As was reported, Sony has officially unveiled codename Spartacus, its subscription service that can be somewhat likened to Xbox’s Game Pass. But instead of having a new name, this service is being rolled into PlayStation Plus and will have three tiers: Essential, Extra, and Premium. It will launch in June in select Asian markets before coming to North America, Europe, and “the rest of the world where PlayStation Plus is offered.”
Sony Interactive Entertainment President and CEO Jim Ryan explained all of this in a post on the PlayStation Blog. Many of these details are almost exactly what has been reported on in the past. Regardless, the first of the three tiers is essentially just what PlayStation Plus is right now and will be $9.99 monthly and $59.99 yearly. It’ll come with exclusive discounts, save game cloud storage, and online multiplayer access. However, it also lists two monthly downloadable games, which is either a typo or a reduction in the amount of offered games since Sony usually gives out at least three or four titles a month.
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Extra is the second tier and will be $14.99 a month and $99.99 a year. It’ll come with all the stuff in the previous tier, as well as a library of around 400 PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 titles, which will all be downloadable. The post did not provide a full list of these games and it’s unknown how many current PlayStation Now games will carry over. Ryan did, however, state that it will have “blockbuster hits from [the] PlayStation Studios catalog” and listed Death Stranding, God of War, Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11, and Returnal as games that would be launching on the two most expensive tiers. Ryan also said that Sony is working with first and third-party developers to include some of the “best gaming experiences” and the library itself will be refreshed regularly.
Premium is the final tier and will be $17.99 per month and $119.99 per year. This most expensive tier will include everything in the prior two categories in addition to around 340 more games that will be available from prior PlayStation generations, including PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, and PSP. The PS1, PS2, PSP, and PS4 games will be downloadable and streamable, while PS3 games will only be available through streaming, which was to be expected, given the complicated nature of the PS3’s cell processor. Players can stream these games through PS4, PS5, and PC. This last tier also includes time-limited game trials on select titles.
Those currently with PlayStation Now will be rolled into this tier and will see “no increase to their current subscription fees at launch.” Given the price discrepancies, it’s likely that the price will go up when the user’s current subscription lapses.
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While some older first-party games are launching with the service, players should still not expect Sony’s biggest new games to simultaneously launch on the service in the future when they come out. Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, Ryan said that it wouldn’t make sense for Sony to do this since it could throw off how it funds these massive titles.
“We feel if we were to do that with the games that we make at PlayStation Studios, that virtuous cycle will be broken,” said Ryan. “The level of investment that we need to make in our studios would not be possible, and we think the knock-on effect on the quality of the games that we make would not be something that gamers want.”
He didn’t say this was set in stone, but that this was the short-term plan. To him, “nothing is forever” and he even called out how bizarre it is to see Sony’s first-party games like God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn on PC, signaling that things do change at a rapid pace so it would be foolish to say that simultaneous launches would never happen.
