PlayStation will reportedly launch a countermeasure to Xbox Game Pass in spring 2022

The report comes from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who obtained the documents from several anonymous sources within Sony Group According to his report, the service in question, codenamed "Spartacus," will allow PlayStation owners to access a library of classic and current games for a monthly subscription fee

It is expected that this service will be available on both PS4 and PS5

The service will reportedly combine PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now For those who don't know, PlayStation Now is a service that allows users to stream and download older games; PlayStation Plus is required to play online multiplayer games and offers a number of free titles each month According to documents confirmed by Bloomberg, Sony will keep the PlayStation Plus brand, but will phase out PlayStation Now

The document details a three-tiered subscription plan The first tier includes the aforementioned existing PlayStation Plus benefits (online multiplayer, free games every month); the second and third tiers are where things get more interesting The second tier will reportedly offer the PS4 and (eventually) PS5 game catalog, while the third tier will reportedly include extended game demos, game streaming, and additional titles for PS1, PS2, PS3, and PSP platforms

Rumors of a "PlayStation Game Pass" have been around for some time; as we reported in April, David Jaffe, co-creator of "God of War" and "Twisted Metal," said that Sony was "counterpunching" the Xbox Game Pass He said he was working on it Shortly thereafter, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan spoke to Nikkei and admitted that Sony is working on some form of cloud gaming integration He said the proposed cloud service is not an Xbox clone

Xbox Game Pass has 18 million subscribers as of April of this year Therefore, it makes sense for Sony to eventually launch a similar cloud service to compete with Microsoft Sony's strategy of focusing on traditional game consoles has worked well so far, but in the increasingly digital world of gaming, this model may not bear fruit in the long run Sony ultimately had to answer the Xbox Game Pass, and Spartacus seems to be the answer

If this Bloomberg report is true, things will heat up between the two major console rivals in 2022 Stay tuned for further reports