Sony will launch its new PlayStation Plus in India next week. The update divides the service into four tiers, namely Basic, Extra, Deluxe and Premium. Essential is the basic version, while Deluxe and Premium are the top versions – depending on your market. The new PlayStation Plus is designed to help Sony boost revenue. It’s also meant to better compete with Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass — a similar multitiered service designed for Xbox gamers.
On this week’s episode of the TechnologyShout podcast Orbital, host Akhil Arora talks to industry insiders Rich Alwani and video game lovers Parabe – both former TechnologyShout teammates – talk about the new PlayStation Plus and the growing market for gaming subscription services that already has Xbox Game Pass as the leading brand.
We started by discussing the benefits gamers will get from the new PlayStation Plus service. Sony will launch it in India on June 22.
However, the Japanese company did not consider India as part of the Asian rollout, instead opting for European countries to arrange the launch of the new service.
“From a consumer behavior standpoint, or buying habits and gaming habits, India is more in line with Western markets,” Rishi said. “It’s also because actually Sony’s knowledge of India and the Middle East is Sony Computer Entertainment in Europe, which is also basically known as Ski London.”
He also added that another reason Sony sees India as part of Europe is that the country is a “PAL territory” – meaning it’s based on the PAL color coding system.
The new PlayStation Plus comes in three different tiers for select markets. The Deluxe Edition is for markets where Cloud Streaming is not available, while the Premium Edition is for markets where Cloud Streaming is available.
India is getting a luxury tier as Sony’s cloud streaming isn’t available yet.
“I think they made a mistake with these multiple layers,” Pranay said.
He also sees annual plans up to Rs. 5,749 for PlayStation Plus Deluxe is quite an expensive purchase.
Unlike Sony, Microsoft offers Xbox Game Pass in the form of trial offers to attract gamers. The Redmond company also regularly offers promotional offers and discounts to convince Xbox owners to opt for the subscription-based service. Additionally, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate — the high end of the service — offers access to EA Play, which gives access to Electronic Arts’ (EA) game listings.
However, Xbox Game Pass has its limitations.
“The biggest problem with Game Pass is Microsoft India itself and the availability of Xbox in India itself, which is a running joke at this point,” Rishi said.
In addition to Sony and Microsoft, the game subscription service market has also increased the respective products of publishers including EA and Ubisoft. It’s similar to how Over-the-top (OTT) players, including Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, compete with each other.
We talked about where the market is going in the future because we have subscription services and major AAA releases. Discussions also revolve around whether it’s worth buying a new PlayStation Plus.
You can listen to all of them by hitting the play button on the Spotify player embedded above.
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