Shuhei Yoshida is the former head of PlayStation Studios. He left his position in January 2025, before that he worked as a producer on many Crash Bandicoot titles. Yoshida believes that subscription services can be a danger to developers – an exception is the service of the PS5.
Why does he believe that? He refers to the scenario that players would only have the option to play a title via a subscription service. This is very risky because the owners of these payment models could then determine what kind of games are released:
This is very, very risky, because there must always be new ideas tried by small developers who initiate the next wave of development. But if big companies dictate which games can be developed, I don’t think that will move the industry forward.
Shuhei Yoshida, via Game Developer
The diversity of game genres would thus remain limited and developers could no longer unleash their creativity. Despite his views, Yoshida praises PlayStation’s subscription model highly – and for one reason.
Subscription models restrict developers, but not Sony
What should Sony do differently? According to Yoshida, the way Sony approaches subscription services is healthier. Accordingly, major first-party titles should be included in the game library, but only after their release:
I believe that the way Sony has approached [subscriptions] is healthier. One should not promise too much and allow people to spend money on new games. After a few years, not many people will be willing to buy these games at the initial price, so they will be added to the subscription service and there will be more people who can try [these products] in time before the next game in the series comes out.
According to him, this could even boost sales of newer titles if the older ones suddenly become available in the subscription service.
Why is this statement difficult? There are also some games for PS Plus that celebrate their release with the subscription service. These include Foamstars in February 2024 or Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions from September 2024.
Moreover, Yoshida states that players are not willing to buy the games at full price after a few years. One possibility is to offer them in the subscription service. However, after the release, there are often sales or other offers where the games are available at a lower price.
What are subscription services? Yoshida refers to flat-rate offers for video games that charge players a monthly fee similar to streaming services (e.g., Netflix). In return, there is access to a rich game library.
- Players do not have to buy individual titles at full price. For a lower amount, they can test as many games as they can manage.
- New games can partially be tried out directly at release without paying the full price.
- In this way, players can discover new genres they previously shied away from.
Gamers do not buy the games, they only borrow access to them. Since the selection of games changes monthly, it may happen that players can no longer access the games after a few months.
Models include the Xbox Game Pass and Nintendo Switch Online. But PlayStation also offers different variants of the model with PS Plus. Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, explains why his subscription model is not suitable for every player: Head of Xbox clarifies, the Game Pass is “not for everyone”
