There’s a lot of discussion among future PlayStation 5 owners about what the upcoming Xbox announcements could mean for PlayStation Plus. For those of you who don’t know, Microsoft recently discontinued the 12-month level of its long-running Xbox Live subscription service, sparking a lot of speculation.
There are several theories floating around: the most direct one is that the Redmond firm is solving some problems that effectively allow subscribers to upgrade to their Game Pass Ultimate premium subscription level at a greatly discounted price. In other words, it’s a temporary fix while cleaning up some backend issues.
The alternatives are much more interesting and could have an impact on the value proposition of Sony’s own subscription services. With Microsoft slated to make several Xbox Series X announcements this week, some have suggested that the platform owner may be about to make some disruptive changes to its business model.
One theory is that it is discontinuing the 12-month Xbox Live level in an effort to push users toward the most expensive and complete Game Pass Ultimate. This effectively bundles all of the organization’s services, including Xbox Live, the upcoming Project xCloud, and its Game Pass software vault.
In effect, this would represent a price increase, as it would require players to be able to cash out $ 180 a year for the privilege of playing online. However, Microsoft would argue that it is also a massive value boost, as anyone subscribed would get free access to titles like Halo: Infinite, which they could then play online, and potentially even on the go, through cloud gaming.
The alternative is that Xbox is so confident in the Game Pass value proposition that it is ready to eradicate its online multiplayer paywall. This would have a profound impact on the feasibility of the advancement of PS Plus, since it would be difficult for Sony to justify its subscription if the competition moved elsewhere.
How would you feel about being able to pay for PS Plus to play online if multiplayer is free on the Microsoft console? Would that change your relationship with the Sony system? Do you think it would affect the value proposition of the PS5? How do you think PlayStation would respond, if at all? Let us know in the comments section below.
.
