Microsoft on kerännyt lukuisia pelaajia Xboxille omalla kuukausimaksullisella Xbox Game Pass -palvelullaan. Eilen Gamereactor uutisoi, että Sony lanseeraa oman kolmiportaisen vastineensa. Näistä se keskimmäinen vaihtoehto Playstation Plus Extra muistuttaa eniten Xbox Game Pass Ultimatea.
Games Industryn haastattelema Playstation-pomo Jim Ryan tekee kuitenkin selväksi, että uudistuksesta huolimatta tulevaisuus on edelleen live service -menossa eikä suinkaan kuukausimaksullisessa pelipalvelussa.
"Subscription has certainly grown in importance over the course of the last few years. Our PlayStation Plus subscriber number has grown from zero in 2010, to 48 million now. And we anticipate, for our services, that we will see further growth for the subscriber number. But the medium of gaming is so very different to music and to linear entertainment, that I don't think we'll see it go to the levels that we see with Spotify and Netflix,"
Mikromaksut ja jatkuvat päivitykset ovat se tulevaisuus, ja niihin Sony panostaa. Uutta linjaa on jo noudatettu esimerkiksi pelissä Gran Turismo 7.
"That phenomenon of the live service game... that has, in a very large part, fueled the enormous growth in the gaming industry that we've seen over the last ten years. I think that trend towards live services will continue, and if you look for a model in our category of entertainment, which supports sustained engagement over a long period of time, live services games arguably fit that bill better than a subscription service."