Sony's answer to Game Pass on PlayStation could cost up to $16 a month
Mariella Moon
EngadgetThe Xbox Game Pass rival that Sony is cooking up for the PlayStation will have three tiers that cost $10, $13 and $16 a month, according to VentureBeat's GamesBeat. Bloomberg first reported about the all-in-one game subscription service codenamed Spartacus back in December. Based on the documents the publication saw, Spartacus would merge the perks offered by PlayStation Now and PlayStation Plus and would likely be available for the PS4 and the PS5. This new report gives us more details about the service and what each tier will get you.
Sony is reportedly calling the Spartacus tiers Essential, Extra and Premium, with the first one being PlayStation Plus in its current form. It will still cost $10, and it will give you access to games every month that you can add to your library. Meanwhile, the Extra tier will cost $13 and will include access to those monthly games, as well as to a game catalogue with hundreds of older games that you can download. That catalogue could possibly be the same as PS Now's.
Finally, the Premium tier will set you back $16 a month and will include all the aforementioned perks, along with access to PS Now's streaming capabilities and a library of classic games. In addition, it will give you access to a feature called "game trials" that will let you download and start playing new PS games before their release. If it's similar to EA's game trials, then you can only play a title before its official launch for a set number of hours.
At this point, it's still unclear if Sony will add new first-party exclusives to the service when it becomes available. Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan previously said that it wasn't sustainable to put new releases that cost hundreds of millions to develop in a subscription service. However, Microsoft has purchased Bethesda since then and has also recently started the process of acquiring Activision Blizzard. The tech giant is adding both developers' titles to the Xbox Game Pass, so Sony will have to think of ways to make Spartacus a more enticing option.
Spartacus is reportedly entering the testing phase in the coming weeks. GamesBeat says Microsoft could also officially reveal the details of the subscription service in March.
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