PS Plus price increase is not going down well

Sony is massively upping the price of yearly subscriptions
PS Plus price increase is not going down well
PS Plus price increase is not going down well /

Sony has announced that 12-month subscriptions to PS Plus will become more expensive starting on September 6, 2023. These price hikes affect all subscription tiers of the service. Current subscribers won’t feel the impact of this until their next renewal is due, but any change made to your membership after September 6 – be it an upgrade, downgrade, or buying more time – will bring the new price into effect.

Here are the new PS Plus 12-month subscription prices:

  • PlayStation Plus Essential
    • 79.99 USD | 71.99 Euro | 59.99 GBP | 6,800 Yen
  • PlayStation Plus Extra
    • 134.99 USD | 125.99 Euro | 99.99 GBP | 11,700 Yen
  • PlayStation Plus Premium
    • 159.99 USD | 151.99 Euro | 119.99 GBP | 13,900 Yen

It didn’t help public opinion that this announcement came with one of the worst months of PS Plus in recent memory when it comes to the ‘free’ games delivered with the service: September has Saints Row, Black Desert – Traveler Edition, and Generation Zero in store for members, which isn’t exactly a dream line-up. Sony, though, justified the increase with the “high-quality games” it delivers with the service. Not the greatest timing for that one. There is no word on any improvements or new features coming to PS Plus with the price increase, so users are expected to pay more for no added benefits at all.

Text and logo of PlayStation Plus.
PS Plus is looking like a worse and worse deal / Sony

People are understandably angry about this price change: This hike far outstrips anything one could call reasonable even when accounting for the high inflation. It’s all the more audacious since PS Plus is needed for even basic gaming functionality like online play or cloud saves for many titles – things you get completely for free on PC.

Users also point out that PS Plus is very much lacking in benefits compared to something like Xbox Game Pass, making them question the value of their subscription even more now. While Game Pass recently increased the price of some of its membership plans, those price hikes went nowhere near the magnitude of over 30% like the PS Plus price increase. Between the big three subscription services – PS Plus, Xbox Game Pass, and Nintendo Switch Online – Sony’s offer is looking worse and worse.

It’s always been incomprehensible to many PC gamers why console gamers were alright with paying extra for even basic functionality and now PS4 and PS5 owners may get another reason for rethinking their purchasing decisions.


Published
Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg