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[kyliethicc]

PS Plus is growing again. Had dipped earlier in the year, but its now the highest its ever been.

Now at 48.0 million up from 47.4 million year over year. Previous peak was 3 quarters prior at 47.6 million.

Sony will probably try to get to 50 million soon enough with their revamp coming this year.

Unsurprisingly, revenue from network services is at an all time high for SIE.

There's also 111 million monthly active users.

Peak for MAU was 114 million during the 2020 lockdowns and PS5 launch quarter.

 

[Leyasu]

Sony must be salivating at the prospect of converting a generous percentage of those into a gamepass type of service.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Yeap, Spartacus will be big if done right. They could catch up to game pass type numbers quickly and see a steady income of repeat revenue month on month.

 

[RoadHazard]

How are they gonna keep this massive revenue once they move away from being console focused? I guess the plan is to get PS+ (or whatever the GP-like successor is) on PC and maybe even Xbox? Right now they only make this money from people who buy a PlayStation, and that's clearly not their highest priority anymore.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Spartacus is getting a headstart of almost 50M subscribers. I'm sure once they add the PS Now subscribers that don't have PS Plus to that, the number increases a bit as well.

 

[AV]

How are they gonna keep this massive revenue once they move away from being console focused? I guess the plan is to get PS+ (or whatever the GP-like successor is) on PC and maybe even Xbox? Right now they only make this money from people who buy a PlayStation, and that's clearly not their highest priority anymore.

Yeah, PS Now is already on PC and and will seemingly be rolled together with PS+ in the upcoming Spartacus thing.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

How are they gonna keep this massive revenue once they move away from being console focused? I guess the plan is to get PS+ (or whatever the GP-like successor is) on PC and maybe even Xbox? Right now they only make this money from people who buy a PlayStation, and that's clearly not their highest priority anymore.

They aren't moving away from consoles though. Expanding their business is completely different from "moving away" from what makes them successful.

 

[kyliethicc]

Sony must be salivating at the prospect of converting a generous percentage of those into a gamepass type of service.

Jimbo def is.

Yeap, Spartacus will be big if done right. They could catch up to game pass type numbers quickly and see a steady income of repeat revenue month on month.

That's the trick. PlayStation Plus is Sony's Game Pass. They can get rid of PS Now, add some higher priced tiers to Plus, and overnight have twice as many subs as GP has. "Spartacus" is just PS Plus 3.0.

 

[RoadHazard]

They aren't moving away from consoles though. Expanding their business is completely different from "moving away" from what makes them successful.

They are working toward making it less and less important to actually own a PlayStation, to instead have their games (as a service) available everywhere. At a certain point, is it justifiable for them to keep pouring billions into console R&D that they don't make back until many years later? They don't sell consoles to make money, they sell them only to get people into the PS ecosystem. And if that ecosystem is everywhere, what is the reason for the console to still exist?

 

[Sosokrates]

Sony must be salivating at the prospect of converting a generous percentage of those into a gamepass type of service.

If the rumours are true about Spartacus, I dont think its going to move the needle in positive direction much.
People are not going to pay for a sub for cloud BC and indies.

 

[cormack12]

Good stats, I think this is the threshold window though (from a console and current service model). They might break 50 million in the future but I can see it shrinking and contracting between 45 million - 50 million as the 'norm'. It was at 47.6 million in Q1 2021 so that's an expansion of 400,000 currently but it was also as low as 45.9 million (https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2021/10/ps-plus-subscribers-up-year-over-year-nearing-50-million). I'm guessing the mismatches are because the article is standard year and these reports are FY.

Have to see if we get another explosion when they release whatever new GaaS and services they have planned. I don't think this is a failing by the way. When you have so much of a market share (individual and shared), the margins for growth are much smaller, so this is definitely a success story in the now.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

They are working toward making it less and less important to actually own a PlayStation, to instead have their games (as a service) available everywhere. At a certain point, is it justifiable for them to keep pouring billions into console R&D that they don't make back until many years later? They don't sell consoles to make money, they sell them only to get people into the PS ecosystem. And if that ecosystem is everywhere, what is the reason for the console to still exist?

They know a lot of their userbase don't play on PC. They won't leave that behind. Sony is already making money out of PS5 hardware since June last year. I don't know what you mean by your post.

PlayStation just leaving consoles would be suicide for them.

 

[Just_one]

release spartacus already Sony!!!

 

[Zok310]

Back to growth for PS+

 

[El Pistolero]

They are working toward making it less and less important to actually own a PlayStation, to instead have their games (as a service) available everywhere. At a certain point, is it justifiable for them to keep pouring billions into console R&D that they don't make back until many years later? They don't sell consoles to make money, they sell them only to get people into the PS ecosystem. And if that ecosystem is everywhere, what is the reason for the console to still exist?

That console-less future is YEARS off...and by years, I mean a couple of decades.

 

[KingHippo1967]

Sony must be salivating at the prospect of converting a generous percentage of those into a gamepass type of service.

People keep saying this as if they don't already have one. Just because it's failed to impress like Game Pass has, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

 

[MOTM]

Am I dreaming or are people here excited for subscription number growth and Spartacus?

I thought they were bad for the industry.

 

[RoadHazard]

That console-less future is YEARS off...and by years, I mean a couple of decades.

I'm not as sure. Sure, there will probably be a PS6 (mainly so that people still have an affordable way to get into the ecosystem), but maybe not a PS7.

 

[arvfab]

Spartacus (if true), GaaS focus, PC focus.... Seems like Sony wants me to go full Nintendo in the future.

 

[TBiddy]

They know a lot of their userbase don't play on PC. They won't leave that behind. Sony is already making money out of PS5 hardware since June last year. I don't know what you mean by your post.

PlayStation just leaving consoles would be suicide for them.

Making money on a console and recuperating the R&D costs are two very different things. If they make on average 5$ on each console sold and the R&D costs are 2 billion USD, you do the math. The console isn't the money maker. Subscriptions, software sales and MTX are, along with the accessories (joysticks and headphones).

 

[MonarchJT]

what i think will happen
Sony announce Spartacus a vague copycat of gamepass which includes psplus + now + backwards compatibility with all generations of PlayStation, at the highest tier Platinum even the First party releases.

Microsoft announce the cancellation of live Gold (like the numerous rumors of the past months) and the price to pay for multiplayer, aligning PC gamepss with the console one. Doing so makes the value of the first two Spartacus tiers obscenely poor

 

[dotnotbot]

If the rumours are true about Spartacus, I dont think its going to move the needle in positive direction much.
People are not going to pay for a sub for cloud BC and indies.

You forgot bigger selection of ps4/ps5 games. Smaller games day one and legacy games aren't the main thing.

 

[mansoor1980]

but i thought it was doom and gloom for playstation , kray times we live in

 

[dotnotbot]

Am I dreaming or are people here excited for subscription number growth and Spartacus?

I thought they were bad for the industry.

I don't see a single person saying they're excited.

 

[Bernardougf]

They know a lot of their userbase don't play on PC. They won't leave that behind. Sony is already making money out of PS5 hardware since June last year. I don't know what you mean by your post.

PlayStation just leaving consoles would be suicide for them.

Some people are drinking the koolaid and some people are warriors hoping that sony just commit seppoku .... just ignore it

 

[Coulomb_Barrier]

I think there is a cap for Gamepass/Spartacus-type sub services. Maybe 50m for one platform holder at best? These services compete with Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime etc in particular as a drain on your monthly income in times of record inflation (obscene food prices, fuel, energy here in UK right now).

There's also an unprecedented amount of free games you can download and own across Epic, Steam, Origin, GoG etc that we're being bombarded with the last year or two. I've got about 6 free games (good ones like Control, Frostpunk and Nioh) claimed on my Epic launcher that I've not played yet.

I think those with the assumption that game subscription is going to dominate will be surprised by the reality over the next couple years.

 

[Sosokrates]

You forgot bigger selection of ps4/ps5 games. Smaller games day one and legacy games aren't the main thing.

It really depends whats the game selection is, the PS+ collection already alot of great PS4 hits. And I paid £30 for 12 months.

For me to pay more then that I would want regular ps4 and ps5 on it, like returnal, ratchet, demon souls, dreams, sotc remake etc

 

[bushwookie]

Spartacus is getting a headstart of almost 50M subscribers. I'm sure once they add the PS Now subscribers that don't have PS Plus to that, the number increases a bit as well.

How is it getting a 50M headstart? Does Sony plan on changing the name of PS Plus to Spartacus, and claiming some sort of victory?

 

[Leyasu]

People keep saying this as if they don't already have one. Just because it's failed to impress like Game Pass has, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

If Sony doesn't change anything, then we can imagine that they consider it a success.

 

[kingfey]

Gz on those numbers. That is guaranteed $3b a year at 60$.


As for Spartacus, it won't be big on the get go. Considering gamepass is still at 25m, despite having gamepass ultimate, which includes Xbox live.

Its harder to integrate normal ps+/Xbox live to these services. It's not that easy to do it.

 

[kingfey]

How is it getting a 50M headstart? Does Sony plan on changing the name of PS Plus to Spartacus, and claiming some sort of victory?

People are going hard for those numbers. Gamepass ultimate doesn't even have alot of Xbox live users, especially when the service has Xbox live.

 

[Y0ssarian]

"bu-bu-but Snoy is doomed without CoD!"

 

[Kerotan]

God sony are dominating the subscription space in gaming. 50M vs 25M roughly. And this sub service is a money maker not a loss maker.

 

[Hitchyhero]

Sony must be salivating at the prospect of converting a generous percentage of those into a gamepass type of service.

PS GAF users have been telling us for years they dont 'rent games' and that gamepass is bad, so don't see how an equivalent will be successful.

 

[kingfey]

"bu-bu-but Snoy is doomed without CoD!"

Did they even remove COD?

COD purchase happened this month, and those numbers are from last year.

Its effect will take in 2023, once the purchase is full complete. So Sony has 1 more year to maintain those ps+ numbers. After that, it would depend on MS choice whether to keep COD on Playstation or not.

 

[Stuart360]

God sony are dominating the subscription space in gaming. 50M vs 25M roughly. And this sub service is a money maker not a loss maker.

Er its been a while since my PS3 but isnt PSPlus Playstations version of Xbox Live?, why are you comparing it to Gamepass?.

 

[kingfey]

PS GAF users have been telling us for years they dont 'rent games' and that gamepass is bad, so don't see how an equivalent will be successful.

Never trust those guys.
Consumers don't care about brand loyalty at all. They care about saving money.

 

[skit_data]

Pretty surprising tbh, I think PS+ has been pretty lacking the last year compared to before.

 

[reksveks]

Gz on those numbers. That is guaranteed $3b a year at 60$.

You can just look at it via the network services revenue. 3.5bn a year on PS+, PS Now, PS Video*

Yes, apparently there is still PS Video somewhere.

 

[Bernd Lauert]

God sony are dominating the subscription space in gaming. 50M vs 25M roughly. And this sub service is a money maker not a loss maker.

Comparing PS+ numbers to Gamepass numbers while conveniently leaving out Xbox Live Gold, and claiming that Gamepass is a loss maker while the CEO of Microsoft gaming said the opposite, is a bold strategy.

 

[Chukhopops]

Er its been a while since my PS3 but isnt PSPlus Playstations version of Xbox Live?, why are you comparing it to Gamepass?.

You know why

On topic, it shows that the churn wave following the pandemic is now absorbed, although it’s still not growing by a lot (1.3% YoY).

 

[octiny]

God sony are dominating the subscription space in gaming. 50M vs 25M roughly. And this sub service is a money maker not a loss maker.

 

[kingfey]

You can just look at it via the network services revenue. 3.5bn a year on PS+, PS Now, PS Video*

Yes, apparently there is still PS Video somewhere.

Its like big brother, younger brother meme.

Guess ps video found audience.

 

[Elios83]

The idea of creating Spartacus on the basis of a 50 million userbase instead of starting from zero is really smart.
They simply have to add a good catalogue of downloadable PS4 and some PS5 games at a price not much higher than current Plus and they'll see a huge uptick in subscriptions.
Higher tiers will be about core gamers and dedicated fans who are more into retrocatalogue and other non essential things like "try-before-buying" features.

 

[reksveks]

The idea of Spartacus isn't to increase userbase unless they have reasonable off-console support (min 40% of your console users are already signed up, going to be really hard to boost that imo). I think it's to increase the ARPU of 6.22 USD up.

 

[skit_data]

I wonder if they plan to release Factions 2 into PS+, it’s a pretty risky move but if they could get player numbers to Rocket League and Fall Guys levels it could become a big deal.

 

[boomcrab]

These are great numbers and are promising if sony can manage to launch spartacus correctly. The thing is though is that I doubt we'll have full functionality of whatever it ends up being. I absolutely do not expect day 1 launches on the service, and it will probably be lacking in other areas as well, like on the emulation side of things. I can see it being kind of a hybrid service between gamepass and Nintendo switch online. I hope they get it right but when does sony ever really knock stuff like this out of the park?
No matter what though 48 mil is no joke and has great conversion potential.

 

[kingfey]

God sony are dominating the subscription space in gaming. 50M vs 25M roughly. And this sub service is a money maker not a loss maker.

Psss. Gamepass 25m makes around the same money as ps+ numbers. From 8$ range to $15 range. Its between $2.4b to $4.5b.

 

[Schmick]

Psss. Gamepass 25m makes around the same money as ps+ numbers. From 8$ range to $15 range. Its between $2.4b to $4.5b.

And why even compare Gamepass to PS Plus. Two different services.

PS Plus = Xbox Live Gold (not Gamepass)

 

[dotnotbot]

Psss. Gamepass 25m makes around the same money as ps+ numbers. From 8$ range to $15 range. Its between $2.4b to $4.5b.

Might be similar revenue but no chance it's making similar profit.