Japanese company Sony announced new versions of its PlayStation Plus subscription, which will compete with Microsoft's Game Pass for Xbox. PS Plus will be a combination of the traditional PS Plus and PS Now. The subscription includes the ability to participate in multiplayer games and access to a catalog of selected games for installation or cloud gaming on PlayStation.
Sony is promising to launch a new iteration of PS Plus in June for Asia, followed by North America, Europe and the rest of the world. After that, the functioning of PS Now as a separate service is curtailed. The company intends to launch the upgraded version of the subscription across most of the PlayStation Network by the end of the first half of 2022.
PS Plus will be divided into three tariffs: Essential, Extra and Premium.
Essential - $9.99 per month - contains all the features of PS Plus in its current form: access to multiplayer, two new games every month, discounts and cloud storage for game saves. A year of subscription will cost $59.99.
Extra - $14.99 per month - includes all the benefits of the previous plan plus 400 PS4 and PS5 games from Sony's internal studios or third parties. An annual subscription will cost $99.99.
Premium - $17.99 per month - Covers Essential and Extra features and adds 340 additional games including those for the original PS, PS2, PS3 and PSP. At this level, users will have time-limited access to game demos. A yearly subscription is priced at $119.99.
PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan says the addition of Extra and Premium tiers is a major evolution for PS Plus. He adds that the hundreds of subscription games featured will feature the highest quality content that sets Sony apart from the competition.
At the launch of the updated PS Plus, Death Stranding, Marvel's Spider-Man, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, God of War, Mortal Kombat 11 and Returnal will be available to users. The game library will be updated regularly. More details on subscription-based projects will follow in the coming months.
Sony does not promise that all exclusive games will be available on PS Plus on the day of release, which made Game Pass attractive.
In recent months, there have been reports in the press about Sony's intention to launch an analogue of Game Pass. In December, Bloomberg reported on the PS Plus expansion project, codenamed Spartacus. The cost of the premium subscription plan was $16, sources told Bloomberg.
bbabo.Net