Sony has reportedly told UK retailers they can no longer sell PlayStation Now cards – which can be used to purchase fixed subscription periods for the company’s games streaming and download service – in stores from 21st January, amid persistent claims it’s readying to launch an expanded version of PlayStation Plus.
That’s according to a new report by VentureBeat’s Jeff Grub, who shares a recent email circulated to store staff by senior management at UK retailer Game as an example of the move. “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”, the message reads.
Although no reason for the removal of the cards is provided in the shared portion of the email, the move follows reports that Sony is preparing to ditch PlayStation Now – which enables members to stream and download recent and older titles from the PlayStation catalogue – in favour of a much-expanded version of its more popular PlayStation Plus service.
Currently, a Plus subscription is required to play the majority of online games on PlayStation, and members also gain access a small collection of games each month. However, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reported in December that Sony was seeking to consolidate PlayStation Plus and Now into a single service – code-named Spartacus – starting this spring.