Sony’s cloud gaming subscription, PlayStation Now, almost came to mobiles according to some court documents. Sony was planning to make PlayStation Now available for mobiles but it got canceled.
The Epic vs Apple lawsuit revealed some unannounced plans from many companies. It was revealed that Google approached Tencent to buy out Epic, Apple made over $300 million from Fortnite and Epic offered Sony $200 million for PlayStation exclusives. Another document uncovered by The Verge suggests that Sony planned to bring PlayStation Now to mobile devices. According to this document, Apple had insider knowledge about a not-yet-announced of streaming service. It was described as a “mobile extension of an existing streaming service for PlayStation users, streaming access to over 450+ PS3 games to start, with PS4 games to follow.”
The “HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL – ATTORNEY’S EYES ONLY” listed the PlayStation Now as a mobile subscription. It is said Apple brought this issue in the period when Apple was launching Apple Arace, Apple’s game subscription service.
Sony set the plan in motion for some time but for some unknown reason, Sony changed its mind and stopped the project. Maybe Sony wanted to put all its focus on consoles rather than working on cloud gaming.
It is for sure that Sony has abandoned the project to work on a monthly subscription to compete with Xbox Game Pass. Sony is working on a subscription-based service code-named “Spartacus” that will have similar functions to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass.
The internal documents suggest that Spartacus will have three tiers. The first will be base PS Plus access. The second tier will give players access to a large catalog of PlayStation 4 and later PlayStation 5 games. And the third tier subscriber will have access to extended demos and game streaming with a large library that includes PS1, PS2, PS3, and PSP games. Sony didn’t confirm nor deny this rumor.
