While PlayStation Now continues to grow, it seems like Sony doesn’t currently intend to release major new games via the subscription service.
“The nature and scale of some of the first-party games that we are making leads us to think that, right now, it’s better to spend energy on making sure that the launch of those games is a massive entertainment event,” says Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. “I would cite God of War and Spider-Man, and The Last of Us 2 next year will fall into that category. That’s where we stand right now.”
That’s a little disappointing considering that one of Xbox Game Pass’ best features is the ability to play certain major Xbox exclusives (such as Gears of War 5) the day that they launch via the monthly subscription service. It should be noted, though, that Ryan has opened the door for that policy to change in the future.
“I don’t want to say this is what PlayStation Now is going to be like forever,” Ryan says. “But certainly right now, given how some of our first-party IP is incredibly special and valuable, we just want to treat them with amazing care and respect, and have those launches be clean and pure.”
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This is one of those complicated policies which makes sense for the business but kind of leaves consumers in the cold. To be perfectly honest, PlayStation exclusives have been more…valuable than their Xbox counterparts. While that may change in the future, we understand why Sony wouldn’t include such major releases as part of their monthly subscription program.
On the other hand, it does feel like the industry is trending towards subscriptions and cloud gaming, which means that it would be nice if Sony eventually let subscribers access the biggest PS4 (and PS5) games.
Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014.
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