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One thing evolving in the world of online gaming that seemingly no one talks about is the online memberships of Xbox Game pass and PlayStation Plus. Are they fair deals? Should you sign up? I remember it used to be so simple – just pay ‘X amount’ monthly, play online, here’s an online store, sorry for bothering you. I call that time, “the forever ago.” Now it’s more like a digital flea market when you click that ‘store’ tab. You’re immediately inundated with discount offers, free trials, extra content, etc. This article examines what those markets are selling and whether they are worth the price.
First, there’s me. A PlayStation Plus premium member (I apologize gentlemen for taking all your dates). For $120 a year: I get access to game trials, cloud streaming a massive PlayStation catalog and Ubisoft classics catalog, discounts, cloud storage, a PlayStation Plus Collection of the best PlayStation 4 games, free monthly games, and exclusive content. I love it, its great. The free games I get monthly there’s always one worth playing or one I never got to play, then the classics catalog has a wonderful selection. The problem I have is that I’m also a streamer and because I’m streaming to play a game- I can’t go live through Remote Play or PlayStation broadcast. As a streamer it requires the purchase of a capture card to fix the problem, but I deduct a point no less. However, I’m very much happy with the PlayStation membership and would recommend it to anyone. You get what you pay for. When talking about the Xbox GamePass I felt it necessary to gather another opinion…I don’t have Game Pass.
For $9.99 a month, Xbox Game Pass gets you access to day one releases, EA Play, and new games added to the catalog every month, titles all the way from triple-A to indie. A small upgrade to your membership and you get even more titles and benefits. I talked to my friend, gamer and content creator Wil Johnson about his experience with Xbox Game Pass, “I would describe Game Pass the same way Xbox and IGN does: The greatest value in gaming.
When asked what Wil enjoys most about the service, “[T]he idea of it, to be honest. I’m a huge fan of streaming services because I enjoy the idea of consumer choice. The major benefit of services like these, at their base, is a future for consumer choice that I would love to get behind, as long as it remains affordable,” Among this high praise, however, is a drawback, “What I enjoyed the least about Game Pass is what I hope was a personal problem honestly. There were quite a few games in the catalog, that I was happy to give a go, but it was only a few. There were a ton of games. It’s important to note that Game Pass’ offerings improve all the time, but out of what was available, the service is sorely missing the big exclusives to prop up the rest of the catalog. I feel like there was a balance missing.”
I thought the same thing about PlayStation Plus Premium, there’s a balance missing, but in a different sense. While its nice that there’s a huge catalog of games (and I’m sore PS doesn’t have as much as Xbox), I’m realistically not going to play them unless I can download them onto the console and stream them, or I could always get a capture card like I mentioned earlier. The more classic games in the catalog can typically only be streamed, so you see my dilemma. At the same time, I have discounted exclusives and benefits on PlayStation as the Xbox Game Pass subscriber. While both have massive catalogs, are we really going to play all of it? The benefits, discounts etc. are good, but will there come up a time where they aren’t worth it? Game Pass is admittedly lacking on exclusives right now, but what about down the road?
Like it or not, this is online gaming in 2022 – you can choose not to partake in this style of subscription and just go with basic tier stuff. Why would you want to though? Its my prediction that as more games become cross platform, we’ll start to more benefits as developers and console makers alike try to top one another with top-notch exclusives. Your preference is just that, your preference as far as PlayStation or Xbox goes, however in my opinion both online memberships give you a fair deal, it all really comes down to the gamer, as it always should.
Thanks to Wil Johnson for his help!
