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Sony says it’s not worried about a recent dip in PS Plus and active users

kingfey

Banned
People buying ps5 + ps4 and still lower than expected sales for the online subs.

lol the fact that Sony made a statement like this means they are actually worried allot lol
Same ps+ users are buying these consoles. Ps5 need to hit 70m, before Sony gets worried about PS+. Same as how gamepass is 20%-25% of xbox one count, despite the series console.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I hate to admit, but he got a point. People used to pay PS Plus for playing multiplat games while playing exclusives on Playstation.

Some exclusives are going to PC, and PC have both free online and PS/Xbox games. Not saying everybody will run from Playstation, but maybe this explain the drop on Playstation Plus.
PC are becoming affordables. I watched Days Gone PC port and don't require so much of the machine to play. Death Stranding is another great PC port.
Dualsense works on both PC and PS5, but not on PS4. You don't even need a Dualshock 4/Dualsense to play Playstation games on PC.

I don't remember the last time I get PS Plus.
Yep. We all called this too. Playstation as a business lives and dies by the royalties, PS+ subs and digital spend on their store. By telling the most hardcore and hence the biggest spenders to go to PC, they are effectively losing all that revenue.

Sony doesnt even have a store on PC unlike Microsoft so they have to give valve a 30% cut on every sale. It's so dumb lmao.
 

Keihart

Member
Looks stable
Season 5 Whatever GIF by Paramount+
 

Menzies

Banned
I wonder if there's quite a bit more cross-over of people who own both an Xbox and a PS5 than what some assume/expect, and they just want 1 subscription?
 

//DEVIL//

Member
Same ps+ users are buying these consoles. Ps5 need to hit 70m, before Sony gets worried about PS+. Same as how gamepass is 20%-25% of xbox one count, despite the series console.
Companies don’t operate like that. If they have the same user base since last year it wouldn’t be considered a good quarter.
Ps5 was released and the ps4 user base still here and still less sales . That is just very curve no matter how you spin it .

on the other hand game pass is going up is an indication that Sony needs to work on their ps+ if they wanna see yearly increase .

knowing how arrogant Sony is now ( it’s ps3 all over really ) . Nothing gonna help them till that old fuck Jim gtfo and a Japanese person handle the gaming division again .
Because everything went to shit after Andrew House left
 

//DEVIL//

Member
Bro we are in a pandemic. Lots of people are out of a job, maybe just playing f2p games or hell even selling their consoles.
That is not true . Nintendo switch and home consoles were sold out in many areas because companies couldn’t make enough thanks to people staying at home and needed something to waste time. Not the other way around lol
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
They stayed after 2020 and a lot of the same companies that benefitted still are. This seems to be a Sony thing for some reason.
No MS said that they also saw a decline in revenue, but their new gamepass subs saved the day. MS had a 6% dip despite the gamepass subs pretty much doubling from last year.
 

kingfey

Banned
Companies don’t operate like that. If they have the same user base since last year it wouldn’t be considered a good quarter.
Ps5 was released and the ps4 user base still here and still less sales . That is just very curve no matter how you spin it .

on the other hand game pass is going up is an indication that Sony needs to work on their ps+ if they wanna see yearly increase .

knowing how arrogant Sony is now ( it’s ps3 all over really ) . Nothing gonna help them till that old fuck Jim gtfo and a Japanese person handle the gaming division again .
Because everything went to shit after Andrew House left
We are in the 1st gen. and the only thing we had so far, was 3 ps5 game, and 1 ps4 game.
Look at 3rd party games. They are mostly sold on ps4. Ratchet would have sold alot on ps4, considering miles sold 6m on both consoles.
 
No MS said that they also saw a decline in revenue, but their new gamepass subs saved the day. MS had a 6% dip despite the gamepass subs pretty much doubling from last year.
That's because a large portion of their revenue (One Series) is dying off and also was last year outside of gamepass.

Most companies that benefitted still are.
 

kingfey

Banned
That's because a large portion of their revenue (One Series) is dying off and also was last year outside of gamepass.

Most companies that benefitted still are.
add to that lackluster gaming this year. What big game have been released so far? Only nichie AAA games have come out this year. This holiday should be different. COD, BATTLEFIELD, HALO, Whatever other games are cooking. 2022 got tons of games. 3 Sony games, Big 3RD party games.
 

Faithless83

Banned
Because Sony makes a pittance on the hardware. PS Plus and MAU is where they make their profits and offset the miniscule hardware margins. If PS Plus or MAU numbers drop, regardless of how many consoles they've sold, PlayStation profits drop. If you're a shareholder for Sony, you want those MAU numbers the same or increasing - going down is a bad result... hence why this is a specific question and a specific article.
You know what drove the third parties to the switch? Consumer base, which Sony is building up at an impressive speed all things considered.
If you read the article you would know that the PS+ numbers actually increased from the 2020 Q1.
wuDA2CJ.png


Yet switch outsells both, okay move on.
Come on man, don't be salty. Nintendo is doing great with its 2015 hardware (Nvidia Shield).
Also they're not affected as badly with the components shortages.
 

Warablo

Member
Who gives a shit about "free" games anymore? Xbox (games with gold) gives out free games every month, Epic gives out free games, at this point its just for saving face.

Btw, Xbox gives free cloud storage to everyone now.
 
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//DEVIL//

Member
Who gives a shit about "free" games anymore? Xbox (games with gold) gives out free games every month, Epic gives out free games, at this point its just for saving face.

Btw, Xbox gives free cloud storage to everyone now.
Agreed. The fact there is no cloud storage for ps user but plus members is baffling. Wtf is this ice age shit
 

elliot5

Member
Agreed. The fact there is no cloud storage for ps user but plus members is baffling. Wtf is this ice age shit
I agree that it's ridiculous, but I imagine it has to do with Sony not wanting to open up hundreds of Petabytes of storage for their users and having to pay for that infrastructure lol
 
They should merge PS+ and PS Now asap

Just put the business model and games (minus the streaming part) of PSNow to PS+ Collection and call it PS+ Premium. Cancel PSNow entirely and make a new one that will appeal to the casuals focusing on streaming.

Basically, there will be two services created. (Well, 3 if you count the basic PS+)

1. Gamer-centric = PS+ Premium with a more robust PS+ Collection, Early Access, Day 1 Discounts, etc.
2. Casual-centric = streaming of Sony movies, shows, anime, and videogames all in the same app available on all devices.
 

hemo memo

Gold Member
When you have poor selection month over month, people stop subscribing. That’s the nature of subscription services. They are worried.
 
I don't quite get how you can sell so many consoles and see such a drop in subs and software sales. Also a huge drop in active users. So people are buying the ps5 not subbing or buying games and also not playing the console?

Like wtf?
It's worse if you realize even with the PS5 moving a heft of units they're still seeing massive decline. Hell without the PS5 that number could be 15 million or more.

Reality is COVID bucks ran out and no one has money to waste on this frivolous stuff anymore. Expect a hardware decline as well.
 

DeepSpace5D

Member
My PS+ ran out two week ago, I only realised yesterday because it said subscribe on the Playstation Store. 😂
Might be worth it to confirm your expiration date, because it says subscribe to PS+ on the Playstation Store for me also. But when I checked my subscription I found that I’m still subbed until January 2022. It seems like an issue with the PS Store.
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
Ouch, a 1.3 million drop in subscribers, and a 5 million drop in active users, on the back of a 5 million drop in active users the previous quarter as well, is not great. Wonder if they've hit their "wall" on active users with the PS4 install base, because most of the PS5 sales will no doubt be to people that already own and play on a PS4. 10 million less active users now than 12 months ago is HUGE, especially considering the year that gaming has had with everyone staying home and getting free money. No matter what PR they put out, they're absolutely worrying about a drop in users and subscribers.
 
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Pretty much every retail store is seeing red now as we are cycling panic buying and higher consumer demand from last year which was the peak of covid
 

ZehDon

Member
You know what drove the third parties to the switch? Consumer base, which Sony is building up at an impressive speed all things considered.
If you read the article you would know that the PS+ numbers actually increased from the 2020 Q1.
wuDA2CJ.png
You're posting in a thread titled "Sony says its not worried about a recent dip in PS Plus and active users". Your post said "Why would they be concerned when they're outselling their competitor?". I explained why they might be concerned... and your response is basically "Lol, learn 2 reed - numbers are actually up!"?

🤡
 

hemo memo

Gold Member
I don't quite get how you can sell so many consoles and see such a drop in subs and software sales. Also a huge drop in active users. So people are buying the ps5 not subbing or buying games and also not playing the console?

Like wtf?
People have no self control. The covid situation is the same scarcity tactic Nintendo used in the past. Now it is a real shortage and anyone who sees a PS5 in the wild will buy it regardless of need. That’s why.
 

White-fire

Member
Ouch, a 1.3 million drop in subscribers, and a 5 million drop in active users, on the back of a 5 million drop in active users the previous quarter as well, is not great. Wonder if they've hit their "wall" on active users with the PS4 install base, because most of the PS5 sales will no doubt be to people that already own and play on a PS4. 10 million less active users now than 12 months ago is HUGE, especially considering the year that gaming has had with everyone staying home and getting free money. No matter what PR they put out, they're absolutely worrying about a drop in users and subscribers.

This seems to be a common sentiment in this thread and I’m not sure why. Sony factors in the effects of worldwide risks such as Covid when looking at subscription services. It is a fact that less people are sitting at home and are more likely to be on vacation than they were last quarter because of summer and and even less likely when compared to last year because of lockdowns. These lockdowns inflated the amount of people looking for entertainment hence the increase of pretty much any entertainment subscription service worth investing in for the last year. The increase in subs was due to COVID and was extraordinary. This is the numbers coming back down, which was predicted by many.

If you do not account for the decrease in the amount of time people are at home / in front of a TV you will come to the conclusion that there is something worrying here. It’s all about how Sony projects PS Plus, it may even go down further because of people waiting to get their hands on a PS5 and not subscribing until then. Anyways, PS Plus subs tend to increase around the holiday seasons, it’s summer in many parts of the world. As it is, this dip is nothing to be worried about for right now.
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
This seems to be a common sentiment in this thread and I’m not sure why. Sony factors in the effects of worldwide risks such as Covid when looking at subscription services. It is a fact that less people are sitting at home and are more likely to be on vacation than they were last quarter because of summer and and even less likely when compared to last year because of lockdowns. These lockdowns inflated the amount of people looking for entertainment hence the increase of pretty much any entertainment subscription service worth investing in for the last year. The increase in subs was due to COVID and was extraordinary. This is the numbers coming back down, which was predicted by many.

If you do not account for the decrease in the amount of time people are at home / in front of a TV you will come to the conclusion that there is something worrying here. It’s all about how Sony projects PS Plus, it may even go down further because of people waiting to get their hands on a PS5 and not subscribing until then. Anyways, PS Plus subs tend to increase around the holiday seasons, it’s summer in many parts of the world. As it is, this dip is nothing to be worried about for right now.
So did MS have the same trajectories? Xbox Live MAU and gold and game pass subscription numbers went down significantly since last years Q1?

You're really not sure why going backwards in active users over a period of an entire year has people saying Sony might be a bit concerned?
 
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reksveks

Member
So did MS have the same trajectories? Xbox Live MAU and gold and game pass subscription numbers went down significantly since last years Q1?

Not sure about that, I havent seen anything on it.

Separately this is the sony ps+ numbers for FY18 and fy17

9Hok5AJ.jpg


They have a minor drop going into q1, 0.2m and 0.3m.
 

EDMIX

Member
PlayStation Plus is much more than a subscription to just be able to play online.

It additionally gives you :
  • Monthly games (2 PS4 and 1 PS5)
  • Exclusive discounts
  • Exclusive game content
  • 100GB cloud storage
  • Share Play
  • The PlayStation Plus Collection (PS5)
  • Game Help (PS5)
I very rarely play online and still think it's a great value proposition (I have a PS5 and never had a PS4 though).

I always forget about that cloud storage lol

For the free new games, its worth it. I became a fan of so many games I got for free that I was just never going to buy and try out.
 

Game Filter

Neo Member
PlayStation Plus is much more than a subscription to just be able to play online.

It additionally gives you :
  • Monthly games (2 PS4 and 1 PS5)
  • Exclusive discounts
  • Exclusive game content
  • 100GB cloud storage
  • Share Play
  • The PlayStation Plus Collection (PS5)
  • Game Help (PS5)
I very rarely play online and still think it's a great value proposition (I have a PS5 and never had a PS4 though).
All of this is devalued when a core functionality is locked behind this paywall. It doesn't matter if you ever use it or not - people HAVE to buy in order to play online and it's bullshit.
And let me mention that most of these things are not ever of such good value anyway.

- Monthly games (you can only use them while you pay your subscription - there are subscriptions on the PC which open up a whole library of games, rather than 2 new ones each month)
- Exclusive discounts (this is the worst deal ever - pay money so that you can pay us money again, but this time a bit less)
- Exclusive game content (skins... Mostly bad skins too. Paying for that is a terrible idea)
- 100GB cloud storage (I guess this can be useful if you need it - my pro has a 1 TB hard drive and it's enough, but still at least some actual value)
- Share Play (absolute nonsense - this function was advertised during the launch of the PS4 and I don't remember them saying it costs money)
- The PS Plus Collection (That could be valuable to those who want some of the games there and don't have them yet, however it would only have been the case if they had to pay the PSPlus once... And they don't - it's a subscription so after a few months you are losing again)
- Game Help (absolute nonsense - this function was advertised during the launch of the PS4 and I don't remember them saying it costs money, but best part of it is you can grab your Phone and simply google for help without paying)

In conclusion - it's (almost) all smoke and mirrors at a premium price.
 

White-fire

Member
So did MS have the same trajectories? Xbox Live MAU and gold and game pass subscription numbers went down significantly since last years Q1?

You're really not sure why going backwards in active users over a period of an entire year has people saying Sony might be a bit concerned?

As another user has pointed out, Sony has had drops in this quarter before when it comes to PS + subscribers. It’s bigger this time because of the massive increase of subscribers since last year. Again, it’s way too early to tell if this is anything to be really worried about. Especially since they have retained the vast majority of the increase this past year.
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
As another user has pointed out, Sony has had drops in this quarter before when it comes to PS + subscribers. It’s bigger this time because of the massive increase of subscribers since last year. Again, it’s way too early to tell if this is anything to be really worried about. Especially since they have retained the vast majority of the increase this past year.
The 10 million less monthly active users is the real worry, not the subscribers. What can explain that? 10 million less people even turned on a PlayStation device or logged in to a game than during the same quarter last year.
 

nbkicker

Member
I don't quite get how you can sell so many consoles and see such a drop in subs and software sales. Also a huge drop in active users. So people are buying the ps5 not subbing or buying games and also not playing the console?

Like wtf?
Most prob because there is only ratchet and retnaul or whatever its called thats made just for the ps5, so anyone upgrading to a ps5 will most likely own games on ps4 they just playing on ps5, and as for psn+ if you dont play online theres not much point as the monthly games havnt been anything special this yr
 

nbkicker

Member
Both of mine expired in May. Not resubbing.
Once mine is up for renewal ill prob wont be renewing as cant think the last time i got a free psn+ game ive played and dont play online prefer offline single player or against bots , think i only renewed last yr as was playing psvr boxing game and needed to play one online match to get 100% trophies
 

yurinka

Member
How can covid restrictions affecting PS Plus? Don't even make sense.
I guess the "covid boost" to gaming was not permanent as whatever CEO said it was
Covid caused a big boost in everything related to home entertainment when during its first months everybody was at home due to lockdowns.

In the longer term, now many people can go outside, and many people lost their jobs so reduced home entertainment costs.
 
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Deservedly so. PS+ has been trash lately and people are inevitably comparing it to phenomenal GP. This month’s offer is an insult.

New BF game will cause major influx of new subs though.

Mine is expiring in October and only if BF turns out to be smashing hit will I resub again.
 
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kingfey

Banned
The 10 million less monthly active users is the real worry, not the subscribers. What can explain that? 10 million less people even turned on a PlayStation device or logged in to a game than during the same quarter last year.
People have life, like other explained.
I dont turn on my switch that much these days. Its not that I hate it. I was just too busy, and I am a gamer.

Now what do you think, non gamers would do to their Playstation? Just turn it off, and do your chorus. They will only turn it on, when they need to.

I haven't even turned on my OG xbox, which I used to play alot 2 years ago. Same for my pc these days.
 

Faithless83

Banned
You're posting in a thread titled "Sony says its not worried about a recent dip in PS Plus and active users". Your post said "Why would they be concerned when they're outselling their competitor?". I explained why they might be concerned... and your response is basically "Lol, learn 2 reed - numbers are actually up!"?

🤡
Read my post again, I also mentioned consumer installed base for current gen hardware.
That is a lot more important that PS+ numbers in the first two years.
This is what drives third party support and make them/first party invest on current gen exclusives, because they have a better prospect of profits.

So yeah, if you have a hard time understanding a two sentences reply, that's on you.

TheDreadLord TheDreadLord please read what I said about consumer base.
 
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