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Project Spartacus and PS5 Digital Edition

odhiex

Member

PS5-digital-edition-console-front

With the pending announcement of the rumoured project "Spartacus" from Playstation, I got the feeling that the service could make the PS5 Digital Edition more appealing than ever before. I've heard that many XBOX fans are clamouring the XBOX Series S as the perfect Gamepass machine, because:

1. It is the cheapest model.
2. Sleek design (small).
3. XBOX Gamepass has hundreds of games.

So, it would make sense for Sony to position the PS5 DE as the perfect "PS Plus something something" machine. I love my PS5 DE and I understand that there are many of us who are still buying physical disc games. However, for those who are perfectly fine migrating to the Digital-only route, a subscription service like the Spartacus (like the XBOX Gamepass as well) seems a perfect fit for this kind of product.

NO, this is not a console war thread, please take that shit away!! I want to buy XBOX someday and Gamepass is really appealing to me. Kinda wish that Microsoft would release the XBOX Series X Digital Edition as well. I would still buy games that I want to play/own.
 

Justin9mm

Member
As a primary PS5 gamer myself, in order to compete against Series S and Gamepass, the PS5 DE needs to be cheaper and I can't see the new PS gaming service/subscription being better than Gamepass. We know already it won't provide day one exclusives even at the highest tier and most likely not as many games.

At least in my country in Australia, it doesn't matter whether digital or disc, you can't get the console all the same and if you are looking for value for money then I don't think PS5 DE and PlayStation's new subscription is it.

Xbox put all their eggs in one basket with Gamepass, its haemorrhaging money and a gamble still waiting to pay off, Sony will never do that.
 

Methos#1975

Member
Let's see what Spartecus is first, honestly I'm expecting nothing but shear disappointment from it. I think the chances of third party companies actually allowing a decent selection of the greatest of Playstation since it's inception slim to none.
 

Grechy34

Member
As a primary PS5 gamer myself, in order to compete against Series S and Gamepass, the PS5 DE needs to be cheaper and I can't see the new PS gaming service/subscription being better than Gamepass. We know already it won't provide day one exclusives even at the highest tier and most likely not as many games.

At least in my country in Australia, it doesn't matter whether digital or disc, you can't get the console all the same and if you are looking for value for money then I don't think PS5 DE and PlayStation's new subscription is it.

Xbox put all their eggs in one basket with Gamepass, its haemorrhaging money and a gamble still waiting to pay off, Sony will never do that.

I'm in Australia too and it's wild how this Christmas there's still no consoles down here. How long have these consoles been out for now?
 
Spartacus is a combination of PS now and PS plus. PS now is only available in 19 countries worldwide, so either this needs a big expansion or Spartacus will be limited to those 19.

Secondly, Spartacus is not (from the rumours) Sony's new games on the service available Day 1.

You want to play old PlayStation games, there are other options than a PS5 DE.

The DE allowed Sony to hit the USD399 price point. That's the reason it exists. Nothing to do with Spartacus.
 

odhiex

Member
Let's see what Spartecus is first, honestly I'm expecting nothing but shear disappointment from it. I think the chances of third party companies actually allowing a decent selection of the greatest of Playstation since it's inception slim to none.
Sure, we can wait to see. That does not mean we cannot speculate, right? hehe
 

kyliethicc

Member
1 - PS Now has over 850 games, so yeah the Plus 3.0 Spartacus library will be huge. Over 1000 games eventually.

2 - Yeah it'll help sell some more PS5 DEs

3 - Wouldn't really call the PS5 DE small lol. I do like the design tho (when vertical, as it should be.)
 
PS5 will sell because of the games. It will continue to be the most sought after console whether there is spartacus or not.

What the Spartacus will do is for Sony to get more money from consumers, which in turn *i hope* will translate to more and more games in development.

Spartacus is a business move, not a desperation move.
 

MonarchJT

Banned
Spartacus will never be competitive with gamepass until Sony does not decide to release its first parties on day one on the service. If you add that the old psnow is limited to only 19 countries I have serious doubts that the unification of the two services will change its competitiveness. Frankly Ps + will never decline at least until the request for multiplayer game is forced, the addition of psnow is done because the service could not stand on its own legs. In this way he will come into "contact" with many users (those of PS +) and Sony expects that a % of these will eventually use the service.
 
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I only got a physical edition ps5 cause its the only one i could find. I don’t ever intend on putting a disc in this thing. So the DE is already appealing to me.
 

bender

What time is it?
I'm curious what the 3rd party "Day One on Game Pass" contracts look like as far as exclusivity is concerned. I'm sure those same 3rd parties would love the revenue from being on two services but will we enter the age of exclusives to these services?

What are PSNow subscription numbers at? A quick Google search shows the latest results at 3.2 million. We know Game Pass subscriptions are somewhere around 20 million. I really do wonder what the subscriber count needs to be before they break even. That said, you have to give credit to Microsoft for being really aggressive with user acquisition ($1 upgrades from Gold) and pairing that with a truly great service (Exclusives Day 1, a ton of high profile Day 1 third party games, Game Pass Quests along with Microsoft Rewards, PC Game Pass, xCloud).

And that does make me wonder how aggressive Sony can will be for user acquisition, pricing tiers, and acquiring 3rd party games for the service. I'm pretty skeptical on that front. They aren't going to offer their 1st party games day one and that's mostly understandable for now but that already puts them a step behind. Maybe a lot of developers Sony has acquired with expertise in PC porting are part of the plan to offer this service to that platform as well. I could see exclusives lasting a year and then it is considered back catalog and added the subscription service.

As far as throwing money at user acquisition, I have my doubts again. Microsoft's war chest is a thousand pound gorilla and I'm not sure Sony can keep up with the amount of money Microsoft is willing to burn. I think Sony could match most of the feature set of Game Pass but will they do it for $14.99 a month. If 3rd party offerings are equal, what else does Sony add to the service to make it more attractive? I guess things like Crunchy Roll are the obvious answer but can that fit that all into an attractive price point.

If they can check all those boxes, the DE PS5 gets a lot more attractive. Anecdotally, my buddy and I primarily gamed on PS4. We both got PS5s but the majority of our co-op sessions are done via Game Pass. He really wanted Back 4 Blood this year and I was pretty skeptical because of evolved and the pricing tiers of Back 4 Blood. Boom, it ends up on Game Pass. I really wanted to give Aliens Fireteam Elite a go and almost pulled the trigger on Black Friday. I'm glad I didn't because boom, it will be on Game Pass next week. Every time we talk, we keep saying it is harder and harder to buy $50, $60 or $70 games. I do think Sony needs an answer to this and I hope they do well as competition is good and it will help keep pushing Microsoft further.
 

Chukhopops

Member
I think a good subscription service will help bring value to the PS5 DE, although to me it will stil not compare well to the Disc version as long as the second hand market exists for PS5.

But not having Day 1 games will still remain a big difference, there were between 15 and 30 day 1 games added to GP this year (depending how you count and calculate) and those bring a lot of value obviously.
 

Rykan

Member


I've heard that many XBOX fans are clamouring the XBOX Series S as the perfect Gamepass machine, because:
Ah yes, the idea that if you remove the disk drive and cut the storage space in half, it suddenly becomes the perfect gamepass machine. The PS5DE can become a really good "gamepass" machine simply because it has the same specs and actually has an SSD size that makes sense for a digital only/subscription platform.
 
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kyliethicc

Member
I'm curious what the 3rd party "Day One on Game Pass" contracts look like as far as exclusivity is concerned. I'm sure those same 3rd parties would love the revenue from being on two services but will we enter the age of exclusives to these services?

What are PSNow subscription numbers at? A quick Google search shows the latest results at 3.2 million. We know Game Pass subscriptions are somewhere around 20 million. I really do wonder what the subscriber count needs to be before they break even. That said, you have to give credit to Microsoft for being really aggressive with user acquisition ($1 upgrades from Gold) and pairing that with a truly great service (Exclusives Day 1, a ton of high profile Day 1 third party games, Game Pass Quests along with Microsoft Rewards, PC Game Pass, xCloud).

And that does make me wonder how aggressive Sony can will be for user acquisition, pricing tiers, and acquiring 3rd party games for the service. I'm pretty skeptical on that front. They aren't going to offer their 1st party games day one and that's mostly understandable for now but that already puts them a step behind. Maybe a lot of developers Sony has acquired with expertise in PC porting are part of the plan to offer this service to that platform as well. I could see exclusives lasting a year and then it is considered back catalog and added the subscription service.

As far as throwing money at user acquisition, I have my doubts again. Microsoft's war chest is a thousand pound gorilla and I'm not sure Sony can keep up with the amount of money Microsoft is willing to burn. I think Sony could match most of the feature set of Game Pass but will they do it for $14.99 a month. If 3rd party offerings are equal, what else does Sony add to the service to make it more attractive? I guess things like Crunchy Roll are the obvious answer but can that fit that all into an attractive price point.

If they can check all those boxes, the DE PS5 gets a lot more attractive. Anecdotally, my buddy and I primarily gamed on PS4. We both got PS5s but the majority of our co-op sessions are done via Game Pass. He really wanted Back 4 Blood this year and I was pretty skeptical because of evolved and the pricing tiers of Back 4 Blood. Boom, it ends up on Game Pass. I really wanted to give Aliens Fireteam Elite a go and almost pulled the trigger on Black Friday. I'm glad I didn't because boom, it will be on Game Pass next week. Every time we talk, we keep saying it is harder and harder to buy $50, $60 or $70 games. I do think Sony needs an answer to this and I hope they do well as competition is good and it will help keep pushing Microsoft further.
There already are exclusivity deals to sub services for 3rd party games. Usually if a game is on service, like PS Plus / PS Now / Game Pass, it cannot be added to any competing services for a specified period. And there are also usually clauses preventing the publisher/developer from saying their game will/could go to any other services in the future during that specified period as well.

Like Control had a whole marketing deal with PlayStation and went to PS Now in March 2020. Earlier in December 2019, Xbox had said Control was going to Game Pass in the future. But 505 Games and Remedy had to deny that at the time since their deal was with PlayStation. But eventually, it did go on Game Pass in 2021 after the exclusivity window with PlayStation had ended.
 

bender

What time is it?
There already are exclusivity deals to sub services for 3rd party games. Usually if a game is on service, like PS Plus / PS Now / Game Pass, it cannot be added to any competing services for a specified period. And there are also usually clauses preventing the publisher/developer from saying their game will/could go to any other services in the future during that specified period as well.

Like Control had a whole marketing deal with PlayStation and went to PS Now in March 2020. Earlier in December 2019, Xbox had said Control was going to Game Pass in the future. But 505 Games and Remedy had to deny that at the time since their deal was with PlayStation. But eventually, it did go on Game Pass in 2021 after the exclusivity window with PlayStation had ended.

What I figured. I'm sure bigger publishers could negotiate being on both services simultaneously but that probably will not happen until Sony's subscriber counts are much higher. Sony's got an uphill battle for sure but they do have a large install base.

Personally, I can't imagine subscribing to two services though, there just isn't enough time in the day. And Game Pass is pretty easy to get for free if you spend a few minutes a day with Microsoft Rewards.
 
Spartacus is a combination of PS now and PS plus. PS now is only available in 19 countries worldwide, so either this needs a big expansion or Spartacus will be limited to those 19.
I think they will go with limiting tiers in areas where PS Now is not available. Like tier 2 is not available for your region
 
I think they will go with limiting tiers in areas where PS Now is not available. Like tier 2 is not available for your region

That's what I'm thinking too. What's reported is that the game streaming is only part of the higher tier. The second tier with PS4 and PS5 games could be available on all countries. The highest tier with game streaming would only be available where Sony has infrastructure for game streaming.
 
That's what I'm thinking too. What's reported is that the game streaming is only part of the higher tier. The second tier with PS4 and PS5 games could be available on all countries. The highest tier with game streaming would only be available where Sony has infrastructure for game streaming.
As far as I recall second tier supposed to include PS Now and third tier supposed to include BC. I think they will switch BC with PS Now, then they might not due to the specifics of their BC solution. We will see, streaming is the future anyway so even streaming BC might suffice.
 
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If Sony don’t offer 1st party titles at launch on the top tier package this service is dead in the water

this is one of the main savings of the series s combined with gamepass and if they are angling this towards the cheaper digital console it’s not gonna work
 
When I last checked PS Now there were about 700 games on there, and I was surprised at just how many great games there were. Throw in PSX, PS2 and PSP games into that and it has the potential to be incredible.
 

MonarchJT

Banned
If Sony don’t offer 1st party titles at launch on the top tier package this service is dead in the water

this is one of the main savings of the series s combined with gamepass and if they are angling this towards the cheaper digital console it’s not gonna work
Sony's idea is to reinforce ps + service which in any case does not have any decline (because it is linked to multiplayer), then use the plus attempts by teasing them with other offers divided into tiers. Sony is not creating any "new" services at the moment - it is simply unifying one service which alone has had very little if any success.
 

reksveks

Member
Imo think the goal is to increase the ARPU of ps+ users. The real question to me is whether Sony pulls the 12 month digital purchase of the subscription from retail distribution.
 
I think PS5 DE exists so the XSS doesn't look like a good deal rather than for Sony to pivot to some Gamepass like service. It does work too - look at how many posts there are here (where people are better informed than the average punter) talk about the cheaper console beating or matching the more expensive one.

I know subscription services have killed TV and DVD/Blu-Rays as well as badly wounding the cinema (with a little help from COVID) and are probably the future of gaming but there is so much more choice with film and TV that you can have just Netflix and still have more than enough to watch while I can't see gamers missing out on huge games once everyone wants to lock their big IPs behind their own subscription services. I am really curious how it plays out long term.

On the topic of PS5 DE being an attractive option I think it depends on your stance on physical media. As it stands PS5 DE is not a good choice if you care about saving money in the long run and don't mind going physical.

If you were to (somehow) buy both PS5s today and only the first party games the DE actually works out more expensive. I know you can wait for sales on PSN but the same goes for physical copies (I'm sure Tesco had R&C for £25 at one point for instance) - I haven't even got the best prices here just used Shopto as I know they are not overpriced. You could probably shave another £20-30 off physical if you shopped around and probably £40 on PSN if you bought PSN credit which would put them neck and neck assuming you never bought another game.

Edit: Had PS5 fat £50 RRP too much so the DE looks even worse now.

PSN prices:
PS5 DE £359.99
Demon's Souls £69.99
Returnal £69.99
R&C £69.99
SM:MM £49.99
GoT DC £69.99
Sackboy £59.99

Total £749.93

Shopto prices:
PS5 £449.99
Demon Souls £36.85
Returnal £45.85
R&C £45.85
SM:MM £32.85
GoT DC £45.85
Sackboy £32.85

Total £690.09

Start adding 3rd party stuff on top and DE will be well behind in no time.

If you are full digital already though you may as well go DE to save some money up front but I'm not sure the PS5 DE is indicative of a Sony Gamepass just yet.
 
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We will see, streaming is the future anyway so even streaming BC might suffice.

That's where I will have to disagree with you. Game streaming has the potential to co-exist with offline gaming if it becomes successful with the "casual" gamers out there. IMO, game streaming will continue to be rejected by the majority of the current console and PC market, even in the in the future. If it wants to be successful, it has to introduce new customers into the fold. It has to market itself outside of the current console gamers and PC gamers who are adamant to continue to reject game streaming.
 
game streaming will continue to be rejected by the majority of the current console and PC market, even in the in the future
I don't believe that. History tells us that conveniences always won.

It is like arguing that people will reject touch controls - we will have a whole generation soon that have been playing on touch controls since their childhood. Or like people have saying for years that physical won't die but guess what? It is dying and it is dying fast. On PC it basically happened overnight. I am not even sure that modern cases have a slot for disk drive.

Convenience will always win. No need to look for console, no need to go anywhere, don't need to bring your device in other place - take any device you want and start playing. TVs, laptops, mobile phones.
 
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elliot5

Member
To me, it won't be that appealing without first party game access. Yes, I could get a $400 PS5 and use it only as a "Spartacus" machine like how Series S can be a "Game Pass" machine, but I'm not gonna drop $400 + subs and whatnot for third party games that are likely gonna be on game pass anyway at some point. And if first party games don't come until like a year or 6 months after the fact, then idk I'd rather wait until a revision of the hardware and then buy a PS5 to play through those.
 

Bogroll

Likes moldy games
I don't want a GP model on PS5, I can wait for their exclusives to drop in price while I use GP. I will buy GT7 day one though, I might even but it digital unless I can save £15-£20 physical day one.
 
Series S isn't the perfect GamePass machine, the Series X is.

Now, a PS5 Digital-like, full-powered X without a disc drive, but cheaper, would be even more perfecter.
 
As a primary PS5 gamer myself, in order to compete against Series S and Gamepass, the PS5 DE needs to be cheaper and I can't see the new PS gaming service/subscription being better than Gamepass. We know already it won't provide day one exclusives even at the highest tier and most likely not as many games.

At least in my country in Australia, it doesn't matter whether digital or disc, you can't get the console all the same and if you are looking for value for money then I don't think PS5 DE and PlayStation's new subscription is it.

Xbox put all their eggs in one basket with Gamepass, its haemorrhaging money and a gamble still waiting to pay off, Sony will never do that.

Why does the ps5 digital need to be cheaper when it's constantly sold out?
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
It really depends how good Spartacus is.

Its going have to have new good games included in the £8-12/month sub.

I still have a feeling Sony are not going to include brand new games day 1, they will combine PS NOW + PS+, add some more PS3 games and offer a 50% discount on certain games (but u have to be a Spartacus member to play them)

If they do that it will be better value but still not to appealing for poor folks, compared to seriesS + gamepass.
 
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Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
I think PS5 DE exists so the XSS doesn't look like a good deal rather than for Sony to pivot to some Gamepass like service. It does work too - look at how many posts there are here (where people are better informed than the average punter) talk about the cheaper console beating or matching the more expensive one.

I know subscription services have killed TV and DVD/Blu-Rays as well as badly wounding the cinema (with a little help from COVID) and are probably the future of gaming but there is so much more choice with film and TV that you can have just Netflix and still have more than enough to watch while I can't see gamers missing out on huge games once everyone wants to lock their big IPs behind their own subscription services. I am really curious how it plays out long term.

On the topic of PS5 DE being an attractive option I think it depends on your stance on physical media. As it stands PS5 DE is not a good choice if you care about saving money in the long run and don't mind going physical.

If you were to (somehow) buy both PS5s today and only the first party games the DE actually works out more expensive. I know you can wait for sales on PSN but the same goes for physical copies (I'm sure Tesco had R&C for £25 at one point for instance) - I haven't even got the best prices here just used Shopto as I know they are not overpriced. You could probably shave another £20-30 off physical if you shopped around and probably £40 on PSN if you bought PSN credit which would put them neck and neck assuming you never bought another game.

PSN prices:
PS5 DE £359.99
Demon's Souls £69.99
Returnal £69.99
R&C £69.99
SM:MM £49.99
GoT DC £69.99
Sackboy £59.99

Total £749.93

Shopto prices:
PS5 £499.99
Demon Souls £36.85
Returnal £45.85
R&C £45.85
SM:MM £32.85
GoT DC £45.85
Sackboy £32.85

Total £740.09

Start adding 3rd party stuff on top and DE will be well behind in no time.

If you are full digital already though you may as well go DE to save some money up front but I'm not sure the PS5 DE is indicative of a Sony Gamepass just yet.

PS5 rrp is £449
 
I'd like to see what is the best way for Sony to offer something akin to "Gamepass" without cheapening out their own game offering or consumers to call it "watered-down" Gamepass. They are between a rock and a hard place because Microsoft just has that much money to operate without much revenue from Gamepass only to grow their install base.

I can't see Sony offering their exclusives even after 1 year of being out in the market. The only thing I can see Spartacus having of value is if the games don't leave their library, but then again, licenses must get expensive to keep when some games will be on their catalog only to fill space after some time.
 

twilo99

Member
Series S isn't the perfect GamePass machine, the Series X is.

That entirely depends on the customer, the important point is, there is a choice for people who can't afford a series x, and yes, to yours and many more out there, there are people who can't or don't want to spend $500 on a gaming machine.

The series s is the perfect gamepass console for a lot of people...
 

yurinka

Member
It's a good idea, but I think it will depend on Spartacus' catalog and country coverage.

I think that to the current PS Plus and PS Now+Plus bundle Spartacus mainly adds an intermediate tier, which seems to be PS Plus+PS Plus Collection+download only version of PS4+PS5 PS Now. If the second tier is this one, they since it wouldn't have streaming they would be able to offer it worldwide and would grow the userbase a lot.

But they also may increase a bit the countries supported by PS Now's streaming tier, and also could improve their catalog including more important games -maybe not all their 1st party games- closer to their release -but not being day one, maybe a year or two after release-.

If they have this improved catalog and/or country coverage, then I think the digital edition will be more appealing for many people thanks to Spartacus. If not, I have my doubts.

I'd like to see what is the best way for Sony to offer something akin to "Gamepass" without cheapening out their own game offering or consumers to call it "watered-down" Gamepass. They are between a rock and a hard place because Microsoft just has that much money to operate without much revenue from Gamepass only to grow their install base.

I can't see Sony offering their exclusives even after 1 year of being out in the market. The only thing I can see Spartacus having of value is if the games don't leave their library, but then again, licenses must get expensive to keep when some games will be on their catalog only to fill space after some time.
I think what Sony could do is first to include most -pretty like not all, because they want to continue selling games- their old games on Spartacus, those who already completed their sales cycle. I also think they keep adding very old games to the service, and to combine it with not too frequent additions (maybe once or twice per year) of big games that are only 1 year old plus some smaller games (mostly indies) added day one.

We also have to see what exactly are the 'extended demos' that Bloomberg mentioned for Spartacu's 3rd tier. They may be only these betas or demos that from time to time some publishers release and are tied to a subscription. But they could also be a long demo (1 or 2 hours long?) available day one of any game released on PSN, or at least from their 1st/2nd party games or main 3rd party exclusives.

So you'd get:
-To include most Sony old games included in Spartacus, many are missing in PS Now
-Most Sony games would be included there once they complete their sales cycle (around 2+ years after release), but once or twice per year they'd include a big game that is a year old or so (as they did this month including TLOU2)
-Extended demos (maybe 1 or 2 hours long) of at least all their 1st and 2nd party games, released the same day than the games

In any case, PS Plus has a huge amount of subscribers, plus some more from PS Now and I assume this relaunch and rework will bring many more even if they don't improve its catalog significantly with newer PS4 and PS5 games. I think they don't have a big pressure to highly change their plans, I think Spartacus more than a huge change will be some tweaks, reworking (merging PS Now and Plus into a single service with multiple tiers) and minor additions (extra legacy platforms like PS One and PSP for PS Now, increased PS Plus collection now also available in PS4 and maybe merged with the dowload version of the PS Now games, extended demos) to what they already currently have.
 
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Convenience will always win.
Remember, I'm referring to two group of people. Sure, convenience will win the casuals. But the console and PC gamers will continue to reject game streaming. Lag and delay will always be a thing with streaming because physics.

It is like arguing that people will reject touch controls - we will have a whole generation soon that have been playing on touch controls since their childhood.

The people who play on touchscreen will continue to play on their phone with the kind of games the publishers make for them. That market is already captured by the publishers which understands that market. Neither Microsoft nor Sony can challenge those publishers in their game. Forget about it. If Sony and Microsoft wants to be a thing then they have to convert their current console market into liking game streaming. But those people continue to reject that idea.

The only way I see game streaming to have a fighting chance is if they can capture the people who play on touch controls ("casuals") to start to like console-type gaming. But they are already trained in f2p monetization with the convenience on their phone playing offline. Asking them to pay $10 a month to stream console-type games will end up in failure, IMO.
 
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I hope no PS5 owner has delusions that Sony is preparing a “gamepass” competitor. Sony doesn’t need help selling games. They just want to their subscribers to pay more, hence tiers of PS+.

PS5 continues to be the most sought after console and that's not changing because of some subscription service that most gamers don't care about. Sony doesn't need Spartacus to sell PS5 DE like the OP is somehow insinuating. Spartacus is a business move to earn more profit for their games. It benefits those who usually wait for sale before buying games.
 

reksveks

Member
The people who play on touchscreen will continue to play on their phone with the kind of games the publishers make for them. That market is already captured by the publishers which understands that market. Neither Microsoft nor Sony can challenge those publishers in their game. Forget about it. If Sony and Microsoft wants to be a thing then they have to convert their current console market into liking game streaming. But those people continue to reject that idea.

There is a category of mobile games with very big pc/console sku's from PUBG, Roblox and COD Mobile. Can Microsoft/Sony make another one of those that 'lives' in the Cloud? who knows but I am personally surprised that 20% of xcloud users using touch exclusively. Admittedly we don't know the total xcloud numbers there in that metric.
 
That entirely depends on the customer, the important point is, there is a choice for people who can't afford a series x, and yes, to yours and many more out there, there are people who can't or don't want to spend $500 on a gaming machine.

The series s is the perfect gamepass console for a lot of people...
I don't know how you can call it "perfect" when there is an alternative that is undeniably better. It can be "good enough" or "best value", but the Series X is better than the S in everything outside of price.
 

RydarGaf

Member
As a primary PS5 gamer myself, in order to compete against Series S and Gamepass, the PS5 DE needs to be cheaper and I can't see the new PS gaming service/subscription being better than Gamepass. We know already it won't provide day one exclusives even at the highest tier and most likely not as many games.

At least in my country in Australia, it doesn't matter whether digital or disc, you can't get the console all the same and if you are looking for value for money then I don't think PS5 DE and PlayStation's new subscription is it.

Xbox put all their eggs in one basket with Gamepass, its haemorrhaging money and a gamble still waiting to pay off, Sony will never do that.
PS5 Digital is cheaper than the Series S once you factor in real world storage use of both consoles.
Series has only 500gb of storage space which amounts to only 300 something usable for downloading games. PPS5 has 600gb of usable storage space AND smaller download file sizes. PS5 Games are smaller than PS4 games thanks to new technology.

A new SSD upgrade to larger file size would put the Serie S price well above the Digital PS5 price even though it only half the gpu power and less video ram. Most games on Series S are in 1080p.
 
PS5 continues to be the most sought after console and that's not changing because of some subscription service that most gamers don't care about. Sony doesn't need Spartacus to sell PS5 DE like the OP is somehow insinuating. Spartacus is a business move to earn more profit for their games. It benefits those who usually wait for sale before buying games.
Exactly. Sony needs a gamepass competitor as much as Nintendo does.

They both arent working on a subscription service you buy instead of paying full price for their exclusives, they are working on subscription services you buy on TOP of buying their exclusives.

It’s nonsensical narrative these bone headed headed people make. Only reason Xbox is doing this, is because they are in 3rd place. If this move is really pushing sales, I would hate to see Xbox sales if they didnt have gamepass.

Would I subscribe to a Playstation “Playpass”, probably. I would get a trial whenever a game comes out I guess. But I dont see how converting me from a 60$ a pop game buyer to a 10 dollar every other 2 months makes any sense for Sony, or Nintendo.

Now streaming PS1-PS5 games to people who will never buy a Playstation and dont know what input lag even is, makes perfect sense. That they can’t let themselves fall behind of Amazon and Google.
 
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As a primary PS5 gamer myself, in order to compete against Series S and Gamepass, the PS5 DE needs to be cheaper and I can't see the new PS gaming service/subscription being better than Gamepass. We know already it won't provide day one exclusives even at the highest tier and most likely not as many games.

At least in my country in Australia, it doesn't matter whether digital or disc, you can't get the console all the same and if you are looking for value for money then I don't think PS5 DE and PlayStation's new subscription is it.

Xbox put all their eggs in one basket with Gamepass, its haemorrhaging money and a gamble still waiting to pay off, Sony will never do that.
I don’t agree. Why would the PS5 digital edition need to be cheaper? For $100 more than Series S offers a lot more performance. The price is perfectly fine, it’s not competing with Series S, it’s competing with Series X.
 
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Fbh

Member
Of course Sony will want to push the Digital Edition since it basically locks customers into an ecosystem with no second hand market and where they have a monopoly on software sales.
But since it's identical to the other model aside from the disc drive, there's only so much they can do with the price. And personally I think if you have any interest in reselling/borrowing games or you live in a place with access to big stores like Amazon (which are often cheaper than PSN) those $100 extra are going to be more than worth it in the long run.


Besides I don't think price is the only thing that matters. Otherwise Series S should be destroying Ps5/SeriesX/Switch Oled in sales. And it's not.
 
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These are the things Sony would need to do in order to have Project Spartacus be a worthwhile venture (and competitive with GamePass):

1: Day 1 1P game releases onto the service. They could do this with per-game contractual fixed contracts, between $3/MO to $7/MO, depending on the game and if certain seasonal DLC content is included in the subscription. Allows the subscription to act as a sale, monthly status verification via online check and credit card charge while the contract is still active.​
2: Add QoL features to BC games. Plenty of filter options, network play enabled (even if P2P in some cases, if that's possible), save state support, etc. They are already charging you for BC when at least one competitor provides it for free (unless you need to repurchase the game of course), the least they can do is sweeten a package of features for supported games especially if they are streaming-only.​
3: Make an in-house emulator for older systems and allow Steam-esque mod support of user-owned image rips (done by OS reading from physical media for example i.e Polymega) that can play on PS5 systems with enhanced emulator settings support, and include ability for users to create community Trophies for games, etc.​

If they do those three things, they have a truly legitimate GamePass alternative on their hands. From there, they can also bundle virtual ticket offerings (for new film releases) and television/film/anime service bundles in the higher tiers, and at that point they would have something with better value proposition than GamePass, which would have Microsoft make some adjustments of their own to compete even better.

Project Spartacus could be Sony's gateway, but only if they give it a serious investment and focus. We'll probably find out next year how legit their intentions really are.

If Sony don’t offer 1st party titles at launch on the top tier package this service is dead in the water

this is one of the main savings of the series s combined with gamepass and if they are angling this towards the cheaper digital console it’s not gonna work

Yeah they absolutely need Day 1 1P releases there. They don't have to do it the GamePass way, either; a per-game contract-based, fixed monthly subscription over a 1-year period negates any potential fears in revenue losses from lack of traditional sales because this model IS a traditional sales model, just broken up into monthly installments.

In fact I would expect Microsoft to potentially try this approach as well if it means luring more 3P Day 1 AAA releases onto GamePass.

Imo think the goal is to increase the ARPU of ps+ users. The real question to me is whether Sony pulls the 12 month digital purchase of the subscription from retail distribution.

They don't necessarily have to do that to increase ARPU; just tie in certain sub bonuses only provided to those on the regular monthly sub and if those perks are good enough, users will naturally choose it over purchasing a 1-Year sub card from a retail chain.
 
Exactly. Sony needs a gamepass competitor as much as Nintendo does.

They both arent working on a subscription service you buy instead of paying full price for their exclusives, they are working on subscription services you buy on TOP of buying their exclusives.

This is a false narrative WRT Xbox because GamePass isn't deterring people from buying games on Series platforms. Too many examples push against that narrative, the most recent one being Forza Horizon 5.

You know, that game that sold an equivalent of 1.45 million copies the day for it went into GamePass (average of early access packages converted to a typical retail copy price), and has also placed in the Top 5 of NPD for November?

It can be argued that if a specific game's seen a decrease in sales due to GP, then it's likely because the game itself was not of good enough quality to justify a sale to that user.
It’s nonsensical narrative these bone headed headed people make. Only reason Xbox is doing this, is because they are in 3rd place. If this move is really pushing sales, I would hate to see Xbox sales if they didnt have gamepass.

People asking for a GamePass competitor from Sony by and large aren't doing it because they think Sony's in "trouble", they're doing it because they want better value proposition from that ecosystem and in that coming to fruition, it will motivate Microsoft to continue to push for improvements and value-adds to GamePass. Competition breeds excellence.

Would I subscribe to a Playstation “Playpass”, probably. I would get a trial whenever a game comes out I guess. But I dont see how converting me from a 60$ a pop game buyer to a 10 dollar every other 2 months makes any sense for Sony, or Nintendo.

You're using a very anecdotal scenario and then trying to apply it at a macro level, why would you ever do this?

Now streaming PS1-PS5 games to people who will never buy a Playstation and dont know what input lag even is, makes perfect sense. That they can’t let themselves fall behind of Amazon and Google.

You basically just provided one of the biggest reasons not only a lot of gamers, but Jim Ryan himself, are moving further in with services like Project Spartacus (and bringing more 1P games to the PC platform). You essentially just kind of contradicted your own main point!

PS5 Digital is cheaper than the Series S once you factor in real world storage use of both consoles.
Series has only 500gb of storage space which amounts to only 300 something usable for downloading games. PPS5 has 600gb of usable storage space AND smaller download file sizes. PS5 Games are smaller than PS4 games thanks to new technology.

A new SSD upgrade to larger file size would put the Serie S price well above the Digital PS5 price even though it only half the gpu power and less video ram. Most games on Series S are in 1080p.

TBF, most Series games aren't using DirectStorage yet, and from what I've seen the file size of most Series games isn't that far off from PS5 versions. An average of 5 - 20 additional GBs in size, while it can add up, isn't world-ending and Series S tends to trend on the lower side of that.

The resolution argument doesn't really make a lot of sense considering DRS is being actively used in most games and will continue to in the future. Which basically means you can have the same game on two different platforms and it's a higher peak res on Platform A but for a given moment could hit a low almost as low as Platform B's peak resolution, because the engine may have different behaviors and constraints on those two platforms at that exact moment.

Also I think the average person isn't buying a Series S expecting higher resolutions than PS5 or Series X on average.
 
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Kokoloko85

Member
Sony wont do a service like gamepass because Playstation and Nintendo are making a killing out of selling their games.

They might advertise PSNow more and add some better stuff, but day 1 1st party games doesnt make sense for them. They have added TLOU2 to PSnow though. I think a year after release will be good for them
 
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