Without a doubt, one of the biggest selling points of Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription is the day one games. Getting Starfield (despite its recent delay) day one with just a subscription, for example, is an enticing prospect. However, many have also questioned why other publishers don’t do this, such as Sony putting PS5 titles on PS Plus on day one.
With PS Plus Premium releasing in June too, many may feel like this is a missed opportunity on Sony’s behalf, but that may not be the case entirely. Several companies have recently released financial releases and confirmed fiscal year releases, with Sony CFO Hikori Totoki speaking in a recent Q&A session after Sony’s results.
Totoki refused to comment on its competitor’s approach, but he did discuss why Sony can’t put day-one PS5 games on PS Plus. As transcribed by VGC, “AAA titles on PS5, if we distribute them on that subscription service we may need to shrink the investment needed for that. That will deteriorate the first-party title quality and that is our concern. So we want to make sure we spend the appropriate development costs to have solid products and titles to be introduced in the right manner.”
Without a doubt, with major PlayStation games like God of War: Ragnarok, Spider-Man 2, and so on, no one wants to see the quality of the game deteriorated. There have been a few bad faith “takes” on this comment, where online users have suggested that Sony conflates quality with money, but this is a business report. Games cost a lot of money to make and develop, especially at Sony's level.
While Totoki doesn’t get into this, it’s worth adding that Microsoft and Sony are essentially an apples and oranges comparison. Microsoft is a huge company compared to Sony—Microsoft has a market cap in the trillions, while Sony’s market cap is in the billions. That’s a huge difference, and the exact profitability of Xbox Game Pass is unknown. In a “user acquisition” stage, Microsoft can/could afford to lose a ton of money on Game Pass, while Sony doesn’t have pockets as deep as Microsoft.
This comment seems to suggest that, for Sony to do that without taking a major strategic or financial hit, it would need to lower the quality of the games. So, while fans may not be getting PS5 exclusives day one on PS Plus, it’s encouraging to know that Sony puts quality first. It’s a fair enough trade-off when folks consider the likes of Horizon Forbidden West, Returnal, Demon’s Souls Remake, and more, while also knowing that there is more on the horizon.
PS Plus subscribers get a handful of free games every month.
Source: VGC