Gaming - News
Why Sony is Leaving AAA Games Out
of the PlayStation Plus Launch
By JONATHAN LOCHIATTO
Those hoping that Sony's new tiered service would offer all of the same benefits as Xbox Game Pass — including day-one releases for certain AAA platform exclusives — just got bad news. Here's why Hiroki Totoki doesn't think big-name PlayStation exclusives will be released on PlayStation Plus day-one.
Everything, even down to the decision of which platforms to release a title on, factors costs against potential sales, and in Sony's eyes, these two don't balance out when considering giving a high-profile game away for free on its release day. There's even a recent example playing out in the devastating PS Plus deal for the critically-mixed "Oddworld: Soulstorm."
Responding to a question as to whether Sony would consider bolstering its future PlayStation Plus lineup with some of its upcoming anticipated hits, Totoki said something interesting. "AAA type titles for PlayStation 5, if we distribute that on the subscription services, we may need to shrink the investment needed for that,” he stated.
“We want to make sure that we spend appropriate development cost to have solid products with solid titles to be introduced in the right manner,” he added. Essentially, Totoki, like PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan, worries that if a game is expected to sell less, it'll inevitably face budget constraints and from there, quality will be affected.
