In a market as tight as that of video games, Xbox Game Pass it is a source of great satisfaction for Microsoft. The subscription service offered by the Redmond firm is clearly the most advanced proposal of its kind available to users; thus It is not surprising that Sony has in mind a proposal to compete with the hand of PlayStation.
While it is true that the Japanese company already has Playstation plus and PlayStation Now, for a long time there has been talk about the possibility of focusing the effort on a new proposal. As published Bloomberg, the service in question is under active development and would be available to users from spring.
The aforementioned medium indicates that Sony’s project to compete with Xbox Game Pass would carry the code name Spartacus. Apparently, the intention would be to merge the features that already exist in PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now, but keeping only the former brand.
In addition, they would be introduced three subscription levels. The cheapest would include the current benefits of PlayStation Plus; while the intermission would allow access to a wide catalog of PS4 and PS5 games. In the upper echelon, meanwhile, users would receive extra features such as streaming games from the cloud – in the style of Xbox Cloud Gaming -, exclusive demos, and classic titles from the PS1, Ps2, PS3 and PlayStation Portable – similar to what offered by Nintendo with Switch Online.
Sony would play strong cards for new PlayStation subscription service
If the data on Spartacus are correct, Sony’s initiative would bet to unite under one roof several characteristics that have already proven to be a success for its rivals. It is still unknown what prices the different tiers of the hypothetical new PlayStation subscription would have, but the Japanese seem willing to play strong cards to make it attractive and profitable enough.
An important point to keep in mind is that Sony would work on this proposal on a much more limited ecosystem of devices than the one Microsoft has for Xbox Game Pass. This is because the PlayStation subscription would be available to PS4 and PS5 users; while those of Redmond today offer their online platform on Xbox One, Xbox Series X | S, Windows and Android smartphones, and intend to take it to all screens.
Beyond the hardware, Xbox Game Pass currently has close to 20 million subscribers globally. And that number is expected to increase as Xbox Cloud Gaming reaches more countries. While PlayStation Now, Sony’s variant to play streaming from the cloud, barely exceeds 3 million subscribers, when its original launch in the United States dates from the beginning of 2014.
It is clear that PlayStation has not been able to transfer the sales numbers of its consoles to its online services. Therefore, it is not surprising that he makes a clean slate with a proposal that would have the potential to be better. We’ll see if it takes advantage of it.
