What threat does Gamepass pose for Sony in the long run?

[Runa216]

JWeinCom said:

Runa216 said:
"PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 games on PlayStation Now can be streamed to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and PC. As of 2020, there are over 800 games available, with over 300 of them available for download to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5."

"Xbox Games Pass gives you access to more than 200 games to download and play on your Xbox One for one monthly fee. It will also be available on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S from 10 November 2020 - their release date"

Not much, I don't think. And honestly, people have been pushing GamePass for so long and praising it as the best deal in gaming for ages...but I never saw much value in it so I never really looked into it. However, out of curiosity I decided to google and see how many games were on GamePass vs PSNow (Similar but not identical services) and just facepalmed. Even if you just factor in the games that can be downloaded, it's still about 50% more on PSnow. I still have no interest in either one, I just find it funny that Xbox and their diehards have all been pushing GamePass as the ultimate deal in Gaming, while Sony has been doing something similar for years and nobody gave a shit. IT's only a big deal because Xbox says it's a big deal, just like all their misuses of the word 'exclusive'.

Nah, it's a big deal because it's a much bigger deal.

I purchased PSNow to have some games to play during this quarantine summer. And was very disappointed. The big draw for me was the back catalog of games, but those are all streaming. Depending on my location, the streaming experience ranged from laggy enough to be really annoying to completely unplayable. And I had fairly decent internet in all the places I tried. Other people's experiences have varied, but for me at least, all of those streaming titles might as well have not existed. 

As for the downloadable titles, it's a matter of quantity vs quality. There were not very many titles I wanted to play on PSNow. Gamepass has more games I want to play than I have time for. 

Bottom line is that I had a PS4, bought PSNow, and just didn't find it worth it. Despite the fact that I actually had to buy the XBox to get Gamepass, I don't regret that in the least. It's a better service. And I had no bias towards it to begin with. I didn't own an XBox One and don't especially like MS's first party games. I certainly would have rather not paid an extra 200 bucks if Sony's service was just as good, but I tried both, and Gamepass is superior. 

In my semi-defense (but not really)I hadn't even thought about PSNow before today when a friend mentioned it. I have no idea what games are on each service because I never looked too deeply into them. Streaming sucks, I never had any doubt about that, but I did some research and saw the numbers and saw that to my shock PS4's PSNow had 4x what GamePass had. I had heard some ads about what games were coming to PSNow, and they seemed like decent enough games. Again, I'm not interested in either service enough to purchase either one, so I didn't do a deep dive, but I still think that Sony's not in any real danger due to GamePass and won't be any time soon. If GamePass was a system seller, Xbox would be breaching 120 million units sold, not PS4. 

I do agree quality is more important than quality. That's one thing we all agree on when it's convenient. 

It's a nice option for those who want/need it, but I think there will always be a large group of people who want physical copies of games, who want to own their games, and don't want a commitment. Xbox has been pushing for their games to be a service or to limit players for a while; they wanted to make always-online DRM, and people had a fit about it. Now, they wanna tie people down with more monthly fees and require online connectivity? Same thing, different presentation.