PlayStation positive in PS Plus method as it prepares PS5 video game streaming
Launching first-party video games outside of the service initially “will continue to be our technique progressing,” says Nick Maguire, head of memberships.
Cloud streaming for PS5 games is currently being tested by PlayStation, and it will be made available to PS Plus Premium subscribers.
The service will include’supported’ digital PS5 video games that users already own in addition to PS5 titles from the PlayStation Plus Game Catalogue and Game Trials.
According to Nick Maguire, the company’s vice president and international head of memberships, gamers will only be able to stream these video games to PS5 consoles in the meantime.
He tells GamesIndustry.biz, “We’re overjoyed about it.”I don’t have much more information to give about it at the moment because we’re still in the screening phase, but I will let you know when it’s ready.
Sony has actually disclosed that it is adding more games to the service this month in addition to PS5 game streaming. On the PS4 and PS5, these games include Far Cry 6, Shredder’s Revenge, Rogue Legacy 2, and Inscryption. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Killing Floor, and Soulstice are also included on PS4, in addition to Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The PlayStation 4 game WWE 2K23 is coming out in Game Trials, and Killzone Liberation, a PSP hit, is joining the company’s Classics line.
All of this information is released just when people’s annual memberships are about to expire. In June 2015, PS Plus relaunched with three different membership categories. This effectively allowed the company to integrate its two membership options: PlayStation Now, which offered a selection of video games that customers could download or stream, and PS Plus, which contained some video games but was primarily focused on online play.
Maguire reminds us that the service has been successful by quoting figures like “a billion hours of gameplay since that brochure introduced.” Additionally, he claims that users of the programme regularly spend seven times as much time on PS Plus as they did on PlayStation Now the year before the service’s debut.
Adding video games to the service a little later in life is “working for us,” according to the statement.
He adds, “And that’s from a larger, more diverse population of gamers. “We’re very sure that’s because of the high calibre of variety we’re bringing to the video game portfolio. It makes Plus appealing to many individuals, and we’ve been finding titles of the highest grade. That suggests that practically everyone will find something there.
Maguire lists a few outstanding games from the service, including Stray, an independent game that debuted on the same day as Dead By Daylight in July, The Legend of Dragoon, Rainbow Six: Siege, and Dead By Daylight.
In the first 12 months, “Stray has actually generated the greatest variety of players that have actually accessed that title,” claims Maguire. “And Ghost of Tsushima has actually resulted in the most gameplay hours. People have stayed and have actually purchased that video game. That speaks to the quality of the games produced by PS Studios, which have received a lot of positive feedback.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Horizon Forbidden West, and even Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart, which just joined up with — that’s climbing up pretty quickly and growing month-on-month — have all been PS Studios games for many years. The titles themselves are what are really striking a chord. It is attracting people in.
According to Maguire, the PS5 is the best platform for the Plus service, even its more expensive levels, which is encouraging given how widely used the system is becoming.
First-party video games are proving to be incredibly successful on the site, and according to Maguire, the industry is unfazed by its strategy of just publishing its older games on the platform rather than releasing new ones immediately.
He says, “We’re happy with our method. “By including video games a little later in life, we may be able to reach more consumers 12, 18, or 24 months after their initial release. Consumers are still enthusiastic about those video games and are jumping in. That’s working for us. There will occasionally be an opportunity to buy a day-and-date like Stray, and we’ll get on those as soon as they come in. We found that allowing those [first-party] video games to launch on platforms outside of the service originally worked well, so we’ll stick with that going forward.
In fact, membership services have benefited service-based video games. Huge publishers have introduced membership programmes to service-based games like GTA Online and Rainbow Six: Siege, bringing in new players and expanding the audience for these video games (which typically feature microtransactions or other forms of monetisation). Could some of these prospective games be released on the same day and date on PS Plus, considering Sony’s present financial investment in fresh service-based video games? Or perhaps PS Plus subscribers receive special benefits in these video games?
Maguire responds, “We are constantly experimenting to see what the best method is moving forward. “How will gaming routines evolve, and how can we guarantee that the service satisfies those patterns in the future? I’m not sure how much more I can say about it right now, but we are undoubtedly monitoring it and thinking about what role Plus might play in the future.
“I was shocked that Premium actually ended up having a higher base share than Extra,” the author said.
When we inquired if the service will also be available on PC, given the company’s expanding lineup of PC titles, Maguire responded in the same way.
The group eventually starts listening and learning as they go. We also learn from Maguire that there have already been a few surprises.
“I was shocked that Premium actually ended up having a higher base share than Extra. We all thought that Extra would be the place where most people went first, but Premium has really been more well-liked and larger,” he reveals. “What a pleasant surprise.
And I’m astounded by how similar things are from region to region and from country to country. There are undoubtedly some outliers, but overall, the top 10 and top 20, with a few slight variations in order, are typically the same throughout all nations. There are certain countries where people choose different titles, but usually the combination is similar.
Even though profits rose after the launch of the new PS Plus, the number of users decreased. Maguire claims that the post-pandemic slump that the entire video games market experienced in 2015 was the reason of this. He claims that the company has truly stopped expanding and that it is not necessary for it to change its current approach.
He says, “I don’t think anything has truly told us we need to change direction. It’s now about figuring out how to incorporate brand-new features that players want, new games that people are wanting but we do not have, and other benefits that they are asking for… how do we keep the service relevant, improve it, and draw in more users.
“The engagement here has been really impressive in the first year; more people than we had anticipated jumped right in to play these games and put in these hours. Our ability to find such a wide variety of video games that truly draw people in has improved. It’s about holding onto that and making sure we’re not becoming satisfied or living in today’s excess. We are planning for the future and attempting to predict what gamers may want in the next year or in the next five years. It’s simply incredible.
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