With a revamp of PlayStation Plus on the way in the next few weeks, fans were hoping that the Japanese company would follow in the footsteps of Microsoft and their successful Game Pass model.
These hopes have been dashed however, with Sony chief financial officer Hikori Totoki saying that adding games to PlayStation Plus on Day One would be detrimental to a game's financial success.
Speaking after Sony posted their finances and sales projections for 2022, Totoki stated that if Sony were to follow Microsoft’s Game Pass model, it could result in fewer resources allocated to first-party titles, which would result in a decline in quality.
“If we distribute AAA PS5 titles on the subscription service we may need to shrink the investment needed for that. That will deteriorate the first-party title quality and that is our concern,” Totoki said, in comments transcribed by VGC.
“So we want to make sure we spend the appropriate development costs to have solid products and titles to be introduced in the right manner.”
In March of this year, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan also reaffirmed Sony's stance on not releasing titles on their subscription services on day one
Ryan said "this is not a road that we’ve gone down in the past, and it’s not a road that we’re going to go down with this new service."
“We feel if we were to do that with the games that we make at PlayStation Studios, that virtuous cycle will be broken."
"The level of investment that we need to make in our studios would not be possible, and we think the knock-on effect on the quality of the games that we make would not be something that gamers want," he added.
Microsoft's Game Pass service has proven to be a hit, helping first-party Microsoft titles such as 'Halo Infinite' and 'Forza Horizon 5' reach over 15 million players each.
Sony are gearing up for a revamp of their PlayStation Plus service next month, with the high-end tier offering 400 titles for players to play through, including the likes of 'Syphon Filter' and other titles from PlayStation's assorted history.
Fans were hoping for the likes of 'God Of War: Ragnarok' to be added to the service on day one, but after two high-ranking Sony officials have spoken out about the idea, don't expect to see Kratos rocking up to PlayStation Plus anytime soon.
