It is reported that Sony will launch a service next week to compete with Microsoft’s game pass, which may bring the “game console war” into a new era based on subscription.
According to Bloomberg’s report on Friday morning, Sony may make an official announcement on its new service code named “Spartacus” as early as next week.
It is reported that Spartacus will provide members with multi-level game experience, including current generation games and various games in the Playstation back directory, possibly including games in PlayStation 2 and Playstation portable. At the most expensive level, users can also get extended game presentation and streaming options.
Sony currently provides two different subscription services for Playstation users. Playstation plus ($9.99 / month) unlocks multiplayer access to Playstation games, offers exclusive discounts, and offers users three free games per month. Playstation now ($9.99 per month) is an on-demand service that allows users to download streaming media from Sony’s PS2, PS3 and PS4 game libraries.
According to Bloomberg, “Spartacus” is a combination of the two. There is no information on how the new service will be priced or whether it will replace one or two of the existing services.
In contrast, Microsoft’s Xbox game pass offers a $9.99/month level, specifically for personal computers or game consoles. It always includes the right to access new games from the first day of Xbox game studio (such as halo infinite). The ultimate layer of $14.99 per month bundles these two platforms with Xbox LIVE gold, which provides free games and online multiplayer games for console users every month, as well as ea play service of third-party developer Electronic Arts.
These two services are directly related to the relative priority of Sony and Microsoft.
Of course, Sony is far ahead of Microsoft in unit sales. Some sources estimate that the unit sales of Playstation 4 and 5 are twice that of Xbox. It is running the operation manual of the traditional game industry.
On the other hand, Xbox game passes are estimated by third-party analysts – Microsoft has not released its official figures for many years – there are at least 25 million users, and according to Microsoft’s E3 2021 presentation, games including pass have achieved considerable sales growth.
Xbox lags far behind Playstation in overall market penetration, but is gradually abandoning the typical game sales model and adopting an arrangement more like Netflix. No matter what happens behind the scenes, Microsoft has previously reported that its game revenue is growing, and the recent acquisition of Activision Blizzard and other measures show that it plans to continue this process.
Due to their increasingly different practices, it is difficult to regard Sony and Microsoft as traditional competitors, but with the initiatives such as Spartacus and its acquisition of Bungie, Sony obviously felt some pressure.
In my opinion, the biggest problem is how far Sony is going here. Game subscription services are more than many fans realize, many of which use similar “on-demand” settings to get game passes, or provide free games at least every month. This includes Amazon Luna, Google stadia, humble choice, NVIDIA’s geforce now, and the more unique Nintendo switch online.
It is Microsoft that puts its first-party games (such as halo infinite) on the service and does so at the time of release. This move is likely to have a counterproductive impact on Microsoft by eroding its own sales, but it seems to have successfully turned the game into a deal that ordinary players can’t give up, especially in upcoming large-scale games such as StarCraft.
There is no indication that Sony will do anything similar, but on the contrary, Sony may use “Spartacus” to take advantage of its background directory. Sony’s Playstation project was only seven years earlier than Xbox, but it experienced several obvious industry leading periods at that time, especially in Japan. Sony made a lot of investment in first-party development from the beginning.
As a result, Sony has a huge library that can be used for almost any type, some of which have been dead and buried for many years. Just by using nostalgia, it can make a lot of money in a relatively short time, especially if it opens some out of print games for the original Playstation, or at least reopens the digital PSone classic series, which is still inexplicably locked in the store of Playstation 3.
However, the question is whether Sony is willing to use its first party game as the first day reward of “Spartacus” like Microsoft. When exclusive Playstation products such as ares have easily sold millions of units, it has no special overall reason to take such risks. On the other hand, many small first-party games in Sony studio may be more successful in game pass cloning than as independent software.
As a result, the current glut of subscription services and, to a lesser extent, flash purchases are having an interesting chain reaction to game production, marketing and targeting.
To some extent, you have seen the rebirth of what I called “good leasing” 15 years ago: the game is not as a service or theoretically eternal multiplayer experience, but carried out and completed in a day, a week or a weekend. The new open world Supernatural Game “ghost line: Tokyo” is a good example, and the recent single player shooting game “Shadow Warrior 3” is also a good example.
If Sony succeeds in establishing its own basic game pass concept, you can expect to see this game style make a comeback, rather than the current dominance of the large open world and 100 hour experience like Eldon ring. We may see the beginning of a new and influential modern video game publishing environment.