Just looked through all the Games with Gold, the only non-MS published retail game that had not already been given away on PS+ was AC: Black Flag.

So we're just going to ignore Rayman Legends, Lords of the Fallen and if you want to be technical, Child of Light?

The list is really not that impressive.

I didn't know it was suppose to be. A big part of the point is that M$ had no issue getting Thief, Tomb Raider Definitive Edition and a few others on the Xbox One, where as Sony seems to be unable to get anything (besides Injustice and ignoring Japan).

You also gotta keep in mind that Games with Gold started when Xbox's image started to go to shit when they absolutely muffed the Xbox One reveal. They also had serious catching up to do with PS+ (which was born the same way, a desperate attempt at goodwill), so I could where they would be willing to lose some money on the short-term if it helps build loyalty.

And you need to keep in mind that Games with Gold started off with shitty games. For months (a year?) PlayStation Plus was viewed as having better games, but after a while GwG started getting better games, where as PS+ started getting worse games or at least stayed the same.

I can't find the link, but they've explained before why NA, Japan, and Europe receive different titles. Something like each continent has its own teams that do its own negotiations with publishers that often also have different teams for different continents.

The issue with this is consistency. Those comments started because PlayStation Plus use to offer the same games in North America and Europe, but then they suddenly didn't around the time the Instant Game Collection launched. When the PlayStation 4 released all four regions had the same games for free and eventually NA and EU were getting the same things again.

Obviously Japan has different circumstances, but it's still important to note/understand that they also managed to get retail titles.

And the point I was trying to make is that we don't have all (or really any) of the relevant information and that these posts are pure speculation.

While true, my point is that you can't really defend them when other information suggests otherwise.

The fact Microsoft can get retail titles shows that publishers are willing to offer the games, as does the fact Sony Japan can offer retail games.

Now we don't know if Sony doesn't want to spend the money, they're taking their user base for granted or whatever else, but we can say there is a drop in quality and it's something Sony can control.