Sony brought a fairly crazy Tuesday, at least more "fragrant" than last week's crazy Thursday
Mention Sony's PS+ service, everyone should not be unfamiliar, in the PS4 era, this service is a must for every PS player who needs online/cloud save services, and several games are launched at the beginning of each month, which has also become an operation engraved in the DNA of many people.
And last Tuesday (March 29), Sony officially announced an upgraded version of this membership service - the new membership subscription service "Spartacus", which has previously revealed a lot of news, for example, it is probably Sony's version of XGP, Spartacus integrated the original PS+ and PS NOW business, launched a new subscription service, and divided members into 3 files.
The first gear is basically the same as the current PS+ function, and the price remains unchanged, taking Hong Kong service as an example of 308 Hong Kong dollars (about 250 yuan) / 1 year.
The second file contains 400 PS4/PS5 games, including God of War, Tsushima, Marvel Spider-Man, Horizon 2, GT7 and other one-party masterpieces, in some gossip, there are also P5R, Death Stranding, Eldon's French Ring and other popular third-party masterpieces, the price has also increased to 515 Hong Kong dollars (420 yuan) / 1 year.
The third file that integrates the current PS NOW service provides differentiated services for different regions, such as in Europe and the United States, the service will add an additional 240 games, most of which are PS3 and PS2 games streamed by the cloud, while the Hong Kong service without PS NOW service does not provide this service, but allows players to download old games such as PS3, PS2 and PSP, and the price is lower, at 599 Hong Kong dollars (487 yuan) / 1 year.
This is the first drastic overhaul of PS+ since its launch on June 29, 2010, and the driving force that made Sony's determination should be guessed - it is Microsoft's XGP subscription service next door.
What's more interesting is that everyone says that Microsoft is the first person to eat crabs in the subscription market, he defines new tracks and new ways of playing, and those who enter the market have to look at his face to make a deal. In fact, XGP announced in January this year the number of subscribers is 25 million, the number of PS + members in the last year has been close to 50 million, PS + as the basic version of the new subscription service, for Sony to bring a large number of potential users who can be converted, even if nothing is done directly, (including PS+) the new version of the subscription service, its subscriber number will not be too ugly in the annual financial report.
This means that Sony is not an attacker in this subscription war, it is the side that guards the ring.
It can also be seen from some of the information that has now been released that Sony's axes are not aggressive. For example, most of Microsoft's first-party studio works will be directly logged into XGP at the first launch, after the acquisition of Blizzard, Bethesda and other established manufacturers, which is more attractive to players, and Sony said that the first-party studio game will not be first registered in Spartacus, as for how long it will be played, sony does not give a clear statement.
It even became Microsoft's voice the next day with the capital "DAY ONE" cue Sony
There is also an important reason, everyone's game lineup is not bad (if from the beginning of the white prostitution game Microsoft XGP member game library is about 450 models), the service attitude is also half a pound eight two, then the price advantage of Microsoft XGP is fully displayed. Because XGP supports cross-regional purchase, the KEY of XGP low-cost service that can now be bought online is about 200 yuan / 1 year. If you are a new user, this game can also be a lot of wool, the minimum may be less than 100 yuan can buy 1 year XGP.
Sony does not support the purchase of Spartacus across regions, the game is also based on the store partition lock language, the second gear in the only two Hong Kong stores that support Chinese games are priced at about 420 yuan / 1 year, which is about 2 times the difference, enough to eat several months of "Crazy Thursday".
It can be seen that Spartacus is not competitive with XGP in subscription-based services, of course, Sony's current strategy is also more focused on digesting existing PS+ users rather than grabbing customers with Microsoft.
It is foreseeable that Microsoft and Sony, the two major host manufacturers, are actively promoting subscription-based services, and the subscription system will become one of the mainstream consumption methods for players in the future outside of buyouts and microtransactions. Its positive significance is that players play more games with less money, small and medium-sized developers can also avoid the risk of high development costs, and have more means of guarantee, such as some expensive Japanese games ("Trajectory" series, "Machine Battle" series), they have not logged on to XBOX, and the speed of porting PCs varies from half a year to two years, and joining Spartacus may also open up a new audience.
But at the end of the day, the current subscription system is just a high-level way of renting animation/manga in small shops, you spend money to rent games in the Microsoft Store, and when you get to the point, you have to return them, and you don't want to continue to pay rent. The problem is that anime/manga that used to look good can pay another amount of money to buy it, and most stores can also let people offset part of the purchase price with rent in order to attract repeat customers, and whether it is XGP or Sparacus, there is now only one model of unlimited rent payment to renew the rent.
You need to worry that the subscription price paid in the previous few years and the game full of warehouses will become a sunk Chen Ben that you can't leave, in case one day Microsoft feels that the leeks are cooked and ready to open (raising prices, reducing the number of games, opening a new payment model), how to stay will become a very difficult choice.
Look at a warehouse full of people, but in fact, it can't really be "your game"
That's what I see as a game media editor as Sony's new subscription service and guessing how it will impact the industry as a whole. And if you stand in the position of "stink game", which has a more fun and cheaper game, how the wool should be at this stage, is probably the problem you will consider when you click the payment button.
So, would you consider upgrading your PS membership service?