Sea of Stars Comes to PS Plus as well as Game Pass
In a surprising a rare move, it turns out that one of the most anticipated indies of the year is ending up on Xbox and Playstation’s competing subscription services day one. Previously announced as a day one Game Pass grab, Sabotage Studios’ ‘Sea of Stars’ is an upcoming retro-style JRPG with gorgeous visuals and a promising story. It was quite a shock, then, when it was also announced for PlayStation Plus as part of their ‘Extra’ subscription. This is a first, as no other game has come day one to both services before.
Image by Sabotage Studios
Unveiling the news of ‘Sea of Stars’ coming to Playstation Plus Extra in a recent blog post, Sabotage Studios had the following to say:
“We’re extremely excited to confirm that Sea of Stars will be joining the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog (available for all Extra and Premium members) on launch day, August 29. It’s incredible for us to imagine how many more players worldwide will experience Sea of Stars and join the conversation around our project.”
The game is set to release at midnight BST on August 29th, meaning Game Pass and PlayStation Plus players will be able to pre-download the game and play it the second it releases. Having a small scale indie game receive this much buzz and support just shows how far the industry has come and also demonstrates the power and popularity that indies can have- even over AAA projects.
Image by Sabotage Studios
This is fantastic news for Sabotage Studios, whose only other game before ‘Sea of Stars’ was the fantastic retro platformer ‘The Messenger’. With developers being paid a hefty sum upfront for their games being put onto these subscription services, it means that Xbox and Playstation have a lot of faith in Sabotage’s game bringing in subscribers. It’s easy to see why too. With JRPGs becoming more and more popular and mainstream, it makes sense to dedicate some of their libraries to cater to this growing fanbase.
Image by Sabotage Studios
This fact is especially true for Microsoft, who have been taking big strides to see more JPRG representation on their platform. In the 2000s and 2010s, the genre was dominated by PlayStation games with basically no content for Xbox players. This is a big part as to why the Xbox sold next to nothing in Asian markets. However, with a recent push to include more JRPGs in their roster (including the recent Persona remasters all coming to Game Pass), Phil Spencer is clearly seeking to capture a wider audience outside of the oversaturated First-Person Shooter and Third-Person Action game genres.
