Xbox Game Pass has 10 million subscribers while PlayStation Now only recently reached 2.2 million subscribers. The news was part of a comparison in a report by GamesIndustry.biz, which noted that despite launching three years after PlayStation Now, the Xbox Game Pass has managed to quintuple Sony’s streaming efforts.
The article covers how PlayStation Now has been in existence since 2014, going through a number of troubling and content-anemic trials and tests before fully rolling out in 2015.
The service struggled greatly to retain any kind of membership due to the fact that they launched with the ability to pay monthly or annual subscription fees for games only available on the PlayStation 4, thus defeating the purpose of the service, which was supposed to offer all of Sony’s back catalog of games from previous systems at a fixed premium price. It wasn’t until years later did proper support for older consoles become available, and four years after release did the ability to play the games offline get added into the pipeline.
Meanwhile, Xbox Game Pass came onto the scene in 2017 and managed to completely curb-stomp Sony in terms of subscriber numbers.
GamesIndustry.biz notes that while Sony struggled to hit 1 million subscribers, and only in April of 2020 did they finally manage to cap 2.2 million subscribers to the service, Xbox Game Pass has managed 10 million subscribers as of April, 2020, according to a separate report from the outlet.
This isn’t to say that Microsoft is a good guy in all of this, it’s simply to point out that Sony bungled a potential backwards compatibility service with over-priced options, not enough games, and a thin line-up of software that barely scratched the surface of the illustrious library of iconic and classic PlayStation games.
Don’t expect things to get any better considering that Sony is more interested in getting entangled in legal battles with YouTubers and censoring memes that mock their Liberal Progressive propaganda rather than focusing on providing gamers with content with purchasing.
But this is all a wash anyway since the all-digital future isn’t something anyone should be championing. Digital-only subscriptions is a recipe for disaster in the long-run, and we’re already seeing how companies like Netflix and Disney are censoring classics via retroactive edits. Expect the same thing to start happening to digitally-provided classic games as well, and not just with remasters or remakes.
(Thanks for the news tip Guardian EvaUnit02)
