Comment They're not in the same position as Microsoft (Score 1) 16
Microsoft are more desperate here having lost a lot of ground in consoles and trying to pivot to where they are stronger on the Windows desktop, but still so far behind Steam and Epic and others on there. They are trying to integrate Steam and others into their Windows gaming app to get any attention at all from gamers. You might think that Game Pass could be strong on PC but it's not. There are always complaints about how gamers are having problems getting games to run properly through Game Pass, having to delete and redowload games because they won't launch, having performance issues. People were buying Ninja Gaiden II Black from Steam even though they are subscribed to.Game Pass and could get the game on there because of all of the problems on there. Steam version worked properly and performance was better on the same hardware. The Game Pass version had stuttering and other graphical issues like not being able to support some graphical upscalers properly.
Even MS are no longer doing day one on Game Pass. To play a game day one you need to buy or upgrade to the Premium edition of the game. Game Pass will only get the game a few days later or a week later in some cases. They will slowly be enshittifying Game Pass while PS Plus will see fewer cutbacks because it is already in a more manageable position. The rumors are already swirling about Game Pass price increases and additions of newer tiers. The price of Game Pass has gone up the past two years in a row, and while MS increased game prices by $10 two years ago, they are again this year raising game prices another $10. They have been given a company wide mandate to increase margins so things are going to get worse.
Sony is making the right moves for their platform and it is in a more secure position. Now MS has to worry about competing with Valve and are not in such a strong position given that their software quality on the same platform is worse, and that Valve is running Windows games better than MS without using Windows at all.