Any subscribers to Xbox Game Pass here? If there are, note that your chosen video game service might be receiving competition soon from Sony‘s PlayStation.
PlayStation Game Pass?
A new report from Bloomberg News states that PlayStation is planning their own version of Xbox Game Pass. Apparently, Sony saw the success of that service, and decided to make their own. Codenamed “Spartacus”, this service will be a video game subscription service that will merge PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now into a unified service. Sony apparently plans to keep the PlayStation Plus brand for this unified service, and drop the PlayStation Now brand, so…yay?
This unified service will also be a tiered one. According to documentation Bloomberg obtained, this service will come in 3 tiers. Tier 1 will consist of PlayStation Plus features only, Tier 2 will allow access to a PS4 (and eventually PS5) game library, while Tier 3 finally allows access to those coveted PS1, PS2, PS3, and even PSP games. They don’t give any information on how much these tiers will cost though. However, they do actually have a release date for this service, albeit tentatively. Apparently, we’ll get to see this service for ourselves sometime in Spring 2022. Bloomberg doesn’t give a more specific release date, but even the tentative one is awfully close to release. We’ll just have to keep our eyes peeled when spring rolls around next year.
Spartacus: Opinion
Personally speaking, without a pricing scheme listed, it’s hard to say if “Spartacus” is worth spending money on. My guess is that it’s going to be at least as expensive as PlayStation Plus currently is. PlayStation Plus, at the time of this writing in the PlayStation Store, offers prices ranging from 1-month subscriptions for $9.99, all the way up to 12-month subscriptions for $59.99.
Personally, I’m not a big fan of video game subscription services in general, which includes PlayStation Plus and this new “Spartacus”. I like to pay once and keep my games. I don’t like having my access to those games locked out if I decide to stop paying for the subscription service. Your mileage may vary on this though, and well, it’s your money in the end. You decide if this “Spartacus” is worth the money once the prices come out.
Source: Bloomberg News, PlayStation Store
