The Game Pass subscription is one of Microsoft’s biggest hits on Xbox and PC. It could soon reach PlayStation consoles.
Anything that involves taking power away from players, who do not own the games and are forced to pay a subscription if they want to play, is a great triumph for video game companies (and a loss for the players).
Because video game subscriptions they have low prices and offer a lot in return, and they are very successful.
It is the case of Xbox Game Pass, available for Xbox consoles and PC. It works so well that Sony He had no choice but to copy … sorry, what release their own version, codenamed Spartacus.
Xbox Game Pass it is a subscription that costs 9.99 euros per month, and lets play to more than 100 games without limits, including the main news from Microsoft and other companies.
These games are downloaded and played locally, it is not streaming or cloud play like xCloud.
Considering that buying a game at launch costs 70 euros, to much gamers It compensates them to pay the subscription to play without spending that money. So Game Pass has been a great success.
Sony does not have such a service, but that could change soon.
As reported Bloomberg, Sony is working on a service similar to Game Pass, codenamed Spartacus, due to arrive in the spring.
Actually, always according to this leak, Sony is working on a complete overhaul of its subscriptions.
It currently has PlayStation Plus, to play online, and PlayStation Now, with classic games in the cloud.
Apparently they will cease to be independent and There will only be a single service, PlayStation Plus, with three variants.
The input model would be the current PlayStation Plus, to be able to play online.
For an additional payment you would access a collection of downloadable PS4 and PS5 games, such as Xbox Game Pass.
The full package would add PlayStation Now to play in the cloud, without downloading the games.
Of course, there will be a big difference: unlike Microsoft, Sony will not include its own games that are new to this Game Pass.
Exclusive titles are the mainstay of PlayStation and give them away on a subscription, it wouldn’t make them profitable.
According to the Bloomberg report, Sony is also hardening and adding servers to its cloud service.
If you like video games, we recommend these reports: Xbox Series X, opinion and analysis of the first year of the Microsoft beast and PS5 in 2021, analysis and opinion of the first year of the new generation of Sony.