I don’t think I’ll have to pay for another videogame again because I have the Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Now. Both services offer a ton of videogames at a reasonable subscription price, but which one is the better buy? I broke this argument into 7 categories to make it easier.

Price

Both services are $10 a month, but the Xbox one comes with the EA Game Pass. It’s not the super-premium one, but still gives you the Mass Effect series, Crysis series, Maddens, a lot of Star Wars and also a ton of other great games. PlayStation Now doesn’t come with anything else.

Point Xbox

Compatibility

The best part of these services is that I can play them on my computer. I have an Xbox One, but I do not PlayStation and haven’t had one since the PS2. It makes a lot more sense to just spend your money on an updated gaming computer, rather than fight off Black Friday shoppers for the last console in the mall. 

Point Both

Controllers

The Xbox Game Pass can be played with an Xbox or PlayStation controller. However, certain PlayStation games require a newer PlayStation controller. Until Dawn at times require you to hold the controller steady during certain moments. But annoyingly enough I needed to buy a controller to play The Avengers game. For some reason needed this newer controller with the pressable top button. I wasn’t able to go into the skill tree without it. So, I had to buy a $25 dollar controller to play all the games.

Point Xbox

DLC

Xbox you can buy the DLC for the games on the app, but PlayStation comes up with an error message. I’ve tried this with multiple games and the same message comes up. I don’t know if it’s a console exclusive thing, but either way it’s something PlayStation needs to fix.

Point Xbox

Storage

Xbox you have to download the games on to your hard drive, but PlayStation streams the games directly to my computer. Sometimes that adds to the load times, but it does beat having to delete games for space and spend hours waiting for them to download.

Point PlayStation

Games

This is a toss-up. I love them both. PlayStation you get series like God of War, Rachet and Clank, Infamous series, The Last of Us, The Witcher and others. The only hang-up is that my favorite series Jak and Daxter isn’t on it and Rachet and Clank is incomplete, but I imagine one day they will be on there. They even have most of the Resident Evil series and ALL the Lego games on it.

With Xbox you get all the Gears of War, Halo, Yakuza series and having the EA games also adds a lot more games to play. They also have some Game Pass Exclusives. I’ve been waiting for Crackdown 3 for years and it was finally released on the Game Pass. Xbox doesn’t have as many iconic series as PlayStation, but still a lot of games.

Also, a ton of Indie Developers are there too. It’s good to see companies that aren’t Triple A companies have a chance to get their games out there and build their audiences.

Point Both

Presentation

The Xbox Game Pass seems like a more complete product. Xbox has an Upcoming games section with the arrival dates and a Leaving Soon section where you can play the games included for the last time. It has some cool pined sections like Zombie Month and others, just to keeping things fresh and showcasing some games that might get lost among others. Xbox gives you release dates on games months away. It even has a Surprise Me button which gives you a random game to play. While PlayStation doesn’t.

PlayStation just has a What’s Hot and New Arrivals tabs. It’s not really a pretty looking layout. All the games are lumped together by a few sections and alphabetically. It doesn’t give you any upcoming games to get excited about. Xbox even has trailers and screenshots of the games you click on. PlayStation just has a simple written description and that’s it.

Point Xbox

Winner

I have to give it to the Xbox Game Pass. It feels like a more complete product with a plan. Having the added Triple A games from the EA games is a nice touch. I have to buy less things to play Xbox games and yea the storage is a problem but it isn’t the biggest problem in the end. Overall, I love both services and will be keeping both of them, but if there is a clear winner, even if it’s by a sliver, it’s the Xbox Game Pass.

Simptastic Joe