RUMOR CONTROL: Permanent PS Now Games Suddenly Disappearing From the Service. Is Project Spartacus On The Way?

PlayStation Now has always provided an experience where gamers knew that as quickly as a good game comes to Sony’s premium game streaming service those games can leave the service just as quickly. It’s a cycle that’s been in place since launching with PlayStation Now back in January 2014. Some games get hard exit dates like Rock Star’s Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – The Definitive Edition (currently available now until Monday, May 2, 2022) while others seemingly never have a leave date. These titles that hit the service are essentially considered, more times than not, to be “permanent” additions to the service, never having any sign of a departure date.

Over on Reddit, users have discovered that games are beginning to exit the streaming subscription service at a higher rate than normal without prior notice. Redditors took note that Moonlighter, Killing Floor 2, and SUPERHOT — all games which did not have any announced expiration dates on the service — have all suddenly been slated to depart PS Now on February 28th. The removal of the games on the 28th coincides with the arrival of the new PS Now games for March 2022.

*Moonlighter, © 2018 11 Bit Studios*, *Merge Games*

The move by Sony is completely unexpected and this shakeup with PS Now’s content indicates a seismic shift in the way Sony is handling the service. Overall, this new stance may prove to be a sign that something bigger is going on with Sony’s subscriber services.

PlayStation Plus recently seemed to have undergone some changes with how content was being added to the free lineup for subscribers (this month for PS Plus sees four titles instead of the usual three). Eagle-eyed gamers have been paying close attention to the developments following a December report that states Sony was considering the idea of rebranding PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now into a new subscriber service which would ultimately be a new competitor to Xbox Game Pass. Potentially, Project Spartacus would see games from PlayStation’s back catalog of PS1, 2, and 3 becoming available under a tiered subscription service that could be the evolution of PlayStation Plus. A previous edition of our Boss Rush Banter series even asks the question “Does Sony’s Potential Gaming Subscription Service Have What it Takes to Compete with Game Pass?”

More and more rumors and speculation keep coming forth so we would advise our readers to keep checking back to learn of any new developments if and when they come out.

LeRon’s opinion: Sony has been aware for quite some time now that PlayStation Now is not truly delivering on the expectations of gamers and subscribers. The service, more than seven years old now, has been plagued with problems ranging from latency to stability and a sizeable base of Sony’s users consider the service a joke.

The idea that the rumored rebrand service with three tiers boasting so many new features and being a total departure of both PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now has raised eyebrows since last December. While I am excited about the idea of having access to the older generations of PlayStation games ready for play on my PS5, I have to take the “wait and see” stance because Sony has been extremely quiet on this since Jason Schreier blew the lid off of things. I won’t get too excited about the rumors until Sony makes a statement that actually confirms what Schreier, and most recently, Jeff Grubb from Venturebeat have been saying.

What do you think of Sony’s sudden pulling of titles from PlayStation Now? Are you excited at the prospect of Sony rebranding its subscription services into something that can rival Xbox Game Pass?
Let us know in our Discord or Facebook group!

Source: Push Square, Giant Bomb

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