Penny Arcade - Comic - Plus Ultra

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Penny Arcade - Comic - Plus Ultra

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

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dennis

I feel like the very last bubble is how a lot of my conversations end. At least in my head.

Tofystedeth

God I hate that when all the tiers are stuff like
Preferred
Elite
Executive
Gold Plus

How do I rank these!?

Synthesis

You gotta' call things something.



This version actually runs Adobe Photoshop!

Lucascraft

My thoughts echo Gabe's question in panel 1.

Are we sure Sony is actually trying to compete with Game Pass? Because this isn't very competitive.

If I'm not subscribing to PS Now already, why would I opt into the more expensive PS+ bundle?

Grendus

Keeping in mind how lackluster Gamepass was at launch, I'm going to withhold judgement until we see the games that are available via the service on launch. Microsoft has pumped money into Gamepass for a very, very long time now and I remember a very long time when people's standard opinion on Gamepass was "it's a great value for the price" because most of the games on it were either much older or not very good. It's only fair to extend the same courtesy to Sony.

I probably won't get it, but that's more to do with the fact that I can't even keep up with the regular PS+ games I get on the basic tier (and I usually only care about one of the three... I just have no time!).

swaylow

Stealing something I saw elsewere that more accurately described the levels:

Soft Pass
Medium Pass
Hard Pass

Also: thanks to whoever unbugged and/or relinked the comic discussion threads!

dennis

Grendus wrote: »

Keeping in mind how lackluster Gamepass was at launch, I'm going to withhold judgement until we see the games that are available via the service on launch. Microsoft has pumped money into Gamepass for a very, very long time now and I remember a very long time when people's standard opinion on Gamepass was "it's a great value for the price" because most of the games on it were either much older or not very good. It's only fair to extend the same courtesy to Sony.

I feel like that comparison might not be fair in a world where Gamepass already exists. Even if Gamepass wasn't great when it came out, it also wasn't markedly inferior to a product you could get from a direct competitor. It's like having a search engine launch that's just so-so and saying "hey, google search wasn't everything it is now when it launched, either."

FireballDragon

If no one else is gonna bring up it, I will.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TFAGAyLzcg

Preacher

dennis wrote: »

Grendus wrote: »

Keeping in mind how lackluster Gamepass was at launch, I'm going to withhold judgement until we see the games that are available via the service on launch. Microsoft has pumped money into Gamepass for a very, very long time now and I remember a very long time when people's standard opinion on Gamepass was "it's a great value for the price" because most of the games on it were either much older or not very good. It's only fair to extend the same courtesy to Sony.

I feel like that comparison might not be fair in a world where Gamepass already exists. Even if Gamepass wasn't great when it came out, it also wasn't markedly inferior to a product you could get from a direct competitor. It's like having a search engine launch that's just so-so and saying "hey, google search wasn't everything it is now when it launched, either."

Yeah like ask Mixer how much leeway they got versus twitch. Or how googles streaming service faired against microsoft and Geforce Now.

Its weird how people want to give Sony all this "look they are trying" but are they though?

Tofystedeth

Preacher wrote: »

dennis wrote: »

Grendus wrote: »

Keeping in mind how lackluster Gamepass was at launch, I'm going to withhold judgement until we see the games that are available via the service on launch. Microsoft has pumped money into Gamepass for a very, very long time now and I remember a very long time when people's standard opinion on Gamepass was "it's a great value for the price" because most of the games on it were either much older or not very good. It's only fair to extend the same courtesy to Sony.

I feel like that comparison might not be fair in a world where Gamepass already exists. Even if Gamepass wasn't great when it came out, it also wasn't markedly inferior to a product you could get from a direct competitor. It's like having a search engine launch that's just so-so and saying "hey, google search wasn't everything it is now when it launched, either."

Yeah like ask Mixer how much leeway they got versus twitch. Or how googles streaming service faired against microsoft and Geforce Now.

Its weird how people want to give Sony all this "look they are trying" but are they though?

From what I heard Mixer actually had a pretty good feature set relative to Twitch, including some stuff that folks liked even better. But network effects with something like Twitch are lot more difficult to overcome than with PS+ v GamePass where you're competing solely on product and not friends lists.

ArmsForPeace84

Tofystedeth wrote: »

God I hate that when all the tiers are stuff like
Preferred
Elite
Executive
Gold Plus

How do I rank these!?

"We have Tall, Grande, and Venti."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wic5Mf06SJ0

Preacher

Tofystedeth wrote: »

Preacher wrote: »

dennis wrote: »

Grendus wrote: »

Keeping in mind how lackluster Gamepass was at launch, I'm going to withhold judgement until we see the games that are available via the service on launch. Microsoft has pumped money into Gamepass for a very, very long time now and I remember a very long time when people's standard opinion on Gamepass was "it's a great value for the price" because most of the games on it were either much older or not very good. It's only fair to extend the same courtesy to Sony.

I feel like that comparison might not be fair in a world where Gamepass already exists. Even if Gamepass wasn't great when it came out, it also wasn't markedly inferior to a product you could get from a direct competitor. It's like having a search engine launch that's just so-so and saying "hey, google search wasn't everything it is now when it launched, either."

Yeah like ask Mixer how much leeway they got versus twitch. Or how googles streaming service faired against microsoft and Geforce Now.

Its weird how people want to give Sony all this "look they are trying" but are they though?

From what I heard Mixer actually had a pretty good feature set relative to Twitch, including some stuff that folks liked even better. But network effects with something like Twitch are lot more difficult to overcome than with PS+ v GamePass where you're competing solely on product and not friends lists.

Twitch was also on product though, the streamers people wanted to watch were on twitch. Same with game pass vs ps whatever. Hard to sell your service when day one releases aren't there.

Lttlefoot

The competing service is irrelevant to anyone who only owns a PlayStation

dennis

Lttlefoot wrote: »

The competing service is irrelevant to anyone who only owns a PlayStation

It's incredibly relevant to people who are looking to buy either a PS or an Xbox (or a Switch. I guess). It'd be naïve to think these two offerings aren't a big part in selling new systems.

Lucascraft

Gamepass also works on PC.

I'm not a part of the XBox ecosystem. But I do have a gaming PC. So right away Gamepass already wins. And I'm a lucky one who has a PS5...

Tofystedeth

Preacher wrote: »

Tofystedeth wrote: »

Preacher wrote: »

dennis wrote: »

Grendus wrote: »

Keeping in mind how lackluster Gamepass was at launch, I'm going to withhold judgement until we see the games that are available via the service on launch. Microsoft has pumped money into Gamepass for a very, very long time now and I remember a very long time when people's standard opinion on Gamepass was "it's a great value for the price" because most of the games on it were either much older or not very good. It's only fair to extend the same courtesy to Sony.

I feel like that comparison might not be fair in a world where Gamepass already exists. Even if Gamepass wasn't great when it came out, it also wasn't markedly inferior to a product you could get from a direct competitor. It's like having a search engine launch that's just so-so and saying "hey, google search wasn't everything it is now when it launched, either."

Yeah like ask Mixer how much leeway they got versus twitch. Or how googles streaming service faired against microsoft and Geforce Now.

Its weird how people want to give Sony all this "look they are trying" but are they though?

From what I heard Mixer actually had a pretty good feature set relative to Twitch, including some stuff that folks liked even better. But network effects with something like Twitch are lot more difficult to overcome than with PS+ v GamePass where you're competing solely on product and not friends lists.

Twitch was also on product though, the streamers people wanted to watch were on twitch. Same with game pass vs ps whatever. Hard to sell your service when day one releases aren't there.

That's network effect. The product is the platform and the audience the streamers bring in. The streamers people wanted were on Twitch, because they were already on Twitch and inertia and network effects kept from moving to Mixer (except for the ones that got a huge deal like Ninja).