Free Step Dodge

Never noticed that before - but then again my father and I have already had Playstation Plus for a while now.

I don't know what the policy is on Sony platforms now, but Xbox consoles allow free online play for any Free to Play games, which DOA5/6 qualify for thanks to Core Fighters. Makes me thankful that the full games basically just use their Core Fighters versions as a base and just unlock all the content in them. But... for some unknown reason DOA5LR only lets you go online for free in lobbies and not ranked...

There is actualy a reason for that.
DOA6 on Xbox even if you install it from the disc is technically core fighters with with character and story mode DLCs installed so it's still counts as a f2p ergo no gold needed.
PlayStation however has the full game and CF as 2 separate apps so CF can play online without plus but the full version still requires PS+.

Iirc you need PS+ for the majority of the games that have online modes in order to play them online, regardless of you playing them on a PS4 or 5 or if you play the ps4 or 5 version of a game, online play was only free on ps3.

Back in the PS3 days, DOA5 was online free without a subscription (despite major lag, good times). You only needed to put in that online battle pass code thingie.

I miss the PS3 days. It was an annoying discovery. I scheduled a PS4/5 DOA session with a buddy, but couldn't play because I don't have PS+. I encouraged them to get DOA on Steam or preferably an Xbox X|S console, which they'll look into. Yes, I don't like paying for online anymore.

Yeah, I'd do the same if I wouldn't have a couple of fighting games on my PS4 that I don't want to rebuy on PC and if PS+ would constantly give shit games for free, which they sometimes don't and thus I can build my backlog without having to spend for them. There are some advantages for paying for these subscription services but they're quite few and it is very questionable whether they're worth the money or not.

Xbox's Game Pass options do seem quite good, I'll give them that but we're at a point in time where you should rather get the money for a decent-powerful PC and you wouldn't want a console ever again, the only exception would be if there's a console exclusive game that you really want to play which'll unfortunately stay that way for a long time (Ratchet and Clank for example) but even then, its just not worth it imo.

^ I actually use my PC as a secondary console (or to play certain games online for free). The performance between my $1500-ish gaming PC and my XseX & PS5 is pretty significant in the XseX & PS5's favour. I've been saving up for a $2500+ gaming PC for the longest time to upgrade my current setup and it quite frankly doesn't feel worth it unless I go full-time on content creation in the future.

The hassle and cost isn't really worth it for PC performance to outdo the PS5 or XseX. I would basically have to use a $2000+ PC for a side gig of some sort (YouTube, Twitch, Fiverr, etc.) to justify the cost. Spending more than $1500+ for a machine just for gaming alone is asinine.

@Force_of_Nature I had no idea they were that expensive! My younger brother built a gaming PC - I should ask him how much it cost.

Core Fighters still requires PS+ for online play @UpSideDownGRUNT