Many fans have noticed that Microsoft’s Games with Gold program has kind of been a step behind Sony’s PlayStation Plus program. Every month, PS Plus offers 6-8 games, and the instant library is always filled to the brim with old games to download. Heck, Gravity Rush has been free, pretty much forever. Meanwhile, Games with Gold only offers 2 old free games a month, and none of them have been all that spectacular. So how will Games with Gold compete?
Phil Spencer detailed the differences in a Q and A session following his SXSW gaming panel. Primarily, Spencer said that Games with Gold lets you retain your games, even when you unsubscribe, something PlayStation Plus does not do.
“One of our issues with Games with Gold — not ‘issues,’ but differences between the other system we get compared to, is the fact that with Games with Gold, you get to keep that game, regardless of whether you continue to subscribe,” Spencer said. “And the business around Games with Gold, for us, is just fundamentally different from some of the other programs that are out there, which does put a different financial picture on a — you’re gonna go buy a game that’s brand new, the cost of putting that in, just to be kind of blunt about it.”
“That said, I have been sitting down, monthly now, with that team — some of the earlier months were already programmed — and playing a more active role in picking franchises that show up in Games with Gold, and I think you’ll see at least something that feels, at least, more true to what I think Games with Gold should look like with the constraints that are there,” Spencer said.
“For us, in the long run, as an industry, giving away content like that is just … I think there’s some steps and some evolution of what Games with Gold or any of the other systems will go through to their full potential. You have things out there that are kind of bigger subscription services, where I get access to a lot of content. Games with Gold is kind of this step in the middle of, ‘I get games, and how do I feel about those games.'”
Source: Polygon