Sony’s service of free games has the possibility of returning
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Sony PlayStation’s ‘Play at Home’ feature had flourished — gamers had greater means to keep entertained during lockdown through playing games. It let fans download free PlayStation games and helped developers make enjoyable games despite the economic hardship that came with the pandemic. Recently in an interview, Sony Interactive CEO and the boss of PlayStation Jim Ryan said that Play at Home’s free games could return in the future. However, this would imply a continuation of the ongoing pandemic. It’s sad news for anyone who had fell in love. According to Ryan, players redeemed 60 million games during the initiative. The available titles included a variety of PS4 and PS VR titles, including Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, and Horizon Zero Dawn – Complete Edition. Play at Home also offered free in-game items and currency and an extended trial for the Funimation streaming service.
The interview also discussed how Sony has navigated their sales techniques in relation to the ongoing pandemic. Ryan touched on the difficulties of rolling out a console amidst the economic affects of the crisis, and with pandemic-related hardware shortages. Ryan himself noted that he would have to adjust to an unusual schedule due to living in London but having virtual meetings with people based in the United States and Japan. He also noted that launching the PlayStation 5 from his dining room was an experience that he would rather not repeat.
However, Ryan states that he is satisfied with Sony’s navigation of difficulties over the past two years. The PlayStation executive notes the company managed to move 10 million PS5 consoles in an impressively short time. He also mentioned the dual success of The Last of Us 2, Ghost of Tsushima and other games like Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. While it didn’t come up during the interview, and at the risk of sounding blasé, one could even argue that the COVID lockdowns did Sony a big favor.
With the success of Play at Home has been, Ryan said that the service is one that led to over 60 million games being played by fans worldwide. ” It struck us as everybody was struggling with the first lockdown, we thought this would be a nice thing to do. We were able to do it and we were very happy with the reaction,” Ryan said of Sony’s first idea behind implementing Play at Home. “We thought it would be a nice thing to reprise. So we did it again, this time spread over a period of a number of months, and now actually 60 million games have been redeemed as part of that activity.”
If we were to hear again about Play at Home, it would most likely come back in 2022.
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