There are plenty of rumors making the internet rounds regarding PlayStation's "answer" to Xbox Game Pass, Project Spartacus. The current report, according to Bloomberg, is that Sony will be replacing its PS Plus and PS Now subscription services with a tiered system that merges the two while also providing other benefits. It seems to be generally agreed upon by multiple sources that Project Spartacus will include the ability to play classic PS1, PS2, and PS3 titles.
If Project Spartacus truly wants to compete with Xbox Game Pass, however, it will need to include first-party titles the day they release, just like Xbox does with its IPs. Unfortunately, it seems extremely unlikely that Sony would ever consider doing that, at least for the time being given the differences between the ways that the two companies market their consoles and their first-party titles. It's certainly possible that Sony could throw a curveball and include them on day one with the revamped service, but, based on how it's handled things with the release of the PlayStation 5, fans shouldn't get their hopes too high.
Sony's First-Party Studio Prestige
Microsoft and Sony have two entirely different approaches when it comes to how they market their exclusive titles. Xbox has truly doubled down on Game Pass by promising that every single one of its first-party games will be free to download the day that they launch for all Game Pass subscribers. Although that has almost certainly hurt the sale of brand new, first-party Xbox games, Game Pass has never been more profitable for the company, likely balancing things out from the lost sales. That doesn't seem like a move that Sony would be interested in making when looking at the way that it seems to view its first-party games internally.
When Sony announced that its first-party games would be increasing in price from $60 to $70, the company reassured fans that, although the games were getting more expensive on the consumer end of things, it would benefit them in the long run. After all, video games are extremely expensive to make, especially Sony's first-party titles, so it makes sense from a business perspective why the company would increase prices. If Sony were to be "giving away" its first-party games through a subscription service, it would further disincentivize fans from buying their games new, likely causing the company to take a hit that it might not be able to afford as it waits for more subscribers to pay for Project Spartacus.
Completely removed from Sony's business side is the fact that the company seems to view its titles as prestigious experiences that are worth individually paying for. Although it was never explicitly said when the price increase was announced, it felt like the implications from Sony was that the company was saying "our games are worth the additional $10 because of their quality." While the monetary worth of a game is certainly up for debate, the fact of the matter is that if Sony were to make its titles free for Project Spartacus subscribers, it would go in direct opposition to the way that it views its games, meaning that their inclusion on the service feels incredibly unlikely.
It could be that Sony sees Xbox's devotion to launching its games on Game Pass as devaluing them, which is something that it would likely want to avoid given how much emphasis the company has put on its experiences being seen as prestige gaming. There's nothing wrong with either approach, but it does seem to indicate which way that Sony will lean when it finally comes time to reveal Project Spartacus and its stance on first-party launches.
Source: Bloomberg