It's clear to many gaming fans that PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now just don't hold a candle to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Whether it's from a value or content perspective, even the most die-hard Sony fan boys know they're beaten. This is why when the Spartacus project was first revealed, it was a huge relief for PlayStation owners.
The Spartacus service will be a rival to Xbox Game Pass and look to merge the PS Plus and PS Now offering with some additional perks thrown in. Now, it appears that we could be closer to the launch of the service than we initially thought.
Spring 2022 was the proposed release window and we're steadily creeping up on that with March just a few days away. According to the latest report from Jeff Grubb on his Grubbsnax show (first spotted by VGC), the service is gearing up to launch soon.
Grubb also went as far as to detail that its subscription tiers will be called Essential, Extra and Premium. While there's no official detail on what is coming to the Spartacus service, it's widely believed that beyond the current PS Plus and PS Now benefits, it will also offer access to classic PS3, PS2 and even PS1 titles via cloud streaming. This was also hinted at when Bloomberg first uncovered the existence of Spartacus.
The price point of each tier is expected to be $10 for Essential, $13 for Extra and $16 for Premium. An Essential Spartacus subscription is expected to be PS Plus and its benefits. Extra will include any downloadable titles from PS Now (typically and PS4 & PS5 games) while Premium will offer all of the classic games that can be played using the cloud.
It seems like Grubb is sure that something could happen pretty soon even if it's not a public announcement. He said;
"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."
Take from this what you will but it seems like Spartacus might be starting to reach a state where Sony may start rolling out some announcements.