Sony's new service offerings change the PlayStation landscape | Opinion

gamesindustry.biz:

Rob Fahey

Contributing Editor

Friday 1st April 2022

Sony Interactive Entertainment

We've known for months that Sony has had something in the works for its subscription services offerings. Rumours of an overhaul codenamed Project Spartacus proliferated, but perhaps even more convincing than any rumour was the sense that Sony simply must have something up its sleeve; the challenge of Microsoft's widely praised Game Pass service could surely not go unanswered for much longer?

This week, we've finally seen what the company is planning: a three-tier service that will merge the PS Now streaming service with the existing PS Plus offering, while adding in a more extensive library of games from the PlayStation back catalogue.

Quite a few smart things have already been written about how this offering stacks up against Game Pass, and one of the key takeaways seems to be that it's not really meant to be a direct competitor -- not least because Game Pass is overtly designed to disrupt the business model of console gaming, which Sony does rather well from and would prefer if you kept your disruptive paws to yourself, thank you very much.

Sony's new tiered PS Plus is an attempt to square this circle; to give its users the kind of service offering that's becoming de rigeur, and establish a long tail revenue stream for older titles along the way -- all without knocking the support columns out from underneath the AAA game business in which it's been performing so spectacularly in recent years. It's a tricky balancing act, and while I imagine the new service will be very popular, I'm not convinced that the balancing act will actually work. This will cause a dramatic shift in the PlayStation's ecosystem, independently of whatever it does to the