Sony Interactive Entertainment
While Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass service continues to rack up subscribers, its biggest competitor, Sony, has recently made changes and upgrades to its PlayStation Plus service. Preparing for PlayStation Plus’s relaunch took some explaining, especially its varying pricing and absorption of the PlayStation Now cloud-based streaming service.
Since then, the dust has settled enough that we can see the PlayStation Plus review in action for over two months, and when it comes to its value for money, Sony scores highly. If you prepay for the “premium” tier, you can access hundreds of games from every PlayStation generation for $10 a month, including a good mix of hits and acclaimed indies (as well as hundreds of games that neither set sales nor reviews ‘burning lists).
However, Sony isn’t ready to meet Microsoft in a key sales pitch: a subscription to first-party games available on launch day. If you want to play new games in Sony exclusive series like God of the war Where The last of us, these will continue to require payment of a full MSRP at launch; Xbox Game Pass is more generous with first-day access to all of its games, from Infinite Halo at Forza Motorsport. PlayStation Plus’ apparent counter to this came in a new “classics” library, exclusively on the service’s most expensive tier, which would contain the PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable game libraries.
Do the math on the classics “up to 340”
But so far, PlayStation Plus doesn’t feel representative of that original classics library target, and a blog post on Wednesday suggests Sony is dragging its feet.
The latest PlayStation Plus blog post confirmed that 11 games will land on the service’s premium and “extra” tiers in August. Although this list includes three solid games from Sega Yakuza series, and the eccentric tastes of modern indie Bugsnax and classic RPG remake Mana Trials, it does not include games from any Sony console library outside of PS4 and PS5. This follows a July addition of just three “classic” games, all from the PSP, to PS Plus.
As a reminder, the PS Plus Classics Selection launched in June with 27 games from the aforementioned trio of systems: 11 for PS1, 24 for PS2 and two for PSP. Two months later, we are up to 30 conversions of the original versions of these consoles. And now that we’ve done the math, we fear those libraries will get much bigger unless Sony revises its advertising.
Sony tells PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers that its classics will reach “up to 340” games, but that number includes titles that were already on the PlayStation Now streaming service, which revolves almost exclusively around PlayStation 3 games. US PS Plus Premium users can access 294 PS3 games (although around five of them are rolling updates or DLC packages). Add 30 to this number and you are left with 16 possible additions.
Sony has yet to emulate PS3 games on native PS5 or PS4 hardware, so they must be streamed from the cloud. This differs significantly from the service’s PS1, PS2, and PSP games, which can be downloaded and rendered natively without any cloud-induced issues with latency or pixel fidelity. So some modern console owners looking to play classic games may find Sony’s current “324” classic total misleading, as long as their home internet connection or data cap proves prohibitive.
So many exclusives missing on PS1, PS2, PSP and PS3
Contracts and agreements with third parties limit the console maker’s ability to release additional classic games. For example, re-releasing all EA Sports classics from the 90s on PlayStation Plus would require Sony not only to shake hands with EA, but also to strike deals with athletes and other potential licensees. represented in older games. But Sony’s 100%-owned content on its first three consoles is plentiful enough to dump 16 more games on PlayStation Plus tomorrow and still have dozens of games to choose from, should it update the schedule in the future. coming. (And to clarify: PlayStation Plus Premium already includes third-party pricing from the PS1, PS2, and PSP eras made by studios like Capcom, Bandai Namco, Team 17, and THQ Nordic.)
Sony can be content to keep its classic game release plans to a minimum while emphasizing modern PS Plus additions like Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade and Wander. The company can swell its classics selection with hundreds of games that had sat on the existing PlayStation Now service for years, all before being folded into the better-known PlayStation Plus fold. (We’ve already talked about Sony’s PlayStation Now branding issue.) But while PlayStation Now’s selection of PS3 games includes some gems, it’s missing some of the PS3’s best exclusives, including the wild animal simulator game. . Tokyo Junglethe local multiplayer madness of Calling all carsthe original platform puzzle PuppeteerSony-owned series sequels Killzone and Resistanceand the classic PS3 Solid metal gear 4.
Perhaps Sony will change its air of classic publishing as the shine of PlayStation Plus’ new tier fades to help generate titles and bring in new customers. But for PlayStation fans who pre-purchased a full year of PS Plus Premium in anticipation of Sony celebrating its reign of the 90s and early 2000s, the wait will apparently continue to be difficult, especially more that Microsoft is taking a hardware-agnostic approach to attract more gamers. Sony representatives did not immediately respond to Ars Technica’s questions about what to expect from PlayStation Plus’ selection of classic games in the coming months.
