The Next Console War Will Be Fought Over Subscriptions and Streaming

Sony’s PlayStation 5 is doing well this generation, but Microsoft doesn’t seem worried. If you look at the marketing strategies of the companies and the moves being made, it’s clear that they have two different ideas of how to win over players.

Microsoft seems to care more about offering an alternative service to Sony than beating Sony in player acquisition, leading to a new kind of console war.

Game Pass Is at the Forefront of Xbox’s Marketing

Xbox Game Pass is currently the main focus of Microsoft’s gaming strategy, and it has become more important than selling consoles in terms of marketing. Xbox is pushing Game Pass as the best way for players to get games, even going so far as to take the service beyond the console.

This is a big change from past console generations, where selling hardware was the top priority. What makes Game Pass appealing is its wide range of games, covering different styles and tastes. A major benefit is that first-party Xbox games, like Forza Horizon 5, Starfield, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, are available to subscribers on the same day they are released.

This means players can enjoy new, big-name games immediately without having to buy them, and the service also includes many indie games. Xbox Game Pass is built in a way that would make you think it’s Xbox’s main service, with many different subscription options to fit different needs and budgets. This is comparable only to a service like Netflix.

Microsoft’s focus on the service shows how important Game Pass is to the Xbox division of the company. Instead of just talking about how powerful the Xbox console is, many ads focus on how easy it is to use Game Pass and how many games are available for one monthly fee, depending on the subscription tier.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate lets you stream a massive catalog of games to Xbox consoles, PC, and mobile.

Sony Is Still Serious About Selling Games

PlayStation Plus is Sony’s main subscription service, giving players different benefits depending on which of the three tiers they choose: Essential, Extra, or Premium. Even though PlayStation Plus has many great features, Sony still strongly believes in selling its biggest exclusive games at full price instead of putting them in a subscription right away.

Games like Spider-Man 2 and God of War Ragnarok were released as high-priced, premium experiences and were not included in PlayStation Plus at launch. This differs from Microsoft’s approach, which puts its new first-party games on Game Pass on the same day they are released. Instead, Sony sometimes adds a well-known game to the PlayStation Plus catalog only after it has been sold in stores for several months.

This makes it feel like the Plus catalog exists only as a competitor to Microsoft, not as a main part of Sony’s strategy, and it’s a mess. Sony thinks highly anticipated, top-quality games help sell more PlayStation consoles and full games.

Sony also uses another strategy where some games are exclusive to PlayStation for a limited time before eventually coming to PC. This lets Sony benefit from early console sales while also making money later when the game releases on PC, encouraging players to buy a PlayStation if they want to play the game as soon as it comes out.

Many popular games have been successful as PlayStation exclusives, including The Last of Us Part II, Horizon Forbidden West, and Ghost of Tsushima. The company is still working as if streaming and subscriptions aren’t the future of gaming, which is the complete opposite of Microsoft.

PlayStation Plus

The Premium membership tier unlocks access to classic games in Sony’s PlayStation catalog.

Streaming Is a Lot More Viable

Better internet speeds and wider availability have been the key to making cloud gaming a stronger option. We’re no longer in an age when high-speed internet is rare. Internet connections keep growing and becoming more dependable, especially with new tech like satellite and fiber-optic internet.

Now, more people can use cloud gaming services, even in places that don’t have regular high-speed internet. Faster download and upload speeds make gameplay smoother and more responsive with less delay, fixing one of the biggest problems cloud gaming used to have.

Cloud gaming technology has also greatly improved, making game streaming a more practical choice for players. Cloud gaming lets people play video games from a distance on different devices, with all the heavy computing work done on faraway servers. This means users don’t need expensive, top-tier hardware because their device only has to show the video stream and send button presses.

Related

This New Xbox Feature Spares You From Waiting for Games to Install

“Stream your own game” with a Game Pass Ultimate subscription.

Players can enjoy top-tier AAA games on phones, tablets, laptops, and even cheaper computers. Cloud gaming means no more waiting for huge game downloads or taking up storage space with installations. It also lets players switch between different devices easily, so they can keep playing from where they stopped without technical issues.

The argument against streaming in terms of viability is becoming moot. It’s almost as if it’s expected to have fast internet for streaming shows and regular internet use. Basically, in many cases, you already have what you need to switch to streaming.

Owning Games Is Only Getting More Expensive

Source: Nintendo

The rising costs of making big-budget AAA games are increasingly being passed on to the people who buy them. The trend of games becoming more expensive, with new releases now selling for $80, directly results from the growing budgets needed to create these highly ambitious projects.

Better graphics, driven by technological improvements and player expectations for lifelike visuals, require bigger art teams, more advanced software, and a lot of time spent on optimization. Bigger game worlds, filled with detailed environments and large areas to explore, mean longer development times and more money spent on creating assets, designing levels, and building the game world.

In the same way, more complicated gameplay systems, including advanced AI, realistic physics, and extensive multiplayer features, need bigger teams of programmers, more complex coding, and additional testing. The increase in AAA game prices has happened quickly over the last ten years. Inflation and the overall rise in costs across the gaming industry mean that companies have to make up for these expenses somehow.

It’s a question of when games will get more expensive, not if they will. We have already seen Microsoft follow Nintendo in raising game prices, and that will spread. Gaming is becoming an expensive hobby, and it’s not getting any cheaper.

Over time, players will ask themselves if it’s worth buying every new game they are interested in just for less than a month of gaming. Some games last longer, like multiplayer games, but is it worth owning an expensive console?

Xbox Teamed Up With Other Services

To make its subscription service even better and strengthen its place in the gaming world, Xbox has teamed up with several important companies in the industry. These partnerships help expand the Game Pass library and give subscribers access to special perks. One major example is the addition of EA Play to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

This deal lets subscribers play a selection of popular EA games, including well-known series like Battlefield, The Sims, and Titanfall. Besides just playing games, EA Play also offers exclusive in-game challenges, rewards, special content for members, and early access to upcoming releases.

There’s also Bethesda and Activision-Blizzard (which were acquired by Microsoft), so players get access to games from two of the biggest publishers in the world. That means games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, and Call of Duty: Warzone on Xbox Cloud Gaming, along with other Activision-Blizzard and Bethesda titles.

Xbox is using this partnership to make Xbox Game Pass much more valuable. Microsoft knows it’s not going to beat PlayStation the old-fashioned way since Sony has so much of the market, but Microsoft can beat Sony if it bends the rules. If Microsoft can put Game Pass anywhere, more players who are tired of the regular costs of gaming are more likely to move to streaming, where Xbox already has dominance.

Subscriptions Are Cheaper in the Long Run

If you think about costs, it’s hard to say that Subscriptions are not the best choice for players. For those who are careful with their money, subscription services like Xbox Game Pass can help them save a lot over time. Instead of buying every game separately, a subscription gives them access to a huge collection of games for a set monthly price.

Just putting the math together, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate costs $19.99 monthly. That gives players hundreds of titles and access to Bethesda, Activision-Blizzard, Riot, Ubisoft, EA, and Microsoft games. It also gives them new games every month, and with every launch, discounts, freebies for games, and the ability to stream the Cloud on multiple devices without a console.

So, if you have an LG or Amazon TV, you’ve already gotten enough to avoid paying for a $600 Xbox Series X. If you do not, you can spend $29.99 on a Fire Stick from Amazon. After that, you can buy an Xbox controller and are ready to go.

You’ve just saved hundreds of dollars on a console and can play games that people on consoles play. The subscription cost is a quarter of what a new game costs every month, and if you plan on playing three new games a year, you’ve basically spent the same amount for a lot more than three new games a year, thanks to the studios Microsoft owns and partners with.

Sony’s strategy to beat Microsoft with high-quality games at a high price and starting fees is becoming risky. Basically, the future of the console wars is no longer about buying games on specific consoles but about how players can access those games to begin with.