PlayStation exec says first-party games won't be released on PS Plus on day one – 'We’ve sort of stayed true to our strategy across the board'

• PlayStation is sticking to its strategy of not launching first-party games on PS Plus on day one
• PlayStation vice president of global services Nick Maguire says "we’re not looking to put games in day and date"
• He adds that bringing games to the service 12-18 months after they've released is "working really well across the platform"

PlayStation has confirmed that it will be sticking to its current launch strategy and won't start releasing first-party games on PS Plus on day one.

In an interview with Game File, PlayStation vice president of global services Nick Maguire explained that the company is not looking to change its policy by adding first-party titles to the subscription service the same day they release, unlike Xbox with Game Pass.

"We’ve sort of stayed true to our strategy across the board, where we’re not looking to put games in day and date," Maguire said.

Xbox has remained consistent with how it releases exclusive titles, like Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, to Game Pass, however, as Maguire goes on to explain, Sony only adds its first-party titles to PS Plus at least 18 months after launch.

"Our strategy of finding four or five independent day-and-date titles - and using that to complement our strategy of bringing games in when they’re 12, 18 months old or older - that balance for us is working really well across the platform," he said. "If there were six or seven great opportunities, then we would go for them as well."

God of War Ragnarok, which launched in late 2022, wasn't available on PS Plus until January 2025, almost 26 months later, while Horizon Forbidden West, which was released in February 2022, was added a lot sooner in February 2023 before it was later removed from the service in 2024.

When asked if PlayStation would ever consider adding first party live-service games to PS Plus, like Concord - a game that was taken offline after just two weeks - Maguire declined to comment but did say that the service has "proven itself to be a great way to introduce new players to franchises".

"There's always going to be a moment for any game where there's the right time for it to go into Plus, when it's ready to reach a wider audience or… to find new fans or new parts of our platform that it hasn't already reached," Maguire said.

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