Gadgetory

this past week Microsoft introduced their subscription-based model for playing and basically renting video games called Xbox gamepad something that a lot of people are calling a Netflix version for video games which there have been other services kind of like this like ea origin but definitely their biggest competition right now is Sony with PlayStation now so let's compare the differences between first off let's take a look at one of the most obvious and simplest points of comparison pricing now the Xbox game Pass is going to cost you $9.99 a month which i think is just the right price point for something like this because with any kind of subscription month-to-month model I think a lot of people start to get a little more questionable with it when you're hitting that fifteen to twenty dollar price point which is exactly the problem that PlayStation now having they're asking for a full twenty bucks a month though you can spend a little less if you buy months in bulk for instance it's forty five dollars for three months or for a full year you can spend 100 which does bring the action total cost down to being about the same as Xbox game pass but you're paying it all upfront for months that you might actually not even use so Xbox game path definitely has the advantage there of course how much you spend is important but what's even more important is the actual value you're getting for your dollar and that's where things get a little more interesting see with PlayStation now currently the catalog reaches over 400 ps3 games and Sony has also said that sometime this year they'll start adding ps4 games as well and for the most part this is the catalogue that's been very slowly growing over time and they haven't really been removing games at all there have been some but that's more the exception than the rule so it's a pretty large library Xbox game paths on the other hand currently offers 112 games and they've specifically said this is going to be a rotating model kind of like with Netflix with movies so every month they're going to see some games leave some games get added it's not going to be necessarily as large of a library so during any given month PlayStation is going to give you the larger library of games to choose from but in the long run as you're playing over summer months Xbox game paths might just pass that up over time now what's also really interesting about this is that while you can play these games while you're a member of the service Xbox game path also offers the additional benefit of being able to buy games at a 20% discount as well as a 10% discount on any DLC for these games so there's something that you really like let's say you really got into Halo 5 you never bought it before you're playing it a bunch and now it's leaving the catalog you can buy it at a discount now currently this discount only applies to Xbox one games and on Xbox 360 but for the most part a lot of those older titles are going to be cheaper anyways so this count wouldn't be a significant now there is one other interesting difference between these two services and obviously I think this is the most important difference and that's how you play these games see with Playstation now everything is handled via streaming you're not actually installing anything on your hard drive not even keeping any saved progress on your hard drive it's all handled on a remote Sony server and the big problem with this is if you have terrible internet that's going to heavily and negatively impact your ability to play these games thus making PlayStation now more or less completely useless to you on the other hand with Xbox game path everything it's handled much more like a traditional digitally purchased game where everything is going to be still be stored on your hard drive your game info is being installed there your save data is there it's a much more seamless normal experience that is way better than streaming game it's just going to require that you still be connected to the Internet so can make sure you're still a game past member and make sure the game is still part of the catalog which like I said earlier if the game is leaving the catalog anytime soon it's going to warn you you can purchase it at a discount if you want now all of this in concept sounds really really great I mean if you're just looking at how Xbox game passes as a service compared to PlayStation now it completely blows PlayStation out of the water but things get a little different when you actually compare them based on what games are on them right now if you like I said earlier PlayStation now has over 400 games about what's more important is a lot of those are big hit games from the ps3 stuff like the infamous series or Red Dead Redemption so on so forth while Xbox game pass right now is mostly 360 stuff and specifically stuff from the 360 arcade which is really cool if you want to reappear Ian some very simple games like Double Dragon the DND beat em up games Soulcalibur and Soul Calibur too great but if you're looking for big hit titles right now it's basically halo 5 and all three Bioshock games and that's it putting this all into consideration honestly right now if we're just looking at this month alone even though it's twice the price and has all of the problems PlayStation now kind of feels like the better value to me I mean yeah you're paying twenty bucks but you're getting a whole lot more games you could marathon back-to-back whereas with Xbox one game paths you could just buy Halo 5 and call it a day