According to a Bloomberg report released today, Sony’s Playstation subscription service may be revealed as early as next week. The development of the service, codenamed “Spartacus”, is reportedly Sony’s competition to the success of Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass. In the Xbox Game Pass, similar to video streaming sites, gamers can play a number of video game titles within a large catalog all for a monthly fee. Due to its appeal, Xbox Game Pass has amassed more than 25 million subscribers since its conception nearly five years ago.
According to the leakers from Bloomberg’s article, Sony will debut this new service, “with a splashy lineup of hit games from recent years.” Not only will Sony’s subscription service start off strong with popular titles, but also combine two of its current subscription services: Playstation Now and Playstation Plus. Playstation Plus was already similar to Xbox Game Pass, allowing players to play a catalog of older and newer Playstation games for a monthly fee. However, with Sony’s new service, Playstation owners will not have to pay two monthly subscription fee for both online membership and access to Playstation Now, combining it into a single monthly fee.
Furthermore, Playstation’s new service will likely feature tiers within in subscription service. According to IGN, the new service will be comprised of three tiers. The lowest tier will simulate the current Playstation Plus service, online membership and some free monthly games. The second tier will add access to a larger catalog of PS3-PS5 games, most likely similar to Playstation Now. Lastly, the third and most expensive tier will feature an even larger catalog, PS1-Ps5 games, and “the ability to stream games and play extended demos.”
Unfortunately, unlike Xbox Game Pass, Bloomberg reports that Sony’s new service will unlikely feature new, day one releases. One of the leakers featured in Bloomberg’s report stated that God of War Ragnarök will most likely not be featured on the streaming platform right away. The amount of time required to pass since release to be featured in the new service is currently unknown.