Sony has finally revealed its Xbox Game Pass competitor, an "all-new PlayStation Plus" that brings together the existing PS Plus and PS Now into a three-tier subscription service that includes up to 700 games and access to retro games at the top tier. It will open for some markets in June and roll out worldwide regionally after that.
After months of reports, and even longer being speculated about, Sony finally revealed the new service today. It consists of three tiers, PlayStation Plus Essential, PlayStation Plus Extra, and PlayStation Plus Premium. As part of the move, PS Now will be closed down, with members migrated to the Premium tier, with no change to prices at launch.
At its top tier, the new PS Plus will offer more than 700 games for streaming or download (including streaming on PC), and the library will be "regularly refreshed". PS3 games will be available as streaming-only titles, while PS1, PS2 and PSP games will come with download or streaming options. Sony has made clear that (at least for now) first-party exclusives will not be launched into the service for any tier, unlike Xbox Game Pass.
The service will launch with the likes of Death Stranding, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11, and Returnal. Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan told GamesIndustry there's a diverse line-up to come: "Whether it's indies, whether it's big games, or things that celebrate our heritage... all sorts of games. We are going to have all of it, and hopefully a line-up that ticks all sorts of boxes."
The new service will roll out regionally, beginning in "several markets in Asia" in June, followed by North America, Europe and the rest of the world. No specific dates have been offered as yet.
You can see full details and pricing for each tier below:
While Sony says it's looking to increase coverage for cloud streaming across the world, regions without access to it will instead get a different tier, Deluxe, which removes streaming (and thus all PS3 games) from the Premium tier, but comes in at a lower price. Deluxe will seemingly not be available outside of those regions.
While the new PS Plus bears similarities in approach to Game Pass, there are multiple differences – not least in how exclusives are handled. Xbox Game Pass has arguably been one of the most important decisions Microsoft has made about its gaming business in recent years, offering a rotating selection of games (including first-party titles on launch day) as part of a subscription, and tying in Cloud Gaming and other perks at the more expensive Ultimate tier. It's been an enormously popular move, and Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer previously called a PlayStation response to Game Pass an "inevitability".
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