Sony is "happy" with its strategy not to release its first-party games on PS Plus

Sony remains "happy" with its decision not to release its first-party games on PS Plus.

"We're happy with our strategy," Sony's vice president and global head of subscriptions, Nick Maguire, told Gamesindustry.biz, suggesting that the company has no plans to rework its subscription service to match that of competitor Microsoft, which does make all its first-party games available from day one for Xbox Game Pass subscribers at no extra cost.

"Putting games in a bit later in the life cycle has meant that we can reach more customers 12, 18, 24 months after they have released. We're seeing customers still get excited about those games and jumping in. For us, that's working. 

"Occasionally, there will be an opportunity to invest in a day-and-date like Stray and we will jump on those when they come in," Maguire added. "But for us, letting those [first-party] games go out to the platform outside the service first… that's working and that will continue to be our strategy moving forward."

ICYMI, Phil Spencer recently commented on the status of an Xbox Series X successor in a recent interview. 

The current CEO of Xbox Game Studios – who oversees the development of new titles for the Xbox Series X, among other duties – explained that he doesn't "feel an imperative" for the company to release an Xbox successor, saying: "That's not the feedback we're getting right now. Right now, we're pretty set on the hardware we have". 

The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are now nearing three years of market availability, as both systems originally launched in late 2020. 

The prior console generation saw a system revision in the form of the Xbox One X (in 2017), which debuted three and a half years after the Xbox One. The decision behind the upgrade was to deliver 4K resolution to consumers, a feat that the current flagship Xbox console does straight out of the box.