Highlights
- PlayStation Plus' recent price increase has left it in a rough spot compared to Xbox Game Pass, which is entering a golden age.
- The price increase for PlayStation Plus, combined with a lackluster month of offerings, has disappointed and angered fans, leading many to cancel their subscriptions.
- Xbox Game Pass is thriving with the release of highly-anticipated games like Starfield and a strong upcoming lineup for September.
Xbox Game Pass came out of the gate swinging upon its initial release all the way back in 2017. The first gaming subscription service of its kind, at least on the scale it was promising to eventually be on, Xbox Game Pass was certainly a risky and experimental leap for Microsoft to take, but it seems like it's worked out pretty well so far. While it's taken a good few years to get here, PlayStation Plus has finally joined Xbox Game Pass with its recent tiered system, though its release hasn't been perfect.
PlayStation Plus' tiered subscription system released at the perfect time. With many gamers having only recently gotten a PS5 after the initial shortage, they were desperate to see what the new platform had to offer, and PS Plus Extra and Premium offered exactly that. Big day-one hits like Stray bolstered PS Plus' launch, but all this time Xbox Game Pass has been cruising along beside it, and now that a golden opportunity has presented itself, Game Pass has chosen to strike, leaving PS Plus in a pretty rough spot right now.
Xbox Game Pass Enters a Golden Age While PS Plus Disappoints Fans
About a week ago, Sony announced a pretty huge price increase for all of its PlayStation Plus tiers. PlayStation Plus' cheapest tier, named Essential, has received an increase of $20, bringing the price of a 12-month subscription up from $59.99 to $79.99. PS Plus Extra has gone up by $35, putting it at $134.99. Finally, PS Plus Premium's price has been increased by a staggering $40, putting a 12-month subscription at an eye-watering $159.99. Of course, this news sparked a wave of outrage across the gaming community.
Soon after the news broke, many PlayStation fans took to the internet to share their disappointment and anger towards the price increase, and a trend arose of fans taking pictures of them canceling their PS Plus subscriptions. While this initial outrage has already died down significantly, this whole situation has not painted PlayStation in the best light, and when the price hike was announced alongside an incredibly lackluster month for PlayStation Plus Essential, it did little to make fans feel as though the higher asking price was worth it. It also doesn't help that Xbox Game Pass is absolutely nailing it right now.
After years of waiting, Bethesda's highly-anticipated sci-fi RPG Starfield is finally out, and while it's received a bit of a mixed critical reception, fans seem to be generally loving the game. Regardless of its reception, Starfield has taken up a huge portion of the gaming community's conversation over the last few weeks, and this publicity has only made people more curious to try Starfield for themselves, which leads many to invest in Xbox Game Pass. Though it's unclear just how much revenue Xbox Game Pass is pulling in from Starfield, Bethesda announced just a day after Starfield's full release that it had hit six million players, making Starfield the biggest launch in Bethesda's history, implying that it's been quite the success for Xbox Game Pass.
But Xbox Game Pass isn't content with just leaving things there. September is set to be one of the greatest months in Xbox Game Pass history, and Starfield was just the first piece of the puzzle. Solar Ash, Lies of P, Party Animals, and Payday 3 are all set to come to Xbox Game Pass this September, and all could be big releases in their own right. There's no denying that Xbox Game Pass is knocking it out of the park right now, and PlayStation Plus isn't looking great in its shadow.