Sony has done such a poor job fleshing out the details of its new PS Plus tiers that this shouldn’t really be a headline, but we suppose it’s worth pointing out. With the new service set to launch on 23rd May in parts of Asia, the platform holder is beginning to send emails to some of its customers overseas. Filipino website One More Game shared said correspondence, which does include some new information.
For starters, as expected, if you’re already an existing PS Plus subscriber, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll automatically transition to PS Plus Essential – an “equivalent subscription plan”, the organisation describes it – and your stacked subscription period will persist unchanged. You’ll continue to enjoy “the same benefits”, and there’ll be no changes to price or payment dates. Things will simply continue as normal.
However, you will have the option to upgrade to PS Plus Extra or PS Plus Premium at any time. “To do so, you’ll need to pay the difference between your current plan and your new plan, adjusted for the remaining time of your subscription,” the email explains. In other words, if you have six months PS Plus service left, then you’ll be able to upgrade to one of the higher tiers for the remainder of your plan by paying the difference.
It’s unclear whether those who’ve stacked their subscription for years will potentially have to pay for multiple years all at once, but the wording from Sony certainly implies as much. Of course, there’s still loads the company needs to clarify here, including the actual game lineup – and whether retro titles, like PS1 Classics, will include any quality of life updates. With the service coming soon, it can’t keep this information secret for much longer.
[source onemoregame.ph]
Comments 66
Good to know. I have two years left. Will have to see what’s included before deciding when to switch.
Question : let's say I have 15 month left on my PS+ subscription. I want to try PS+ Extra or Premium for one month.
Can I upgrade for 1 month by paying the Essentials to Extra/Premium difference for just 1 month?
Or do I have to upgrade for 15 month by paying the whole difference?
If so, do I have the option to pay a full priced PS+ Extra/Premium subscription for 1 month?
@Olmaz We don't know yet, unfortunately. Judging by that email, it looks like you'd probably have to pay 15 months.
What are the games gonna be for ps1 & ps2 I have good Internet but streaming games is abysmal. The quality is so bad. I'll sign up if there's decent games to download
Wasn't really planning to upgrade my sub but if the list of games is good then I might do it.
FINALLY! These are some details that I was both hoping and waiting for.
I am waiting for details on classic games but I'm scared it might be a huge flop in that regard. Still, fingers crossed it will be good!
Probably be basically what's on ps now, along with throwing you a few bones already stated such as Returnal and the PS4 versions of Miles Morales and Death Stranding.
Kerching, suckers!
I’m glad I bought a year of PSNow right in time for the mysterious service, just in case, to save some money. Jeez, I hope the service improves. I’m hoping the PS1 and 2 games are entertaining enough to make me want to continue with it. If I don’t like the service, I’m dropping off of PS+ altogether when the sub runs out. I already do Gamepass on a sometimes I do it, sometimes I don’t plan.
I honestly would love if there was a lower tier that only included cloud saves. Never played any PSN+ games, and I never play online other than FFXIV (that does not requrie PSN+) so I just feel i overpay for cloud saves.
Excellent. I just resubscribed to ps+ and thought I was going to get shafted and be forced to pay full price for letting my PS Now subscription lapse before I could renew.
@get2sammyb
I wanted to share something interesting with you. My buddy doesn’t follow games as closely as I do and he asked me when is GoW2 releasing. I told him it doesn’t have a release date but is expected later this year. Though I expect it early next year. Which led me to saying, ya know, I don’t think there is a release date for any upcoming first part Sony title. I then browsed GameStop’s PS4&5 upcoming release dates. What’s freaking crazy, is there are very few release dates for big games in general, and NONE for Sony first party titles.
I may be slightly misremembering, but Saints Row has an August date, and Forspoken has an October date, and that’s it. We know other game are supposedly releasing in the fall like Hogwarts and Gotham Knights, but they don’t have release dates. It’s just weird, we are almost in May and very few big titles have release dates.
Careful what you wish for. Sony are clearly incapable of providing a realistic alternative to game pass. The whole thing is a mess. Making people pay the entire difference if they want to try upgrading for a month is ridiculous? Existing subscribers to plus should’ve been given the mid tier as a good will gesture. Ps now subscribers should be refunded their remaining subscription cost. Typical Sony shrouding everything in secrecy causing unrest on the internet. They seem to be incapable of positive press at the moment. Even Nintendo seem to be better at this.
In the current form of PS plus I usually tend to renew on or around black Friday as this tends to be the cheapest time to do it (more often than not). Usually pay around £28 for a years subscription.
Obviously with the new extra / premium options that will change and become more expensive
I do also have an Xbox series X and I find that sometimes I can go 5-6 weeks without even switching my ps5 on as I'll be playing on Xbox and then it may be the other way round. For example I haven't used the Xbox since Gran Turismo released.
Point I'm making is that with game pass on the Xbox I don't tend to subscribe ALL the time, I only pay month by month when I know I'm going to use it.
I may have to adopt a simelar approach with Ps plus. I'll just pay each month for either PS plus or Game Pass depending on whichever one I'm planning to play.
I'm happy to go premium for the PS1 / ps2 games but once the novelty wares off I probably won't play them so paying for premium every single month would just be a waste of money
Edit: the good thing with Xbox game pass is that if you haven't used it for a while they usually have offers on where you can renew for a month and it only costs £1, as long as you remember to turn off auto renewal before the end of that month it cost you next to nothing.
I doubt it will happen but will be nice if Sony have simelar insensitives
" You’ll continue to enjoy “the same benefits"
Except you wont since they wont add a monthly PS5 Game anymore lol
@IonMagi
Of course we’ll keep getting a PS5 game. Why do you think they’d stop giving us the bonus game on top of the two standard ones? That would be somewhat counter productive when they are looking to promote this service.
@stu123 They aren't yours to own. Just like any other service (i.e. Netflix or GP) if the games are removed from the catalog they won't run. On GP you get a "You don't own this" message if you try to run a game after it leaves the GP catalog. I don't know why it would be any different from PS+ Extra/Premium. It is not like Sony is paying the game publisher any more when it leaves the catalog. So that means Sony doesn't have the right to just hand it to you for free use after the fact.
Not interested at all in either the Extra or Premium service at all so I will keep finding 'cheaper' codes for the 'essential' as it is essential to be able to play ALL the content that I have already paid for, but locked behind another paywall.
I see absolutely NO value in Extra and even less value for the antiquated and extremely dated gaming options the Premium service adds. I probably already own 'every' PS4/5 game I wanted to play - which was evident with the PS+ Collection offering me 'nothing' I either didn't have or want. By the time any 'newer' games come to Subscription, I'll have probably picked up the game on Ebay or in some sale as I refuse to pay £70 for a game!
@IonMagi Currently, they do NOT offer a new PS5 game 'every' month. Most, if not all the PS5 games offered so far have been 'available' to claim for 2 -3 months - Bugsnax (I think) was up for 3months.
Officially, the 'current' PS+ is offering you the SAME benefits. However, Sony has been pretty consistently offering more by way of PS5 and/or VR games on top of the '2 games a month' but they are 'bonus' games on top of the '2 games a month' they promise to give as part of PS+ - hence they may stay on PS+ for 2-3 months whilst they swap out the 2 PS4 games a month as promised. They haven't updated the PS+ since they stopped giving PS3 games so the 'minimum' is still 2 games a month...
@stu123 @stu123 @Scob I think Sony will be fairly aggressive in the beginning. You will see Ratchet for sure. Probably the recent Uncharted Legacy of Thieves. Maybe even some very recent third-party. As for PS5 games I would think Sony won't be that idiotic not to give you the PS5 version. If suspect if there is PS5 version of a game you will get that version if running a PS5. That Morales version, for example, would be the PS5 update version not the PS4 version if you on a PS5. I mean if Sony just was giving you PS4 versions of games I can't imagine how bad that would go over. It would be a Shitzu storm.
I'm still amazed that this kind of thing actually works on people. It's all so messy and confusing, all this has done is push me further away from buying in to the subscription model. I've got the + sub sorted for the rest of this gen after buying multiple years in a sale, mainly to make the annoyance of paying to play the games I've already paid for online go away. But after that I'm out, with ads creeping in too now, which will probably end up in all games eventually, let's face it, I think it'll be time to move over to retro + pc after PS5.
@stu123 Different system. Sony pays the publishers differently. And more times than not they a fairly old game. Does Sony let you play those games when you stop paying for PS+? Nope. Sony wants its pound of flesh to make back the cost of paying for those games you can download from PS+. Just like publishers in PS+ Extra/Premium want their pound of flesh from Sony for letting Sony allow you to play the games.
Wooo playstation now 2.0, get bent sony.
@gomersoul what a terrible idea to cancel all the PS Now subs instead giving those gamers the functionality they paid for--which is only available on the premium tier--which is what Sony is doing.
You sound jealous that you have PS+ because PS Now users get a better deal.
@Tharsman i do find it surprising that cloud saves are still locked behind a paywall in this day and age
@Milktastrophe nobody gets a good deal here. I gave up subscribing to ps plus 3 years ago. I’m an older gamer who doesn’t care for multiplayer games with 12 year olds making death threats and wishes of cancer. Why pay to be part of that poison? I’m not jealous I’m just sad because the best is over. This is just another cherry on top from Sony, thanks for trolling me though ✌️
@gomersoul I have PS now, and happy with upgrading to premium. Why you speak for others if you dont have any subscription. PS now sub was reduced to 45$ a year and now offered to upgrade to premium. What did i lose?
Does anyone else wonder how far does this rabbit hole go?
@thefourfoldroot Well they at least will only give 2 Games per month so its not the same after all for the same monthly price lol. They stated so in the Blogpost when they announced the Service.
@mrbone Your soul.
I'll be subscribed to PS+ for another 6 months or so when the new version launches, so I'll probably upgrade to Premium for that period and see how much I use the features of each tier - if not much, I'll go with a lower one afterwards.
i will just subscribe when theres and offer on or there's specifically something i want to play available
@IonMagi Thing is, the current PS Plus service also officially offers 2 games per month, except it's actually 3 or 4.
@Voltan Nope, since PS5 launched they upped it to at least 3 per month so this issnt the case of a rare "Bonus Game". Now they are Back to 2 because of their greed and to make people sub to the Premium Tier. I remember when we had 4 Games each month when the PS4 launched lol.
@IonMagi
There is literally no change compared to their description of plus. You are reaching.
@IonMagi
The official wording is still 24 monthly games per year. Just saying.
Of course this means they could limit it to the actual 2 per month at any time but that remains to be seen. Officially there's literally no change to the benefits of the base tier.
If this list is one million times better than the PS1 mini I'm in
I'm prolly gonna upgrade to extra for the rest of my year subscription then. Seeing I haven't bought or played games like death stranding and returnal, since I'm usually not into those kind of games, I can try them to see if I like them enough to buy them.
I still don't see an answer to the question of 'What will happen to people that have both PS Plus & Now subscriptions?' And there are hundreds of thousands in this situation...
Will be interesting to see what new games get added each month to the Essential tier. As it stands now it's more of a re-branding of Now and Plus.
@gomersoul thanks for the correction. You're not just jealous, you're sad that you don't understand what these services are offering.
@gomersoul
Really don’t see how anyone can lose out. I don’t play online or use cloud saves, but I Was given around 40 games with plus last year, paid £35. Sure, if you’re all up to date and only play new releases it’s not for you, but that has always been the case.
Are you mad that plus owners are only getting exactly what they paid for? I understand the desire to have free upgrades like Now owners (who got upgraded to a service that also included the Plus benefits as well as retaining their Now service plus more…), but I’d never feel entitled to it. Is that really how you feel?
@Voltan Doesnt change the fact that since the PS5 launched they gave away 36+ Games a year and now they reduced it again for the reasons I named
@thefourfoldroot Doesnt change the fact that since the PS5 launched they gave away 36+ Games a year and now they reduced it again to 12 when the new Service is launching for the reasons I named (aka GREED)
It amazes me how terrible Sony has been at communication for this service how hard it is to give out simple info like this
Much as I like PlayStation it is hard right now to feel positive about them when they keep making a bad image of themselves with the most basic things
The worst part about all this has been Sonys coms throughout ,making people second guess about stacking subs etc. I genuinely only use my Ps5 for the exclusives which I am happy to buy. For all the other 3rd party stuff gamepass pretty much has be covered. I'll be happy to let my ps plus expire now I think.
@IonMagi
I’m thinking you must be a troll now. How many people have to tell you that the number of games haven’t been reduced before you stop spouting nonsense?
@thefourfoldroot They literally stated in the Blogpost that PS+ Members will only get 2 Games a month with the new Service. Not sure if you have dyscalculia but thats clearly less than the 3 they give out atm. And they already reduced the monthly Games once before...from 4 to 2 after they took away the Vita and PS3 Game lol
@thefourfoldroot he is a troll. On previous threads he tried to claim there's already PS1/PSP games on PS4, thus the classic games perk wouldn't actually be adding any new games. He's also tried to claim that the games won't be updating monthly with the new PS+. There's no basis in reality for some of this guy's claims.
They should do what Xbox did and let people upgrade their remaining subscription for $1.00 to try it. Since then I've bought 3 years of GamePass.
@IonMagi
Again (and you were already provided with a screenshot showing this by another user) the terms and promises for the newly named sub are exactly the same as the current PS+ No need for you to go inventing so called changes or reductions. It even uses the word “same”.
Sony have only ever dropped old platforms from the service such as VITA and PS3. They added PS4 games from day of release and throughout it’s life, and added PS5 games from release also.
I’m going to stop engaging with you now because I’ve already had it confirmed by others that you are a troll. Ignorance I can work with, but stupidity or trolling is another matter.
@thefourfoldroot This is literally Sony, the most consumer unfriendly Game Publisher on earth who even want 10€ to Upgrade to a PS5 Version. They will cut the monthly Games and the quality will also go down even more, mark my words )
The Blog Post Part btw:
"PlayStation Plus Essential
Benefits
Provides the same benefits that PlayStation Plus members are getting today, such as:
Two monthly downloadable games"
@BAMozzy I'm with you on that- I barely have time enough to play all the ps4 games I've got stored on my hard drive, let alone ps5 games that I've put on the back-burner (cyberpunk, for example). Why or how I'm then supposed to forgo all the modern day advantages of current gen to enjoy a ps1 game with no camera control features and dated graphics, just doesn't seem worth it.
@J2theEzzo I think a lot of this is FOMO isn't it? Even those who are interested in this probably have plenty of unfinished and unplayed stuff on their backlogs.
And yet they still want to hand Sony more money in order to have..AN EVEN BIGGER BACKLOG. 🤣🤣🤣
Human nature is funny!
Eh. I mean, I stacked up enough money since the subscription's prices were rumoured taking full risk of it not being enough but yeah. I wasn't worried they would force us to pay full price but they needed to provide more info regardless. Anyways, I hope that they can make so I can add like 1 year on my current subscription, not upgrade, but just add one above with the risk of it not adding up to a total of 2 years as I consider it more value to like pay full price and have my subscription till June 2023 instead of paying a little less just for my subscription to end on January and then pay full price again just to add 1 year.
I have three years or so of now stacked. What happens to my plus? I get a refund or I’m stung coz I got both?
I just need to see the line up of PS4 and PS5 games they’ll add to Tier 2. I won’t get Tier III. I just don’t have the time for most retro games.
I wouldn't have time to play all the games they have on offer on their higher tiers, let alone the games I play that I've brought without the rental service, it would be a total waste of money for me
@IonMagi Yeah they will not offer anything. With people dumping "non essential entertainment subs" like Netflix and anything with a "+" at the end of it, this just seems to be a set up for rogue epic failure. I really have no interest in paying extra just to play some old games where I can go "my childhood was soo great!" Time travel just hasn't been effective in the grand scheme of things. I think the service is gonna be highly suspect, and not live up to the hype. If they REALLY had something to brag about they would have done so less than 3 weeks before its supposed to be opening in some global markets..
@Scob we live in a world of "more is better", so people having more stuff it just pretty stupid. I totally agree....
@BAMozzy I totally agree with you on this!
I just don't understand why they are drip-feeding answers to the most simple questions people want to know.
Have one long PS Blog post and be done with it. Christ their PR needs a kick up the jacksie
@BAMozzy "Currently, they do NOT offer a new PS5 game 'every' month."
Sorry that's just wrong. In the 18 months since the PS5 released they have added a new PS5 game EVERY single month, and in a few months it's been more than one making a total of 21 PS5 games over 18 months.
Yes it's true Bugsnax was available for a couple of months but that didn't stopped them releasing a PS5 game every month on top of the 2+ PS4 games. Sometimes it's more.
Source: PS Fandom: List of PS+ games (PAL)
@Voltan @thefourfoldroot I can understand what you mean because Sony's official wording is that there are just 24 games a year and the PS5 ones, and any others, are just 'bonus' games. But that doesn't change the fact that if they reduce it to 'only' 2 then we are losing out compared to what we get right now. It's been minimum 3 for over a year and a half and a lot more than 24 games for many years now. @IonMagi has a valid point here.
My view is
1) Firstly we don't know what they are going to do
2) People complained when PS+ dropped PS3 games as we got less games, which was true, BUT the quality of the games actually improved imo. If this was the same I wouldn't mind at all having 'just' two better games.
However my concern is that standard PS+ is going to get worse quality games now they have higher tiers to tempt and satisfy. Games with Gold is truly awful every month now that Game Pass exists. I truly hope it won't be the same.
@themightyant Yeah, but that's an IF. There is no change to the official wording about the monthly games so saying that "Sony made it clear that they will reduce the number of monthly games" is not accurate.
It's technically speculation both ways at this point but since they did say there would be no change to the base tier's benefits, I think it's more likely that they won't (not anytime soon anyway).
Ultimately we'll just have to wait and see.
@Voltan Agreed will have to wait & see, that was why I put it as my #1
Sony's PR handing of this change has been pretty shambolic. One long Q&A PS blog post explaining all the minutiae would answer all our questions. As it stands it's too soon to tell.
All that matters is my 5 years of PS Now properly converting over to 5 years of PS+ premium...
This seemed like an obvious article to the obvious. Anything else would have been ridiculous.
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