Xbox Game Pass can be reason enough to pick up a Series S console if you don’t want to splash out on the Series X. With so many great titles available on day one, you might wonder why PS Plus never follows this trend. PS4 and PS5 owners can explore the PS Plus Extra and Premium catalog at will, but huge games like the recently released Spider-Man 2 will never be seen there on launch day. Now, PlayStation senior vice president Eric Lampel explains why this is the case.
In a new interview with Barrons, Lampel discusses the current state of PS Plus in regard to new PS5 games and how players can access some of the best PS5 games around within the current selection of free PS Plus games. Addressing the recent PS Plus price increase, Lampel says that “like practically everything else in the world, we have to look at our pricing, and we have to adjust to market conditions.” While it may be a divisive decision for players, Lampel clarifies that “we want to make PlayStation Plus great. With our reboot last year and introducing the tier system, a lot of consumers have recognized that there’s a lot of value in PlayStation 5.”
However, that value can be definitely argued against the slate of new Xbox games consistently joining the Game Pass library. Just this year alone, we’ve seen arguably some of the best games of 2023 like Starfield, Payday 3, and Lies of P carve out space within the Microsoft subscription service.
Though PS Plus recently introduced features like PS5 Cloud Streaming, which is similar to Game Pass’ own streaming capabilities, Lampel adds that PS Plus is simply “very different” to Game Pass, and it stems to Sony’s plan for players. “It comes down to what you’re going to get in the service in terms of the type of game and the quality of games. I can’t comment on what the competition is doing,” says Lampel.
Adding to his comments, Lampel states that “we feel we’re offering a great curated catalog of games, as well as other features and services with PlayStation Plus […] since we introduced the tiers, we’ve seen a third of the [PS] Plus user base opt for the upper two tiers, which was more than we had expected.” This follows comments last year from soon-to-be former PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan, who tells GI.biz that “we feel if we were to do that with the games that we make at PlayStation Studios […] the level of investment that we need to make in our studios would not be possible, and we think the knock-on effect on the quality of the games that we make would not be something that gamers want.”
So, it is safe to say you won’t be seeing moments like the Modern Warfare 3 release date bring the latest Call of Duty to PS Plus from day one. Though, following the Microsoft Activision merger and the role Ubisoft plays within it, never say never.