Machiavellian said:
I disagree with your first paragraph. What Sony does has nothing to do with the success or movement of GamePass. GP is not validated if Sony response to it or not. Its been very evident that MS does not care what Sony does because they are moving in totally different directions. MS and Sony have totally different views about their service. MS is looking to build GP as a stand alone service that can be run on any device. Sony want to continue to tie in their service to their console. Its the reason why MS can make the decisions to put their games day one on the service because MS view GP as a Netflix service for games while Sony views their service as an extension of the PS system. Also MS did not stop BC, licensing deals stopped BC which will be the same issue Sony will have for any games not developed by them. |
It wasn't that long ago that either Spencer or Bond said Sony was coming out with their own version of Game Pass soon. That was no doubt said because of hopeful validation and because of it's potential competition.
Now as Sony, and some of the media and fans have been saying all along, less of them anyway, that this new Plus service wouldn't be a direct competitor to Game Pass. Which I would definitely agree now that it is not.
This absolutely removes some validation of Game Pass, because if this new Plus service was obviously direct competition, there would be a whole lot of, I told ya so's, and boasting of whichever service was obviously the better offer and deal.
Instead, Game Pass is clearly it's own thing still, trying to make a go of it, as well as this Plus service. The Plus service however, combines Now, which should help overall, and already has more history and a larger and steady subscriber base.
Both have pluses and minuses. Both are worth subscribing to, depending on your gaming wants and needs, or just get both if you can afford them. That's not an option for many though, so they'll have to choose, which is great, because it's all about choice. Phil has been clear XB is all for choice.
As for why MS put's their first party on Game Pass day 1, you're partially right, but it's more so because they can easily afford to. When you've got the worlds largest bank vault that consistently replentishes itself, you can easily do things like that, where others just can't because it won't work based only on the model.
When it comes to the licensing, is that because MS can't get them period, or because they don't want to spend the money there for whatever reason? If XB is doing all the work that needs to be done to get the BC games to the existing systems, but making no profit whatsoever, then why pay big money for licensing? Sony will be able to do this with the income from this new service structure, aside from the rare deals that are just refused to be made.
