The new PlayStation Plus: Sony misses making an exclamation mark

Sony versus Microsoft. Since the launch of the first Xbox in November 2001, these two console manufacturers have been battling for market dominance. What about Nintendo, you might ask? Well, they’ve always been doing their own thing, and they’ve been doing it very successfully, but they’re targeting a different target group or their platforms are often the perfect companion console, while with Xbox and PlayStation it’s often: either … right?!

In the last few generations, I’ve always had the feeling that Sony is clearly ahead. The exclusive franchises like Uncharted, The Last of Us, God of War, Gran Turismo, Jak & Dexter, Crash Bandicoot, Ratchet & Clank, Horizon and so on are just too strong. Halo, Forza Horizon and Co. simply couldn’t keep up in the past or they were too outnumbered. And without strong exclusives, having more horsepower under the hood will do you little good.

New generation, new situation

The acquisition of Activision Blizzard will only really pay off for Microsoft in a few years.

Source: microsoft

However, the narrative has now changed. Although Sony still owns the more powerful (already published) in-house productions for the last and current generation of consoles, this time Microsoft not only has the slightly more powerful console, but also a subscription model with the Xbox Game Pass, the PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now clearly outshines. Added to this are the numerous acquisitions of recent years. By that we mean not only Zenimax/Bethesda and Activision Blizzard, but also the various other well-known studios such as Obsidian, Ninja Theory, Mojang, Rare or InXile, which now belong to Team Xbox.

All these studios are working on projects that will eventually end up on the market. And then the discussion “Who makes the best games?” very different than in previous years. The fact that these investments need time to bring the desired return was only revealed a few days ago Starfield and Redfall shifts proven.

Sony Empire strikes back? Unfortunately, no

Since the announcement of the Activision takeover, an entire industry has been waiting for Sony to react to the Microsoft move in some way. the Bungie acquisition in February 2022 was not a reaction, but should have been in the making long before. the Acquisition of Haven in March is just a side note. The fact that further takeovers are in the works PlayStation boss Jim Ryan made no secret. According to the rumor mill, there should even be a Big players in the games industry targeted by Sony condition. So far, however, nothing has been confirmed. But there was a promise that you still more money into developing their own first-party games stuck, i.e. want to further develop the greatest strength. I think that’s basically a good thing.

But I’m a bit disappointed with the way Sony is currently tackling another construction site: PlayStation Plus. As is known, a new version of the service offer awaits us in June, in which the old PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now in the three PlayStation Plus variants Essential, Extra and Premium being transformed. After the announcement, it was still unclear what the game libraries of the more expensive Plus versions Extra and Premium should look like, but there were recently the first details. And they don’t exactly cause storms of enthusiasm.