I decided to just give my overall take on what we are currently experiencing in this hobby we love. I normally just share with you my video game personal experiences but I thought this could be a somewhat important topic.
The Subscription services we will be covering here are Playstation Now ( launched January 28 2014 for PS4,PS5 & PC), Playstation PluS (launched June 29 2010 for PS3,4,5 & Vita), Xbox Gamepass (launched June 1 2017 for Xbox One, Series, Xcloud gaming) and Xlive Gold (launched July 2013 for Xbox 360,One and Series Consoles).
For the past 10 years my personal observation was that gamers are gradually moving from the traditional walk in store purchase of hardcopy based games to more of online digital purchased games. The transition hasn't been very much abrupt but recently with the current global situation it has become more crucial to have digital entertainment as opposed to the hustle of in person store purchases. It should be noted that some of the gamers are not privileged enough to have unlimited access to the internet for example in my country access to the internet is paid for in all instances and not free and its in tiers per each ISP (Internet Service Provider) package offers. The cheaper the package the poor the overall experience, the more expensive the package the better the overall experience.
Gaming itself has never been cheap and the traditional methods of trying to buy your favorite game on a special price were really hard and truly dated. For example you had to travel to the local gaming store/s of your choice and enquire what they have on special and if they have the game you want. All of that was just manual and pretty stressful at times. It has become more reliable, efficient and crucial to have access to online platform(PS store, MS store) based stores in order to leverage the conveniences that come with them. For example wish listing a game and waiting for the right opportune time to purchase it, downloading and playing a game by virtue having a subscription service, getting discounts by the same virtue and so on.
Digital media is very crucial in our times as it cuts out the problems such as not finding what you always wanted or scrambling for the few remaining disc copies of your favorite game at your local store. The two Juggernaut companies in gaming over the years introduced more tantalizing measures to keep their audiences. I want to give careful consideration to Playstation and Xbox subscription services and as opposed to just listing what they have I want to give a brief of my own perspective derived from actually experiencing these services.
Starting with Playstation we have Playstation plus and Playstation now. Playstation Now is very broad as it caters for a huge library of games and also allowing gamers on PC to have access to the classic library of Playstation provided they have an active Playstation account. It gives you the opportunity to relive the nostalgia of old classics. My focus is not necessarily its features but rather the broad extent of satisfaction which it brings to me as a gamer through its large variety of old classics. Having to be exposed to some of my childhood games is really great.
Apart from the pros of it there are caveats of it as you need a reliable uncapped internet connection, its also at best a streaming service and obviously limited to your subscription for the period adding to that it tends to focus on classics more than modern release games in most instances. Although you can choose to either stream or download the game and play it streaming is more viable as opposed to downloading the game data to your console if you are storage space conservative. Downloading the game gives a more native experience of the game app code as opposed to streaming it and you don't have to fumble around looking for your game in the store's immense library.
Its tempting to say that Playstation Now is the best that Playstation has to offer but also with Playstation Plus being bolstered to Playstation Plus collection (you only have access to PS Collection on PS5) coming as an add on to the release of the PS5, PS Plus seems to shine by bringing the accessibility of modern heavyweight games and also just by having your PS5 and your subscription service you are easily entitled to 18 free PS4 classic heavy hit games from the get go with more to add on as per your choice from the monthly given selection.
Once games are claimed the beauty about Playstation subscription services is that the games are yours permanently as long as you keep the subscription active so as to access the capability to unlock and play the downloaded data (i.e the game app) on your hardware. If for example you do not pay your subscription instead of losing the game you just lose access to the game which is good as you will always reactivate find your game/s and continue. I've seen somewhere where they say if you go over 2 years consistently without being active on your subscription service you lose all the games. I am not sure how far true it is as I have also never experienced this.
We shouldn't forget the Play at Home initiative by Playstation which is really a superb service to own a game without buying it and most of all the game you claim from it is not subject to active subscription, its yours forever as a digital game. All you need is uncapped data from you ISP. It must be noted however that Play at Home, PS Plus and Now are random as you will never know which title is coming in any month but have to constantly keep an eye out as something you like may pop up.
Which brings us to Xbox Gamepass ultimate which includes Xlive gold which to me is a make up of the best deal at the moment. Very similar to Playstation services but with a supreme factor of having latest games released on day one on your Xbox. Instead of having to Pay exorbitant amounts for a new game you can literally access it and enjoy the same benefits as opposed to someone who literally paid full price. However on this note bear in mind some games come in deluxe and ultimate editions etc so all the subscription services can only allow you what they have on offer the rest you have to go to your wallet for more.
The only downside of Xbox Gamepass is the somewhat short-term nature of the games at times within the service as they can be removed by the service provider without your consent which makes it more of a gaming rental service than an actual game collection subscription method. I notice though that Xbox game studio based games tend to last longer perhaps its because they are directly under Microsoft Xbox Studios.
Just like the Playstation services Its also entirely dependent on the gaming companies having opted in to make their product/s available to the subscription service. Head of Xbox Phil Spencer said its still a work in progress as various gaming companies do a variety of agreements with Microsoft so as to make their games available and also the length on them being on the service. Basically its details not available to the public which is understandable but we should note that this and other factors are what determine which game and how long you see it on the service.
There's one thing I want to shed light on having said all the above, there's need for us gamers (consumers) to subscribe and use the variety of benefits these services bring to the table because for example, when others pay full price for a game I literally can get the same on Play at home for free ( subject to it being provided of course). Again I can buy the same game within the subscription service for ownership but at a discount by virtue of being part of the service without having to wait for a retail store to decide the season for specials. I can literally try out and experience a game and see whether or not its worth meeting my buying expectations rather than spending only to be disappointed.
Moving on it brings us to the three new gen consoles which are PS5,Series and S (please note there are also other consoles which I am not covering such as Nintendo switch). I do not dislike Nintendo its just that I do not have it so it wouldn't be a subjective analysis even if I give you its information which is available on google. I have had friends and various people ask me which is better between the three main consoles and my answer is never straight. PS5 and Series X are identical, literally the same as far as the eye will see, we need to bare in mind that each platform has pros and cones and its up to you to decide. Another thing to highlight on is regardless of the specifications of each console its how developers determine the manifestation of those hardware specs as per their gaming project needs. For example some games coming on Series X dont use all Series X features such as velocity architecture, Mesh shaders, raytracing etc. Same applies some games coming on to the PS5 don't use the Geometry engine for graphics rendering but lean more on the GPU to do the work .
There are instances were PS5 takes a slight advantage by giving an overall stable performance as opposed to Series X and at times in some games Series X takes a slight advantage too than PS5 which brings the overall conclusion that actually its how the developer is wielding the benefits of each GDK (Game Development Kit) to bring an optimal experience for both especially for cross platform games. So the best way to see these consoles in full force is to actually see them running their exclusive games which are built ground up for the specific hardware. I say this because if a developer has a task to not only develop for example a Playstation only title but also Xbox these are some of the consoles they have to accommodate in one single project (Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Playstation 4 pro, Xbox One, Xbox One S, Xbox One X, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X and Nvidia and AMD PC Gpus). So you find like common cross platform games like FIFA, Call of Duty have to run on all these different hardware's.
So weigh up the subscription services above plus the hardware benefits you get from each together with the price and you can easily come to a conclusion of what you intend to buy. I would say if you can buy both and experience both worlds, where one lacks one will cover for example if you want to experience the incredible haptic feedback your PS5 will do the job, if you want day one release games your Xbox will be your go to. There is absolutely no difference between the two in terms of how they run games trust me, its all in the hands of the developers however just remember that Series S is evidently the entry level version console of the 3 which takes a compromise in overall performance(mainly resolution and raytracing) which you will see with your own eyes. For example where the Series X and PS5 run games in 4k the Series S can only do 1080p or 1440p, sometimes its raytracing is very low and taxes heavily on performance and its best to switch it off in some instances in games like Resident Evil village which Aasif brilliantly covered recently.
We are starting to see current gen games coming out on the Playstation giving us a trajectory of what to expect in the oncoming years. Overall while there's real need for these subscription services they come at a cost apart from them being the cost there's need to first obtain the right ISP and devices such as a router and preferably having a wired connection as opposed to wireless to max out the benefits. It should also be noted by the consumer that when needing an online only game make sure you have uncapped data provision so as to not feel that sense of a loss after having obtained the game at full price and not being able to really play it, so please take careful thought before purchase.
Another thing that's critical is with these subscription services is: is it still worth it to buy a game or rather wait? Because you may buy a game and only to find out its being offered for free. I think it would be fair for Sony and Microsoft to tell the consumer well in advance on the catalogue of oncoming subscription service games so that we know what to buy and what not to buy. But to think of it again even if it were so, would they really do it as its still a business? (the market will eventually resort to not paying full price for games and rather just rely on subscription which takes a hit on the game companies sales).
Lastly the new current gen consoles are really good value for the money as you get both entry level (Series S) and premium experience (PS5 and Series X) for fairly reasonable prices. I say fair because to match and surpass PS5 specifications on PC is very expensive and again some features are still oncoming to the PC. Getting a ray traced GPU itself is very expensive so I believe console prices are generally fair. It is sad to note however that in some parts of the world these consoles are not exactly their USD release price as so many factors come into play including tax and as a result we buy these consoles at amounts higher than the USA consumer, something that still bothers me in terms of fairness but the world is never perfect isn't it. Your thoughts, questions, and even suggestions are more than welcome, cheers.
Comments