PlayStation’s rumored Game Pass rival codenamed Spartacus has yet to be officially revealed. Bits and pieces have pointed to some of its features and pricing, but nothing has been concrete. And while these details still aren’t concrete since it is still unannounced, a new report has pointed to the service’s possible pricing tiers and set of features.
Games Beat’s Jeff Grubb spoke about Spartacus on his weekly paywalled show at Giant Bomb, Grubbsnax. However, he prefaced his reporting by saying that some of the information he has could be placeholder or outdated, meaning that it might not be 100% accurate by the time it actually happens (if it does). Regardless, Grubb said that it is “getting pretty close to it actually launching” and that by the end of this month or in early March, Sony wants it to hit some internal milestone so it can get ready to launch the service. This lines up with the timing from the initial Bloomberg that stated Spartacus was coming in spring.
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He then moved on to the three tiers which he called Essential, Extra, and Premium. While he reiterated that the pricing could be placeholder, he said that Essential was $10 per month and is basically the current form of PlayStation Plus “with the monthly games like you know it today.”
Extra, the second tier, is $13 a month and gets access to the downloadable games catalog. Grubb said that “anything on PS Now that was downloadable will seemingly work here,” presumably meaning a whole host of PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 4 games will be accessible.
Premium is the most expensive, coming in at $16 per month, and comes with the biggest feature set. Grubb said it was “kind of” like EA Play where players get full game trials, but he wasn’t sure if that applies to “every single game that comes out.” He said that it “seems to be implying that,” though. He didn’t know how long said trials were though. For comparison, EA Play gives users 10-hour trials.
This highest tier will also have classic games and streaming (like PlayStation Now), which none of the other tiers have. However, he wasn’t clear on what exactly “classic” means here since there are plenty of PlayStation generations that could be included or omitted. The Bloomberg report from December noted that PS1, PS2, PS3, and PSP titles were going to be offered.
“You also get classic games and streaming,” said Grubb. “None of the other tiers have cloud streaming. You also get classic games. What does classic games mean? I’m sorry, I wish I knew. Some of it is speculation and there’s noise in the signal, basically. I do know that it is a major part of this premium tier, so you have game trials, classic games, and streaming on this premium tier.”
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Exact details are scarce, but Grubb’s sources seem to be loosely matching what Bloomberg first reported on, given the three tiers, mash up of PlayStation Now and Plus, and spring 2022 release window. Sony has not spoken publicly about such a service, but Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan told TASS in November 2020 that there was “actually news to come” on some sort of Game Pass subscription, but said news wouldn’t drop that day. Sony also recently began pulling PlayStation Now subscription cards, giving more credence to its existence.
Some are even expecting Sony to hold another PlayStation Showcase in March that would potentially officially reveal Spartacus and a whole host of upcoming titles. Insider Tom Henderson said that some of his sources told him that Warner Bros. wants to show off Hogwarts Legacy and that some projects relating to The Last of Us are “nearing completion.” He also reiterated that the Resident Evil 4 remake was reported to be revealed in spring 2022, which would echo how Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil Village were both announced at Sony events in 2018 and 2020, respectively. Square Enix also promised that more information on Final Fantasy XVI would come in spring. Combined with more unknown games, indie titles releasing soon, and PlayStation VR2, and the idea of a big PlayStation event in the near future certainly seems possible.
