The long-rumoured PlayStation Plus overhaul is set to be officially announced later this week, according to new reports. However, one notable insider has advised anyone hoping for a true Xbox Game Pass rival to keep their expectations in check.
For the last six months or so, there have been increasingly prevalent rumours that Sony is quietly working to completely retool the PlayStation Plus subscription service. The new-look PS Plus - currently codenamed Spartacus - is said to be made up of three tiers: Essential ($10/£7), Extra ($13/£10) and Premium ($16/£12).
Take a look at an incredible reworked PlayStation controller for one-handed gaming below!
Premium offers free trials for first-party games, access to classic titles, and the ability to play most of the games currently available via the PlayStation Now library. Extra is essentially PlayStation Plus as we know it with PlayStation Now baked in, and Essential is your regular PS Plus: monthly free games, access to online play and discounts, etc.
Bloomberg is reporting that we'll most likely learn all about Spartacus from Sony at some point this week, but has made it clear that the service probably won't do the one thing that really sets Xbox Game Pass apart: Day One access to first-party releases.
Undoubtedly one of the best things about Xbox Game Pass is the fact that anyone with a subscription can download and play the latest Xbox games as soon as they're out. Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 were right in there, and you can bet that handsome face of yours that juggernauts like Starfield and Fable will be Day One releases too.
It was certainly the hope of many fans that a PlayStation service to truly rival Game Pass would offer something similar. Imagine having access to Marvel's Spider-Man 2 on Day One just for being a PS Plus subscriber! The aforementioned free game trials are likely to be Sony's attempt at a middle ground, here, of course, but it's certainly a shame to learn the long-awaited "PlayStation Game Pass" isn't quite going to be what many had longed for.
Topics: PlayStation Plus