There are defenitely a lot of people who would feel like that. But to me at least, and I'm certainly not alone on this one eithre, there is a metric ton of PS1 games I would at least casually drop in for a few hours and at least 20, or perhaps even 30 that I would want to play through completely. Hogs of War, StarWars Phantom Manace, Kula World, Final Fantasy VIII and IX (never played VII and am waiting for to whole remake to be out), Final Fantasy Tactics, Rugrats, Hercules, Tombi 1 and 2, Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid 1, Tekken 2 and especially 3, Castelvania (all available, never tried one of them actually) Tony Hawks Pro Skater (all available), Oddworld, Parappa the Rapper, Chrono Cross, Suikoden (always wanted to try that one out), Battle Arena Toshinden, Bushido Blade,... the list really goes on.

The appeal of an approach like I outlined in my op would not necessarily be in just PS1/2 games, not individually, and not en masse. It would be, eventually, to have every single thing that erver was and ever will be important about PlayStation in one service for one price.

But I honestly get your point. And I recognise that a lot of why I want PS1 games is nostalgia. ... On the other hand, Kula World and Hogs of War are just so good :)

In my op I did not want to say that GamePass is better than PSNow, that is very much subjective anyways. But it is certainly more sucessfull. And this is precisely because of the crowd of people you describe. People who want games day 1. The hype crowd. I'm honestly definitely part of that crowd when it comes to certain games. God of War, Shadow of the Colossus Remake, Devil May Cry V, SnakePass, What Remains of Edith Finch,... could not wait any longer than release day to play those games. And I think that is alright. Actully, i feel as though a lot of this industry is built around hype and the vast majority of people is not willing to play the latest, hottest game a year or two later.

But the pitch was not about "How can PSNow be as sucessfull as GamePass?" and more about "How can PSNow find it's own strong identity?"

And I certainly did not try to make it sound as if there are no current upsides to PSNow (with or without the comparison to GamePass).

But could I ask about your statement about GP not being more attractive to more people? I don't get it. I mean, if that statement was true, there would not even be a need for some (drastic) change and a pitch for what sort of change and subsequently this thread :) But I just goodled it and it says that GP has 23 million subscribers and PSNow 3 million. This suggests that GP is way more attractive to many more people, even with the first party output of Microsoft currently being inferiour to PlayStations in my opinion.

Well actually, it's not correct. MS never actually said there was 23 million users, in fact their last update was 18 million at 31st december 2020, since then they didn't announce new figures.

Jez Corden said 23 million, and then backtracked stating he misunderstood some data, and is probably arround 22 million, but there is no official figures stating 22 or 23 million by MS. 

And maybe we'll get new figures by late July, we'll see.

I should have been clearer, I was referring to PS Plus numbers (47m+), which is think is just as relevant of a comparison if not more since it focuses more on newer modern games compared to Now's legacy stuff. Maybe the comparison is made because of streaming element, but I don't really hear people talking about using that with GP, it's just the "free" games and at that level Plus should be in consideration IMHO, certainly it's numbers shouldn't be discounted entirely. (not to mention when good games come out on Now, the comments here typically include somebody complaining about streaming and then somebody telling them it can be downloaded locally too... streaming just doesn't seem that desired by people ready and able to play on console/gaming platform that can run said games)

I do think the Now/Plus distinction is confusing and unclear (as I commented in current article on Now release of Nioh2/RDR2), and fixing that just by making the offering clearer, e.g. with all newer modern content on one service, possibly splitting out streaming from content as such, and if they are getting paid for latter the streaming could be free regardless if subscribed to classic or modern game services. I could see different sets of indy content being included to enrich both classic/modern offerings, or available to subscribe to entire indy offering as standalone. And of course, it could be incrementally improved with basic "wants" like more, newer games and that sort of thing. I guess I'm much more resistant against Day 1 impulse urges, if only because that means it hasn't yet gotten the patches it needs. You're better off waiting to play the fixed version, and also get a better deal, whether via subscription or discount purchase (and if you can get used to that, the "deal" of subscription also doesn't seem as amazing, never mind considering the option to resell used game discs, which GP fans somehow never mention when doing their comparisons which they expect you to worship).

Anyways, I think Sony is still one of most profitable companies in AAA gaming, and MS is  not challenging that, and while I see their offering evolving I don't see them sacrificing profitability since that is what holds up their company as a whole and being a mature business there isn't much case for abandoning profitability. I do see their relation with Epic potentially evolving, which could potentially be relevant for subscription business  in PC space.

Thanks for the clarification. Did not know that. But still, between 3 and 18, there is a massive difference. And I think it is fair to say, that GP is a bigger success with more consumer interest behind it than PSNow.

There are several reasons for that:

- Xbox Cloud streaming is only available to GP Ultimate subscribers and the number of compatible devices was very small until a few months ago (only a few high end Android phones / tablets)

- most people subscribing to GP Ultimate instead of the normal GP sub already have Xbox One (or Series) hardware (or gaming PCs) which run the GamePass games much better locally than streamed

- Xbox consoles aren't supported Xbox cloud devices (yet?)... so you can't skip a 50 GB download of a GamePass game by steaming it on an Xbox console. And you can't stream Xbox Series games/versions to an Xbox One S for better performance / raytracing effects

- Save data sync for some games is extremely slow (f. e. Forza Horizon 4... probably all my DLCs / bonus cars have to be installed to the virtual Xbox, which is a blank slate every streaming session)

- Xbox cloud streaming quality was really bad until last week: 720p streaming with video artefacts and Xbox One S performance

But things got a lot better a few days ago: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/06/28/xbox-cloud-gaming-now-running-on-xbox-series-x/

Now the Xbox games run on Series X hardware and are streamed in 1080p 60 fps... probably with some supersampling advantages for games that run in higher resolutions than 1080p on Series X hardware. With Windows PCs and iOS devices the compatibility for Xbox Cloud streaming has also gron immensely in the last weeks.

That said, PSNow streaming also got a lot better since April with the upgrade from 720p streaming to 1080p streaming (for PS4 games). PS3 games are still streamed in 720p as far as I know and streaming is the only option for PS3 games in that subscription (they can't run locally on PS4 / PS5 hardware and PS Now doesn't support PS3 hardware).

Both true, but you're getting way better value with Game Pass. At least twice as many games monthly come to Game Pass, day 1 releases of all 1st party games and plenty of 3rd party day 1 releases. It's really not close which is the superior service. 

double post

As a general criticism to my pitch, I hear that history is not as enticing. PS1 games are fine, but hardly why everybody buys GP in droves - because that would be new first party games day 1.
Is there no way to change PSNow in a way that it becomes more of a success and stays unique? Is the answer really GP? No shame in a copy, if your competitor makes all the right moves I guess.

But aren't there some crazy pitches for PSNow still out there to show up completely new directions to persue?

They could add it to PS+ and call it PS+ Pro.

PS+ 12 months $/€ 59.99 (so 5 bucks per month)
PS Now 12 months $/€ 59.99 (so 5 bucks per month)

PS+ Pro 12 months $/€ 83.99 (so 7 bucks per month)