Sony Defends PlayStation Plus’ Price Increase, No Day One Game Releases

Sony has chimed in to defend their PlayStation Plus policies.

Last September, Sony hiked prices up for PlayStation Plus’ subscription plans. Now, you have to pay between $ 80 and $ 160 per month to maintain the privilege of playing online, playing demos, and accessing a rotating library of games without buying them at full price.

Higher tiers also give PlayStation Plus users access to the PlayStation Classics library, and cloud gaming. But Sony risks facing customer backlash with their policies, especially with current economic conditions.

As reported by GameRant, PlayStation senior vice president Eric Lempel talked to Barron’s about this issue. He didn’t defend these policies directly, but did point out that a lack of public complaints about this means that PlayStation Plus subscribers seem to be happy enough with the service. Lempel also revealed that one-third of all PlayStation Plus users are subscribed to one of the two higher tiers.

Just to put that into context, last July, we learned from regulatory documents that 70 to 80 % of Xbox Game Pass subscribers are on the higher tier. That is a clearer indication that Xbox’s subscription service is satisfying their customers than Sony is with their audience and subscription service.

Lempel also addressed a common complaint about PlayStation Plus, stemming from a major advantage that Game Pass has over it. Game Pass includes Day One releases of many video games, meaning they release on retail full price at the same day they appear on Game Pass.

While some analysts would have warned that this could harm retail sales, Microsoft’s experience is that it widens the pie for potential customers to play video games. Now what Microsoft experiences may not necessarily match up with other companies. What is noteworthy here is that Sony does not release their games on retail and add them to PlayStation Plus on the same day.

Lempel does not have as robust a defense of Sony’s policies this time. He argues that the two services are very different, and that the differences come down to the type and quality of games on offer. However, ultimately, Lempel says that he “can’t comment on what the competition is doing.”

Obviously enough, this is a terrible defense of Sony’s policies. Microsoft got to play Redfall, Starfield, and Forza Motorsport firsthand. Good or bad, Game Pass subscribers were guaranteed access to Xbox’s own games, and that raises the value of their subscription service.

The hypothetical that Microsoft could have missed out on full retail sales is counteracted by 1) how well Starfield sold at retail, and 2) how much revenue Game Pass makes in general.

We can’t force Sony to change policies and also start offering day one PlayStation Plus releases. So Sony will just have to live with the uncertainty that they could have been making more money with their games if they shifted to day one. As for consumers, they should be guided accordingly.