Sony Is Apparently Working On An Alternative To Xbox Game Pass

The creator of God of War and Twisted Metal believes that Sony is working on a counterpunch to combat the success of Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass.

Bad guy
Credit: Santa Monica Studio

David Jaffe claims to have spoken to a number of sources and he believes that Sony has something big in the works [via VGC].

Sony already has PS Now for PS4 and PS5, which to be fair has an excellent line-up of games. Over the years, the price of this subscription service has dropped.

PS Now has also improved in terms of how it delivers games to its customers. When PS Now initially launched, you could only stream the games, which caused issues of lag even for the less demanding games.

However, the streaming quality has improved and you can even download certain games to your hard drive, as you can do with all games on Xbox Game Pass.

For me personally, other than being more expensive, the reason that PS Now lacks behind Xbox Game Pass is that the Microsoft service has games launching day one, unlike PS Now.

Logo for Xbox Game Pass
Credit: Microsoft

Microsoft is known for releasing first-party games on Xbox Game Pass from day one. The recent acquisition of Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media has added even more value to Xbox Game Pass.

Xbox Game Pass is the heart and soul of Microsoft’s business model for the Xbox brand and, as of January 2021, the subscription service has attracted over 18,000,000 subscribers.

Since its launch, Xbox Game Pass has also been made available to PC (so too is PS Now) and you can play a number of compatible games via the Cloud on Android devices, some even having touchscreen controls.

David Jaffe worked for PlayStation for 14 years but left the company back in 2007. However, it seems that he has retained close relations with some personnel at the company.

YouTube video

In a recent video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Jaffe claims that his sources state that Sony has some big plans to counter Xbox Game Pass.

 “We had the guy on the show yesterday that had made the petition to fire Jim Ryan and I was like, ‘dude, that’s way premature’ because Jim Ryan doesn’t owe anybody, Sony doesn’t owe anybody, the truth about what’s coming and what their counterpunch to Game Pass is.

What I can tell you is I know they are doing some stuff because I know people at Sony who have told me that they are doing some stuff,” continued Jaffe. “There will be a response to Game Pass.

What it is we don’t know,” Jaffe added. “Here’s what I would say I worry about. If Jim Ryan thinks the proper response to Game Pass is to emulate backward compatibility, PS3 games, PS2, PS1, and then to also add Trophies, which is what that patent suggests they’re going to do. 

PS Now Logo
Credit: Sony

“And they’re also going to fold in all the movies and shit and make a streaming service, he’s absolutely wrong if he thinks that mixing it with PS Now [is the way to go].

That would make me go, ‘I don’t think the man has a clue because that’s not going to compete with Game Pass, but I don’t know if that’s the case, but I don’t think Jim Ryan is ready to throw under the bus at all.

Perhaps if Sony can improve the PS Now library and bundle in PS Now and PS Plus into one handy subscription while lowering the overall cost, Sony might be able to compete with Xbox Game Pass.

What do you believe Sony needs to do to compete with Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass service? Let us know across our social media channels.

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Featured Image Credit: Sony