Sony is reportedly finalising a PlayStation subscription platform revamp to launch in the Spring and will serve as the company’s response to Microsoft’s popular Xbox Game Pass.
Bloomberg broke the report, saying the current plan is to phase out PlayStation Now, combining that cloud-based gaming service with the monthly free game offerings from PlayStation Plus all under the PlayStation Plus brand.
According to internal Sony documents, a monthly fee for this new subscription (code-named ‘Spartacus’) will provide players with unlimited access to a library of both modern and classic games.
Also like Xbox Game Pass, there will be tiers depending upon your spending level. The cheapest will be essentially the same as the current PlayStation Plus service. The middle one will add a library of PlayStation 4 and (eventually) PlayStation 5 games. The top one will offer extended demos and game streaming as well as PS1, PS2, PS3 and PSP libraries.
Spartacus is also expected to be available on both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. It comes as Sony is also putting resources into expanding its efforts in cloud gaming.
How this will fare against Xbox Game Pass isn’t clear. Game Pass gives access to a revolving library of several hundred game titles on both Xbox and PC, mostly smaller indie titles or back catalogue older first-party Xbox games. However a key part of its appeal is Day One premieres of Microsoft’s few exclusives such as last month’s “Forza Horizon 5” and this month’s “Halo Infinite”.
Sony on the other hand seems highly unlikely to offer ‘Day One’ exclusives (beyond some smaller titles), but does have a larger library of high quality first-party exclusives which might balance things out. There’s no indication in the report of any potential PC version of this new PlayStation Plus service.
Source: Kotaku