Update: Sony has now commented, stating it is globally “moving from PlayStation Now gift cards to focus on [its] current cash denomination PlayStation gift cards, which can be redeemed for PlayStation Now.”
Original Story: Sony has long sold physical cards with codes for its digital services like PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now. However, Sony is pulling PlayStation Now cards in the United Kingdom. While this might not seem like much, it further corroborates the existence of Sony’s rumored Spartacus subscription service.
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As reported by Games Beat, stores like Game have gotten the following directive:
“Stores have until the close of day Wednesday 19, January to remove all POS and ESD cards from all customer-facing areas and update their digital bays in line with this week’s upcoming commercial update.”
It is not clear if other territories have gotten that order as well. Retailers like Best Buy, Amazon, and GameStop in the United States are still selling codes online and no such internal email has yet leaked out about an impending clearance of physical cards. Games Beat’s Jeff Grubb said he had heard that retailers in the United States and Canada have already been pulling said cards weeks ago.
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This move would seem to give more credence to the Bloomberg report from December stating that Sony was planning a tiered subscription service for the spring that would combine PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now and add some new features. This service, codenamed Spartacus, would have three tiers according to the report and would phase out the PlayStation Now name while still incorporating some streaming features inherent to the old service. With Sony removing PlayStation Now cards from stores, it does seem likely that Bloomberg’s solid report is beginning to come to fruition and lay the foundation for Spartacus even though Sony hasn’t yet announced anything concrete.
