to match up, and for consumers, that is a win-win situation no matter how you look at it, even if you are currently on the other side.
Jake is a full-time trophy hunter and achievement gatherer on consoles, and part-time Steam Sale victim. He has a thing for Batman and awesome statues, and running out of space for both. Send help.
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