As more and more streaming services come out like Netflix, Hulu, Paramount Plus, Disney Plus, and so on, it becomes more confusing what to keep, what to watch where, and so on. Luckily, though, gaming services tend to be a little more limited. Sure, for someone with a Playstation, Xbox, Switch, and PC, it’s overwhelming, but PlayStation has PS Now and PS Plus, Xbox Has Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass, Switch has Nintendo Switch Online, and PC users have a wider selection and less typical service models.
Across all services that offer free games, there are typical patterns subscribers can spot. For Games with Gold, for example, it’s clear Xbox’s emphasis is more on Game Pass than it, often resulting in four lackluster games with the occasional gem. This is why many have called for Xbox to end Games with Gold and just put even more resources into Game Pass. With Epic Games Store, while it occasionally has a big game, it usually brings a lot of spotlight to smaller, sometimes more Indie games than other services.
PS Plus is the hardest to predict, just because it changes its pattern every few months. For a while, it was one big AAA game and one smaller game, then it was a wide assort of high quality and varied games, new PS5 games got mixed into that, and finally right now PS Plus seems to be in a transition period.
