@nameredacted: I don't want to get too deep into the Microsoft stuff because it's a little off topic and we don't actually know how Game Pass is doing (I would bet it is still losing money but not as much as you think) but it's only relevant because it's the obvious comparison. I don't think Sony would be doing this at all if not for Game Pass and its success (it may not be making money but it has helped make Xbox attractive again to some people and it certainly has a lot of subscribers.)
But moving past Game Pass, my main point is that this product is not attractive on its own to the people who are most likely to be interested in it. Long time Sony Fans have all this stuff available and aren't itching to play old versions of Worms anyway (because nobody is itching to play old PlayStation versions of Worms.)
New fans aren't interested in old games and if they are PS5 owners with PS+ they have access to a big library that contains many of these games through PS+ (maybe that's going away) and have gotten others through PS+ over the last couple years.
So who does that leave? Non-subscribers, who you are now asking to pay a higher fee to access some old games, or the newest purchasers, who are likely to be your least engaged audience, especially for the older stuff.
I am not saying Sony should necessarily put all their first party games on the service immediately, or splash out big cash for third party day-of launch deals like Xbox has. But they have been very stingy even with properties they own. They have a massive back catalog of classic games that they own the licenses to because they are selling them right now, today, on the PS3 store. Legend of Dragoon is one example. They already have the PS1 emulator up and running so it would be easy to offer that, and RPGs age better than many other genres.
They also have relationship with third parties who have the rights to many of their most classic PS1 and PS2 games. There are talks about Sony buying Square, and the companies have a good relationship. How hard would it be to get Einhander and a few non-Final Fantasy RPGs? Couldn't be that expensive. NAMCO is still around and you're already doing business with them for Tekken 2, so why not grab some of the Pac-Man World games to bulk out the service? I can't imagine they would be super costly since NAMCO isn't doing anything with them.
That kind of thing.
I think it's awesome that rain and Tokyo Jungle are on there; those are two PS3 classics that deserve more love. And they should stream relatively well. But there are a lot more games of that ilk.
The whole model just seems very much like Nintendo and their Switch Online deal that everyone kind of hates.
This doesn't have to be Game Pass but Sony could make it much better than this without breaking the bank.
And if you're not going to make it better why do it at all?
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