Starting January 21, U.K. retailers must pull all their PlayStation Now cards from physical and digital shelves. The news came from a Venture Beat article that uncovered a message sent to every Game store in the U.K. The message in question was from Game leadership and can be read below.
“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.”
PS Now is a cloud-based streaming service that holds a collection of PS4, PS3, PS2, and PC games, with more added every month. It enables gamers to play older generation titles on their PS5 or play PlayStation exclusives on their PC. The service is one of many offerings for PlayStation players, but it is separate from PlayStation Plus, another service that grants online access and free games every month.
The intentions for removing PS Now from retailers are unknown, but it may be related to a recent leak reported by Bloomberg news. A rumored Sony project, titled Project Spartacus, looks to combine PlayStation Now and PlayStation Plus to make a competitor for Xbox Game Pass. Spartacus would have three tiers of content, each with increased rates. The first tier would have the current PlayStation Plus offerings, while the second tier would add a catalog of PS4 and PS5 games. The final tier would include games from every other PlayStation generation as well as extended demos and game streaming.
Though the project Spartacus is not official, a phasing out of
PlayStation Now seems to point to its authenticity. Furthermore, David Jaffe, the creator of God of War and Twisted Metal, said Sony was working on a “counter strategy” for Xbox Game Pass last year.
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