Game Subscription Services [GamePass, PSNow, EA Access, Stadia+, etc] *spawn*

[Deleted member 11852]

They had psnow before xcloud, it also allows for downloading. You can talk about possibly the quality of the games in the service, but they could compete with gamepass if they chose, in fact if they put their 1P games in there I'm sure a lot of people would say it would be more than competitive.
So them choosing not to compete is different than not being able to.

It's odd how folks dismiss PS Now, which offers over 700 games for £8.99 in the UK. Sony really aren't pushing it which may explain why it has a fraction of subscribers that GamePass has, but it's effectively the same deal. If Sony really want to compete with xCloud, their service infrastructure is there. The 'strategical partnership on cloud gaming' between Sony and Microsoft last year was speculated to be about moving PS Now to Azure.

Personally I think cloud gaming is a technology waiting for better telecommunications infrastructure. Maybe in 5-10 years, steaming games will appeal wider. It folks a long time to embrace streaming video and that's a much easier problem to crack.

 

[goonergaz]

It's odd how folks dismiss PS Now, which offers over 700 games for £8.99 in the UK. Sony really aren't pushing it which may explain why it has a fraction of subscribers that GamePass has, but it's effectively the same deal. If Sony really want to compete with xCloud, their service infrastructure is there. The 'strategical partnership on cloud gaming' between Sony and Microsoft last year was speculated to be about moving PS Now to Azure.

Personally I think cloud gaming is a technology waiting for better telecommunications infrastructure. Maybe in 5-10 years, steaming games will appeal wider. It folks a long time to embrace streaming video and that's a much easier problem to crack.

The lack of marketinng/clear understanding around PSNow is clearly a factor. I also think that the fact you can get deals left right and centre of GP is also a factor...but certainly Sony could compete if they wanted to, but I feel they want to control their exclusives moreso than MS.

 

[eastmen]

The lack of marketinng/clear understanding around PSNow is clearly a factor. I also think that the fact you can get deals left right and centre of GP is also a factor...but certainly Sony could compete if they wanted to, but I feel they want to control their exclusives moreso than MS.

I believe ps now is only 720p and the interface is pretty bad on pc if i'm not mistaken. Its also only avalible for playstation and pc

 

[AzBat]

It's odd how folks dismiss PS Now, which offers over 700 games for £8.99 in the UK.

I've done some more research on PS Now & basically it's treated as a red-headed step-child. LOL There's zero integration with the Playstation Store. I have visited their web site & their store using my PC & their mobile apps to find out which games are downloadable vs streamed. Only thing I could find was that out of the 826 games they have on the service only "300" were available for download on PS4. I guess you have to download the PSNow PC app since I don't own a PS4? But I don't have a Windows machine at home for that & I'm not installing it on my work PC. For example, you can't browse the store to find out that Watch Dogs 2 is also on PS Now. You can't even click on games in their PS Now "See All Games" list & go straight to their page in the Playstation Store. And the list doesn't even tell which games are from the PS2 or PS3.

There are other major differences: no mobile support(not even a list of games unless you visit their website) & 1st party games are not released day-and-date like Game Pass. Regarding the latter, I don't think there is currently a major PS4 first-party title on the service that's been released in the last 3 years. Horizon Zero Dawn was on there last spring, but what's funny is they're still being advertised as being available until April 7. Their web site is also still advertising Just Cause 4 as being available until 7/7/2020. LOL

I did find this in their FAQ that was quite interesting...

You can choose to download any of PS4 and PS2 games in the PS Now library to your PS4 console hard drive. You can then play that game locally, provided you connect to PSN every couple of days to validate your PS Now subscription.

Why do you have to validate your PS Now subscription every couple of days? I don't think Xbox require that on anything they have. I think you will need to do that for Game Pass PC if you've been offline for 30 days though. Guess if you're online 24/7 it's no big deal, but those guys in cabins out the wilderness or on submarines better watch out. LOL

Lastly, I also noticed that there are no discounts for purchasing the game outright? On Game Pass you can purchase the game for up to 20% off. You also get a 10% discount on the DLC.

After all that, I think it's crazy to compare the 2 services. There's a reason why people call Game Pass the best value in gaming. It's just going to keep getting better & better as more of the 1st-party content starts showing up. And the third-party games are not bad either. Once PS Now gets more integration with the Playstation Store, has better first-party content & allows all the games to be streamed or downloaded, then maybe we can revisit the service. For now, it's not a good value compared to Game Pass.

Tommy McClain

 

[Bickle2]

It's odd how folks dismiss PS Now, which offers over 700 games for £8.99 in the UK. Sony really aren't pushing it which may explain why it has a fraction of subscribers that GamePass has, but it's effectively the same deal. If Sony really want to compete with xCloud, their service infrastructure is there. The 'strategical partnership on cloud gaming' between Sony and Microsoft last year was speculated to be about moving PS Now to Azure.

Personally I think cloud gaming is a technology waiting for better telecommunications infrastructure. Maybe in 5-10 years, steaming games will appeal wider. It folks a long time to embrace streaming video and that's a much easier problem to crack.

The service infrastructure is not there, that’s a big part of the problem. Sony has spent billions on PSNow, but between bad content deals and rules early on, and the expense of operating, they are incredibly different. XCloud is housed in existing Microsoft data centers, and more importantly, Microsoft has dozens of facilities around the world, and deploying Xcloud is simply a matter of shipping some hardware and hooking it up.

Sony does not. These data centers are extremely expensive to operate, and I agree that the speculation that a Sony is looking to dump them is very real. When PSNow started there were estimates it was costing $0.25 per hour per user to operate. By contrast it costs Netflix under $0.02 to serve you a movie. While at one point they were talking like they were going to be the AWS of Asia, not seeing that coming to fruition.

 

[London Geezer]

Yeah honestly I’m a PS guy and even I have no idea why I should bother with PSNow. I see that some games can actually be downloaded? So you don’t have to stream? No idea.

 

[AzBat]

Yeah honestly I’m a PS guy and even I have no idea why I should bother with PSNow. I see that some games can actually be downloaded? So you don’t have to stream? No idea.

Yeah they annnouned in September 2018 that some PS2 & PS4 games will be downloadable like Game Pass, which launched June 2017.

Tommy McClain

 

[Deleted member 11852]

The lack of marketinng/clear understanding around PSNow is clearly a factor. I also think that the fact you can get deals left right and centre of GP is also a factor...but certainly Sony could compete if they wanted to, but I feel they want to control their exclusives moreso than MS.

Agreed. I think this is something Sony are keeping and eye on, but don't feel the need to compete in yet or even promote better. I learned of PS Now's ability download PS4 games and play locally on this forum - I think it was @ShiftyGeezer.

So well done, Sony's marketing team, you truly suck at this.

 

[Jay]

My point about PSnow was more the fact that if they wanted to they could compete more on services.
In terms of streaming I don't think their that interested in investing until next gen, the same way xbox didn't see the point in vr this gen (and possibly next).
Sony has the azure edge data centers to put the PS5 into when their serious, but who knows when that will be.

I have no idea how well PSnow downloading works, or the quality of the 300 compared to the xbox marketing quantity of over 100 games is.

To say their only cutting deals because they can't compete in other areas when they've been doing it all gen when they had the more powerful hardware, doesn't add up. Their not just doing it now because they can't compete with xsx.

If anything they dialed back psnow streaming which was on more devices to cut more deals because they saw the value in those deals compared to slick services.

 

[AzBat]

or the quality of the 300 compared to the xbox marketing quantity of over 100 games is.

Microsoft advertises "over 100", but they have been consistently over 300 for over a year or more? Right now they have 383 console & 201 PC games.

Tommy Mcvclain

 

[Deleted member 11852]

My point about PSnow was more the fact that if they wanted to they could compete more on services.

I agree. I think PS Now is likely appealing enough to the 2.x million to cover costs, if not make a tidy profit, and when/if Sony perceive a demand for streaming, it is there ready to be scaled up.

I have no idea how well PSnow downloading works, or the quality of the 300 compared to the xbox marketing quantity of over 100 games is.

PS Now is over 700 games. In terms of downloads, this is restricted to PS4 games on PS4 consoles, i.e. stating the obvious you can't use PS Now on PC and download a PS4 game and play locally. I don't believe all PS4 games are downloadable but I've not used the service since I was in the closed beta.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

My point about PSnow was more the fact that if they wanted to they could compete more on services.

I agree. I think PS Now is likely appealing enough to the 2.x million to cover costs, if not make a tidy profit, and when/if Sony perceive a demand for streaming, it is there ready to be scaled up.

I have no idea how well PSnow downloading works, or the quality of the 300 compared to the xbox marketing quantity of over 100 games is.

PS Now is over 700 games. In terms of downloads, this is restricted to PS4 games on PS4 consoles, i.e. stating the obvious you can't use PS Now on PC and download a PS4 game and play locally. I don't believe all PS4 games are downloadable but I've not used the service since I was in the closed beta.

 

[Jay]

Microsoft advertises "over 100", but they have been consistently over 300 for over a year or more? Right now they have 383 console & 201 PC games.

Tommy Mcvclain

That's why I said xbox pr/marketing.
Which I find odd, its not like its just old marketing materials either, it's what they constantly say.

PS Now is over 700 games. In terms of downloads, this is restricted to PS4 games on PS4 consoles, i.e. stating the obvious you can't use PS Now on PC and download a PS4 game and play locally.

Thanks, was just using a figure I saw in here.

 

[TS_JBG]

Sony does not. These data centers are extremely expensive to operate, and I agree that the speculation that a Sony is looking to dump them is very real. When PSNow started there were estimates it was costing $0.25 per hour per user to operate. By contrast it costs Netflix under $0.02 to serve you a movie. While at one point they were talking like they were going to be the AWS of Asia, not seeing that coming to fruition.

Considering that like MS outside the USA they are just renting data hall space from 3rd party operator, that is a funny thing to say.
And I can confirm that at least in France they are expanding Psnow server space, and not in azure 

 

[goonergaz]

I've done some more research on PS Now & basically it's treated as a red-headed step-child. LOL There's zero integration with the Playstation Store. I have visited their web site & their store using my PC & their mobile apps to find out which games are downloadable vs streamed. Only thing I could find was that out of the 826 games they have on the service only "300" were available for download on PS4. I guess you have to download the PSNow PC app since I don't own a PS4? But I don't have a Windows machine at home for that & I'm not installing it on my work PC. For example, you can't browse the store to find out that Watch Dogs 2 is also on PS Now. You can't even click on games in their PS Now "See All Games" list & go straight to their page in the Playstation Store. And the list doesn't even tell which games are from the PS2 or PS3.

There are other major differences: no mobile support(not even a list of games unless you visit their website) & 1st party games are not released day-and-date like Game Pass. Regarding the latter, I don't think there is currently a major PS4 first-party title on the service that's been released in the last 3 years. Horizon Zero Dawn was on there last spring, but what's funny is they're still being advertised as being available until April 7. Their web site is also still advertising Just Cause 4 as being available until 7/7/2020. LOL

I did find this in their FAQ that was quite interesting...



Why do you have to validate your PS Now subscription every couple of days? I don't think Xbox require that on anything they have. I think you will need to do that for Game Pass PC if you've been offline for 30 days though. Guess if you're online 24/7 it's no big deal, but those guys in cabins out the wilderness or on submarines better watch out. LOL

Lastly, I also noticed that there are no discounts for purchasing the game outright? On Game Pass you can purchase the game for up to 20% off. You also get a 10% discount on the DLC.

After all that, I think it's crazy to compare the 2 services. There's a reason why people call Game Pass the best value in gaming. It's just going to keep getting better & better as more of the 1st-party content starts showing up. And the third-party games are not bad either. Once PS Now gets more integration with the Playstation Store, has better first-party content & allows all the games to be streamed or downloaded, then maybe we can revisit the service. For now, it's not a good value compared to Game Pass.

Tommy McClain

There are differences but both are very similar - it's not at all 'crazy' to compare them...it's like saying (from the UK here) Virgin TV and Sky TV can't be compared because Virgin doesn't have X channel and Sky has a significantly lower BB speed. The main service is the same...in fact PSnow does offer something quite significant that GP does not - the ability to play something on PC that you can't get without it. I appreciate GP is good value for some, but PSNow could be for others...we still don't know how many of the GP subs are paying full price - or anything at all with the bing points thing. We know that PSNow subscriptions are either the free trial or full paying (I don't see any deals popping up like GP).

Regarding the logging on every 2 days, I believe this is a hangover from the limitations of the PS ability to share - in the old days you could set up several PS4s as the main one and provided no-one logged into the main account they would all remain active - so in effect several people could share one game. I used this to share games with my kids a couple of times - we'd buy a digital copy then all have the account on our PS4 and we could all play together, now it's just 2 people and one has to be the owner of the game logged in (on the secondary console). Maybe this will be resolved with PS5.

 

[AzBat]

PS Now is over 700 games. In terms of downloads, this is restricted to PS4 games on PS4 consoles, i.e. stating the obvious you can't use PS Now on PC and download a PS4 game and play locally. I don't believe all PS4 games are downloadable but I've not used the service since I was in the closed beta.

Is that 700 PS4 downloadable games or is that that total of PS Now games? Using their "See All Games" list on their website they have 826 games total. In order to make an apples-apples comparison with Game Pass we need to compare games that are both downloadable & playable in the cloud. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to find that info on their website or the mobile app. You need a PS4 & the PS4 app to do that.

There are differences but both are very similar - it's not at all 'crazy' to compare them...it's like saying (from the UK here) Virgin TV and Sky TV can't be compared because Virgin doesn't have X channel and Sky has a significantly lower BB speed. The main service is the same...in fact PSnow does offer something quite significant that GP does not - the ability to play something on PC that you can't get without it. I appreciate GP is good value for some, but PSNow could be for others...we still don't know how many of the GP subs are paying full price - or anything at all with the bing points thing. We know that PSNow subscriptions are either the free trial or full paying (I don't see any deals popping up like GP).

I will agree my 'crazy' bit was an exaggeration, but the point I was trying to make that the only thing in common between the 2 services is that they both have cloud & downloadable games, but that after they diverge quite a bit. And yes, the PC app is a nice thing for PS4 & suspect that it will get there on PCs eventually, but I think MS will do a gradual roll out to PC like they did with Game Pass for PC. Remember xCloud just entered Beta on mobile after being in alpha since October. I won't get into the revenue/profit for either because we don't get enough data for either.

Regarding the logging on every 2 days, I believe this is a hangover from the limitations of the PS ability to share - in the old days you could set up several PS4s as the main one and provided no-one logged into the main account they would all remain active - so in effect several people could share one game. I used this to share games with my kids a couple of times - we'd buy a digital copy then all have the account on our PS4 and we could all play together, now it's just 2 people and one has to be the owner of the game logged in (on the secondary console). Maybe this will be resolved with PS5.

Thanks for that. Had no idea.

P.S. Mods, can we move the xCloud vs PS Now discussion to it's own thread? Thanks!

Tommy McClain

 

[AzBat]

PS Now is over 700 games. In terms of downloads, this is restricted to PS4 games on PS4 consoles, i.e. stating the obvious you can't use PS Now on PC and download a PS4 game and play locally. I don't believe all PS4 games are downloadable but I've not used the service since I was in the closed beta.

Is that 700 PS4 downloadable games or is that that total of PS Now games? Using their "See All Games" list on their website they have 826 games total. In order to make an apples-apples comparison with Game Pass we need to compare games that are both downloadable & playable in the cloud. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to find that info on their website or the mobile app. You need a PS4 & the PS4 app to do that.

There are differences but both are very similar - it's not at all 'crazy' to compare them...it's like saying (from the UK here) Virgin TV and Sky TV can't be compared because Virgin doesn't have X channel and Sky has a significantly lower BB speed. The main service is the same...in fact PSnow does offer something quite significant that GP does not - the ability to play something on PC that you can't get without it. I appreciate GP is good value for some, but PSNow could be for others...we still don't know how many of the GP subs are paying full price - or anything at all with the bing points thing. We know that PSNow subscriptions are either the free trial or full paying (I don't see any deals popping up like GP).

I will agree my 'crazy' bit was an exaggeration, but the point I was trying to make that the only thing in common between the 2 services is that they both have cloud & downloadable games, but that after they diverge quite a bit. And yes, the PC app is a nice thing for PS4 & suspect that it will get there on PCs eventually, but I think MS will do a gradual roll out to PC like they did with Game Pass for PC. Remember xCloud just entered Beta on mobile after being in alpha since October. I won't get into the revenue/profit for either because we don't get enough data for either.

Regarding the logging on every 2 days, I believe this is a hangover from the limitations of the PS ability to share - in the old days you could set up several PS4s as the main one and provided no-one logged into the main account they would all remain active - so in effect several people could share one game. I used this to share games with my kids a couple of times - we'd buy a digital copy then all have the account on our PS4 and we could all play together, now it's just 2 people and one has to be the owner of the game logged in (on the secondary console). Maybe this will be resolved with PS5.

Thanks for that. Had no idea.

P.S. Mods, can we move the xCloud vs PS Now discussion to it's own thread? Thanks!

Tommy McClain

 

[Deleted member 11852]

There's zero integration with the Playstation Store. I have visited their web site & their store using my PC & their mobile apps to find out which games are downloadable vs streamed.

If I didn't know better, I'd say Sony are deliberately not promoting it to keep server costs down and sales higher.

Is that 700 PS4 downloadable games or is that that total of PS Now games?

700 total, some will be PS3 games but I don't know how many. I did find a list but it was just in alphabetical order - it's like Sony really don't want people looking too closely at this service.

 

[goonergaz]

@AzBat @DSoup

I did a quick search for downloadable games on my PS4 and scrolled through - there’s around 326 downloadable games if all downloadable games are listed (which in theory they should be).

 

[AzBat]

@AzBat @DSoup

I did a quick search for downloadable games on my PS4 and scrolled through - there’s around 326 downloadable games if all downloadable games are listed (which in theory they should be).

Thanks @goonergaz !

So if you don't want to play via the cloud, then it looks like Game Pass has the larger library, but it's really close.

Tommy McClain