While Sony already has two subscription plans for PlayStation gamers, it is planning to launch a Xbox Game Pass-like service to compete with Microsoft, according to Bloomberg. PlayStation Plus, which is required for most online multiplayer games and gifts a subscriber with a couple of free games per month, and PlayStation Now, which offers a catalogue of games to download or stream, will reportedly be merged in Sony’s new offering, codenamed Spartacus.
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Sony will keep the PlayStation Plus brand, phasing out PlayStation Now completely, and it will reportedly have three tiers. The one tier will offer the same perks as currently on PlayStation Plus, while a second will include a catalogue of PS4 games (and “eventually” PS5 games), while the third tier will have “extended demos, game streaming and a library of classic PS1, PS2, PS3 and PSP games.”
The new service will be available on both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 and is said to be launching in Q2 2022. Bloomberg also notes that some of details regarding the membership tiers may not yet be finalised.
This new tier system for Spartacus is modelled after Microsoft’s Game Pass business model, with the upper tiers being equitable to Game Pass Ultimate. The latter allows people to play online multiplayer, access a huge library of titles from Microsoft and other companies, and stream games from the cloud. It will also seemingly carry the same price tag as Microsoft’s service.
The most important question is naturally – will Spartacus offer day-one access to Sony’s first-party titles as is offered with Game Pass Ultimate? While the report doesn’t answer the question, the reporter, Jason Schreier, said on Twitter that they “don’t expect Sony to include its big new games day one like Game Pass does.”
