PlayStation Sony's Upcoming New Subscription Service

[cm2]

Read from Bloomberg:

Sony Group Corp.’s PlayStation division is planning a new subscription service to compete with rival Microsoft Corp.’s popular Xbox Game Pass, according to people familiar with Sony’s plans and documents reviewed by Bloomberg.

The service, code-named Spartacus, will allow PlayStation owners to pay a monthly fee for access to a catalog of modern and classic games, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak to the press about the plans. The offering will likely be available on the smash hit PlayStation 4, and its elusive successor, the PlayStation 5, which launched more than a year ago but is still difficult to buy due to supply chain issues.

When it launches, expected in the spring, the service will merge Sony’s two existing subscription plans, PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now. Currently, PlayStation Plus is required for most online multiplayer games and offers free monthly titles, while PlayStation Now allows users to stream or download older games. Documents reviewed by Bloomberg suggest that Sony plans to retain the PlayStation Plus branding but phase out PlayStation Now.

 

[Jutsun]

This is very interesting. It seems that games are moving to the subscription models just like other media are. But platforms like Steam are still going strong. What do you think?

 

[cm2]

This is very interesting. It seems that games are moving to the subscription models just like other media are. But platforms like Steam are still going strong. What do you think?

it will be both types running in parallel as usual.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

Meh, sounds like I got to pay Sony for another thing.

 

[Fait]

Everything seems to be subscription based now, Either that or moving to the cloud.

 

[Ash]

Wouldn't mind it. I love Game Pass. Sony would have to match it in terms of the quality of games offered though. The best thing about Game Pass is the day-only releases of first-party games.

 

[froggyboy604]

Hopefully, this subscription service is fairly price, so more poor people can afford it instead of becoming more poor because they are subscribing to too many subscription services which they may not be using for many hours per month, and using a small loan from a credit card to pay for.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

Everything seems to be subscription based now, Either that or moving to the cloud.

sad world we're living in.

 

[Fait]

sad world we're living in.

really sad.
big tech is taking over.

 

[XboxUnlimited]

If this is really meant to rival gamepass then they would need to release first party day 1 onto the service which is something I don't think they want to do. Will be interesting to see the final details of this subscription

 

[froggyboy604]

sad world we're living in.

I miss when subscriptions were less popular, and people buy games instead of paying a monthly fee to play them.

I think most people who subscribe to many gaming subscription services for many years end up paying more for subscriptions instead of buying games, and re-selling games they don't want to keep for their gaming collection.

Hopefully, we don't need to pay for subscriptions to use features on game consoles like paying to unlock HD and 4K graphics.

 

[XboxUnlimited]

I have to admit that being a gamepass subscriber I don't think I have bought a game for a long time, it brings a strange mentality of holding off buying a title in case it comes to gamepass, unless it's something like COD which I doubt will every be on gamepass. Having said that, it's a great service.

 

[Ash]

Hopefully, we don't need to pay for subscriptions to use features on game consoles like paying to unlock HD and 4K graphics.

Shouldn't be a worry really. There will be riots if they try to put certain features of a console (except online gaming) behind a paywall.