Read this tweet:
Explaining The Future of Sony & PlayStation Online:The news from an internal email that was leaked today, indicating the end of the PlayStation Network/PSN designation, is the confirmation of a transition that internal teams and analysts have known about since 2023.
In 2022, the PlayStation Network was reorganized into Essential, Extra, & Premium. This added the Game Catalog & Classics Catalog of games you could access as higher tiers in the subscription service
.In 2023, a detailed multi page document was shared internally to teams and analysts, explaining how their online services were doing and their future plans for them.We have had this document since 2023 and I had no intention to share it publicly because it was marked SECRET by the company. However, ever since this latest email leaked many people have reached out to me with questions and several articles of misinformation have been spreading online.
I will not share the entire document since it includes sensitive inside information but I will share one slide from it that is relevant to the topic.
It is possible that Sony will outline this change at the upcoming Business Segment Meeting this Spring May/June and even if not it will be ready in time for the next generation of PlayStation 6.
Some of you may have noticed the relatively new service called Sony Pictures Core which allows you to buy or rent any movie that Sony owns. Included with your PS+ Subscription, you have access to a selection of these movies that you can watch at no additional charge.
This type of integration will expand in the next console generation. Sony's intention is to create One Subscription Service combining and giving you access to Sony/PlayStation Games, Movies, Shows, & Music. It is possible that this service will roll Crunchyroll's Anime Catalog into it giving you an All-In-One place for all of Sony Group's Digital Content.
It's possible that the Upcoming App of this service on your phone or computer will allow you to stream Movies, Shows, Music, & Anime but you won't be able to access your PlayStation Games on your PC or Phone unless they are streamed to them, via Remote Play, from your next gen PS6.
For games that you do not own but that you have access to through the Game Catalog that's included in the subscription service, my theory is that it either:
Checks in with your PS6 First before streaming from the Cloud/Sony Servers to your Phone or PC, to confirm that you are a PlayStation Console Owner OR
Just allows anyone to stream the games included in the Game Catalog of the Subscription Service to any device. This would be different from making a dedicated PC version of the game because it would still be running on a PlayStation Console Server Blade and you wouldn't be able to download the game to your PC because it would still be the console version of the game.Your Next Gen PlayStation 6 will become the main home for everything included in Sony's All-In-One Subscription Service.
