As the weeks pass, more snippets of information regarding the new PlayStation answer to Game Pass emerge. Codenamed “Project Spartacus,” a number of sources claim that Sony plans to combine the current PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now subscription model into a three-tiered system featuring both modern and classic titles. Trusted leaker NateTheHate claims that 100 PS1 titles will be available at launch, with PS2 and PSP games coming later in 2022. In a new interview, VentureBeat’s Jeff Grubb is offering more information about the role that classic games will play in the new service.
“It’s probably getting pretty close to this actually launching, something’s probably going to happen by the end of this month and I don’t think that necessarily means publicly, I think in terms of the internal milestone of where the service needs to be,” Grubb said on his premium Giantbomb show Grubbsnax.
According to Grubb, Spartacus will be comprised of three tiers, with the most pricey level costing $16 a month.
“Right now they are called ‘essential’, ‘extra’ and ‘premium.’ The pricing, again could be a placeholder, but the pricing is $10 a month for essential, $13 a month for extra, and $16 a month for premium.”
Premium members will have access to classic games, which Grubb calls a “major part” of the highest tier.
“You have game trials, classic games, and streaming on this premium tier. For the extra tier, you get a ‘downloadable game catalogue.’ Anything on PSNow that was downloadable, it seems like it would be in here. As Grubb estimates, this accounts for around 300 titles.
“You don’t get cloud streaming, but you do get 300 games you can download,” he said.
Sony has not explicitly offered information regarding this new PlayStation Game Pass, but rumors claim point to an announcement being made between April and June. Unlike Game Pass, it seems that Sony won’t be adding AAA exclusive titles to the service on day one.