I agree 100% with Sony because only Nintendo has more valuable IP that sell more. Sony has several exclusives that are past 10m+ if not 15m+ and will continue to increase while also having new IP's that go past the 10m+ mark. TLOUP2 alone will go past 20m+ and Ghost of Tsushima will definitely go past 10m+.
Putting your exclusives on PS Now day one lessens their value and worth because what happens if they ever need to sell one or two off in the future? Having them available day one for a cheap $10 rental makes them almost worthless.
For Microsoft, it makes perfect sense. Their brand is at an all time low or close to it, Spencer put exclusives on Game Pass because look at the first three out of four exclusives - Sea of Thieves, State of Decay 2, Forza Horizon 4 and Crackdown 3. Three above average games at best and two of those three would barely hit 5m if they're lucky let alone 10m+. Maybe SOD 2 because it was $30 at launch but no one was spending $60 on Sea of Thieves or Crackdown 3.
Forza Horizon 4 was the only quality title out of the four and actually worth $60 even though that's also debatable because it's just another annual/bi-annual sports game. Same shit as Madden and all the rest. Gears 5 was the first true great exclusive and even then, if it wasn't for Game Pass, would it even have the millions of players that it has? Probably not simply because it's not Epic with Gears anymore, it's not Bungie with Halo anymore, it's the second class developers that are making those franchises and vast majority simply don't care anymore. When Forza Horizon becomes your top franchise and IP this generation, that should probably tell them something.
Look at Nintendo. BOTW is STILL $60 30+ months later and the trade value is still at least $30+. Nintendo never ever devalues their IP's and why should they? That would be stupid when they know the vast majority of gamers will pay the $60 even for remastered last generation ports because at the end of the day, like Sony, the quality is there and is worth your $60. Microsoft's on the other hand, not so much.
Game Pass is excellent value for consumers and gamers but at the same time, I look at the studios that Microsoft has acquired and while they all seem to be getting elevated to the AAA level as they should be, until that's proven with their next gen releases, I see them all as quantity over quality and just wanting to fill a quota on Game Pass.
Also, unlike PlayStation, Microsoft doesn't actually need Xbox. Microsoft could shutdown Xbox tomorrow and over the long run, they would probably make more money because all that operating costs are gone. It simply wouldn't hurt them plus Spencer's vision of allowing you to play their games anywhere and everywhere means that it's not if but when their exclusives go on the competition's consoles.
For Microsoft, exclusives on Game Pass makes sense and is more of a positive than a negative for them for so many reasons where as for Sony, it would be a major negative to put their exclusives on PS Now day one. At best, I can see Sony putting their exclusives on PS Now when they hit that $20 greatest hits lineup. By then, they would already be well past 10m+ in sales and wouldn't matter anymore as everything past that is a bonus and bragging rights.
For me personally, it's all about console exclusives because if I don't have exclusives that I want to buy and play, why would I buy your console and become invested in your eco-system? That to me defeats the entire purpose. Every brand and hardware manufacturer MUST have exclusives that you can't play on the other consoles. Otherwise, all I need is one console and the other two could fuck off.
With that said, if Sony did put their exclusives on PS Now day one AND I can download them like Game Pass, then I obviously would play them all that way because well, why wouldn't I? But at the same time, im not begging or wanting them to even do that. I want franchises especially new IP's to sell 10m+ and do great because if im into them, I want my sequels and for them to become franchises. That can't happen if no one is buying them and continuing the series.
Back to Microsoft, personally, I don't believe that they even have more than maybe 2-3m Game Pass subscribers, if that because if it's so fucking successful like they keep touting that it is, why wouldn't you release the numbers especially when that would put more pressure on Sony to do the same? My guess is that they're losing money between exclusives and paying third parties to put their games on Game Pass. The difference is that Microsoft as a whole can easily absorb the loss but if there was no Microsoft and it was just Xbox, would they really be doing the same? Nope. They wouldn't because they wouldn't be able to afford it.
The main difference is that the Xbox brand has the luxury of Microsoft's zillions backing them up. PlayStation doesn't have that. If anything, Sony IS PlayStation and you can't just give shit away for the hell of it and devalue your entire brand name and IP's.
Again, for me personally, im all in with XBOX 4 and PLAYSTATION 5 day one but Halo Infinite is a $10 rental on Game Pass simply because I have never played Halo, getting tired of First Person perspective games in general and im simply not going to risk $60 on it but Ghost of Tsushima day one cross-gen, because their quality is top tier, they give me game of the year winners, contenders, game of the generation and so forth which is why Sony earned my $60 a long time ago. Plus most importantly, Sony gives me the games that cater to ME, what I want the most which is single player third person story driven games. And as long as they keep doing that, I will stick with Sony and PlayStation as my primary console every generation because at the end of the day, all the services and features you have mean less than nothing to me if you're not giving me games that I want to buy and play day one.
