Yesterday, Sony PlayStation revealed that it’s raising the price of its PlayStation Plus subscription next month – by a LOT.
The new pricing goes into effect globally starting September 6th and impacts only the ‘annual’ plan and affects the three tiers of the service – Essential jumps from $60 to $80, Extra jumps from $100 to $135, and Premium jumps from $120 to $160.
The change seems to only impact annual subscriptions for the moment – monthly ($10 for Essential, $15 for Extra and $18 for Premium) or quarterly ($25 for Essential, $40 for Extra and $50 for Premium) remain the same for now.
Current annual subscribers won’t be impacted until November 6th, after which the next time you renew you’ll be up for the higher prices. Any changes to your subscription (upgrades, downgrades, etc.) from September 6th will require paying the new rate.
Sony claims the price bump is to “enable us to continue bringing high-quality games and value-added benefits to your PlayStation Plus subscription service.” It says that as the three free monthly games for this month (“Saints Row,” “Black Desert,” “Generation Zero”) were all widely mixed or panned in reviews.
Despite the hikes the service’s annual fees remain less expensive than the equivalent Xbox Game Pass tiers over twelve months – PS Plus Essential is $52 less than standard tier Game Pass, and PS Plus Premium is $44 less than Game Pass Ultimate.
But GamePass has the added value of access to all of its first-party games via Game Pass, including PC access via ‘Ultimate’. They’re also introducing a new Game Pass Core tier (replacing Xbox Live Gold) for $60 per year, which includes multiplayer access and an initial library of 25 games.
Understandably news of the price hikes has drawn ire, especially as it was tucked away in a quiet posting about next month’s games lineup.
A poll run on Push Square suggested as much as 33% of respondees will ditch PS Plus entirely when their subscription lapses. A further 21% intend to drop down a tier.
PlayStation Plus, across all levels, has generally averaged around 50 million active subscribers.
At the same time, the company has announced a November 15th release date for its PlayStation Portal remote-play device, with pre-orders on the official site now live.
Source: Yahoo
