PlayStation is reportedly working on a response to Xbox Game Pass. The news comes from former God of War director, David Jaffe, who cites anonymous sources at Sony.
Xbox Game Pass is arguably the most popular subscription service in gaming. Offering hundreds of titles at one low monthly cost, millions of players have signed up for Game Pass – which continues to add more value every month. Previous statements from Sony led fans to believe that a similar service would never make an appearance on PlayStation consoles, but it seems that might be changing in the future.
During a livestream earlier this week, Jaffe made some interesting statements about Sony's plans. "We had the guy on the show yesterday that had made the petition to fire Jim Ryan and I was like, ‘dude, that’s way premature’ because Jim Ryan doesn’t owe anybody, Sony doesn’t owe anybody, the truth about what’s coming and what their counterpunch to Game Pass is."
Jaffe goes on to clarify, "What I can tell you is I know they are doing some stuff because I know people at Sony who have told me that they are doing some stuff. There will be a response to Game Pass. What it is we don't know."
While Jaffe falls short of officially confirming a "PlayStation Game Pass," it's exciting just to hear the company hasn't ruled it out. Ryan claimed long ago that Sony's first-party games generate too much revenue to fit a subscription service model, although the success of Xbox Game Pass in the ensuing months may have changed his mind.
PlayStation does currently offer PS Now – a cloud gaming service that is home to many classic PlayStation titles – but it doesn't quite compete with everything offered by Game Pass.
“Here’s what I would say I worry about," Jaffe continued. "If Jim Ryan thinks the proper response to Game Pass is to emulate backward compatibility, PS3 games, PS2, PS1, and then to also add Trophies, which is what that patent suggests they’re going to do, and they’re also going to fold in all the movies and shit and make a streaming service, he’s absolutely wrong if he thinks that mixing it with PS Now [is the way to go]."