PlayStation will reportedly reveal its Xbox Game Pass rival as early as next week

Sony Interactive Entertainment may announce its Xbox Game Pass rival, codenamed Spartacus, as early as next week.

That’s according to a new Bloomberg report, which cites people familiar with the plans.

As previously reported, it’s claimed the service will combine two of Sony’s existing subscription offerings, PlayStation Now and PlayStation Plus, and phase out the branding of the latter.

According to documents seen by Bloomberg last year, the new service is expected to launch for PS4 and PS5 this spring and to be structured across three payment tiers.

The first will reportedly include existing PlayStation Plus benefits such as online play and free monthly titles. The second will offer a large catalogue of games like Xbox Game Pass, although this isn’t expected to include first-party titles at launch. The third will add extended demos, game streaming and a library of classic PlayStation games.

VentureBeat journalist Jeff Grubb claimed last month that the service’s highest tier will cost $16 per month.

“Right now they are called ‘essential’, ‘extra’ and ‘premium’,” Grubb said on his Giant Bomb show. “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.”

Grubb suggested the premium tier could include free trials of all PlayStation first-party titles.

“For premium, $16 a month… do you get full games? Not really… it’s like EA Play. You get full game trials. I don’t know if that’s for every single game that comes out, but it seems like that.” he said.

“You also get classic games and streaming. None of the other tiers will have cloud streaming.”

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Xbox Game Pass launched in June 2017 and has become central to Microsoft’s gaming business, attracting over 25 million subscribers as of January 2022, according to the company.

It offers members access to over 100 titles, including all first-party games at launch, for $10 / £8 per month on console or PC. For $15 / £11, users can access the games on console, PC and mobile devices, including via Xbox Cloud Gaming.