UPDATE, 4/22/21: IGN has additional information on PlayStation Plus Video Pass. The service will be launched in Poland on a trial basis, and Sony may later spread the feature to other regions. The trial will run for one year at no additional cost to PS Plus subscribers in Poland.

PlayStation Video Plus offers Polish subscribers access to 21 movies and 6 TV shows. In movies, the following titles will be offered, plus "Baby Driver," "Jumanji: The Next Level," and "Arrival". In television programming, "Community," "Future Man," and "Lost Girl" will be available for streaming.

If Sony decides to expand this feature to other regions, it will be covered in a new article.

ORIGINAL:

PlayStation Plus offers many benefits, including online play, free games, and access to the excellent PS Plus Collection library. At the same time, neither PlayStation Plus nor Sony's streaming service, PlayStation Now, are as comprehensive as Xbox Game Pass, which continues to add more features every day. Still, Sony may have a new idea to make PS Plus a little more competitive: the Sony PlayStation Plus Video Pass, which offers PS Plus subscribers access to Sony's hit movies.

The information comes from gaming news site VideoGamesChronicle, which caught a hastily deleted message on the official PlayStation website this morning (April 21). On the Polish version of Sony's website, the VGC team found the "PlayStation plus Video Pass" logo and three movie posters ("Venom", "Zombieland", and "Bloodshot"): one for "Venom", another for "Zombieland: Double Tap All three films are from Sony Studios.

"A new benefit available on PlayStation Plus for a limited time," it states. PS Plus Video Pass is a trial service valid [from April 21 to April 22]." The subscription benefits are available to PS Plus users in Poland."

Since this list is no longer up and it is already well past April 21, it seems unlikely that this service will debut today. It is also possible that Sony wanted to launch this service today but had to postpone it. It is also possible that these are just placeholder dates and that PS Plus Video Pass will not be offered for some time (if ever).

However, at least the functionality of PS Plus Video Pass seems clear. At least for a limited time, PS Plus Video Pass will be offered as part of a regular PS Plus subscription. With it, one can watch at least a handful of Sony-branded movies. The library's capacity, whether TV shows will also be available, and whether movies will be streamed or downloaded remain a mystery. It is also not known if Sony will offer this service outside of Poland. It is possible that Poland is just a test bed before it is widely released.

The wording of the post also suggests that PS Plus Video Pass may eventually be separated into its own subscription; it is not known how much PS Plus Video Pass will cost or if existing PS Plus subscribers will receive any discounts. There is no word.

In any case, the fact that this information was posted on the official PlayStation website suggests that PS Plus Video Pass is at least something Sony is working on, or was working on at some point.

There is always the possibility that this was a scrapped project and was accidentally uploaded on the scheduled launch date.

In theory, PS Plus Video Pass kills two birds with one stone. First, it would provide Sony subscribers with access to movies after the PlayStation Video store closes in August. Second, it could offer PlayStation Plus subscribers something that Xbox subscriptions do not.

Both Sony and Microsoft offer a variety of online games and game delivery services, but neither has attempted to incorporate video. Perhaps the next "Netflix of gaming" will actually include the content that made Netflix successful in the first place.