By itself PS+ hasn’t changed my game buying habits. In conjunction with Sony’s stance on game pricing and flow of games onto it, yes it is starting to.
Just from the past couple of years, Returnal, Stray and Miles Morales, plus The Last of Us Remake to come, are probably all games I will have picked up on release or shortly after for something like £130 - £170 combined. I haven’t had PS+ for about a year but I subbed to Extra for a month not long ago and played all 3 for £13 (or whatever it was). The only one I completed was Miles Morales but I wasn’t fussed about maintaining the sub to dig away at the others, I’ll go back to Stray next time I have it.
Personally I really like the community around playing a game at launch but for a £100+ saving for games that ultimately I don’t mind waiting for it’s a hit I’m willing to take. Seems like a bit of lose lose situation for both myself and Sony but that’s the reality of the situation.
There will be the occasional AAA that I have to get on release, like God of War, but Sonys hit rate with these seems to be about 1 a year which I’m happy to pay for. Third parties aren’t yet taking the piss with pricing so things like Elden Ring and Resident Evil 8 I’ve gotten on release for decent prices. If they start to push towards £60 I’ll have to reevaluate things again.
Last Gen the frequency with which a banger came to PS+ that I hadn’t played already was spectacularly rare, in fact I can’t think of a single example. Missing out on wider releases in general will help with the value proposition of it when I do subscribe. As someone who has no problem cancelling subs I’m not using though I am left somewhat bemused by how the economics work for the big publishers in this game. That’s not really something I care a whole lot about though and while I’m disappointed at missing out on more Day 1 quality releases I’ll just have to be content pocketing the difference.
Yep. In the PS4 era I bought almost no games, and this has continued into the PS5 era. There are a few day one essentials, but so far this generation that's been Ratchet and Clank. Get a list of all the games you own from being a PS+ member from just before the PS4 was launched, imagine a person with a lot less spare time than he used to have, and it's hard to justify buying new games for the most part. I basically own everything that's worth owning, it's just that I generally own it a year or two later than most people.