Following months of reports and speculations, Sony Interactive Entertainment has officially announced Project Spartacus as an all-new PlayStation Plus that merges the existing PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now services into a multi-tiered subscription platform.
According to an announcement made earlier today, the new PlayStation Plus will launch with three different subscription tiers: Essential, Extra, and Premium.
Essential will be the same as the current PlayStation Plus without any changes; costing $9.99 monthly, $24.99 quarterly, and $59.99 yearly.
Extra will add a catalog of up to 400 downloadable games from both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, including first-party as well as third-party releases. Sony confirmed that the launch lineup will feature games such as Death Stranding, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11, and Returnal with more to be added later on.
“We’re working closely with our imaginative developers from PlayStation Studios and third-party partners to include some of the best gaming experiences available with a library that will be regularly refreshed,” said Sony.
Extra will cost $14.99 monthly, $39.99 quarterly, and $99.99 yearly.
Premium will offer all the benefits of Essential and Extra while another catalog of up to 340 games from PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, the original PlayStation, as well as PlayStation Portable.
Premium subscribers will be able to download or stream these classics, the latter being available on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 as well as on PC but in only the regions that support PlayStation Now at present.
Premium will also feature time-limited trials to play games before making a purchase; costing $17.99 monthly, $49.99 quarterly, and $119.99 yearly.
Sony furthermore noted a fourth subscription tier called PlayStation Plus Deluxe, which will be a cheaper version of Premium for regions that do not support cloud streaming.
“When the new PlayStation Plus service launches, PlayStation Now will transition into the new PlayStation Plus offering and will no longer be available as a standalone service,” said Sony. “PlayStation Now customers will migrate over to PlayStation Plus Premium with no increase to their current subscription fees at launch.”
The all-new PlayStation Plus will start rolling out in June 2022 on a region-by-region basis. Sony intends to launch the service first in several Asian markets, followed by North America, Europe, and then the rest of the world.
