During their PS5 showcase, Sony elaborately showed off a bunch of next-generation titles alongside a surprisingly new feature for their PS Plus subscription service. The new PlayStation Plus Collection that competes directly with Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass, will allow players to choose and play from a diverse bunch of the first parties and third parties AAA PS4 games on their PS5 at launch, thereby expanding PS5’s launch lineup.
As of this writing, the PlayStation Plus Collection offers a total of 18 games that include- God Of War, Bloodborne, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, The Last Of Us Remastered, Days Gone, Persona 5, Until Dawn, Detroit Become Human, Infamous: Second Son, Battlefield 1, Final Fantasy 15, Resident Evil 7, Fallout 4, Monster Hunter World, Mortal Kombat 10, Ratchet and Clank, The Last Guardian and Batman Arkham Knight.
As aforementioned, PS Plus Collection is Sony’s answer to Microsoft’s hugely successful Xbox Game Pass subscription, the latter of which surpassed 10 million subscribers as of April 2020. With Game Pass getting a major overhaul as well this holiday season with the addition of EA Play at no extra, it would be interesting to see how popular PS Plus Collection emerges in the course of time.
Vision
PS Plus Collection seems to be primarily designed for people who either missed out on PS4 this generation or are entirely new to games. The latter seems fairer, considering the staggering increase in the number of sales of both PS4 and its major first-party releases (especially the ones included in this list) in contrast to the Xbox One.
It’s hard to imagine someone owning a PS4 and missing out on games like God Of War or Uncharted 4, especially when one can get these for 20$ or less right now. In either scenario, all these games included in the PS Plus Collection are some of the finest this generation had to offer and it’s a must for the people who missed out on them. However, considering that no graphical enhancements have been confirmed by Sony as of now,( Although there are rumours floating around) it doesn’t seem feasible to pay for a subscription of games that one already owns.
When it comes to Xbox Game Pass, it is not difficult to notice how diverse its lineup of games is. Not just when it comes to genres or publishers, but also their scope and accessibility. Xbox Game Pass’s primary vision is to have something for everyone. Alongside big first-party games such as Halo, Gears Of War, or Forza Horizon 4, it also offers more grounded, smaller experiences catering to different kinds of players that one may hesitate to purchase individually.
Titles such as Tell Me Why, Outer Wilds, My Friend Pedro, Darksiders Genesis, After Party, etc are constantly added to Xbox Game Pass’s library all of which are some of the fresh and the finest video games out there in the market. Most importantly these are the ones that would have otherwise crumbled under the weight of those big AAA games.
Value
PlayStation Plus Collection is an added feature of the ongoing PS Plus Subscription however Sony hasn’t commented on whether the price will increment over its current $9.99 per month plan. There are some big names in this upcoming subscription service and will be a groundbreaking deal for someone who missed out on the PS4 generation.
However, it’s too early to say anything about how “valuable” PS Plus Collection will be for transitioning players who have already played most of these games on PS4. Perhaps Sony is planning to consistently add new games to the service every month, perhaps the addition won’t be as frequent, perhaps we will see more first-party additions in the coming months or so. As of now, Sony’s Jim Ryan has confirmed while speaking to gamesindustrybiz that they don’t have plans to bring their first-party launch titles to any subscription service.
Xbox Game Pass will be even bigger by the time Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S launches later this year. Players with Xbox Ultimate get access to a 100+ diverse lineup of games alongside but also free membership of EA Play Subscription ( which has its own share of games and features) as well as Xbox Gold service for playing multiplayer. Although there are no first-party launches this year such as Halo Infinite or HellBlade 2, all of which will eventually come day 1 on Xbox Game Pass. Bringing their first-party games at launch to Xbox Game Pass is something that can’t be overstated.
Conclusion
Sony has no plans to bring their first-party launch titles to PS Plus Collection and fortunately, they have no reason to because people would buy them anyways. It would be nice, however, to see PlayStation add more of these underrated, unique games to their subscription service. Titles like Nioh 2 would also gain a lot of audiences if they are a part of such a service. The addition of Fall Guys was a smart investment and we can’t wait to see more of such games in Sony’s inferior version of Game Pass.
With the time and investment Microsoft has spent in making Xbox Game Pass the most valuable service in video games, it would be a while before Sony reaches if at all to such heights.
