As Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass service continues racking up subscribers, its greatest competitor Sony just lately swiped again with modifications and upgrades to its PlayStation Plus service. The lead-up to PlayStation Plus’ relaunch required just a few explainers, significantly its various costs and absorption of the cloud-streaming PlayStation Now service.

The mud has since settled sufficient for us to see PlayStation Plus’ revision in motion for greater than two months, and so far as its bang-for-the-buck score, Sony scores extremely. Should you pre-pay for the “premium” tier, you’ll be able to entry a whole lot of video games from each PlayStation era for $10 per 30 days, together with mixture of hits and acclaimed indies (together with a whole lot of video games that neither set gross sales charts nor critics’ lists on fireplace).

However, Sony’s not prepared to fulfill Microsoft in a single key gross sales pitch: a subscription to first-party video games accessible on launch day. Should you wish to play new video games in Sony-exclusive sequence like God of War or The Last of Us, these will proceed to require cost of a full MSRP at launch; Xbox Game Pass is extra beneficiant with day-one entry to all of its video games, from Halo Infinite to Forza Motorsport. PlayStation Plus’ obvious counter to this got here in a brand new “classics” library, completely on the service’s priciest tier, which might include the PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable recreation libraries.

Doing the mathematics on “as much as 340” classics

But thus far, PlayStation Plus would not really feel consultant of that authentic classics-library goal, and a Wednesday weblog publish suggests Sony is dragging its ft.

PlayStation Plus’s newest weblog publish confirmed that 11 video games would land on the service’s premium and “additional” tiers in August. While this listing consists of three stable video games from Sega’s Yakuza sequence, and the quirky likes of recent indie Bugsnax and traditional RPG remake Trials of Mana, it would not embrace video games from any Sony console library outdoors PS4 and PS5. That follows a July addition of solely three “traditional” video games, all from the PSP, to PS Plus.

As a reminder, PS Plus’ classics choice launched in June with 27 video games from the trio of aforementioned techniques: 11 for PS1, 24 for PS2, and two for PSP. Two months later, we’re as much as 30 conversions of these consoles’ authentic variations. And now that we have executed the mathematics, we’re involved that these libraries will not get a lot greater except Sony revises its promoting.

Sony tells PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers that its classics will develop to “as much as 340” video games, however this quantity consists of titles that had already been on the PlayStation Now streaming service, which revolves nearly completely round PlayStation 3 video games. North American PS Plus Premium subscribers can entry 294 PS3 video games (although about 5 of those are iterative updates or DLC packages). Add 30 to that quantity, and also you’re left with 16 attainable additions.

Sony has but to emulate PS3 video games on native PS5 or PS4 {hardware}, so these should be streamed from the cloud. That differs largely from the service’s PS1, PS2, and PSP video games, which will be downloaded and natively rendered with none cloud-induced points with latency or pixel constancy. Thus, some fashionable console homeowners desperate to play traditional video games may even see Sony’s present complete of “324” classics as deceptive, as long as their residence Internet connection or knowledge cap proves prohibitive.

So many exclusives lacking from PS1, PS2, PSP, and PS3

Third-party contracts and preparations restrict the console maker’s skill to publish extra traditional video games. For instance, republishing any ’90s EA Sports classics on PlayStation Plus would require that Sony not solely shake fingers with EA but additionally work out offers with athletes and different potential license holders represented in older video games. But Sony’s wholly owned content material throughout its first three consoles is plentiful sufficient that it might dump 16 extra video games onto PlayStation Plus tomorrow and nonetheless have dozens of video games left to choose from, ought to it ever improve this system sooner or later. (And to make clear: PlayStation Plus Premium already consists of third-party fare from the PS1, PS2, and PSP eras made by studios like Capcom, Bandai Namco, Team 17, and THQ Nordic.)

Sony could also be happy preserving its traditional recreation publication plans to a minimal whereas emphasizing fashionable PS Plus additions like Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade and Stray. The firm can inflate its classics choice with a whole lot of video games that had been sitting on the prevailing PlayStation Now service for years, all earlier than being folded into the better-known PlayStation Plus fold. (We’ve beforehand talked about Sony’s PlayStation Now branding downside.) But whereas PlayStation Now’s number of PS3 video games consists of some gems, it is lacking a few of the PS3’s finest exclusives, together with the wild animal-sim recreation Tokyo Jungle, the local-multiplayer insanity of Calling All Cars, the quirky puzzle-platformer Puppeteer, sequels within the Sony-owned sequence Killzone and Resistance, and the PS3 traditional Metal Gear Solid 4.

Perhaps Sony will change its classic-publishing tune as PlayStation Plus’ new-tier shine wears off to assist generate headlines and appeal to new prospects. But for these PlayStation followers who pre-purchased a full yr of PS Plus Premium with expectations of Sony celebrating its ’90s and early ’00s reign, the wait will apparently proceed to be powerful—particularly as Microsoft pushes a hardware-agnostic method to draw extra avid gamers. Sony representatives didn’t instantly reply to Ars Technica’s questions on what to anticipate from PlayStation Plus’ traditional recreation choice within the coming months.