Simultaneously with the announcement of new versions of PS Plus, an interview with PlayStation boss Jim Ryan appeared on GamesIndustry.biz. He confirmed that the exclusives Sony will not appear in the subscription at the same time as the release, and told what this is connected with.
We believe that we have reached a good productive cycle with our studios. Investment leads to success, which allows you to make more investments, which allows you to achieve even more success. We love this cycle and we think our gamers love it too.
As far as releasing our games as a subscription at the time of release… As you well know, we haven’t done this before. And we are not going to do it with our new service. In our opinion, if we do this with games that are made in PlayStation Studios, the productive cycle will collapse. It will become impossible to reach the level of investment that our studios need. And, we believe, the domino effect for our games will be what gamers do not want.
Jim Ryan
Returnal will be part of PS Plus Extra, which means that Sony games will be included in the subscription some time after the release.
However, as Ryan emphasizes, the world is changing rapidly, so nothing lasts forever. Like, four years ago, no one would have thought that God of War will be released on PC. Everything Ryan talks about only applies to today and to what publishing position he is currently in. Sony.
The PS Plus library will also begin to offer games from third-party companies. Negotiations with all major publishers are going well, they all want to get into a new subscription from Sonysays Ryan. Most likely, there will be something for everyone in the launch lineup – from cutting-edge blockbusters, to the glorious legacy of the past, to indie games. Whether other people’s projects will appear in PS Plus on the day of release is not specified.
However, Ryan doesn’t believe that gaming subscription services will ever get big enough to come close to Spotify or Netflix.
Subscriptions have definitely become more important over the past few years. The number of PlayStation Plus subscribers has grown from zero in 2010 to 48 million now. We expect our services to continue to grow in subscribers.
But games as media are so different from music and non-interactive entertainment that, in my opinion, [игровые подписки] will not reach the level that we see with Spotify and Netflix.
Some game-services are now very successful. And I don’t limit my comment to the number of consoles sold, these games are like subscriptions in and of themselves. And they are tightly tailored to gamers who love to spend hours on end in their favorite game, month after month. The game-service phenomenon has been a huge contributor to the incredible growth of the gaming industry over the past ten years. I think the service trend will continue. And if you look at the model in our form of entertainment, where engagement is sustained for a long time, games-services fit into the world of services better than game subscriptions.
But it’s all about choice. Apparently millions of people are happy with their PlayStation Plus subscription. We offer them such an option on our platform, and in our opinion, this option is getting much better with the latest changes. However, if people want to play Fortnite, Call of Duty or FIFA and stay there, then it’s ok. Nobody is forcing anyone to do anything.
Jim Ryan