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All-new PlayStation Plus launches in June with three flexible membership options

mejin

Member
One post you are asking me how I interpret the sentence. The next post you are telling me I don't have to interpret the sentence. "Clarity"


742122.jpg


sigh.....blondes

I think his previous avatar was better, but for some strange reason he changed.
 

ethomaz

Banned
19 pages of predictable "bbbut no day one games!!!" by the usual trolls who are active 24/7 :messenger_tears_of_joy:
Even if that was totally obvious since the beginning and already well known.
Actually I find interesting that Jim Ryan has left the door totally open about it in the future claiming that things can change quickly and that no one saw them publishing games on PC just a few years ago.

An other interesting point is that Jim Ryan hinted on Famitsu that old classics will feature improvements:

so it will be interesting to see the extent of that. The fact that PS1, PS2 and PSP games will be downloadable was a nice surprise for me, I expected all the retro games to be on the cloud.


In the end this is mostly a merging of their current services in a way that adds more value so that more people subscribe and current subscribers find enough reasons to upgrade.
I expect many gamers who don't buy a lot of games in a year (le'ts say just 4-5 games) to find great value in the extra option. At 99$ per year you have access to a 400 games library.
The premium tier is more aimed at core gamers but its success will depend a lot on the quality of the retrocatalogue, game trials if available for many new releases could become alone a big reason to upgrade.
Essential tier will continue to be the most successful option.
They are probably doing some upscaling to make the games looks better on PS4 / PS5.
PS2 to PS4 games already did that.
 
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Killer8

Member




Does PS Now have the MGS HD collection games ? How does that work around the pressure sensitive buttons there ?

The Xbox port of that specific game just doesn't have pressure sensitive buttons, so some actions need other button combos (like slowly holding up guards without shooting).


That had to be specifically coded into the Xbox version of the HD collection. To be honest the number of PS2 games that used pressure sensitive buttons is overstated. Here is every game that use them:

J3jeIDF.png


Crazy Taxi will not be coming back. Neither will Gran Turismo 3 and 4 due to licensing. The GTA games are almost not even notable. They work just fine without pressure sensitivity on PC and via the PS2 Classics on PS3/4 - you just tap the button to cruise. Okami, ZOE and MGS already have proper HD ports the companies would use instead. As does Silent Hill (lol). The rest of the list is either crap or 'literally who?' tier games.
 

Dick Jones

Gold Member
I'm probably in the minority but I have no use for online multiplayer. So I'm PS Now only.
I'd say you are. I couldn't see a sizable minority that are as adversely affected as you. I'd love to know how they convert PS Now sub only users post June.

I'm looking at it mainly as a positive for users outside PS Now countries who have the option of taking up the subscription should they wish. I'm hoping the PS1/PS2 games are also open to be bought separately outside the rebranded service. The PS2 support in Now is dreadful.
 
Sustainable could be taking a manageable loss, breaking even, or even a slight profit. Since that is the word he used and you acknowledge it could imply a loss then it isn't explicit.

Definition of explicit

1a: fully revealed or expressed without vagueness, implication, or ambiguity : leaving no question as to meaning or intent
If he only said sustainable, I'd agree. But in addition, he explicitly said they're not burning money, so it can't mean loss.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
If he only said sustainable, I'd agree. But in addition, he explicitly said they're not burning money, so it can't mean loss.
If they set aside a budget, and not exceed that budget, then he can get away with that language. That budget is formulated as investing within, and what I would rather companies all do more often than not.

That is not the same as "turning a profit," or he would have said as such. Words have meaning, and carefully chosen ones more so.
 
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DaGwaphics

Member
If they had to borrow money to run Gamepass, Phil Spencer wouldn't say that they're not burning money and that Gamepass on its own is already sustainable.

I agree that it's a ridiculous idea at this point in time that MS needs to borrow money for anything. With that said, you can be profitable and responsibly take on debt. That's like renting out a house with a mortgage, as long as you bring in more than your expenses on the house, that's a profitable situation.

Realistically, Sony, MS, and Nintendo are not spending the $$ on content that Netflix is combined, thus direct comparisons with subscriber counts etc. don't mean all that much.
 
RPCS3 runs OKAY. It is far from compatible and requires a ton of tricks to get it to work as well as it does. It is FAR from accurate. It is not reasonable to expect emulation with the PS5 hardware.

But RPCS3 is an open-source emulator project with no access to source code or hardware resources the way Sony has access to both. There are some PS3 games that run at 60 in it at native resolution, and 100% accuracy is never going to be possible with software emulation anyway. Hardcore types are just going to settle for an actual PS3 to play the games anyway, if they want full-on accuracy and compatibility.

Doesn't seem like a great reason to offer some way for native PS3 on PS5, at least in the future anyway. Just need to devote enough resources to make it happen IMO.

I never saw 3P AAA Day 1s as the building blocks anyway, but, it's hard to say they've dropped the ball there since last year there were only 3 and before that none. And, like you said 2 would have already been announced without the Stalker delay, with the rest of the year to get another one.

Most important pieces for me is the 1P day 1s, the AAA older titles from 3P, and the day 1 indies.

True, they didn't have a precedent for 3P AAA Day 1 releases, but I thought getting The Show and Outriders especially were going to be turning points. Then, nothing else of that ilk really happened, and still isn't really happening. Maybe I just read too much into it, but I have to think there's at least a couple 3P AAA releases Microsoft could've made deals with to get into GamePass Day 1 if they really, really wanted to.

The most likely reason i heard so far is because officially recognizing a third-party emulator can open the doors for tricky legal situations, even if it isn't illegal. So they would have to build their own ps3 emulator from the ground up, in which case streaming is just a most cost-effective solution.

At this rate maybe we can get native PS3 BC for PS6 😛
 
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I agree that it's a ridiculous idea at this point in time that MS needs to borrow money for anything. With that said, you can be profitable and responsibly take on debt. That's like renting out a house with a mortgage, as long as you bring in more than your expenses on the house, that's a profitable situation.

Realistically, Sony, MS, and Nintendo are not spending the $$ on content that Netflix is combined, thus direct comparisons with subscriber counts etc. don't mean all that much.
Netflix is an interesting case. They're profitable, but have (slightly) negative cash flow. So you could argue either way. Not comparable to Microsoft, of course.
 

Topher

Gold Member
If he only said sustainable, I'd agree. But in addition, he explicitly said they're not burning money, so it can't mean loss.

Of course it can. Factually, profit and loss requires both revenue and expenditures. Using a figure of speech to imply they are not spending as much money as some speculate doesn't tell us explicitly how much money they spend and says nothing at all about how much revenue they bring in. So yes, he can make that vague statement and Game Pass can still be taking a loss.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Of course it can. Factually, profit and loss requires both revenue and expenditures. Using a figure of speech to imply they are not spending as much money as some speculate doesn't tell us explicitly how much money they spend and says nothing at all about how much revenue they bring in. So yes, he can make that vague statement and Game Pass can still be taking a loss.
Which is why it was so ... vague and ambiguous all at the same time. Marketing geniuses, really.
Think About It Reaction GIF by Identity
 
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Fafalada

Fafracer forever
That had to be specifically coded into the Xbox version of the HD collection. To be honest the number of PS2 games that used pressure sensitive buttons is overstated. Here is every game that use them:
The list isn't exactly complete - but what is really overstated is 'compatibility'. 99% of those games work just fine by switching to digital input, even for the likes of GT3 the effect is basically irrelevant to playability.
Ie. worst case you might get slightly worse playability - nothing would actually break.

100% accuracy is never going to be possible with software emulation anyway.
That's somewhat debatable. PS1 emulation was 99.99% compatible on PS2, PS3, PSP and Vita (referencing the SKUs that had full software BC).
Granted it's a lot harder to get that level of compat with PS3.

Honestly I think this has more to do with setting the stage for introducing PS3 later - likely when PS5 userbase grows, and PS4 gets phased out. The wording right now gives me every reason to believe BC tier will be available to both PS4 and PS5.
 
Of course it can. Factually, profit and loss requires both revenue and expenditures. Using a figure of speech to imply they are not spending as much money as some speculate doesn't tell us explicitly how much money they spend and says nothing at all about how much revenue they bring in. So yes, he can make that vague statement and Game Pass can still be taking a loss.
He can, but that would make him a liar, because it's not a vague statement. And lying about financial stuff as a high ranking operative is sketchy at best and illegal at worst. Very improbable.
 

Kokoloko85

Member
And I bet they will be crossbuy with them as they were in these 3 platforms: if you bought them digitally on PSP, Vita or PS3 you would be able to download them for free without paying the subscripttion.

Im just happy we can download PS1/PS2/PSP games. It would be nice but I doubt they will crossbuy especially before Vita games purchased

The rest I agree with you. I hope we get a good selection PS1/PS2 /PSP games. More than the current PS4’s selection of PS2 games
 

Topher

Gold Member
He can, but that would make him a liar, because it's not a vague statement. And lying about financial stuff as a high ranking operative is sketchy at best and illegal at worst. Very improbable.

It isn't vague? Ok....then tell me how much money they spend on Game Pass based on that statement.
 
t19jKZA.png


Did some quick whatifs on possible revenue increase.

Can you do a worst-case of possible revenue decrease? Or would that basically be what they get right now minus some exodus of PS Now-only subscribers (which honestly, weren't that many people anyway)?

Unless they change significantly PSNow the differences are:
- slightly less than half of the catalog is streaming only
- catalog is four years older on average
- 0.5% of the catalog was released in 2021 or 2022
- significantly lower average metacritic
- no day 1 games (although there have been two exceptions)
- first party games rotate out of the service

All of this could change of course.

Aw c'mon man that's not fair 🤣. PS Now has a lot more games so naturally that'd affect the MC average. Plus some games might not even have MC entries, especially some PS1 games.

GamePass does have a pretty good MC average, higher than some give it credit for (when they try saying it's mostly fodder), but that average would probably be a bit lower if they simply had more games on the service. Though it does also show content curation is mostly pretty good...outside of some bombs (CrossFire X).
 
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kyliethicc

Member
This is what they sent to me as a PSNow PC subscriber. I don’t have a PS4/5, so this all means nothing to me.
You can't download any games on PC via PS Now, right? Its only streaming.

So are they saying they're adding download option for PS4 games on PC or is it just a poorly written message?
 

DaGwaphics

Member
True, they didn't have a precedent for 3P AAA Day 1 releases, but I thought getting The Show and Outriders especially were going to be turning points. Then, nothing else of that ilk really happened, and still isn't really happening. Maybe I just read too much into it, but I have to think there's at least a couple 3P AAA releases Microsoft could've made deals with to get into GamePass Day 1 if they really, really wanted to.

Might be a case where they were testing the waters to see how the needle would move with those inclusions vs. the cost. With the big Activision purchase it looks like they are firmly in the camp that owned content is the way to go with AAA day one gets. Never know though, we might get some surprises along the way.
 

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
340 retro games probably means 300 PS3 games and 15 games each of PS1 and PS2, and 10 PSP games.
Isn't the entire 55 (or thereabouts) PS2 games on the service today? As well as like 5 PSP games that released on PS4...

Frankly if that is really the total number (including streaming games) that just adds to my impression they plan PS3 emulation down the line. Hell maybe they're switching to it on the backend already, but won't enable downloads until PS4 active userbase dwindles (and/or PS5 grows).
 
I wish I could just have cloud saving and nothing else. That's all I need when it comes to online services form them. Emulation via streaming is the lamest thing I've heard. Nope.
 

kyliethicc

Member
The column c aka total users was unique users. Column A and B are subscriptions/uu per service.

2.4m users are duplicates that have both.
If you wanna do another calculation, Jimbo said about 33% of PS subs are monthly/quarterly. While 67% are paying annual price.
 

Barakov

Member








Since launching PlayStation Plus in 2010, SIE has been at the forefront of innovation with game subscription services. We were thrilled to be the first console membership service that included a refreshed library of games through PlayStation Plus, and also launched the first console game streaming service with PlayStation Now.

Today, we are pleased to share with you official news about changes coming to our subscription services. This June, we’re bringing together PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now in an all-new PlayStation Plus subscription service that provides more choice to customers across three membership tiers globally.

Our focus is on providing high-quality, curated content with a diverse portfolio of games*. Below is an overview of the three membership tiers:

PlayStation Plus Essential​

  • Benefits:
    • Provides the same benefits that PlayStation Plus members are getting today, such as:
      • Two monthly downloadable games
      • Exclusive discounts
      • Cloud storage for saved games
      • Online multiplayer access
    • There are no changes for existing PlayStation Plus members in this tier.


  • Price*for PlayStation Plus Essential remains the same as the current price for PlayStation Plus.
    • United States
      • $9.99 monthly / $24.99 quarterly / $59.99 yearly
    • Europe
      • €8.99 monthly / €24.99 quarterly / €59.99 yearly
    • United Kingdom
      • £6.99 monthly / £19.99 quarterly / £49.99 yearly
    • Japan
      • ¥850 monthly / ¥2,150 quarterly / ¥5,143 yearly

PlayStation Plus Extra​

  • Benefits:
    • Provides all the benefits from the Essential tier
    • Adds a catalog of up to 400* of the most enjoyable PS4 and PS5 games – including blockbuster hits from our PlayStation Studios catalog and third-party partners. Games in the Extra tier are downloadable for play.
  • Price*:
    • United States
      • $14.99 monthly / $39.99 quarterly / $99.99 yearly
    • Europe
      • €13.99 monthly / €39.99 quarterly / €99.99 yearly
    • United Kingdom
      • £10.99 monthly / £31.99 quarterly / £83.99 yearly
    • Japan
      • ¥1,300 monthly / ¥3,600 quarterly / ¥8,600 yearly

PlayStation Plus Premium**​

  • Benefits:
    • Provides all the benefits from Essential and Extra tiers
    • Adds up to 340* additional games, including:
      • PS3 games available via cloud streaming
      • A catalog of beloved classic games available in both streaming and download options from the original PlayStation, PS2 and PSP generations
    • Offers cloud streaming access for original PlayStation, PS2, PSP and PS4 games offered in the Extra and Premium tiers in markets** where PlayStation Now is currently available. Customers can stream games using PS4 and PS5 consoles, and PC.***
    • Time-limited game trials will also be offered in this tier, so customers can try select games before they buy.
  • Price*:
    • United States
      • $17.99 monthly / $49.99 quarterly / $119.99 yearly
    • Europe
      • €16.99 monthly / €49.99 quarterly / €119.99 yearly
    • United Kingdom
      • £13.49 monthly / £39.99 quarterly / £99.99 yearly
    • Japan
      • ¥1,550 – monthly / ¥4,300 – quarterly / ¥10,250 yearly
  • PlayStation Plus Deluxe (Select Markets) For markets without cloud streaming, PlayStation Plus Deluxe will be offered at a lower price compared to Premium, and includes a catalog of beloved classic games from the original PlayStation, PS2 and PSP generations to download and play, along with time-limited game trials. Benefits from Essential and Extra tiers are also included. Local pricing will vary by market.
The new Extra and Premium tiers represent a major evolution for PlayStation Plus. With these tiers, our key focus is to ensure that the hundreds of games we offer will include the best quality content that sets us apart. At launch, we plan to include titles such as Death Stranding, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11, and Returnal. We’re working closely with our imaginative developers from PlayStation Studios and third-party partners to include some of the best gaming experiences available with a library that will be regularly refreshed. More details to come on the games we’ll have on our new PlayStation Plus service.

When the new PlayStation Plus service launches, PlayStation Now will transition into the new PlayStation Plus offering and will no longer be available as a standalone service. PlayStation Now customers will migrate over to PlayStation Plus Premium with no increase to their current subscription fees at launch.

As this is a massive launch effort, we’re rolling out the new PlayStation Plus offering in a phased regional approach. In the June timeframe, we’ll begin with an initial launch in several markets in Asia, followed by North America, Europe and the rest of the world where PlayStation Plus is offered. We aim to have most PlayStation Network territories live with our new PlayStation Plus game subscription service by the end of the first half of 2022. We also plan to expand our cloud streaming benefit to additional markets, and will provide more details at a later date.

Building upon more than 25 years of expertise in gaming innovation, this change to our subscription services highlights our continued efforts to evolve our network services business to match our customer’s preferences. With the all-new PlayStation Plus, we’re focused on delivering a compelling game subscription service with curated content from our exclusive PlayStation Studios team and our third-party partners. The newly enhanced PlayStation Plus will enable our fans to discover and engage with more content than ever before, and deepen their connection with the PlayStation community through shared experiences.

We’re providing an early look at our new PlayStation Plus subscription service today, and we’ll plan to share more information with you as we get closer to launch. Stay tuned.

I Am Trash GIF by PBS Digital Studios
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
"PlayStation Now customers will migrate over to PlayStation Plus Premium with no increase to their current subscription fees at launch."
Now is £49.99 for 12 months.

Are they saying I can stack 36 months of Now for £150 and it’ll be converted to 3 years of Premium?

Never mind looks like Sony have yoinked it and just left a £9 monthly option.
 
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yurinka

Member
It isn't vague? Ok....then tell me how much money they spend on Game Pass based on that statement.
They spent almost $100M on acquisitions, add there the costs of all these teams making AAA games, the cost of servers and also the costs of paying the 3rd parties to be there. And have almost half of their console base paying the subscription so won't buy much games. Doesn't sound as a profitable business.

But MS has a lot of money, so they can compesate these loses with profits from other divisions and hope that if it keeps growing enough in the long term this suicide business model would kill the other platform holders and big publishers who wouldn't be able to afford these loses. And once they killed the major competition, they could switch back to a profitable business model.

MS and particularly Spencer are the kings of PR. It wouldn't be smart to be transparent and recognize they have insane loses and that GP with all their AAA games there day one doesn't make sense as business model. It's better to say it's sustainable, which sounds as profitable, and he doesn't lie by saying it.

It's like when USA funds, trains and gives some barbarians weapons and teams up with them to destroy a country, put there a corrupt puppet president who helps them to steal the natural resources of that country to make their own military and energy industries richer not giving a fuck if this means to kills millions of people. The president of the USA won't say they do that, will say instead that they are giving freedom and democracy to that country and that the previous president was some kind of evil shit (which partly will be true, all kinds of governments and dictators have corrupt and evil shit even if often not as bad as their replacement).


Now is £49.99 for 12 months.

Are they saying I can stack 36 months of Now for £150 and it’ll be converted to 3 years of Premium?
At least in my country the options to get 3 or 12 months of Now aren't available anymore.

There is only the option of getting a single month, which is $9.99/month. Same monthly price that will have to get 12 months of PS+ Premium. (Not counting discounts from cd key stores).
 
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Netflix is an interesting case. They're profitable, but have (slightly) negative cash flow. So you could argue either way. Not comparable to Microsoft, of course.

TBF, Netflix also took out a shitload of loans and were running a big debt-leading model 'till like a couple years ago or so. I don't think entrenched tech companies would want to do a similar practice.

The list isn't exactly complete - but what is really overstated is 'compatibility'. 99% of those games work just fine by switching to digital input, even for the likes of GT3 the effect is basically irrelevant to playability.
Ie. worst case you might get slightly worse playability - nothing would actually break.


That's somewhat debatable. PS1 emulation was 99.99% compatible on PS2, PS3, PSP and Vita (referencing the SKUs that had full software BC).
Granted it's a lot harder to get that level of compat with PS3.

I mean in terms of pure numbers yes, software emulation for PS1 is "practically 100%", but like you allude to there's still that small handful of games that aren't supported. I think one of the MK3 editions is one of them, UMK3 maybe? Otherwise the exceptions are mostly no-name games.

PS3 emulation is probably where Saturn emulation was a decade ago, or maybe where PS2 emulation was at about that same time. But Saturn emulation's gotten extremely good now and PS2 emulation got a major boost recently. That was all also emulation for a market with tons of hardware variability (PC), so way harder to target performance for locked specs. Impossible, even.

Honestly I think this has more to do with setting the stage for introducing PS3 later - likely when PS5 userbase grows, and PS4 gets phased out. The wording right now gives me every reason to believe BC tier will be available to both PS4 and PS5.

Wouldn't put it past them, and for a selling hook I guess it makes sense. Plus they might need more time for native PS3 BC...maybe they work out a deal with the RPSC3 team? They've done it before IIRC with another emulator team for PS1 Classic, Polymega did it with Libretro, etc. There's some precedent.

Might be a case where they were testing the waters to see how the needle would move with those inclusions vs. the cost. With the big Activision purchase it looks like they are firmly in the camp that owned content is the way to go with AAA day one gets. Never know though, we might get some surprises along the way.

Yeah, ultimately it'll always be more cost-effective to own the content and leverage it for your service versus paying other companies for licensing of their content in your service. But I'm not exactly wild of the other reality that implies, i.e more acquisitions, more consolidation.

Because that's the only way you can guarantee big 3P games Day 1 into these services: just buy the 3P companies! I'm not a big fan of that tbh, so it's a conflict for me. But if they happen, I won't complain; it is what it is.

I just hope these companies eventually reach a point where they're "satisfied" with what they've acquired and refrain from doing any others. Some in particular should be a lot more "full" on that front than others going by purchases the past few years. Besides, they still have to manage these acquisitions and taking on too much can have its own consequences.
 

Topher

Gold Member
Now is £49.99 for 12 months.

Are they saying I can stack 36 months of Now for £150 and it’ll be converted to 3 years of Premium?

They pretty much have to upgrade it and keep the same subscription time period or they would face a massive lawsuit. Only other option would be to allow PS Now to exist separately like Microsoft did with Xbox Live Gold. Clearly they don't want to do that.
 

ethomaz

Banned
So time limited demo. Could be cool for a holistic approach to the library and not just 1st party. That 5 hour cyberpunk demo is a good example and roped in a few people to buy in eventually.
Is it demo or trial?
Trial is the full game limited to time… you can even get trophies.
I don’t think there is any developer work for that type of trial.
 

DaGwaphics

Member
I just hope these companies eventually reach a point where they're "satisfied" with what they've acquired and refrain from doing any others. Some in particular should be a lot more "full" on that front than others going by purchases the past few years. Besides, they still have to manage these acquisitions and taking on too much can have its own consequences.

Seems like you would reach that point naturally. You need enough content to keep existing subscribers and draw in new users, but at the same time you don't want to go overboard and create an over abundance of content (erasing potential profits). You'd expect that at a certain point first-party investment would just even out (other than inflation of wages, etc.). I'd guess you might see another big addition or two from MS, but probably nothing of the magnitude of Activision.
 
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Fafalada

Fafracer forever
Wouldn't put it past them, and for a selling hook I guess it makes sense. Plus they might need more time for native PS3 BC...maybe they work out a deal with the RPSC3 team? They've done it before IIRC with another emulator team for PS1 Classic, Polymega did it with Libretro, etc. There's some precedent.
PS1 classic was a bit of an aberration (And it seemed like a cost-cutting measure more than anything to go off the shelf). But who knows, it's a brave new world, and presumably a question of performance/compatibility I guess - since presumably they want PS3 emulation for running in the cloud sooner or later, they'll want optimal solution for that.

They pretty much have to upgrade it and keep the same subscription time period or they would face a massive lawsuit.
Why wouldn't they? That's a promotion they already paid for - it's not even an additional investment like MS's 1$ upgrade, and would still generate them good-will, for free.
 
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