Launched in 2017, Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass initiative provides subscribers with an ever-changing collection of new titles to try out. From huge releases like Halo Infinite to relatively niche indie titles like the Kinect-supporting Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, the service has fundamentally changed how many Xbox and PC gamers play. Recent reports have suggested that Sony seeks to mirror the Xbox Game Pass model, and current Xbox head Phil Spencer seems to approve of the idea.
Speaking with IGN, Spencer stated that he sees services like Xbox Game Pass as an inevitability in an age in which instant access to digital media is more pertinent than ever. He added that player choice is a major factor to consider, and allowing gamers to amass their own libraries and backlogs and game on their preferred machines—be they console, PC, or mobile—is the “right answer.”
While Microsoft beat Sony to the punch by several years, Spencer emphasized that his team shouldn’t see Sony’s apparent eagerness to replicate the Xbox Game Pass initiative as a form of validation. Rather, he points out that the service was something of a reaction to market trends and that Sony is more or less coming to the same conclusions they themselves reached prior to the announcement of Xbox Game Pass in 2017. Spencer also affirmed his belief in allowing day-one access to games for those who aren’t playing on Xbox consoles and making more titles available via cloud streaming, features he speculated Sony will include in their service.
Precisely what form PlayStation’s version of the Xbox Game Pass could take is unknown, but it’s not the first time Sony dabbled in services of this sort. In 2014, Sony debuted PlayStation Now, a subscription-based platform that allowed gamers to stream a selection of PlayStation 3 titles via PC and PS4, and now the PS5. PlayStation Now is still active and has since greatly expanded the roster of games on offer, but it hasn’t quite caught on in the same ways as Microsoft’s variant.
Some experts posit that Sony’s upcoming Xbox Game Pass rival will be merged with the existing PlayStation Now infrastructure to create a more fully-featured experience. Currently code-named “Spartacus,” the project may debut within the coming months, though how exactly it will differ from the existing PlayStation service is unknown. PlayStation Now has seldom offered day-one access to console-exclusive games, and aging titles like Bloodborne and Little Big Planet 3 remain prominent in PS Now marketing. For Sony to genuinely compete with Xbox Game Pass, instant access to newer PS5 titles like Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and Returnal—something that was suggested in a patent filed by Sony in 2021—may be necessary.