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| Sony plans to launch a new service to compete with Xbox Game Pass |
Sony's PlayStation division is planning to launch a new subscription service to compete with Microsoft's popular Xbox Game Pass.
A service called Spartacus allows PlayStation owners to pay a monthly fee to access a range of new and classic games.
The show can be offered by the popular PlayStation 4, which has been sold more than 116 million times, and its successor, the PlayStation 5, which launched over a year ago. However, it is still difficult to purchase due to supply chain problems.
The service is expected to launch in the spring and combines two existing Sony subscriptions, PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now.
Most online multiplayer games currently require PlayStation Plus and offer free monthly games. And with PlayStation Now, users can stream or download old games.
According to the documents, Sony plans to keep the PlayStation Plus branding while phasing out PlayStation Now.
Details of Spartacus may not be finalized yet. But the document defines three layers of services.
Level 1 includes current PlayStation Plus features. The second level offers a large number of PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 games.
The third level adds extensive demos, game streaming, and libraries for PS1, PS2, PS3 and classic PSP games.
However, PlayStation has surpassed Xbox sales in recent years. But Sony lags behind Microsoft when it comes to subscription services.
With this new structure, Sony hopes to compete with the popular and profitable Xbox features.
Sony responds with Spartacus on Xbox Game Pass
Often referred to as the Netflix of video games, Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass has over 18 million users.
It allows users to pay between $10 and $15 per month for unlimited access to hundreds of games.
In recent years, the Xbox division has developed a global strategy around this service. All games published internally will be credited to Xbox Game Pass when published.
The Xbox division has also made major acquisitions, such as Bethesda Softworks, which sold $7.5 billion last year, to update the Xbox Game Pass library.
Sony is investing resources to expand its cloud gaming efforts. It happened after Microsoft's xCloud game streaming service went viral earlier this year.
After Microsoft and Sony signed the 2019 deal, it's unclear if Spartacus will run on Microsoft Azure.