Sony’s subscription service, PlayStation Plus, continues to be a go-to purchase for gamers in the console’s ecosystem. Since revamping the service in 2022 with a new set of subscription tiers, PlayStation Plus has offered gamers hundreds of games from Sony’s long history and numerous console generations, both from Sony itself and third-party publishers. Sony has also ensured that PlayStation Plus stays interesting for gamers by offering new titles every month across its Essential, Extra, and Premium tiers.
Compared to its big competitor, Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation Plus does not offer first-party titles on its respective launches. Considering the increasing budgets of Sony’s major titles, the publisher prefers to continue selling major games at its $70 price tag instead of tossing them onto the subscription service. While this is fair, Sony could sweeten the deal for PlayStation Plus subscribers by using it as a means to revive some of its smaller franchises.
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Sony’s Dormant Franchises Could Return On PlayStation Plus
Sony Has Numerous IPs That Don’t Receive New Games
More than even the publisher believes, Sony is sitting on a mountain of IP for PlayStation consoles that have gone underutilized over the years. While franchises like God of War and The Last of Us continue to receive new titles, franchises such as Sly Cooper, Patapon, LocoRoco, and Ape Escape have not received nearly the same love as the AAA titles. Gamers were reminded of this with the recent release of Astro Bot, a first-party PlayStation platformer that featured over 150 cameos of characters across PlayStation’s entire lineage.
Astro Bot’s representation of numerous franchises – including several that haven’t received new games in several years – inspires hope that Sony will bring back many long-dormant IPs in the future. After all, reports have popped up recently claiming that Sony is working to bring back some of its older IPs in the future, and the publisher’s Premium service has helped lead to these classic titles receiving new life on the PlayStation 5. A PlayStation Plus release for several of these games may be a good place to start.
Sony Could Revive Its IPs With Smaller PlayStation Plus Titles
If Sony feels reviving a title like Parappa the Rapper or Jet Moto at a $70 price would be too difficult to justify, it could experiment with releasing these new games into PlayStation Plus first. Given the service’s subscriber count of almost 50 million players, these titles would immediately make their way into a lot of hands and would entice both newer and returning subscribers to PlayStation Plus. What’s more, adding these kinds of games to the service would help give it a sense of nostalgia for older gamers part of the service.
Sony could make these kinds of games part of a monthly lineup of some sort, and then later drop them as budget-priced digital titles for players who don’t have access to PlayStation Plus. This would incentivize PlayStation Plus by giving the games an exclusivity window, while also not fully leaving out players who aren’t subscribers by releasing them for everyone else at a later date. The prices may have to vary depending on the size and scale of a given game, but having these titles in players’ hands right away with PlayStation Plus could help give them solid player counts right off the bat.
If Sony feels reviving a title like Parappa the Rapper or Jet Moto at a $70 price would be too difficult to justify, it could experiment with releasing these new games into PlayStation Plus first.
Smaller PlayStation Plus Titles Could Lead To Larger IP Revivals
Furthermore, releasing these kinds of smaller, digital titles on PlayStation Plus could help Sony in the long term by keeping these franchises in circulation. Putting out a smaller release on PlayStation Plus to gauge interest from fans could be a good way for Sony to build up anticipation for the IPs and then build new games in these franchises on a much larger scale. So long as the publisher doesn’t skimp on the quality and respects the lineage of the IPs, these smaller PlayStation Plus titles would be an excellent first step to reviving several forgotten franchises.
Sony’s PlayStation Plus subscription service has been a massive hit for gamers and continues to bring exciting new titles every month. Still, with all the dormant franchises Sony has been sitting on over the last decade or so, there’s a big opportunity to make the service more enticing in the future. If Sony is truly serious about reviving its classic IPs in the wake of Astro Bot’s success, perhaps PlayStation Plus may be one of the first places it should look to make these revivals happen.
