Sony: "We're expecting one of the strongest seasons in our history"

It was tough for everyone during the pandemic, and both Microsoft and Sony had a hard time delivering enough consoles to eager buyers. This led to a lot of scalping and other issues, but Christmas 2023 will be completely different, and in a interview with Barron's the Senior Vice President and Head of Global Marketing at Sony Interactive Entertainment Eric Lempel, he says the expectations are very high:

"We've had consoles a bit here and there over the last three holidays, but this is the first time we're in full supply and we're thrilled about that. We launched back in 2020, and the reality was it took some time for us to catch up, like everybody else in the world, with some of the component shortages coming out of COVID. But now we're excited that anyone who wants a PlayStation 5 will be able to get one

Our outlook on PlayStation 5 is really strong. We're expecting one of the strongest seasons in our history in terms of console sales. It's a combination of the great product we have and the titles that have released since launch—as well as most recently with Marvel's Spider-Man 2."

He also talked about the fact that Sony raised the prices of PlayStation Plus during the summer, something they got a lot of criticism for as things are pretty expensive as it is right now. But Lempel explains that Sony "haven't touched the PlayStation Plus pricing for 85% of the world in many years", and adds that a lot of other subscriptions have raised prices recently as well (we assume he especially talks about movie streaming). He also added:

"We want to make PlayStation Plus great. With our reboot last year and introducing the tier system, a lot of consumers have recognized that there's a lot of value in PlayStation 5."

Finally Lempel was also asked to compare PlayStation Plus to Game Pass, which includes plenty of titles day one:

"It comes down to what you're going to get in the service in terms of the type of game and the quality of games. I can't comment on what the competition is doing. But with us, we feel we're offering a great curated catalog of games, as well as other features and services with PlayStation Plus."

Which do you prefer of PlayStation Plus or Game Pass - and why?