Microsoft releases its own first-party Xbox games on Game Pass at launch, but Sony does not do this–and it’s not planning to change that strategy going forward.

PlayStation services executive Nick Maguire told Game File that Sony has “stayed true to our strategy across the board,” and that means no day-one new releases on PS Plus. “We’re not looking to put games in day and date,” Maguire said.

Back in 2022, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan–who has since left the company–said the “virtuous cycle” of Sony’s business plans for gaming would be “broken” if Sony launched its new games into PS Plus.

“The level of investment that we need to make in our studios would not be possible, and we think the knock-on effect on the quality of the games that we make would not be something that gamers want.”

The cycle, as Ryan described it is that, “the investment delivers success, which enables yet more investment, which delivers yet more success.”

However, Ryan also acknowledged at the time that Sony wasn’t married to this idea and would be open to changing its stance based on market conditions. In the three years since Ryan said this, however, Sony has not changed its stance, and the new comments from Maguire make it sound like it’s not changing soon.

Also in the Game File interview, Maguire was asked if Sony’s ill-fated live-service shooter Concord may have fared better had it been released on PS Plus at launch. Maguire declined to comment on that game specifically, but he said PS Plus has “proven itself to be a great way to introduce new players to franchises.”

Maguire said the calculus comes down to finding the “right time” for a game to enter PS Plus to help it reach a wider audience after its initial debut. This could help a game “find new fans” or reach “new parts of our platform that it hasn’t already reached,” he said.

While Sony doesn’t plan to launch its own games into PS Plus day-and-date, the company is partnering with third-party studios to debut new titles into the subscription service. FBC: Firebreak was a recent example of this. Going forward, Maguire said Sony aims to find four or five games each year to launch into PS Plus day-and-date, with Sony’s own games coming to the service after a year, 18 months, or longer.

“That balance for us is working really well across the platform,” Maguire said, adding that the four-to-five day-one third-party games each year is not a strict number but a ballpark estimate.

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