Xbox Game Pass vs. PlayStation Plus: Which is for you?

For the longest time, if you wanted to play a game, you either had to buy it yourself or borrow a copy from a friend. Now, however, you have more options than ever, including Netflix-for-games-types of services that give you access to a regularly growing library for a monthly subscription fee.

This innovation in game distribution has recently emerged as another key segment for the industry’s top names to battle in, particularly Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation. The respective subscription services of the two publishing giants, Microsoft Game Pass and PlayStation Plus, have drawn many comparisons to each other, which is only appropriate, given how they sort of fulfill the same need – an affordable alternative to play games without needing to own them. 

If you’re interested in either of the services, you’re likely wondering which is better. The honest answer is neither. Personally, comparing the two would be like comparing apples to oranges. While there are similarities between the two – even some aspects in which one seems better than the other, what I believe will ultimately influence your opinion is your taste in games and what system you already own. 

Still, having tried both Microsoft’s PC Game Pass and Sony’s PlayStation Plus Extra for a couple of months, I think it’s worth taking a look at what the two services have to offer and see how they compare against each other. 

Value for money

If we’re talking about price alone, PC Game Pass in the Philippines is the most affordable option. It only costs P119 per month. PS Plus Extra (US region), in contrast, costs $15 per month, which when converted is more or less within the P830 range. That’s a staggering difference in terms of price. Other regions such as Hong Kong offer cheaper rates for PS Plus Extra at about $75HK or about P530 but even then, Game Pass is more affordable.

There’s almost no contest between the two with regards to price, which is why it’s better to consider the value you’re getting for your money. 

Both PC Game Pass and PS Plus Extra give you access to a mix of first-party and third-party releases, including some notable indies. The difference is Game Pass has a more limited selection at around a hundred, while PS Plus Extra has about five or six times that number, depending on which region you subscribe to. I’ll get to the games in the next part, but the numbers favor PS Plus – it is, after all, more expensive. 

You can even upgrade your PS Plus plan to Deluxe (or Premium in some markets) to get more games, including some PS1, PS2, PS3 and PSP favorites. If you’re a big PlayStation fan, this is probably your best option. Just expect to shell out more for your subscription – $18 a month in the US, to be exact, which converts to about P1,000 or $85HK, which converts to about P600.

As of writing, Microsoft’s local service only has a single tier unlike its counterpart in other markets. 

Where Microsoft seems to have an edge over PlayStation is in its approach of day-one games. The former lets you play first-party exclusives on launch day, while the latter could have you wait a year or two before it adds the game to the service. Day-one access can net you thousands in savings, sparing you from having to pay a new game at full-price. 

Taking everything I mentioned into consideration, I think it’s still a toss-up between the two as to which one has the better value-for-money proposition. If you want more games, go with PS Plus. If you want savings and usually play games at launch, try Game Pass. 

Game library 

Okay, this is where the comparisons get trickier. Since PlayStation and Xbox have their own exclusives, choosing between the two depends on what games you actually want to play. 

From a general overview, however, it feels like Game Pass leans more towards multiplayer-focused games, while PS Plus favors story-driven, single-player games – at least that’s what it looks like to me. 

The exclusives on Microsoft Game Pass include the Halo, Gears and Forza franchises, along with Sea of Thieves and Grounded, to name a few – all of which bank on competitive and cooperative experiences. Then, you have third-party offerings like Back 4 Blood, Rainbow Six Siege, and Dead by Daylight. Your subscription also comes with EA Access, which includes games like Battlefield, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare and FIFA. 

Sony’s PS Plus library, on the other hand, includes PS5 exclusives such as Demon’s Souls and Returnal, both of which are single-player games with multiplayer components. Other exclusives include more story-driven games like Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Death Stranding: Director’s Cut, Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut, Until Dawn, God of War and Days Gone. It additionally includes some third-party hits like Red Dead Redemption 2, Control, Final Fantasy Remake Intergrade and the recently released Stray. Also, you get access to Ubisoft Classic+, which covers the majority of the Assassin’s Creed catalog, including the latest installment, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. 

These are all well-received single-player games that are definitely worth checking out if you haven’t yet. 

There are, of course, notable exceptions to the rule I just talked about, but if you need a general guide of sorts you can probably follow that. You can check the full list of games available on each service by visiting their respective websites. 

In my case, I’ve been enjoying Xbox Game Pass a little bit more than PS Plus Extra only because I already own a lot of the games available on the latter. Otherwise, I’d probably get more out of my PS Plus subscription, given how I spend more time gaming on my PS5 than on my PC. 

Perks

When it comes to perks, PS Plus Extra appears to have a slight advantage over Game Pass. Apart from having the choice to subscribe to different tiers, you get cloud storage for your game saves, access to online multiplayer and features like Game Help and Share Play, as well as exclusive content and discounts. You also get up to three pre-selected games per month, the same games that are given to all PS Plus subscribers. 

If you upgrade to PS Plus Deluxe, you even enjoy time-limited trials of certain games, like Horizon Forbidden West, as shown below. In case you like the game enough to buy it, you can load your progress from the trial and continue where you left off. 

As for Game Pass, the best perk is arguably the aforementioned day-one access to certain games. It also includes exclusive discounts in case you want to own any of the available games from the library and EA Play membership. Microsoft has yet to bring game streaming to the local market, so for now, you’re stuck with downloading and installing games on your hard drive. 

The future

Both Sony and Microsoft are making big moves in the industry to expand their respective services. The two have been snatching up development studios and publishers left and right over the last few years to strengthen their respective stables of first-party collaborators. 

Microsoft has already completed its acquisition of Zenimax, the parent company of Bethesda, which is behind franchises like Fallout, Elder Scrolls and Wolfenstein. Almost the entire catalog of the studio is available on Game Pass, including blockbusters like Skyrim and Fallout 4. 

Now, Microsoft is hoping to do the same with Activision-Blizzard’s catalog, as it continues to negotiate its buyout bid. If the deal pushes through, you could probably expect the Call of Duty catalog to be added to Game Pass, among the publisher’s other properties. That’s an exciting possibility which could make the subscription price of Game Pass feel even more worth it than it already is. 

Sony has been similarly buying out studios and publishers, chief of which is the acquisition of Bungie. The deal is particularly noteworthy because the plan is for the Destiny developer to contribute to PlayStation’s plans to push out more live service types of games. 

It’s perhaps safe to assume there’ll be more multiplayer games in Sony’s lineup in the near future, which is admittedly very exciting. The move could serve as a good diversion between the company’s single-player releases and further pad out its subscription service catalog. 

There are also a number of highly-touted PlayStation exclusive that have yet to be added to the PS Plus catalog, including Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Sackboy: A Big Adventure. Maybe when the revenue streams for these games dry up, they could find their way to the service. Their addition will likely convince more PS Plus subscribers to upgrade or stay subscribed to either the Essential or Deluxe tiers. 

If you have both a PC and PS4 or PS5, I suggest giving both services a try, even just for a month, to see which one works for you better. If budget is not an issue, having both might have its benefits. For example, I’ve been using Game Pass to replay Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, while I plan to use PS Plus to check out Stray. 

Ask your friends as well what system they’re on so you can find a game that you can all play together. That’s the joy with these services – you all have access to the same catalog of games, so it’s only a matter of picking what you want to play and jumping straight in. And if you ever get tired of any single game, you can try something else. – Rappler.com

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