This week, Sony announced the new formula for its PlayStation Plus. The service is evolving in order to provide players with an offer that is more suited to the market and more complete. However, it lacks a flagship feature: the ability to play on a smartphone.
It was once called the “Spartacus Project”. The new PlayStation Plus formula was finally unveiled this week and it brings a lot of changes. While many see this redesign as Sony’s response to Microsoft’s Xbox GamePass, it still offers something different. For example, a long-awaited flagship feature is missing.
This offer allows you to play in streaming, but is not available on Android and iOS smartphones. Thus, it will be impossible to play God of War or Gran Turismo 7 on your small terminal. This is a significant lack in the offer, given that it is a strong argument of its main competitor.
Sony offers game streaming, but only on consoles and PC
The new PlayStation Plus formula still allows streaming play, but only under certain conditions. If you subscribe to PlayStation Plus Premium, the most expensive offer, you will be able to enjoy more than 300 PS1, PS2, PS3 and PSP retro games on your PS5 and PC, all via the cloud.
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However, Sony does not offer compatibility with smartphones or tablets. For the moment, the thing does not seem planned and it would be dangerous for Sony to review its copy in the short term. In effect, the PS5 console is at the center of its ecosystem, which is not the case with the Xbox Series X for Microsoft. The Redmond firm indeed centers its offer on the Game Pass. It doesn’t matter if you’re on console, smartphone or PC, the important thing is to be a subscriber. It is thus possible to enjoy the Xbox catalog everywhere, whether it is the latest hit or an old game from the first console.
So what could pass as a weakness of the new PlayStation Plus actually seems like a viable strategy. The service is not designed to be the Alpha and Omega of gaming at Sony, but rather a complement to the console. As a reminder, here are the offers announced by the Japanese firm:
PlayStation Plus Essential: With this offer, you will access the benefits you already have with the current PS Plus, namely two free games per month, exclusive discounts, cloud storage and access to online multiplayer.
PlayStation Plus Extra: here we find all the advantages of the 1st formula, with the difference that you can enjoy 400 PS4 and PS5 games from the PlayStation Studios catalog and third-party partner studios
PlayStation Plus Premium : via this most expensive offer, you will have access to all the advantages of the two previous offers. It will be necessary to add to that 340 additional games among PS3 titles streaming via the cloud as well as great classics PlayStation, PS2 and PSP. Players will also be able to test in preview and for a limited time new games to come.
