Business Approach Comparison Sony PS4 and Microsoft Xbox

[Rurouni]

In my country, Samsung TV and laptops is as expensive as Sony. If you wanted something cheap, you go with Acer.
Anyway, one thing that Sony TV is better than Samsung is their speaker. I don't know the current situation, but I have a series 5 Samsung TV (basically their mid-high model) and the speaker is the lousiest sound that I have ever heard from a TV that I ever owned. The Sony one, basically a low end model, have a proper sound.

 

[Cyan]

Microsoft has the Xbox Live Gold paywall behind most of the services and it can kinda suck for many people. Which makes me surprised by this news.

Sony say only half of PS4 owners subscribe to PlayStation Plus despite its advantages -some have become a standard nowadays, although free games are rented, the idea is great-.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/only-50-per-cent-of-ps4-owners-subscribe-to-playstation-plus

 

[-tkf-]

Microsoft has the Xbox Live Gold paywall behind most of the services and it can kinda suck for many people. Which makes me surprised by this news.

Sony say only half of PS4 owners subscribe to PlayStation Plus despite its advantages -some have become a standard nowadays, although free games are rented, the idea is great-.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/only-50-per-cent-of-ps4-owners-subscribe-to-playstation-plus

Because the PS4 offers way more outside the paywall, it's not that surprising imho. It's only if you really want to play online or get the ps+ games you have to pay.

 

[Nesh]

Microsoft has the Xbox Live Gold paywall behind most of the services and it can kinda suck for many people. Which makes me surprised by this news.

Sony say only half of PS4 owners subscribe to PlayStation Plus despite its advantages -some have become a standard nowadays, although free games are rented, the idea is great-.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/only-50-per-cent-of-ps4-owners-subscribe-to-playstation-plus

You say "only" but that isnt a bad number

 

[temesgen]

Microsoft has the Xbox Live Gold paywall behind most of the services and it can kinda suck for many people. Which makes me surprised by this news.

Sony say only half of PS4 owners subscribe to PlayStation Plus despite its advantages -some have become a standard nowadays, although free games are rented, the idea is great-.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/only-50-per-cent-of-ps4-owners-subscribe-to-playstation-plus

Need to see MS's attach rate to get perspective on this, do we know what % of XB1 owners have gold subscriptions?

 

[Brad Grenz]

Gold subscriptions are held by only like 1/3rd of 360 owners. A 50% attach rate for PS4 with PS Plus is fantastic.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Not for the early adopters it isn't

 

[Brad Grenz]

Based on what?

 

[Rangers]

Gold subscriptions are held by only like 1/3rd of 360 owners. A 50% attach rate for PS4 with PS Plus is fantastic.

How do you know that? I had always heard it was around 50% iirc.

certainly as an extremely old gen now I wouldn't be surprised if plenty of 360's now collect dust though, so the Live sub rate could slip.

Likewise the early adopters are the most voracious gamers so I'd expect Gold/PS+ rates to be higher on XOne/PS4. Heck it's hard to imagine anybody owning the new consoles and not subbing!

OT, can somebody clarify how PS+ works? I know that unlike Games with Gold, when you stop paying you lose access to the games, but what I want to know is are the games only available for one month or as long as you're subbed?

In other words say Metro Last Light on PS+ this month, it's only available in February, or indefinitely from February forward as long as you keep paying?

If it's the former that would be even worse imo. That's the reason I hate actual renting, I hate being under time pressure to finish a game.

Anyways it's pretty clear the free games were not enticing enough to sign up for PS+ hence the switch to a MP paywall.

 

[temesgen]

How do you know that? I had always heard it was around 50% iirc.

certainly as an extremely old gen now I wouldn't be surprised if plenty of 360's now collect dust though, so the Live sub rate could slip.

Likewise the early adopters are the most voracious gamers so I'd expect Gold/PS+ rates to be higher on XOne/PS4. Heck it's hard to imagine anybody owning the new consoles and not subbing!

OT, can somebody clarify how PS+ works? I know that unlike Games with Gold, when you stop paying you lose access to the games, but what I want to know is are the games only available for one month or as long as you're subbed?

In other words say Metro Last Light on PS+ this month, it's only available in February, or indefinitely from February forward as long as you keep paying?

If it's the former that would be even worse imo. That's the reason I hate actual renting, I hate being under time pressure to finish a game.

Anyways it's pretty clear the free games were not enticing enough to sign up for PS+ hence the switch to a MP paywall.

Wasn't games with gold a limited run though? Is MS going to continue giving free games every month? Actually wasn't it one free 360 game till XB1 launched? I heard they were going to extend service but haven't seen any details yet.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

OT, can somebody clarify how PS+ works? I know that unlike Games with Gold, when you stop paying you lose access to the games, but what I want to know is are the games only available for one month or as long as you're subbed?

In other words say Metro Last Light on PS+ this month, it's only available in February, or indefinitely from February forward as long as you keep paying?

If it's the former that would be even worse imo. That's the reason I hate actual renting, I hate being under time pressure to finish a game.

Anyways it's pretty clear the free games were not enticing enough to sign up for PS+ hence the switch to a MP paywall.

The games are available as long as you sub and you get them back if you re-sub after a break, as long as you downloaded them when they were available.

 

[Rangers]

The games are available as long as you sub and you get them back if you re-sub after a break, as long as you downloaded them when they were available.

Ok. Interesting.

It's kinda surprising to me publishers are ok with these as you could see such systems hurting game sales in the long run.

 

[Rangers]

Wasn't games with gold a limited run though? Is MS going to continue giving free games every month? Actually wasn't it one free 360 game till XB1 launched? I heard they were going to extend service but haven't seen any details yet.

It's still going on 360 and I'm sure is coming to One

PS4 and One are kinda in a bad spot since Pubs only want to give away older games, and there really are no older games on these platforms yet since they are only 2.5 months old. But I'm sure stuff's coming.

 

[temesgen]

It's still going on 360 and I'm sure is coming to One

PS4 and One are kinda in a bad spot since Pubs only want to give away older games, and there really are no older games on these platforms yet since they are only 2.5 months old. But I'm sure stuff's coming.

Plus has always had a decent selection of indie titles, that should continue on PS4

Edit:

as far as older games are concerned Plus just had Bioshock Infinite, Borderlands 2 and Metro - I wouldn't exactly characterize these as old titles.

 

[Rangers]

Well maybe not old, but they are at least 6 months older than anything released on PS4.
The newest of those is Metro from May 2013.

 

[Brad Grenz]

How do you know that? I had always heard it was around 50% iirc.

On 360 Gold attach was about 50% of all Live accounts, but the number of Live accounts is only 2/3rds of the number of 360s. Pretty consistently we've gotten figures from MS that show about 1/3rd of 360 owners have Gold, 1/3rd are online, but only have Silver accounts, and 1/3rd don't go online at all. Those aren't waning numbers either, that's pretty much how they broke out during the 360's peak.

 

[Rangers]

On 360 Gold attach was about 50% of all Live accounts, but the number of Live accounts is only 2/3rds of the number of 360s. Pretty consistently we've gotten figures from MS that show about 1/3rd of 360 owners have Gold, 1/3rd are online, but only have Silver accounts, and 1/3rd don't go online at all. Those aren't waning numbers either, that's pretty much how they broke out during the 360's peak.

But what's your source.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

The games are available as long as you sub and you get them back if you re-sub after a break, as long as you downloaded them when they were available.

It's a bit more varied in the EU where the condition linking game use to your subscription generally only applies to the Instant Game Collection content, but not always. Usually you'll see the following condition in the PSN Store for IGC content:

If you're a PlayStation(r)Plus member, you can download this item at no extra cost and it's yours to until your subscription ends.

However it's not always the case because the digital version of Little Big Planet, which I got through Instant Game Collection shows the following:

If you're a PlayStation(r)Plus member, you can download this item for the reduced price displayed and it's yours to keep forever.

These are the conditions which apply to anything you buy from the PSN Store, even with the PS+ 10% discount and which Sony sometimes attaches to its own games.

It could be different in other regions.

 

[-tkf-]

Ok. Interesting.

It's kinda surprising to me publishers are ok with these as you could see such systems hurting game sales in the long run.

They don't add games that are still hot and still selling, and we all know how fast most games drop from top selling list.
However they get a new round of possible DLC purchases which can be fairly good earnings. The games is free and then a DLC is suddenly very cheap

Plus Sony pays something for the privilege as well. And with millions paying for ps+ they have money to hand back.

As for the PS4 drive club is supposed to be a ps+ game. But it won't be a complete game, more like a extended demo I think. But we will get it earlier than usual. And i wouldn't be surprised if we see more of these the first year of ps4+

I hope Microsoft keeps their free games going and commits to it, then I can sign up for gold

 

[Deleted member 11852]

But what's your source.

The last figures from Microsoft I saw were from February last year: 77m Xbox 360s sold, 46m Live subscriptions (up 15% from the previous year). So as of last February a little under 60% of Xbox owners had a paid Live account.

I've not seen anything more recent, certainly nothing since Microsoft began giving away games.