Three-tier Xbox Game Pass rival revealed
The world’sworst-kept secretis finally out — Sony Interactive Entertainment has revealed its revamped PlayStation Plus service, which is set to launch in June 2022, bringing with it a three-tier subscription service, a library of “700+” video games, and additional features and services.
“Today, we are pleased to share with you official news about changes coming to our subscription services,”wrote SIE President Jim Ryan on the PlayStation Blog. “This June, we’re bringing together PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now in an all-new PlayStation Plus subscription service that provides more choice to customers across three membership tiers globally.
“Our focus is on providing high-quality, curated content with a diverse portfolio of games.”
Ryan goes on to state that PlayStation is working with both in-house and third-party studios to deliver a library of titles crossing a wide variety of genres.
Some of the smash-hit titles expected to launch alongside the service in June are Kojima Production’sDeath Stranding,Sony Santa Monica’sGod of War,Insomniac’sMarvel’s Spider-Man&Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales,NetherRealm’sMortal Kombat 11,and Housemarque’sReturnal. In addition, games will be made available from PlayStation’s legacy catalog. These include downloadable titles on PlayStation, PS2, and PlayStation Portable (PSP), and streamed titles on PS3.
The three new PlayStation Plus subscription services, (and their respective prices), are as follows:
PlayStation Plus Premium
While the new PlayStation Plus service is set up to be a clear contender to Xbox’s already hugely successful Xbox Game Pass, Ryan has recently suggested that the revamped PS Plus is not likely to feature brand new exclusive titles (for example,God of War: Ragnarok) made available on launch day.
“[Regarding] putting our own games into this service, or any of our services, upon their release… as you well know, this is not a road that we’ve gone down in the past,”said Ryan in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz.“And it’s not a road that we’re going to go down with this new service. We feel if we were to do that with the games that we make at PlayStation Studios, that virtuous cycle will be broken. The level of investment that we need to make in our studios would not be possible.”
“We think the knock-on effect on the quality of the games that we make would not be something that gamers want.”
