PlayStation Game Pass: Sony plans to merge PS Plus and PS Now, details

If Microsoft is still struggling to sell consoles, the American manufacturer has managed to establish itself as a leader in terms of service and subscription through its Xbox Game Pass. A sort of Netflix video game version, with however games to download, and not to stream (for the moment), the Xbox Game Pass has become an essential part of the Xbox ecosystem, whether on One, Series X | S or PC. The competition was obviously not going to let face, and behind the scenes, on the side of Sony Interactive Entertainment, we are preparing the response. If we are to believe the words relayed by Bloomberg and journalist Jason Schreier, the Japanese automaker is currently working on the Spartacus project. A kind of response to Xbox Game Pass which would be the merger of two services already present from Sony, namely PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now. It must be said that it is Sony which opened the festivities of the so-called “free” games 10 years ago with the PlayStation Plus program that all the other manufacturers have since taken over.

According to information from Jason Schreier, the new subscription formula would see the light of day in the spring of 2022, which would give a boost to PlayStation Now which is struggling to impose itself on the general public. However, Sony’s online games service allows you to either download the game on your machine, or stream it directly from the manufacturer’s services. A considerable saving of time, especially since for some time now, the games are streamable in 1080p. Yet, according to documents which have been combed through with a fine comb by Bloomberg, Sony Interactive Entertainment is reportedly planning to ditch the PlayStation Now brand and completely merge it into the PlayStation Plus subscription. When we know that the PS Plus service has 47.2 million subscribers to date, while PlayStation Now has 3.2 million subscriptions, the calculation is quickly done for Sony.

By merging the two services, Sony Interactive Entertainment would retain the advantages of PlayStation Plus, to which we can add the catalog of 800 games already available on PS3 and PS4. Of course, the offer will continue to evolve and we imagine that the PS5 games will also be available in the program. If we always trust the documents, the so-called classic games of the PS1, PS2 and PSP consoles would be topical, which would expand the offer considerably. We imagine that with this additional content, we will have to expect an increase in the price of the service, but it remains to be seen by how much it will increase, and if Sony is ready to make available its big AAAs as soon as they are released on this future PS Plus. , boosted at PS Now. On the other hand, we also remember that the PlayStation Plus Video Pass was launched in Poland for several months of testing, and that adding this cord to the service, by generalizing it to the whole world, would also be a weighty argument in the balance…

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