New Playstation Plus Service Launching this Year

With the rampant success of Xbox’s game pass, it’s no surprise that Sony would want to get in on the action. There have been rumors from industry veterans of Sony’s leap into this sector for months now- and last week, they confirmed the service to launch in the first half of 2022. Of course, it is still possible to retain the original Playstation Plus which allows subscribers to play online and receive two free games per month for £6.99 a month. However, this new model adds two new extra options: Plus Extra and Plus Premium.

Plus Extra allows subscribers to access over 400 PS4 and PS5 games, which are all fully downloadable. This seems like a hefty upgrade from Xbox’s 100 or so games, but it remains to be seen whether the quality of these titles is really all that good. The final tier is much more exciting, however. Plus Premium is £13.49 monthly (a slight £1.50 increase from game pass) but offers PS1, PS2, PS3 as well as PS4 and PS5 games to choose from. Again, which games they pick for this remains to be seen but it certainly has a lot of potentials.

The one caveat is that PS3 games will remain to be streamed through the cloud- which has been the case through PS Now for years. The issue with this is with a poor internet connection, there is simply no way for players to properly play their favorites. The blog also mentioned that countries that do not support cloud gaming will receive a price drop and not be able to play PS3 games- which is surely a blow for a substantial amount of gamers. Either way, the quality and success of the service is anybody’s guess as it is right now, but there is undoubtedly a lot of potentials.

More details on the services (such as pricing and features) can be found below:

PlayStation Plus Essential

Benefits

• Provides the same benefits that PlayStation Plus members are getting today, such as:

  • Two monthly downloadable games

  • Exclusive discounts

  • Cloud storage for saved games

  • Online multiplayer access

• There are no changes for existing PlayStation Plus members in this tier.
  

Price* for PlayStation Plus Essential remains the same as the current price for PlayStation Plus.

• United Kingdom

  • £6.99 monthly / £19.99 quarterly / £49.99 yearly

PlayStation Plus Extra

Benefits

• Provides all the benefits from the Essential tier

• Adds a catalog of up to 400* of the most enjoyable PS4 and PS5 games – including blockbuster hits from our PlayStation Studios catalog and third-party partners. Games in the Extra tier are downloadable for play.

Price

• United Kingdom

  • £10.99 monthly / £31.99 quarterly / £83.99 yearly

PlayStation Plus Premium

Benefits

• Provides all the benefits from Essential and Extra tiers

• Adds up to 340* additional games, including:

  • PS3 games available via cloud streaming

  • A catalog of beloved classic games available in both streaming and download options from the original PlayStation, PS2 and PSP generations

• Offers cloud streaming access for original PlayStation, PS2, PSP and PS4 games offered in the Extra and Premium tiers in markets** where PlayStation Now is currently available. Customers can stream games using PS4 and PS5 consoles, and PC.***

• Time-limited game trials will also be offered in this tier, so customers can try select games before they buy.

Price

• United Kingdom

  • £13.49 monthly / £39.99 quarterly / £99.99 yearly