PlayStation Now subscription cards are being removed from UK retailer GAME according to an internal email.
In an internal message shared with GamesBeat, GAME leadership informed store teams that they would no longer be selling the subscription cards after January 21.
“Stores have until the close of day Wednesday 19, January to remove all POS and ESD cards from all customer-facing areas and update their digital bays in line with this week’s upcoming commercial update….”
Sony has not responded to a request for comment from VentureBeat, but many are speculating that this is in anticipation of the rumoured Xbox Game Pass-like “Spartacus” which was reported on by Bloomberg last year.
Bloomberg suggests that “Spartacus”, which is speculated to launch in spring 2022, will merge PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now into one package. The result is expected to be something similar to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which offers the benefits of Xbox Live Gold, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and an increasingly extensive library of games to download and play as part of the subscription.
Currently, PlayStation Plus costs £6.99 per month, or £49.99 per year, while PlayStation Now costs £22.99 per three months or also £49.99 per year. An £8.99 monthly option for PS Now currently shows “not available for purchase” on the UK PlayStation Store.
Conversely, Xbox Game Pass costs £7.99 per month for either the console or PC plan, or £10.99 monthly for the Ultimate package that includes console, PC, Xbox Live Gold, and EA Play. Ubisoft recently announced that its Ubisoft + subscription service would be coming to the Xbox platform “soon”.
