Jason Schreier: Sony is planning a new subscription service, code-named Spartacus, to take on Xbox Game Pass (Merges PS+ and PSNow. Not day one games)

[We_care_a_lot]

I've been saying since day one that ps plus and playstation now should be one service. They could seriously KO microsoft if they did this, even without the insanely robust backwards compatibility of game pass. They'd have to up their game with playstation now though. Offer at least SOME day one exclusives and DEFINITELY get as many ps1 and ps2 classics on the service as they possibly can. If they have to give publishers a bigger slice of the pie to make it happen, then they should just go ahead and do that. Get it done, Sony.

 

[Skywalker333]

the more I'm thinking about it, this doesnt really sound like anything new but it is a rebrand of PS Now and a consolidation.
Something new to use for marketing maybe, since PS Now is not really flowing very well.

 

[Avik-G]

Personally, no day 1 games is an instant deal breaker. I have no interest in paying 10 bucks to play games that I can find in a discount bin (that I can keep forever).

 

[CubeApple76]

No day one means I don't care about it frankly. Also, this may have a side effect of killing the PS+ games, like GP did with GwG. If that happens I'll just drop PS+ also.

 

[DOATag]

Be interested to see what this becomes. Right now gamepass is the early winner for me (day 1, xbox and pc). Old games, just on a playstation console doesnt catch me as much

 

[ScOULaris]

If it's all still streaming like PSNow then there's no point.

 

[Ciao]

If they enable PS1 to PS3 emulation for thi service and I can't play my physical and digital library, I'll be salty.

 

[RF Switch]

I am just glad subscriptions are going to be good for gaming now

 

[MiDoZ]

But will it be sustainable??!!

 

[CarterTax]

Will be interested to read more about this when it officially is announced. With this expansion and merging of services I hope now becomes more compelling of a service. Even without the Day 1 First Party games, as long as the game has expanded support for titles coming it would be an overall improvement over the current offerings for Plus/Now which have been middling. Good to see that Sony is trying something out in this space.

Obviously this will not compete with Gamepass but it doesn't really need to. They just have to build a compelling service and bundle it for a decent price outside of Day 1 First Party games, and I think that's possible.

 

[Mr_F_Snowman]

Personally sounds like weak competition if no day one first party / no full 1st party catalogue. Also PS Plus is more expensive than Gamepass Ultimate as it is - so adding two more expensive tiers on top of that sounds like insanity

Doesn't sound enough to win me back over

 

[gofreak]

Good. At the very least the offerings and branding need to be streamlined and simplified so if that achieves nothing else it would be a step forward.

But furthermore, if this results in a merging of resources/budgets, I'd be hopeful the quality of the offering will be more than the sum of its parts. Sony not bringing all their own games day one still leaves plenty of runway for an improved offering overall, if they focus their subscription content acquisition efforts and budgets on one catalog instead of two like now, and this carries the business weight of being their primary subscription service going forward.

 

[JediOrderPizza]

It doesn't need day one, I mean by the time it's ready they could dump Demons Souls, Returnal, Ratchet and Miles Morales on it and it would instantly be worth it.

 

[IMCaprica]

As long as the pricing isn't terrible it's fine.

 

[EddyLovesTunaRolls]

I'd be interested if:
1) they run natively
2) it's not the European version (50hz)
3) they add more games
4) you can purchase them separately

Otherwise it's just a (even) crappier offer than Nintendo Switch Online.

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It's going to be some PS Now type shit where the games are running off of PS3s or whatever and you won't be able to freely play games you already own on your account even though they should technically work.

 

[zombiejames]

Inevitable, really. The devil is in the details, though.

 

[Naha-]

PS1 / PS2 games? I would absolutely loved it if it let me play Xenogears and Xenosaga when I get a PS5.

 

[Deleted member 81119]

Tying PS1, PS2 and PSP games to a premium sub service is exactly the kind of bullshit I should have expected.

 

[klauskpm]

I'll wait to see how this shapes up. If I had to bet into what is going to happen on the PS+ + Now tier, would be just they merging their content. I'm not expecting exclusives day one. I'm expecting them to follow what they are already doing, but supporting more places. If they add PS5 exclusives, I would expect it to be 6 months after release, in the best case scenario.

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

Better offerings than PSNow wouldn't be hard though. The library stinks.

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The overall library including PS3 content is the best of any subscription service. If you've got good enough Internet for streaming, the back catalogue on PS Now is unreal. It's just the modern/new content that's lacking.

Every time I see the monthly PS Plus games and see they're not on PS Now I shake my head. Far too often good content goes on PS Plus and avoids PS Now. That needs to stop.

 

[Kolx]

Where's all the people shouting that Sony doesn't need a similar service to GP?

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Reading the article?

 

[Deleted member 887]

Yeah

not even close to a competition

day 1 and everything on it to download not just stream

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again y'all view things too narrow. It absolutely will be a competitor. It doesn't have to mirror gamepass exactly. Roll it into ps+ and gives people a chance to play even more free games. Bam. That's competition. Especially if it's a stronger offering than Now and added BC. It'll have an audience

 

[Spikematic]

And what of good Solonius?

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Best post of the year. I giggled like crazy. Thanks for this!

 

[Aztechnology]

Sounds nowhere near as good as game pass? So not really interested.

 

[Dunlop]

Yall say this...but actual reports and news keep stating that game are not suffering in sales when they go on the service. People are more willing to try your game when the barrier to get in is easier.

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I'm hoping they do as I do not have a PS5, but with their record revenues I understand why it is not a priority

 

[P40L0]

Is this legal?

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There are no PS exclusives on D1, so yeah.

 

[Zep]

3 tiers is going to be confusing.

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Microsoft is also 3-tiers. XB Live Gold, Gamepass and Gamepass Ultimate.
And there are only certain features available to ultimate members that regular Gamepass members don't get.

 

[Grouch Douglass]

Brilliant move IMO. Sony already has the advantage over MS and this will allow them to reduce the momentum of Game Pass before the Series X becomes widely available. Once Sony has the new baseline set for their own cloud and subscription services they can quickly adapt to match or surpass MS offerings depending on the market. Start slow and add higher profile games as necessary until it matches/surpasses Game Pass.

Sony will probably quickly get more subscribers than MS and then start getting better deals with 3rd parties as the market leader.

 

[Vinc]

I don't think it will. You guys think about this stuff too narrowly. The target audience for something like this is to sell it to the existing (and huge) Playstation audience, not so much having people decide between PS++ or GamePass. Thats what enthusiasts and console warriors are going to make that kind of direct comparison. The audience that is going to view this that way is probably far smaller.

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This is being described as a service that "takes on Game Pass".

 

[We_care_a_lot]

people say they don't care about having a service to play old games but the reaction every time an old game gets added to game pass or gets updated BC support tells a completely different story.

 

[Phellps]

Oh, Spring then... That's not so far off. Looking forward to seeing what they have in store.

 

[futurevoid]

But he's correct and why would he be warrior for stating this? I have all consoles and a PC and I feel this way. It's not a direct competitor to GP, that's fact.

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If they're expanding the offerings on the service to include new third party titles along with a bigger catalog of older titles then why isn't it? Or is Game Pass so narrow a platform that it's only equated with first party offerings? That's utterly silly. I've played games like Cybershadow, The Ascent, D&D Dark Alliance, etc. and much more on Game Pass. Much more than Microsoft first party which have been pretty damn slim pickings until recently. If Sony can match those types of offerings then it's absolutely a competitor and that absolutely has value without having to put their first party games on the service which isn't likely to happen anytime soon.

 

[andymcc]

I'd be interested in this if it had PS1/PS2 games and a pretty good library of them but it still doesn't seem like the value will be as good as Gamepass-- nor will it obviously be supported by as many platforms.

 

[Mad_Rhetoric]

Without day 1 1P games, this can't be a competitor with Game Pass ever.

 

[yhgtu]

I would straight up cancel Game Pass if it didn't have Day One releases. I don't think Sony gets that.

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If it was that easy and lucrative don't you think they would do it right now? Offering games on a service is the easiest strategy move they could do, it doesn't even require that much work compared to other strategic options, considering they already have the infrastructure to deliver it.

Everyone knows that the day 1 games are the biggest draw. There's obvious reason they can't/won't.

 

[dDASTARDLY]

If it's day one and native I'd seriously consider subbing.

But as it stands now, PS is just an exclusive machine, Gamepass Ult is where I do most of my gaming anyway.

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

Without day one games my interest kind of wanes but will wait to see what the value prop is. I'm sure there's more to the story. This was expected though, didn't they also do a partnership with MS to utilize their same back end way back?

 

[Amauri14]

I sure did not expect that PS1/PS2/PSP games part. That's great to hear.

 

[isahn]

Playstation Plus
Playstation Plus Pass
Playstation Plus Pass Pro
Perfection

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playstation plus
playstation square
playstation circle

 

[Deleted member 36578]

No day 1 first party no sale

 

[Abrasion Test]

Seems like a natural step to merge the two services, which should have already happened at this point.

No day 1 games makes it a kind of weak half-hearted offering honestly, but will wait and see. Game Pass started slow but has really built itself into a monster. Going all in across Cloud, console, and PC + all 1P games day 1 that makes it super compelling.

 

[maabus1999]

If anything, this will make things more confusing for Sony with multi-tiers, unclear messaging of what type of games to expect, etc...

I mean, look how slowly they are transitioning to the PC space still. They are just way too reactionary to almost everything they aren't comfortable with (PC gaming, Cloud Gaming, Subscription, etc...).

 

[reclaimerzzzzz]

I'm saying they will both just be viewed as streaming games services. They fall into that category as services and business models. That doesn't mean they have to offer the exact same service. Its not weird to call this a "game pass competitor" or "Sony's answer to Game Pass" even if they aren't 1:1 exactly the same.

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I was about to say, Disney Plus, Prime Video, etc. all compete with Netflix while having slightly different release patterns and original properties.

It will only be of interest to me if it includes regular day one games. And I'm not really talking about Sony games, which Schreier already said isn't happening (at this stage). I'm talking day one games from indies/third parties. Like we've had with the likes of Streets of Rage 4 to The Outer Wilds to Football Manager etc on Game Pass.

Will be weird if MLB 2022 is day one on Game Pass again not on this new service though.
Indies have already been released day one on Plus for some time now, about 2 or 3 this year alone, and Rocket League was originally a PS+ launch. Resogun was also a PS+ launch in 2013.

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If it's all still streaming like PSNow then there's no point.

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PSNow isn't all streaming, you can download and play the PS2 and PS4 games natively, only PS3 is streaming only.

 

[TooBusyLookinGud]

the more I'm thinking about it, this doesnt really sound like anything new but it is a rebrand of PS Now and a consolidation.
Something new to use for marketing maybe, since PS Now is not really flowing very well.

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From the message, it seems like it going to be a bit more robust than what they have now. I'm a PS1/PS2 guy and if they can offer games natively, I'm 100% there.

 

[Azerth]

No day 1 and probably will be only streaming on is a no from me

 

[AndyMc1888]

Sounds like a rebrand of now and the kind of best of PlayStation back already on there , the bc stuff is the main additional seller but as ms has showed there's a lot of work to go into that so pricing and what they have will be key.

cool for me looking to pick up a ps5 and get into eco system for first time and play the games Ive missed but without day one games would I be a constant subscriber ? I'd probably say no but obviously know nothing about it yet

 

[Kyrios]

the more I'm thinking about it, this doesnt really sound like anything new but it is a rebrand of PS Now and a consolidation.
Something new to use for marketing maybe, since PS Now is not really flowing very well.

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The way I read it, it's just a unification of their existing services with some extra goodies attached. I don't see how Jason sees this as a GP competitor/response unless it came from someone from Sony, but regardless I don't agree with the comparison wherever it came from.

 

[ElNino]

You understand that you'd still need to dish out cash you wouldn't need to otherwise if you could just play it off your existing subscription?

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Theoretically, but given the number of third party games that come and go that's not something I'm worried about at all. And that's assuming I only subscribe to one of the services.

Just like movies or TV shows that move between subscriptions, sometimes I can watch them and other times I can't... but there are so many already that is not worth my time to worry about.

 

[ShapeGSX]

Without day one games, they are not competing with Game Pass.

 

[AntiMacro]

Which is a good by the way .

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Yeah, I think it's a positive move from that perspective. I just can't see how this brings in more people, outside the marketing push it'll likely get at relaunch.

I mean take away new games from Game Pass and lock BC access (via streaming) to a new, higher tier of it and I don't think you're looking at a very attractive offering. This might be less confusing as to what you get, but unless there's more to the revamp, I don't think this is much of a competition between it and the current iteration of Game Pass.