Sony Says Putting PS5 Games on PS Plus Day One Would 'Deteriorate' Their Quality

gamerant.com:

Without a doubt, one of the biggest selling points of Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription is the day one games. Getting Starfield (despite its recent delay) day one with just a subscription, for example, is an enticing prospect. However, many have also questioned why other publishers don’t do this, such as Sony putting PS5 titles on PS Plus on day one.

With PS Plus Premium releasing in June too, many may feel like this is a missed opportunity on Sony’s behalf, but that may not be the case entirely. Several companies have recently released financial releases and confirmed fiscal year releases, with Sony CFO Hikori Totoki speaking in a recent Q&A session after Sony’s results.

PS Plus Collection Just Lost One of Its Best Games

Totoki refused to comment on its competitor’s approach, but he did discuss why Sony can’t put day-one PS5 games on PS Plus. As transcribed by VGC, “AAA titles on PS5, if we distribute them on that subscription service we may need to shrink the investment needed for that. That will deteriorate the first-party title quality and that is our concern. So we want to make sure we spend the appropriate development costs to have solid products and titles to be introduced in the right manner.”

Without a doubt, with major PlayStation games like God of War: Ragnarok, Spider-Man 2, and so on, no one wants to see the quality of the game deteriorated. There have been a few bad faith “takes” on this comment, where online users have suggested that Sony conflates quality with money, but this is a business report. Games cost a lot of money to make and develop, especially at Sony's level.

While Totoki doesn’t get into this, it’s worth adding that Microsoft and Sony are essentially an apples and oranges comparison.