Why God Of War Ragnarök Won't Be On PS Plus On Day One

screenrant.com:

God of War Ragnarök, the highly-anticipated sequel to 2018's God of War, is expected to be released later this year, however, it’s been revealed the PlayStation exclusive won’t be on PS Plus on day one, not even for Premium subscribers. PS Plus is PlayStation’s subscription service that gives players access to online multiplayer and monthly free games. PS Plus will soon be merging with PS Now, PlayStation’s game subscription service intended to compete with Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass, but neither platform will give players access to God of War Ragnarok upon its release.

God of War Ragnarok is the upcoming ninth game in the God of War series, expected to arrive at some point in 2022 for PlayStation 4 and 5. Initially planned for a 2021 release date, God of War Ragnarok was delayed like many major video games due to challenges caused by the COVID pandemic, as well as Kratos actor Christopher Judge's health issues. The upcoming Norse mythology-inspired title is a sequel to God of War, which was released in 2018 as a PlayStation exclusive, before being ported to PC in January 2022. God of War is one of PlayStation’s most successful franchises, with 2018’s installment having the highest Metacritic score (94) of any Sony Interactive Entertainment title at time of writing.

Related: God Of War's Slow Opening Hides The Game's True Brilliance

PlayStation recently confirmed that PS Plus won’t be getting day one launches of major PlayStation Studios releases, a stark contrast to competitor Xbox Game Pass’ model. In a recent interview, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan confirmed that the company’s own games won’t be appearing on the soon-to-be-revamped PS Plus on day one, due to the level of investment needed and concerns about the potential