According to people familiar with the matter, Sony Group’s PlayStation division is planning to launch a new subscription service to compete with rival Microsoft’s popular Xbox Game Pass.

The person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named, said that the service, code-named Spartacus, will allow PlayStation owners to pay monthly fees for access to a catalog of modern and classic games. plan. The product may be launched on the popular game PlayStation 4, which has sold more than 116 million units, and its elusive successor, the PlayStation 5. The latter was launched more than a year ago, but it is still difficult to buy due to supply chain issues.

It is expected that when it launches in the spring, the service will merge Sony’s two existing subscription plans, namely PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now. Currently, most online multiplayer games require PlayStation Plus and provide free monthly games, while PlayStation Now allows users to stream or download old games. The documents reviewed by Bloomberg indicate that Sony plans to retain the PlayStation Plus brand but to phase out PlayStation Now. The details of Spartacus may not be finalized, but the documents reviewed by Bloomberg outline a three-tiered service. The first one will include the existing PlayStation Plus benefits. The second one will provide a large number of PlayStation 4 and the final PlayStation 5 game catalog. The third layer will add extended demos, game streaming and classic PS1, PS2, PS3 and PSP game libraries. A representative of PlayStation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Although PlayStation’s sales have surpassed Xbox’s in recent years, Sony lags behind Microsoft in terms of subscriptions. With this new structure, Sony will seek to compete with the popular and lucrative Xbox features.

Microsoft’s Game Pass is often referred to as the Netflix of video games, with more than 18 million users. It allows users to pay $10 to $15 per month for unlimited access to hundreds of games. In recent years, Xbox has developed an overall strategy around the service, placing all its internally released games on Game Pass as soon as they are released. Xbox has also made large acquisitions, such as Bethesda Softworks, which was $7.5 billion last year, with the goal of strengthening the Game Pass library.

News Source : Gadgets 360