Update: We’ve finally got access to the conversion scheme that Sony’s put in place for active members looking to redeem a pre-paid PS Plus or PS Now voucher they’ve purchased. To reiterate, if you’re already a PS Plus or PS Now member, you won’t be able to redeem this code until 13th June in the US and 22nd June in Europe.
If you don’t currently have an active membership but have purchased a pre-paid voucher you will be able to redeem it any time (and we’d recommend you do, because the conversion will be less valuable after the transition, particularly in the case of PS Now).
Here’s how PS Plus subscriptions will convert:
PS Plus Pre-Paid Voucher | New Subscriber Conversion | PS Plus Essential Conversion | PS Plus Extra Conversion | PS Plus Premium Conversion |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 Month | 31 Days of PS Plus Essential | 31 Days | 20 Days | 17 Days |
3 Months | 92 Days of PS Plus Essential | 92 Days | 58 Days | 46 Days |
12 Months | 365 Days of PS Plus Essential | 365 Days | 219 Days | 183 Days |
And here’s how PS Now memberships will convert:
PS Now Pre-Paid Voucher | New Subscriber Conversion | PS Plus Essential Conversion | PS Plus Extra Conversion | PS Plus Premium Conversion |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 Month | 21 Days of PS Plus Premium | 40 Days | 25 Days | 21 Days |
3 Months | 53 Days of PS Plus Premium | 105 Days | 66 Days | 53 Days |
12 Months | 183 Days of PS Plus Premium | 365 Days | 219 Days | 183 Days |
Just to reiterate, because it’s seriously confusing:
- If you’re an active PS Plus member, you’ll be transitioned to PS Plus Essential for the remainder of your active subscription.
- If you’re an active PS Now member, then you’ll be transitioned to PS Plus Premium for the remainder of your active subscription.
- If you’re an active PS Plus and PS Now member, you’ll be transitioned to PS Plus Premium for the remainder of your longest active subscription.
- If you bought a pre-paid PS Plus or PS Now voucher code, you will not be able to redeem it until 13th June in the US and 22nd June in Europe if you're already an active PS Plus or PS Now member. When you do redeem it, your subscription tier will be extended based on the conversion rates listed above.
- If you bought a pre-paid PS Plus or PS Now voucher code but aren’t currently an active PS Plus or PS Now member, you’ll be able to redeem it at any time. If you don’t redeem it until after 13th June in the US and 22nd June in Europe, it will convert as per the conversion rates for new subscribers listed above.
What a mess!
Original Article: Sony has officially confirmed that it has blocked existing PS Plus subscribers from stacking memberships prior to the release of its new tiers. In a sneaky update to an FAQ, the platform holder added the following language: “If you currently have a PS Plus or PS Now membership, due to changes we are making to the service prior to launch, you won't be able to redeem a voucher code for that service until your existing membership expires and deactivates, or after the new PS Plus service launches in your area, whichever happens first.”
Earlier this week, it emerged that the manufacturer was preventing existing PS Plus subscribers from extending their membership using both the PS Store and pre-paid vouchers. Some assumed this was a technical glitch, but language from the firm’s support departments suggested this was all intentional – despite no prior communication from the company at all. Members of both PS Plus and PS Now will automatically be upgraded to PS Plus Premium for the duration of their longest subscription, and some were attempting to utilise the loophole to extend their membership to the highest tier.
It’s worth reiterating that, despite being a loophole, there had been no prior communication from Sony that PS Plus stacking would be disabled until today.
The company says that it will honour any PS Plus vouchers purchased, but active members will not be able to redeem them until the new service launches. Furthermore, they will be converted to an equivalent value for the tier they’re currently in: “The PS Plus or PS Now voucher you redeem will be converted to a length of time on your current PS Plus membership plan equivalent to the monetary value of the voucher you are redeeming. For example, a 1-month PS Plus voucher will provide access to approximately 3 weeks of PS Plus Extra or approximately 2.5 weeks of PS Plus Premium.”
The website includes a link to a conversion chart but, as of the time of writing, that points to a blank page. Of course, that’s par for the course for this company’s incompetent communication standards, we suppose.
[source playstation.com]
Comments 228
This is a disgrace, to be honest.
This doesn’t really seem lawful. They should have given retailers plenty notice in order to withdraw them from sale, otherwise retailers were selling a useless bit of paper. Updating the T&Cs after the fact is surely not allowed?
Making this official through a terms of service edit is mental. Sony literally changing how its paid service works (even temporarily) and it just neglects to tell anyone. Get it together, Jim!
Strongly considering going back to Ps free and ditching plus completely. This is beyond a joke, its money grabbing plain and simple, gamepass works a lot better.
@ShogunRok @nessisonett Just a minor update here, it's technically an FAQ not official terms and conditions, so I've changed the article to reflect that.
Obviously doesn't change the fact that this is incredibly poor form, and the information was not on the page until about 30 minutes ago.
There's so many potential legal issues with subscription services and it's only a matter of time to be regulated. Issues like auto renewals (some areas this is being regulated), removal of content without warning, and now this no subscription stacking.
It's bizarre that they didn't take people using stacking to get cheap subs into account before it started happening. To then handle it this way instead of putting these things into place when they announced it, I mean it just seems poorly planned out.
@Jayslow The problem for me is that they didn't communicate it. It would still be sh*t but I wouldn't be quite as mad if they'd just said: "Starting 27th April, existing PS Plus members will not be able to stack PS Plus subscriptions until the new service launches in their area."
They can't just disable this stuff and then sneakily update the FAQ to justify it.
I personally think they should honour people who want to stack anyway because, while they will lose some money yes, it's likely to be the most hardcore, engaged fans looking to take advantage of that anyway. Locking those people into the ecosystem isn't a bad thing, even if they do lose a little bit of money.
But all they've done here is erode even more goodwill, at a time when people are already incredibly frustrated with them.
This happens too often to be considered "mishandled" communication. Sony has taken a stance of telling the consumer as little as possible and when compared to Microsoft's approach they are coming across as cold. Every large corporation has the autonomy to really act as they please but PR exists for a reason and Sony are really starting to appear the bad guys in my view.
More and more these days I wonder what tf happened to Sony.
It's like they've sold their soul.
Their house their rules. If you don’t like it then leave otherwise dry your tears and move on 🤷🏻♂️
@UFCfan Nah, come on. Obviously it's their prerogative to do this, but as consumers we can also criticise the way they've handled this.
Like I said previously, this should have been communicated prior to being disabled. If they want to close the loophole, fair enough, I don't agree — but they have to at least tell people they're disabling stacking.
They can't just switch it off and then sneakily update an FAQ three days later. That's unacceptable.
On-brand
Honestly though, letting people get away with this now, would have gave the service a massive boost in subs early on, through out what will no doubt be a rocky start, and give you more time to convince people to stay, ultimately being good for the service in the long term.
But you know, I guess Sony knows they can do whatever and the core audience will pay the money anyway.
Sony need to bring back Kevin Butler to run their comms. Can't be worse than it's been for the last 2 years. How are they continuing to get their PR so badly wrong
Im gonna guess they will fall back on the line all terms contain that says 'SIE retain the right to withdraw, remove or modify this service at any time' (or something like that). Its a bullsh*t term that almost all companies use but normally they are required to provide notice. Saying that though, they have told us its changing and that would probably be their defence.
Absolute **** move for a company that markets itself as for the players.
Stinks of big jim this one.
Luckily I stacked mine a few years ago. It runs out March 2024 for me.
I feel sorry for anyone buying the codees now though.
To summarise:
I thought it was a technical issue and assumed they would let stacking happen so they could say their new service had lots of new subs right off the bat, but in hindsight I guess I can see why they've done this - A lot of money would have been lost here.
I do agree that they should have announced they were doing it on the blog as soon as the decision was made, but as for the decision itself, we tried to game the system and they blocked us (I went looking for codes the other night myself).
Unrelated to this but in the same ball park: As for how Sony communicates, I saw some XBOX fans on another site complain that they have to wait all year for a big show in the summer, and that they would prefer regular State of Play style updates.
I guess none of us can have it all.
@GoodGame I decided I was going to stack PS Plus and now two days ago, and the only reason I didn't do it then was because I only got paid today.
Had I got paid on the 25th like a lot of people, and like I use to, I would have been screwed over.
@get2sammyb Agree communication was poor, agree even more goodwill is being eroded. But I can understand why they are stopping people stacking for 4-5 years at a massively reduced rate. They didn't have to extend Premium tier to the length of the longest sub if you had both PS+ and Now but they have.
If it was me, I would have allowed anyone to sub UP TO an additional year but no more and made that clear in their original messaging.
I can understand it - you could buy 3yrs+ of the basic PS+ subscription and just 1month of PSNow and get 3yrs+ of PS Premium.
That doesn't excuse the way that Sony has handled this and their communication has been 'poor' but its still an understandable and reasonable approach.
I also don't like the idea of having 3yrs of PS+ and, if you want to 'try' PS Extra/Premium for a month, you'll be charged for the full duration of time left on your 'basic' subscription.
I guess that's what you get when you have a System that is 'locked' to Sony and at their 'mercy' as to how they want to run that platform. I can't say I'm surprised by this at all, its not exactly 'pro-consumer' but then they are a 'business' and driven by sales. Communication would have helped massively but its too late now in this instance. I can't say I'm 'happy' with the way Sony are running things at the moment, but because a few games I want to play are ONLY on Playstation, I have to accept their poor communication and pricing structure or miss out on playing the few games I want...
@UFCfan but moving the goalposts sneakily is another thing, they have cost ppl money for no reason other then they did it sneaky,if they have said before they did it yeh fine , especially as they want ppl to use their new service this is bad pr for Thier launch
Removed - unconstructive
@Richnj That was very lucky for you.
@themightyant Agree, what you propose there seems totally fair and I don't think anyone would complain if they'd done that and effectively communicated how it would all work.
Too many people with a valid point to copy in as i agree its a **** move but i kind of saw something like this happening so i'm not at all surprised..
@get2sammyb I mean they just closed a loophole that was being exploited by users for their own gain. Them closing it was expected, by me anyway. As soon as I heard about it I knew it was only a matter of time and I’m surprised it took them this long tbh. As far as the poor communication aspect that’s a non issue to me. I’m actually surprised they didn’t cancel any stacking and issue refunds on what was stacked but I guess they decided to just cop the loss on the chin and move on. Everyone else should do the same
@render To be honest, Sony this gen has been bizarre and has come off as not planning a lot of things out so far. It's still been an enjoyable generation so far with the PS5, but if you take the company into account, it's been a rocky road so far (not taking into account stock issues). My Series X is eyeballing me right now with a smirk on it's face.
They get worse. Scummy *****
Ooof. All I can really say is just oof.
@get2sammyb I think poor communication is the real problem here rather than policy, though that could be better. And it's been an ongoing problem. So frustrating as some of this REALLY isn't that hard. They're tripping over themselves frequently at times.
@Shepherd_Tallon Completely agree. Don't blame them closing an obvious loophole that is getting a lot of traction online. Though it is a little short sighted. One of the goals of these subscriptions services is to soft-lock users into an ecosystem with an ever growing library of games that disappear when they unsubscribe. Locking people in for X more years, thus making it even 'harder' for them to leave as their personal PS+ library grows, seems short sighted. But then I don't get paid the big bucks
@Martsmall I mean users took advantage of the loophole sneakily. More of a touché moment if anything and they can still use them after the new service is launched. Again I see zero issue here. They did what’s in their best interests as everyone does. Life isn’t always fair and you don’t always get notice. S**t happens
Sony seem to be channeling the spirit of E3 2006 lately with a lot of their decisions and marketing communications , it’s really souring me on the brand. I was super excited for this generation and the PS5 in particular, but I now buy most games on the Series X and use my Vitas more than my PS5.
This really isn’t the same Sony that started the PS4 generation and unfortunately I think this poor tone is being set from the top. I’m no longer surprised by their massive PR misteps and I’ve come to expect it. You would think that a company which had managed to get people excited to pay a subscription to play a load of games many of their hardcore fans already own would be counting their blessings but hey ….
@UFCfan I mean we're calling it a "loophole" (and, admittedly, it is) but it's still a "loophole" that Sony seemed fine with being open until they inexplicably disabled subs from being redeemed without any prior notification.
I'm not entirely sure why we're defending a corporation that makes billions every year.
@get2sammyb 'I personally think they should honour people who want to stack anyway because, while they will lose some money yes, it's likely to be the most hardcore, engaged fans looking to take advantage of that anyway.'
Not sure I agree with that point - the most hardcore, engaged fans are the ones who were already likely to have stacked PS+ for years (2028 here) precisely because we're happy to be in PSN for the long term regardless. Not people trying to stack because of an upcoming deal.
And we've been duly rewarded.
@get2sammyb to be fair no matter what they did people would still be crying like chicken little claiming the sky is falling in. And I’m defending them because I love what they do and don’t support people and their “outrage” over something their perfectly entitled to do. Life isn’t fair, stop expecting it to be. Be glad you got what you got. Sorry lol. I just don’t coddle adults upset with things that are so minor. Anyone that does or thinks it’s a big issue good luck to them 😊
@themightyant "They didn't have to extend Premium tier to the length of the longest sub if you had both PS+ and Now but they have."
Yes. This seems to have been lost amongst the anger. Ironic that had Sony been LESS generous and only converted Now, as most expected, they'd probably have received a lot less flak!
@UFCfan Yes, people would be screaming regardless, but there are ways to tackle things like this and they took the worst possible route.
Other posters in this thread have come up with better approaches. If we can come up with better solutions by spitballing on a fansite, then why can't the people who are paid to do exactly that at Sony?
@KilloWertz It does feel like sometimes they've had the beginnings of a plan but failed to consult the relevant people before actually implementing said plan.
At the end of the day from a business point of view it makes total sense why they've stopped people from taking advantage of this loophole as it's a liability on their books. They'd be giving away a service that they are providing for a fraction of the price they believe it's worth and probably accounted for. From a reputation point of view it's a disaster and they'd have been better swallowing their pride and taking a loss for now in order to build some goodwill.
No company is perfect though and even MS has tried to screw their users over by trying to double the price of gold before going back on that decision when there was an outcry. If I actually stopped buying stuff from every company that had burned me over the years I'd actually not be able to buy anything at all 😆
So what exactly does this mean for someone who already has a year of PS Plus and PS Now? I feel like I’m missing something with their explanation. Maybe I’m just a bit slow.
@themightyant Yeah that's the thing I don't get - Surely this was a great way to lock people in for years and years. (There are 100s of games in my PS Plus library already. Why would I ever leave?)
Why not just leave this loophole open so they can say they already have as many subs as, if not more than, Game Pass?
Obviously we're not in the room and don't have all the info, but I can't figure that part out.
Sony are consistently anti consumer. Outside on GT7 and maybe some update from Dreams there is no point playing on the PS5.
I wrote this over on pure Xbox but it's like the roles from last gen, with Microsoft being scummy have been reversed.
@get2sammyb I dunno, probably because other users here wouldn’t be able to create what Sony did in the first place to be in that position to make such a “wrong” call perhaps? Let’s just say I disagree with their assessment and am not interested in hearing anymore on the subject from those users
Lol. Every move Sony make like this justifies what I’ve been saying about them since the launch of the PS5.
I don't get what the problem is and why it's a "disgrace"
Folk are trying to nab the new service for half price if they've got even say, 3 months of Now on their account and attempting to stack loads of ps plus subs on to get the double deal for x amount of years.
When it allows subs to be redeemed back on they're getting what they paid for in the first place rather than trying to game the system.
In my case Sony have been very generous in bumping my 3 year plus and 1 year Now in to 3 years of the full new service.
Nothing anti consumer about that.
People have just tried to game the system when they heard Sony was doing that and are now wrongly getting up in arms because they've been told "no, wait till the new system launches and you'll get what you paid for."
You have to draw a line somewhere.
Just had a look at the Playstation AU site & though it has copied & pasted the majority of the US FAQ,it oddly doesn't answer the question if you have valid PS Plus renewal codes what happens to them after the changeover,or presumably can't "stack" them at present.
Just to clarify,Australia doesn't have PS Now,so there's no reason for Sony to prevent code redemption's here as they "should" automatically convert to Essential in June!
The prices are currently advertised the same,indeed bricks & mortar retailers have had the codes on display all week despite what's been reported online.
The fact they'd stayed silent on the issue & now amending with an incomplete FAQ,(locally),once again feels like a Jim Ryan led cost-saving own goal instead of trying to win some consumer friendly PR.
I honestly don't understand all the fuss. Are you all just a bunch of kids crying because you wanted to have a new expensive service for much cheaper than its actual new price?
People that bought a code to redeem will be able to do so in the future, or they can get a refund.
It's not pretty, but if they gave you notice, you'd have stacked them like crazy right? So the only way is to do it the way they did it.
@stassinari you can't get a refund though. Not on a digital code. According to Shopto where I got mine from.
I had a PS2 back in the day but skipped PS3 generation and didn't get a PS4 until 2015. The difference in Sony between 2015 and now is light and day. The PS4 and Sony felt untouchable at the time. The PS5 and Sony now just seem...different. Not as likeable. Something changed. I'm considering playing the games in my backlog and letting my Plus expire and then doing the whole Xbox and gamepass thing. Sony just seem to be trying to sabotage themselves this generation.
I never stack more than a year or two as you never know when you could die. Car crash tomorrow, cancer in six months, random person stabbing you because they were bored. Best to spend money on short term enjoyment. You can't take 6 years of PS Plus subs with you!
They should have definitely communicated this better and even included a statement in the promotional email they sent out. That would have stopped any of this nonsense and further reduced the dwindling goodwill people have towards Sony these days.
@tomassi that's called rose tinted glasses mate.
The cringey entitlement from this fanbase is unreal. Did you honestly think a loophole where you can turn 3 years of regular Plus into Premium with a 1 month Now code was going to stay open? Your codes are fine and don't have to do anything, just wait until the new service launches or your sub runs out and use them.
Stop bitching and go to Microsoft's side then which is "so better" and be happy with all 2 games they've released in the last year and a half. Imagine being this mad over not being able to stack a god damn video game service.
@stassinari You're absolutely right, of course. Who on earth wouldn't have stacked till kingdom come if Sony gave an official notice period to this? 🤣
Hardcore players happy with PS will be the ones who were likely to be heavily stacked anyway, and it's therefore fair that they are the ones most likely to have benefitted from this.
Outside of bubbles like this, most won't care anyway. Sony sure as heck won't.
I wasn't planning on dropping a dime until I see what games the service actually offers anyway. Plus after thinking some more about it I just don't think these subscription services are for me. I've tried Game Pass but in all honesty I barely play anything on there since generally the games I want to play are not available on there until later if ever anyway besides 1st party games anyway.
The only reason I'd buy any of the higher tier stuff is if I wanted to play a legacy game I have no other way of playing it. Hopefully we will be able to buy the older stuff separately at some point.
@Enigk This, you have people wasting money on 5+ years of service and it's like you don't even know if you'll be gaming still or hell even alive at that point. It's just stupid people and their money.
@themanmilkman That was a PRO-consumer decision, but as you said it's been lost due to poor communication and a short sighted decision. Shot themselves in the foot and now New PS+ begins with some ill-will.
If they did want to prevent stacking they could have sidestepped all this with just a small tweak to the policy. e.g. If they original press release had said something like:
Really not that hard.
No issue at all with this - people were 'taking the Michael'. The communication should have been better, yes, but that's by the by. You'll get your extension, just not now. You've not lost out.
Xbox can afford to do it with Game Pass as they're in a numbers game to get subscribers - you can bet they'll do the same, and raise prices, once those numbers are there. Anyone thinking otherwise is delusional - look at Netflix for evidence of this happening. Microsoft also have the cash to do it, and Game Pass was a last-ditch attempt to rescue the brand (Nadella almost killed Xbox in 2016).
@Enigk not stacking more 'because you might die before you use them' is not very sound logic though!
Do you put money in a pension? Do you save at all? Do you plan ahead for nothing because 'you might die'?
As well as that, there is the more reductive point that if you were to die early (heaven forbid), how long you did or didn't have left on a gaming sub is not going to be a concern.
@solocapers I do agree with this line of thought too.
Communication could have have been better here, but the cries of "anti-consumer" are a little exaggerated.
Sony are not the best at communicating, sure, and I can't figure out why they wouldn't just let the subs to the new service swell by keeping the loophole open, but they are no more or less anti-consumer than the other two.
If anything they've just taken a leaf out of Nintendo's book - Regular updates throughout the year on upcoming games, great first-party titles, but don't expect an abundance of community engagement outside of the Blog, Underground Podcast, PlayStation Access and the individual first party studios doing their own regular streams. (Guerrilla are excellent.)
Remember when Nintendo released the 3DS with no charger to cut costs? Remember how they didn't give a toss about the outrage because we all went out and bought a 3DS anyway? (3DS was fantastic, btw.)
In the PS3 days Sony were struggling and had to invest a fortune reaching out to the community to increase engagement. Now they have an outstanding product, there are established channels of communication and engagement (Blog, Underground, Access, etc) and they just don't need to do more than that right now. Neither do Nintendo.
XBOX are trying to make sure that Game Pass works long term, so they have to be in constant communication with their fan base and they need to present a likeable face. That won't last forever either.
So many consumer protection issues with this, and they're wading into dangerous waters. We'll see if any regulators care, but in the US alone this could lead to FTC enforcement for deceptive or unfair practices, state AG enforcement under similar laws, consumer class actions, etc. It was a loophole that made sense to close, but unless the terms of service specifically prohibited this in the past, you can't make that change retroactive or suddenly render existing purchases null unless you're willing to offer full refunds.
@Husker You're sorted mate, you'll get the top-tier for the duration of your longest current subscription period.
Subscription stacking had been acceptable for a long time, so it's not right to suddenly brush it off as a loophole.
It's a poor move on Sony's part. It wouldn't have been such an issue if they'd just announced this ahead of time.
@tomassi didn't know that, that's pretty bad. Ideally Sony should take care of you, but that's not a guarantee.
@mucc worddddd
@get2sammyb I can see it from both side. I don't blame them from stopping people taking the Mick.
But they definitely should have communicated things better.
It's like they seemed oblivious to stacking.
What's happening with Sony. They just aren't communicating very well if at all. 🤷🏻♂️
@solocapers Agreed. You could pick up 3 months Now for just over £10 recently and 1 year of plus for just under £40. Meaning you could stack 5 years of PS+ Premium for around £210 vs £500 full price. And that's assuming you don't already have PS+ built up.
One of the main points of subscriptions services is to bring in ongoing, recurring revenue, fully understand why they're not allowing this loophole especially after PS Now was accidentally sold through a loophole in the store a few weeks ago. Opened them up to a lot more abuse of this.
Personally I took a gamble when it was and bought 3 years of PS Now (I already had 4 years of PS+). I lost out in that I only needed to buy 3 months, not 3 years, of PS Now to get the same benefit, but I don't mind, it was always a calculated gamble. I'm still much better off compared to paying full price over the next 4 years. You win some you lose some. But I was fairly certain they would close the loopholes later, why wouldn't they?
What troubles me is that no-one at PlayStation HQ spotted the loophole they'd created for themselves. Gamers are great at spotting and exploiting loopholes in rule-sets. So the fact this wasn't spotted tells me that there are worryingly few gamers in PS HQ.
This is how market leaders work. Xbox was in desperate times when they released gamepass, Sony are not. They dont have to make the deal more attractive than it already is, because they are not losing enough (any?) customers to warrant it.
They have sorted their loyal sub customers out. Tough luck for everyone else although at least you'll get what you payed for...
@KilloWertz out of curiosity, does series x currently have any (console) exclusives worth mentioning?
Glad I stacked early on the Now front at £35 for three years. Annoyed I’ve wasted money on any plus for that time as I get nothing extra but I’ll take the cheap stacking I won’t be paying £100 a year after that I doubt same I won’t pay GPU when they make me pay more than £3.40 I pay right now
Yep I was exactly right. I said they would pro rate the cards just like how Microsoft does with live gold cards if you are already a Game pass ultimate subscriber. But what they should have done is what Microsoft does if your not a Ultimate subscriber and let you add 3 years of PS Now and convert it to Plus premium.
@StrickenBiged that's quite the assumption I'd say.
At this point it feels like Sony are actively trying to level the market share out with Microsoft.
@RubyCarbuncle the simping is strong around here.
Oof, that's poor form again, Sony.
@Loftimus I suspect they saw there was a loophole and thought it couldn't be too abused as they had stopped selling PS Now cards worldwide in January and prevented stores from selling them meaning their level of risk was pretty low. The people being most rewarded were those with both an existing PS Now and PS Plus subscription, which seems right and fair.
BUT there was the second loophole on their own store a few weeks ago allowing people to buy PS Now even though it had been taken off sale. I know I took advantage then even though we didn't know the terms of conversion.
Might have led to this as there is little benefit in taking PS+ off sale otherwise, the price remains the same afterwards, the only reason to do it now is to prevent opportunist mass stacking, which is fair enough really.
@themanmilkman actually, you're missing something important. If I buy 30 years of plus and die next year, that money that I spent could have used to buy an AAA game at launch, go to an expensive restaurant, etc.
@get2sammyb It seems perfectly reasonable for Sony to fix a loophole. It's fair enough that they lost out with the people who got in early. I don't understand why people feel so entitled.
I will be converted to November 2028 Plus Premium so im excited but Microsoft technically has 3 subscription services also. Xbox Live Gold(Plus Essentials) GamePass (Plus Extra) and Ultimate(Plus Premium, both of which come with cloud gaming). Downside to Gamepass is it doesn't come with live gold online multiplayer for non free to play games. Only Ultimate does. But Plus Extra does come with Multiplayer. But doesn't come with bran spanking new games but is cheaper if buying 1 year at a time. Overall Ultimate is better but currently it doesn't have many games that interest me. I'm way more stoked for Plus Premium. Now i just wish Sony made a new handheld!
@Resi32 Make your own choices with your money, but don't whine about Sony closing a loophole that people were exploiting. It's their fault that they allowed people to buy cheap subscriptions, but it's fair play for them to close the loophole.
@UFCfan You seem to be the only person on here who's not an entitled gamer! No wonder we are getting free to play junk all the time, people just don't want to pay for anything.
@PlayNation5 Thanks. I appreciate it.
Everyone that cries should blame all players that bought 5-10 years of ps+ trying to get new service cheap.
If they had bought 1-2 year then Sony might not have cared.
And all of you that are saying you leaving Sony, goodbye and we wont miss you but you will miss the best games.
@nessisonett Honest question. How is it unlawful? They're not "useless bits of paper". In a few weeks your 1 year PS+ card will still be able to be used and you will still get 1 year of PS+ if that is the tier you are on. If you are on a higher tier it will be converted at a certain rate, this is usually how these go. (Same with Gold -> Game Pass -> Ultimate).
The only thing they are stopping is deliberate opportunist stacking to take advantage of the change in terms AFTER they have been announced. That seems reasonable doesn't it?
Though I agree communication of it all is woeful.
Even though I expected this, it's not going to go down well. And it's not going to earn them any good will when they're about to launch a service that needs paying customers.
I get why they're doing it but they should honour the codes people have bought until they're pulled from store shelves.
@tomassi You might have a point in general, but this is not the hill to die on. Microsoft are doing much worse things to the industry. All of their "consumer-friendly" initiatives are all about them making a profit. All these corporations are the same. Sony just make better games.
@get2sammyb Sony technically never blocked you from using your cards if your subscription has ended. So they are going to be fine legally. They are only blocking stacking. I was surprised in 2020 when I found Plus for $26 that you could stack them. I came from Xbox where you could only stack 3 years. I was stoked for my new PS5 so i stacked 8 years lol. Sony never needed to allow this. And until you guys started to complain most people never stacked. Blame yourself for not looking out for the best deal you could. I did and I knew $26 was a good price per year for 36 games free to play over the months 3 each month $0.72 per game.
@get2sammyb How much a corporation makes does not have any bearing on whether their actions are moral, it's more that you think that they can afford it.
I highly doubt this move is illegal like some people are saying online. The service the voucher is for no longer exists, Sony could probably even say 'too bad, it's worthless now because it wasn't redeemed while that service existed", but instead they're saying "we're going to honor that voucher for something that doesn't exist by converting it to the monetary equivalent of this new service. You're welcome for not letting your money be flushed down the toilet."
@Apfelschteiner they make billions because of their excellent work yet somehow people are upset they closed a loophole they were taking advantage of for their own financial gain because it wasn’t exactly the way they would have done it? And even if it was done the way they would have they’d just invent a new way they would have done it and be upset at that. People really are the worst
@themcnoisy Sony are evil, Microsoft are angels does seem to be the narrative. It makes me wonder if the gaming press are getting paid to say that. Most of the situations are just reasonable, like asking for more money for a better product that has had extra effort put into it, and actually asking customers to pay the correct price for PS+.
There are other annyoying things that Sony has to fix like have a proper fast resume function that works on all games, not automatically download PS4 versions when a PS4 disc is inserted, and allow the PS5 to link to the TV so the TV automatically turns on when you press the PS button.
@Apfelschteiner I’m with you on this one
Removed - flaming/arguing
@Enigk You can leave your PSN account to someone in your will and the gamble is worth it because you will save over time. I don't care enough to get a discount on PS+ because it is such a cheap service for what you get that I'm happy to pay full price.
@Apfelschteiner Seriously, I love how MS is the "pro consumer" point of the industry now just because they give you their first party games for $15 a month. Meanwhile they're destroying the industry buying up publishers to gatekeep previously multiplatform games forever. Microsoft doesn't even report operating profit for the Xbox division because it LOSES billions per year. This whole streaming first path is going to ruin the industry because it's just not financially viable. Nearly everything is going to be half assed free to play games so money can be made in the back end with a few AAAA games sprinkled in like Elden Ring. With sales being so common I don't understand the insane fad of GP/PsNow. If people think a trillion dollar company is "pro consumer" then you're beyond delusional.
@Apfelschteiner my tv turns on when I press the Ps button on my Ps5 fyi. Samsung Q95T
@get2sammyb
Disgrace? Let me get this straight, so some people tried to take advantage of a service to gain potentially hundreds of dollars worth of service, yet Sony blocking this is disgraceful? I'm not sure what happened to the gaming community, but it's turned into a cesspool of self-entitled people expecting companies to be "pro-consumer". No one owes you people anything. No one has to be pro-you. If you like a product or service, then support it. Otherwise don't. You guys spend so much time whining; it's as almost you forget that people commit their lives working on all these products you consume.
@Milktastrophe the service DOES exist though? PS Plus exists. They are due to give FIFA 22 away on it next week. If I pay for 12 months PS Plus access that's what I expect to get. Surely Sony can't turn round and say, "ahh don't worry about it, we'll give you 8 months of Premium instead"! Well, I paid for 12 months of Plus though, why would I only want 8 months? And why wasn't I told weeks ago that I can't stack memberships anymore? You can't keep all of those cards on stores and then hit the switch so people can't use them. They were purchased in good faith and the codes should be honoured. Simple as that. If Sony wanted to avoid that they should have been recalling these cards from all vendors over the last few weeks so no one can purchase them anymore, and then informed people a week or so ago that stacking is no longer possible as of X date.
@Apfelschteiner it even turns my tv off when I turn my Ps5 off or put it into rest mode
Its brilliant how Sony and MS love swapping places each Gen.
@bugzbunny109 surely all companies should be pro-consumer? Why would you want to use a company that isn't?
Companies do indeed owe us nothing. And we owe them nothing in return. So it's in said companies best interests to treat it's customers well otherwise the customer may just decide to shop elsewhere instead.
@tomassi life isn’t fair is it
@tomassi PS+ only exists for one more month then it's being replaced by a new service. If you don't already have it then you can redeem it. If you do already have it, then there's "no point" to extend the service past the time it'll stop being (ignoring for now the conversion to the new PS+).
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People keep apparently being surprised that PlayStation under Jim Ryan keeps dropping the ball, and wonders what’s going wrong.
The answer’s been staring you in the face this whole time, folks.
@UFCfan Your mindset seems to be consumers are scum and leeches while multi-billion corps are wonderful entedies that are basically doing us a giant favor by taking our money 😐
Well look at it from Sony's point of view.
If they'd had said,
"All playstation owners, you have until 30th April to stack as much PSNow subs as you can to get converted to the new PS+ Premium level membership upgrade for free", (which is effectively what we are talking about) there would be code buying mayhem and Sony would lose out on a lot of money, they are a business not a charity.
I agree it sucks, but if you've been sitting on a load of PS+ / PSNow subscription codes thinking "Hmmm, shall I redeem them today, or shall I wait until tomorrow..." then you really should have redeemed them when you bought them.
I think the most upset people are now the ones who feel they missed out. You snooze, you lose. Such is life.
@Milktastrophe but it does still exist. And online vendors (including Sony at the time I purchased it) were still selling cards for 12 month memberships to it. As I said, Sony could have avoided all of this if they removed all PS Plus memberships from sale from all vendors over the last couple of weeks, and last week put out a statement about no more stacking. They didn't. So they should honour the codes that have been purchased. Simple.
@UFCfan Thanks, I can't work it out. My TV used to link to my PS4, but I think I turned it off and it doesn't work for my PS5.
@Juanalf It's really weird isn't it!
It's the same as working class people who really like the Tories or the Royal family and always defend everything they do. Even though they're taking the p*** out of them essentially.
@Juanalf you don’t know what my mindset is, nor do I care to share it with you
What I don't understand is why was there a loophole in the first place if sony dosent want people to use it 🤷♂️
Not that it matters to me as I wasn't considering upgrading until maybe when I have a ps5 and what games are available on it, but it is rubbish communication from Sony
@Apfelschteiner all good. I only know because I’ve spent many hours scouring YouTube vids for best visual settings, best ps5 settings etc and things of that nature. As with all computers or things controlled by a computer a LOT of settings aren’t clear or well explained or even explained at all lol
@Apfelschteiner "It seems perfectly reasonable for Sony to fix a loophole."
Most here agree that is completely fine and we understand why they must close it, the problem we have is them giving everyone a 15 minute heads up...not even that actually. Just straight up stealth blocking it!
@tomassi they are still honoring the vouchers, though, even if they've changed at what time they can be redeemed.
@Juanalf As other people have said, you give notification, you give people motivation to get in before the loophole is closed.
I did not read all of the comments so this may be a repeat statement. I understand that stacking seems like gaming the system however there seems to be a lawsuit in waiting here. For example, I go to a store and buy a gift for cousin John doe for Christmas the Subscription card that states with this you get one year of said subscription. However when you try and redeem it even a few weeks from now they value will not be for one year. Even if they claim the value you get now is more, it does not state that on the card, unless the fine print on the back has some legal jargon that protects Sony from lawsuits from making changes.Either way quite a big cluster F.
@UFCfan I looked into it again thanks to your comment and got it working. Thanks! One less thing for me to complain about!
@tomassi
"So it's in said companies best interests to treat it's customers well otherwise the customer may just decide to shop elsewhere instead."
You know what else is in their interests? Getting their consumers to pay a fair price of their products representative of the value they bring. If you don't feel like Sony is "treating you well" (I'm not sure what that really means since Sony isn't your friend, or spouse), then go find another company that will.
"Companies do indeed owe us nothing."
I agree, but that's not the prevailing view in the gaming community anymore. Now, being a consumer makes someone special in need of free games, and access to financial loopholes in services.
@mucc I doubt Microsoft would be using their strategy if they are losing that much. However, if you have proof of that I would happily accept it. I do agree that buying up gaming companies is a bad play for consumers. At the very least I would hope they would only lock games for a few years to make the most money on their systems then make money on selling to other systems a few year down the road. For example I would gladly accept Starfield on my PS5 3 to 5 years from release. Microsoft makes money and can say play it here first for a few years. Wishful thinking I'm sure.
Sonys customer relations really are at a barrel scraping low with no signs of improving anytime soon
@Futureshark idk, we're probably not even talking a million people taking advantage of stacking here which makes me question their stance even more but let's just say they gave notice and every user ran out and bought 5 years worth of Now and/or Plus.... that's not losing money. That's making money.
@Enigk ok, that is a bit extreme but I get your point, also only stack 2 years max
Every day Im moving closer and closer to selling my PS5 and getting a PC instead, outside of Returnal none of their 1st party games have interested me this far and stuff like this is just so consumer unfriendly and pretty shocking.
I do believe some people were stacking ridiculously, but thats on Sony. They should perhaps have allowed stacking an extra year of instead of as many as you want as a compromise. But also their communications department needs an overhaul or a kick up the butt cos it really is bottom of the barrel this PS5 gen.
"People are the worst." But corporations (made up of people I reckon) are the best?
A few of the takes in here read like parody accounts.
@bugzbunny109 but I did pay a fair price. The cost of 12 months of Plus is £49.99, and I paid for 12 months of Plus. It's not my problem they ****** up with this loophole. As I've said in another post, they should have stopped any vendor from selling any PS Plus cards a couple of weeks ago and put out an email or notice a week or so ago to state people can't stack anymore.
The fact of the matter is (and I know this will hurt you because you sound like a 'company guy') but the customer holds all the power. Treat them badly (even if company guys like you think it's reasonable because you have your 'company guy' head on) and they will move on. Restaurant keeps serving bad food? It closes. This is no different.
Meh. They closed a loophole. I'll be honest, I was going to try to take advantage of that loophole, but that's the thing - I knew it was taking advantage of a situation, to get more for less than I'd have to pay later.
I was about to try to take advantage of the situation, but luckily I heard early enough that I'd fail. They could have communicated better, but I doubt the majority of their users were caught by this - just those of us trying to take advantage of their timing.
Now, Microsoft went the opposite direction when they started Game Pass, and I bought a two or three year pass at a discount to get a huge discount on that. It's finally expired, and I'm not about to pay full price - and MS doesn't offer annual discounts like Sony does.
Added more info.
@zupertramp
"every user ran out and bought 5 years worth of Now and/or Plus.... that's not losing money. That's making money."
Indeed you are correct, my point is people will be buying 5 PSNow 1 year cards for £50 each, to get a free upgrade to PS+ Premium which is worth £100 each.
Therefore saving the purchaser £250 and costing Sony an equivalent £250 in revenue, Sony would be getting £250 - rather then £500. It knocks the revenue prediction in half.
So yes Sony would still be making money, but not as much as if they remove the stacking.
Money talks and that's the way the cookie crumbles.
But it also turns off when I turn off my PS5, which is annoying! Most of the time I still want the TV on after. Needs more fine tuned settings. Xbox does this perfectly allowing you to choose which actions engages HDMI-CEC.
And you will get exactly that. After the new service begins any cards that are still valid. 12 months = 12 months unless you want to change tier then it becomes less. Which is fair enough.
They will be, they're not going anywhere. In a few weeks you will be able to stack them again. You just can't use them right NOW to abuse the upgrade to PS+ Premium. That's not unreasonable. Is it?
@UFCfan right??! First inflation, then energy and medical problems, now this? Stop being poor people, fcuk. There are REAL problems, like how am I to gas my jet??
@themightyant Pro tip: I counteract that by turning on my Apple TV or pressing channel up or down on the tv remote (if you don’t have Apple TV) immediately after I turn my Ps5 off/put it into rest mode. This change of the inputs means your tv still stays on and your Ps5 still goes into rest mode or turns off (whatever you selected)
@PhhhCough no one loses anything they just don’t get a service which costs more than the one they paid for. Those pre paid memberships will still be redeemable
So much for "for the players" Sony is all about milking it's player base for as much money as possible now.
I've been a Sony fan since the original, but this is legit a disgrace, considering that your competitor with day and date releases on its subscription service allows 1-1 conversion from XBL Gold - and it's been on for years.
@Juanalf no it’s not. He’s saying the way you spend money to engage in a companies service, with integrity or not - the onus is on the consumer and not the company if the said purchase boarders in the grey. Pretty simple.
The consumers upset were trying to take advantage of the company good will by making the offer to start. So by trying to take advantage and getting burned - entitlement leads one to analyze the situation as unfair, or have been deceived or something else petty. We are not looking through a lens of entitlement and saying just desserts. The difference here is that he had it locked up and I tried to use a PS card yesterday and couldn’t. 100% my fault - but I don’t think it’s wasted because I’ll get a few months to try the service and see what happens.
Players need to grow up, and wistfully spend money if it’s disposable.
Needlessly complicated. Poorly communicated. What it is with these companies?
Not even able to just buy a one month sub on Now from the psn store to play some games from the service let alone stack anything.
Just wanted to play one game instead of spending around £25 on it.
@Milktastrophe Speaking from experience, that wouldn't work because virtually every country has consumer protection laws. Setting aside the prospect of regulator enforcement, here in the US, someone could at least attempt a class action for breach of contract. Sony probably has binding arbitration clauses in their terms of service, but even litigating these kinds of claims at the initial level can be incredibly expensive.
It was mentioned somewhere that the vouchers can only be used once the existing subscription expires, but also that vouchers may only be valid for 12 months... in which case they may be worthless by the time some subscriptions run out. Or you could find yourself in a position where you can only use one voucher 6 months from now and the rest expire. That's a problem, and Sony (and/or the vendors that sold the vouchers) need to address it.
@UFCfan Thanks! Will give that a try.
Glad I got in on the PS Now stacking when I did...
I'm usually one to slam corporations, but (unpopular opinion) I feel like Sony giving PS Plus Premium to (PS Plus + PS Now) subscribers even if their current PS Plus expiration date far exceeds their Now subscription, was a bit "generous" of Sony. (Say if your PS Now sub ends in 2 months, but you have 3 years of PS Plus remaining, then you are making out BIG!)
I can't be angry at Sony for it, when it's possible that people are paying for their lowest-level of service, yet receiving their highest-level of service ...
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Thieving *****! Surely this cannot be legal. Cut down memberships like that.
What a ***** show!
@themightyant it totally works. I discovered this myself by accident btw. I was like you somewhat jaded by this somewhat obvious oversight. I mean, like turning a car off and starting it up a million times more than normal over the years that’s gotta add up to extra wear on your tv right?
When an edge case comes up and it’s up to either allowing customers to take advantage of stuff they paid for it [bleeping] them over, always pick [bleeping] them over. It’s the Sony way.
@UFCfan Agreed. Plus my TV has a slight delay between turning off and allowing it to be turned on again, it's not a lot... but it grates. Lol. Hence i've had HDMI-CEC turned off on PS5.
@IronMike Read again. They haven't cut down any memberships.
If you had 1 year on PS+ you still get 1 year of PS+ Essential, which has all the same benefits and cost. If you had a code to get 1 year of PS+ you will still be able to use it to get 1 year of PS+ Essential in a few weeks.
This is ONLY to stop people abusing the system by stacking years right now which will be converted to a higher tier for free if they ALSO have PS Now, no one else is affected.
@RobN buy 12 month gold cheap on cdkeys when Ur game pass runs out ( up to 3 years ) then pay for one month ultimate it will convert it all to ultimate ,up to 3 years very cheap
@themightyant fyi you gotta be quick but not that quick it’s borderline impossible. Just make sure you have your tv/Apple TV remote in your hand so you can immediately press on/channel up or down and you’ll never miss time it as you get like 4-5 seconds to do it by
This is a bit like the ubisoft scandal. Adding games to a sunset server list and then trying to make out it was just maintenance, but selling DLC content during the period that those servers had been switched off, just making that content inaccessible. They too got around this by updating their T&C last minute ie less than 24 hours after their lack of closure notice was first reported. Both of them money grabbing wabnkers
@Futureshark yeah I don't think all those stacking sales would translate into ps premium sales though. As it stands now that money would be theoretical whereas a bunch of people stacking wouldn't be.
A similar analogy is Netflix password sharing where they claim to be loosing x amount from it but the majority probably use a shared password because they'd never purchase it otherwise.
Anyway I really don't think we're taking about that many people running out to stack years of Plus here. I didn't, for example. Nor has any gamer friend that I know personally. I think we're talking a few thousand hardcores which really is a drop in the bucket compared to current subscriber counts. This is Sony penny pinching in the wrong places, which is never a good look imo.
@77dreams
You can use iy when new service is up, dont need to wait until current subscription is up.
If you read article then youvwould know that.
It’s hard to feel sorry for the people who are now blocked from using the loophole. Most of the people stacking their subs in the last month were only doing it to avoid paying for the new premium service. And now they’re outraged because Sony cottoned on and put a stop to it? And somehow Sony are the bad guys? Really? They’re still honouring the purchases and codes will still be valid (after the new service goes live). Only now you’re only getting what you paid for - the subscription equivalent of the old PS Plus. The sense of entitlement is pretty shocking here honestly. Sony should have anticipated this but they didn’t - it doesn’t mean what these stackers have been doing isn’t wrong. If a huge number of subscribers aren’t paying for the new service, who’s to say this won’t affect the quality or quantity of the games in the future? Not saying it will, but less money could very well mean less quality content. And who will be the first to complain when the content isn’t up to snuff? You guessed it…
@themanmilkman You could lose your job and have to sell your console. Jump ship to Xbox (controversial I know). Lose everything in a housefire. Become homeless. Or more optimistically meet the partner of your dreams and want to spend every waking hour with them.
There are a number of reasons why it doesn't make sense to me. Also the cost hasn't really gone up so stacking for years doesn't make sense in that the cost isn't increasing with inflation so the price you paid for 2022 in 2018 is actually more than you would have paid in 2022, in UK anyway. Now this loophole would have been a decent reason to stack a few years due to the savings but it was closed so back to my original point.
If someone wants to do that then that is fine but it doesn't really make much sense.
@Tharsman exactly. and that's the point here i think some are missing... they are stepping in it just to save money on edge cases. Almost 50 million subscribers and they are stressing over what can't be that many people being locked in for a few years at a better price. It's a bit mad.
I've owed every ps console except from a ps5. I've never owed a Xbox until I brought my series X last month. I'm a happy chappy!!
@BritneyfR_ee so if someone stacked 10 years in advance before all this, ostensibly to save money because the cards were on sale, that's totally fine but if people are trying to stack now, ostensibly to also save money that's not fine?
@Juanalf well he is a Dana white fan . Treats his fighters the same way as sony treats it's customers. Sony knew a lot of people would do this and cashed in on it.
@BritneyfR_ee Sony didn't just cotton on. They knew people would do this and they willing took money from them, knowing that they planned to close the loop hole at a convenient time.
They’ll just need to be redeemed in a couple of months right, what’s the big?
If this was asked already, I haven't seen it...
So if I want to upgrade from Essential to Premium, and my Essential plan ends in 18 months, I'd have to pay 18x$8 (US), right?
What if I have 18 months of Premium and want to downgrade to Essential? Will I have my subscription extended by another 12 months or so? Or is there even an option to downgrade?
@zupertramp Yes, this is totally different. It’s a brand new service. The people who stacked before the new service was announced did so under the assumption that the service would remain in its current form. The people stacking now are trying to cheat the system and get a massively upgraded service for the same price as the old one. Sony made a gesture of goodwill for existing subscribers and people are taking advantage of it. It’s not comparable to shopping around for the best deal. People are clearly trying to exploit a loophole that existing subscribers were lucky enough to have in the first place.
Oh what a mess another w for xbox
@BritneyfR_ee stacking years in advance also insulates you from price hikes. Again not seeing how that's different. It's all precisely looking for the best deal. Anyone stacking is doing it for the exact same reason no matter when they are doing it. That's my only point.
If I were any of these people that have a voucher and can't use it because their already an active member. I would just start a dummy account on my console and put those vouchers on that account and make it primary on that console. That way your main account will still get access to those benefits because their on the same console.
@Ken_Kaniff but that might only create a situation where you have two concurrently running premium subs.
@Furious-Fingers Well, as hilarious as it is to visualise Jim Ryan sat in his Volcano lair right now, stroking a white cat - I think we can safely say this wasn’t some grand, evil plan to trick PlayStation users into buying multiple PS Plus subs that can no longer be used to exploit a loophole 😂
I think it makes more sense that they were alerted to masses of people stacking subs and pulled the plug. It’s been advertised everywhere online and has likely reached a point where it’s not financially acceptable for it to be allowed to continue. I don’t know why people are so surprised.
@thefourfoldroot In a nutshell - people are royally cheesed that they can’t exploit a loophole that gives them access to PS Plus Premium for the same price as PS Plus Essential.
Love how a lot of the criers are arguing that this will just upset the hardcore and enthusiasts, because they're apparently the ones who would have stacked.
Wrong, *****. We were already stacked because we're happy with Plus, and are tickety boo as a result.
Its the Johnny-come-lately's, trying to get a pound for a penny, who are wailing.
Please keep crying, that I may feed on your tears (until 2028) and grow in power. 🤣🤣🤣
@Neverwild
I read it. You CAN use a single voucher when your subscription is up, at which time they redeem the voucher at the new, retroactively imposed exchange rate set out in the charts. (Presumably you can't use any of the other vouchers until your newly redeemed subscription expires, a year after that.) But more importantly, if someone bought 3 years of PS Now vouchers a month ago on the expectation they'd get 3 years of service, they're now out of luck, because 1 year of PS Now only converts to 6 months of service. See the issue? That wasn't the deal when those vouchers were purchased.
The other issue, at least according to the third party vendor selling PS Plus and PS Now vouchers, is that pre-paid vouchers apparently expire after 12 months. I don't know for 100% if that's true or if, given the circumstances, perhaps Sony will honor them for longer than that. But if it IS true, that's a problem. Someone who bought 5 years of vouchers might only be able to redeem a single voucher, a year from now, and would only get 6 months of service for it.
Realistically, Sony will probably just handle this with customer service and deal with any complaints as they arise, and it probably all goes away. But there's still a lot of risk here, and trying to retroactively change the terms of sale will not fly if someone wants to press the issue.
EDIT: I see they updated the original article since my original post, and there's now an option to trade in (at least one code, but that's not clear) when the new service launches. Still problematic if the full year of PS Now you bought, in expectation of getting a year of service, is now worth less than a year.
@zupertramp Yea, but atleast you would get the full benefits for your main account for what you've paid for by running it on the dummy account.
@BritneyfR_ee Exacly lol although I have a 1 month Now code and Plus till Nov 2028. Sony hooked me up. I use to be an Xbox guy but got a PS5 in 2020 and bought 8 years of PS Plus for $25.80 a year each.
Incredible how PlayStation has lost its astonishing momentum with bad decision after bad decision.
@themanmilkman honestly gotta wonder about where you are in life that you're on push square acting like Warren Buffett because you saved a few bucks on PlayStation subscription.
Congratulations, you out super-couponed the rest of us. slow clap
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Only Jim Ryan could manage to make Nintendo look transparent and considerate. If somebody told me that Jim Ryan was actually Don Matrick in a disguise, I'd believe them.
To understand the Terms and Conditions of your PlayStation Online Services account, please refer to the following graphic:
[Last Updated: 23s ago]
@FishDude haha good for you - that investment sure has paid off. I wish I had stacked a year or two during Days of Play but I didn’t. I’m not going to cry about it now though. Or stomp my feet. Or pledge allegiance to Xbox 🤣
If people wants to buy more psplus they should do it.its their money and choice.word up son
@naruball I'm assuming cross-gen is ok since most of the games on PS5 are cross-gen as well (not knocking the fact, just saying). Granted they came out roughly in a 6 month window, I'd say Psychonauts 2 (the new gen version is exclusive), Forza Horizon 5, and Halo Infinite all would count. I'm not going to sit here and say that the PS5 doesn't have the deeper group of exclusives even now, but it should be interesting in a year or two when the acquisitions start finally paying off.
@render Yeah, I can't fault them for doing what they've done. It's just how they went about it and how so much of what they've done this gen so far seems to be so unorganized or however you want to say it. Basically, they seem extremely unorganized, which is shocking given how good they were before they had to do anything PS5 related.
Like you said, none of this is the end of the world though. Yes, they continue to add to the list of things they done over the last 2 years that makes them look bad. Is any of it so bad to just pack up my PS5 and go all-in on Xbox? No, as most of it is just giving them a bad reputation but not really doing anything that makes gaming on your PS5 anything but enjoyable (most of the time).
Honestly, I guess I'd gaming with a Switch since they're the only company that hasn't done something that aggravated or even made me outright mad... by default since I haven't had a Nintendo system since the NES. Yeah, it's not all rainbows and unicorns all the time, but I'm still really glad to have a PS5.
Here we have Sony bringing new services to it's community. Giving something that many members are really excited about. Now that they can not buy PS Plus at a CDKey's discount and only one Month a PSNow to gain years of that service are upset??? Maybe SONY should just STOP trying to do good things for this community!
Sony is completely destroying their goodwill with their fans, now I am glad I bought a Xbox. Sony is getting arrogant like the PS3 days and if anything it is worse now.
I am just disappointed in Sony over the past 2yrs with their attitude towards customers. As a loyal PlayStation fan since the PS1 days and I am starting to wonder if I want to continue to support PS.
What!!!💩🤮 so you're saying if i am a ps plus member but ps plus goes on sale during the year...i cant but it??????
LOOK man i just want my ps plus to be stackable so i can buy if theres sale mid year!!!
@KishanHansil you will be able to stack again after the new service starts in June
I think this is a lack of communication from PlayStation Staff or Mr.Jim Ryan to the consumers in the first place they could announce they need to block it at the same time when they announced the 3 PS Plus Tiers.but they didn’t im happy for those lucky ones that has extended their PS Now Subscription that will become PS Plus Premium.
My PS Plus subscription is about to expire next week, while my PS Now currently expires in December 2022. Can I utilize a pre-paid PS Plus subscription for one month?
I said it in the other days thread, but it bears saying again, regardless of the bad communication, regardless of the continued abuse towards their own customers, and regardless of if the business case for closing the loophole at the expense of bad faith actions toward consumers, business partners, and possibly legal exposure can be justified, the headline here is the repeated very very very poor planning from Sony. They caused this problem by very poorly planning the timing and execution of this service. Which is a pattern for the current leadership, always reacting from their back heel on every situation.
It's Sony fault for not setting up restrictions and conditions. They could have only allowed a maximum of three years conversion and confirm a cut-off date. But instead they just deactivated the "loophole" without announcing it first. It's not about Sony closing the loophole, but rather the lack of proper communication is the main reason why people are upset.
Not surprising at all, glad I stacked my subs when I did.
@IronMike what? clearly you skipped to comment instead of actually reading
I'd be annoyed for anyone who's subscription runs out before the switch over.
@OneTrueSaman if you only plan to get the free games for the month of May you should just get it then don’t top up and then wait for the month of June because you already have PS Plus Premium by that time Sony will launch the 3 PS Plus Tiers.but if you are planning to play multiplayer online games for the month of May you should load it up of course but don’t do it on June.like you said you have PS Now until Dec.2022 that will become PS Plus Premium.
@Shepherd_Tallon I would love to know how happy MS is with these 1 dollar subs. Its great if if you have unending funds not so much if you are a company that needs money.
@CieloAzure Sorry goodwill get over yourself mate you wanted to get the best deal no problem dont start acting like you do it because you are so nice.
They should have released a update that all cards bought after a certain date wont stack anymore that would have been better.
@tomassi I think that would be the best course of action.
@Flaming_Kaiser I would give anything to sit in on one of those MS strategy meetings about Game Pass. I used to take them at their word and assumed it was doing really well, but in the last few weeks I've had my doubts.
MS will subsidise it until it pays for itself I'm sure, but you would imagine they are expecting a big return here.
The only thing that frustrates me about Game Pass is, every thing PlayStation does now is compared to it.
This Plus revamp sounds great to me, I'm very excited. But you see people not willing to consider it because it has no Day 1 first party stuff.
@Shepherd_Tallon
Nice take mate, im glad to see there are still enthused games fans not looking to take a political stance on every announcement made. Its sometimes easy to think your the only one when you see the vitrial and over reactions on the net and comment sections like this one. The vast majority of players are simply not bothered.
Bunch of people tried to exploit a loophole for their own gain, loophole gets closed and we're expected to boohoo for them and deride the company for stopping it? It was a perfectly reasonable move, just poorly communicated like many of their decisions.
I remember when gamers used to get together to share their enthusiam love of, and ideas for good games. It seems most get together now to soapbox, derride or simly score a political point for their corp of choice. Shame, gaming is still fun for the vast majority of people who play them, but you would never get that impression reading the net or sites like this. No wander the genral public will skip sites like this. They come looking for a good fun game they can buy and read posturing rage...no wander they wont stay.
@ShogunRok @get2sammyb
Is it a disgrace though?
So fair enough, all I want to hear from these companies is release dates and I don't really need more than that. My bar is very low.
I know lots of fans want the PSX shows and the constant engagement of the PS3 days, but those days are gone and it doesn't look like they'll be back. E3 is dead, and the studios reach us directly now through State of Play, along with their own regular streams and live chats. These are a lot of fun actually.
There's so much to be excited about with PlayStation. I'm still on the PS5 launch hype buzz, and it genuinely feels like the PS1 days again to me. This console is amazing, the controller is unrivalled, there are massive games already here with more on the way and a new service revamp coming in just a few weeks.
Yes, communication might have been better here, but this does not constitute disgraceful behaviour.
As a fan of games who doesn't care how more charming one rich suit is than the other rich suit or how well these companies communicate about the closing of a loophole that many of us were outright trying to exploit, for me times are very good on PlayStation.
I would once again mention that I love this site. There's a lot of misery and outrage in the world right now. This site is one of my sources of temporary escape from all of that.
But please tone back the anger.
@Titntin You know what, I was trying to say exactly this with my last comment, but you did a much better job of it than me.
I just want to talk about how much fun the games are or what feelings of dread or amazement came over me in this new dungeon I've found in Elden Ring.
I understand people want to talk about the corporate stuff, and that's fine. But for me I want to talk about environment design, level design, boss encounters, this is what I'm interested in.
I know we have the forums for that, but these angry comment sections are all most people who come here will see.
Thanks for your comment.
@Titntin @Shepherd_Tallon very well said, both of you. Pushsquare will end up a small group of angry gamers in a bubble that the majority of gamers will either happily ignore or visit once and never return to.
@Titntin @themanmilkman @jrt87 I've had many of these same thoughts lately too.
News delivered with opinion, whether intended or not, tends to create division and toxicity. That's where echo chambers come from.
News delivered as facts and nothing more encourages informed discussion and let's us form our own opinions.
I really do miss trying to catch a new screenshot in a monthly mag. I'll never forget scouring the shelves for Resi 3 and FF VIII updates.
@Apfelschteiner my tv does that with ps4 and ps5 turns on if press ps button
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@get2sammyb @NEStalgia @Brainhacker Agree that the lack of communication & mixed messaging,(sadly a pattern in the Jim Ryan era),& lack of forward planning seems the central issues here.
Even with the conversion table,as a region without PS Now, its still guesswork just how much a 12 month ps plus voucher will "convert" here to the PS Deluxe tier,(which lacks the PS Now streaming but will be priced just under nearly double Essential at $155 my region).
Indeed,the FAQ'S state you'll be able to upgrade tiers at a pro-rata rate after June's roll-out,but doesn't clarify do you need to pay that upgrade up-front before using any unused ps plus vouchers you might have meantime?! The devil is in the detail!🤔
The "reactionary" approach almost feels like an upper management that doesn't use the services/ consoles they're selling to foresee issues like "stacking" restrictions etc.,in the first place!
Communication could definitely have been better. It's an awkward situation to be in though, with Gold you can only stack a maximum of 3 years so the best value for Game Pass Ultimate is 3 years for £150.97. Meanwhile PS+ can be stacked for a maximum of 10 years so you're able to get a much larger discount.
I also wonder if Game Pass loses momentum when it's time to renew stacked subscriptions. GPU did launch in June 2019 so the people who stacked 3 years early on in GPU's lifespan are getting close to renewal time.
@Shepherd_Tallon I really believe that day one stuff is not possible without a monopoly or without additional monetization, liveservice a way that will change games and not in the good way.
A company like Microsoft isnt some company it may be one of the biggest around with unending funds. And we all know what happens if one rules all. Its the same with politics, companies, people there always needs to balance. Even the beloved Nintendo was horrible when they ruled alone, Sony with the PS3 and Xbox after the 360.
As much as i love Sony products games, mobilephones, headphones i would hate to see them be the only ones around.
@Grumblevolcano it's even longer than 10 years - people have posted proof of subs running well beyond even that. Longest I saw was active until 2037.
That's the year I get my state pension for God's sake 😀
Personally I don't really see what the big deal is.
I mean.. was I planning on grabbing a couple of years of PS Plus to extend my sub even further (currently ending Dec 2023) yes..
Obviously I'm not going to do that now, but it's a bit of an exaggeration to imply that anyone has been screwed over. All that's happened is Sony knew full well that their policy for migrating accounts onto the new PS Plus created a nice little loophole, so they've closed it off.
If you bought a few PS Plus 12 month subs in order to stack up, they're still going to convert to £50 worth of value despite the fact that you only paid £40 for them (if you have any sense) - you're just not going to get £100 worth of PS Plus premium for your measly £40
I understand the frustration that this wasn't communicated particularly well, but I struggle to feel that anyone has really lost out here. The only thing anyone has lost is this fictional world where they outsmarted Sony and spotted a loophole that Sony hadn't (and like I say - I believed in that world too, briefly, but I was slow to act on it so I never ended up buying a voucher I couldn't use). It's not like those vouchers are worthless, they're just not worth any more than the value they were meant to actually represent. The cunning plan failed, boo hoo
@mucc
yes and if you say something about it you are a jerk. I said before that there is nothing wrong with this from Sony. If they had announced in advance that this would happen, the problems would only have been greater. But I'm curious when Microsoft will close that loophole. If they have 30 million subscribers? I'm already looking forward to the responses. Pure hypocrisy. If you want to use a service, you pay for it. I will soon have a year of ps premium because I happened to have renewed ps now. Before PS Plus 2.0 was announced
@TommyNL At Resetera you're not even allowed to post one positive thing about Sony related to this - they're banning for it, which is beyond ridiculous! I'm glad there are a few of us with more perspective and able to see the big picture.
I'm benefitting until 2028 which is great and all, but it's not like I've saved thousands or anything. The odds are I would only have upgraded to Extra rather than Premium because I'm not bothered about retro, and maybe even dropped that after a year or so too. So my real savings from this are a lot less than the on paper savings. And that's not even considering sales that Sony are likely to offer on the headline price on BF etc
Yes, the communication was poor, but people trying to railroad everyone on here into believing that Sony is the anti-Christ because they couldn't get the savings (when Sony could easily have not offered the Plus to Premium conversion at all in the first place) need to look at themselves, because imo they're a disgrace. I include the site itself in this.
@TommyNL sometimes the issue isn’t that you do something, it’s the way that you do it. Sony have had really poor communication with their fan base for quite some time now turning off the ability to use psn top ups of all kinds ( which many users reported in Europe) is the nuclear option.
A lot of Sony’s fans have been drawn to their ecosystem not only through their products but also through the way that they protrayed themselves think the Shawn Layton - Shuhei Yoshida how to use lend games instructional video.
The current PlayStation is so far off the boil it’s not even funny and they arguably have a weaker product than their competitor ie: GamePass. Good will is important even for bullion dollar corporations.
@Flaming_Kaiser Yeah I definitely agree. We need a nice balance between multiple companies rather than one dominating all.
I'm sure Game Pass will pay for itself eventually, but there are very few companies in the world right now who could afford to keep pouring money in to that pit. This is why we're seeing all of that community engagement and PR from XBOX over the last few years - They have to keep bringing in the subs.
They had that "Normalise playing 10 games at once" campaign last year. Just thinking about 10 games at once makes me tired 😂
@themanmilkman Is that for real? They're actually banning people for posting positive stuff?
I tend to avoid Resetera, but I just had a quick look at the home page there. Almost 56,000 members.
It seems like a drop in the ocean when you consider that PS5 has sold almost 20,000,000 units.
I've heard it's a fairly toxic place, but I have no experience of it myself.
Then again, I told a friend of mine at work that I enjoy Push Square and she asked me was it not just a toxic fan site 😂
"Not entirely" was my argument. There are lots of good people here.
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@themanmilkman I left Eurogamer a while back. To be straight with you, I would have genuinely agreed with a lot of their stuff with the exception of their reviews, but they were becoming very rigid about it all, as was their community. "Agree or your wrong" isn't a healthy way to deal with most things. Some things, sure. But not most. We change minds with debate.
@themanmilkman
Being banned for saying the truth? The line betweeg gaming and politics is thin. Yeah i admit that communication could be a little better. But as I said before, if Sony had announced this sooner, everyone would have started stacking like crazy. so all in all it didn't matter.
@Noconfidenceman I also think that communication could be improved from time to time at Sony. But if they had said this sooner, everyone would have started stacking like crazy. they should never have blessed that with ps now you automatically get ps premium. Because everyone takes advantage of that. And now Sony is suddenly the bad guy? upside down world this.
@Robocod
Right. Now Sony have several people feeling buyers remorse. These people would normally hesitate subscribing to PS+/PSNow but because it was such a good deal to pass. They didn't think twice buying multiple codes.
@TommyNL
Well, that's why Sony should have put restrictions in place. Of course, people would want to take advantage of a loophole. Similar to promos and sale because it would save them money in the long run. Seriously, they couldn't see this happening?
@KishanHansil no? you can't buy the cheaper one atm and stack that to the new price tier. but when it gets fixed you'll be able to stack them again. this is only temp.
some one else said it , and i agree. which is why i didn't end up buying more years. is that how do you even know you'll even like this service in the first place , or if you'll still be playing games 3-4 years from now? if you stacked so many years , and say , at some point you get busy and have no time to even use it any more or you don't even like the service. then that money was wasted.
@Resi32 Corporate Greed!
@Shepherd_Tallon Same here i just want to finish games in my own pace instead of playing 10 games and not knowing what the hell i was playing in the first place. 🤪
@twitchtvpat A lot of people had years of cheap Plus stacked anyway because you need it for online, 'free' games and saves etc, so they're getting this upgrade for many years literally for the price of a few months of Now.
In such a scenario it doesn't really matter how much or little you use it.
Nonsense to not disable stacking, and THEN announce the new tiers and “the longest of the two subscriptions (Plus & Now) rule.” If they can be obnoxious enough to disable cards that are paid for ( and still in abundance on store shelves), they can be just as obnoxious and rollback all the stacking done in the days since their conversion rules announcements, if they’re so concerned about profit loss.
Now we’re stuck with scratched cards/revealed digital codes and trying to get refunds. Yeah I get that I can use a 12-month Plus card for 6-month of Premium…but people only bought them to get the 50% discount stacking. Why do I want to keep codes now with zero discount? People would rather wait until the next set of holidays when you can get 12- month subscription codes at 40% off from various sources.
As far as conversion of extended subscriptions , Plus was $60/yr. Now was $60/yr- same money. What genius decided that the Now users would get all the features of a Plus prescription added for free, and the Plus users get nothing in the conversion? Weren’t both paying the same amount of money for a year?
Can we please get the engineers there that make their incredible TVs to take over PlayStation management?
@Omegathree Now users were converted to Premium so they weren't losing access to what they paid for ie library of downloadable and streaming games. Plus members never had access to this in the first place, and they are keeping what they paid for on Plus essential ie monthly games and online play.
I didn't think you had to be a genius to work that one out.
In fact, by extending the membership of people who had both of these to the longest, even when the longest was Plus, Sony are going further than than they needed to.
Call me a Sony defender, apologist, fanboy, whatever. I just don't care because those making the loudest noise about this (in fact, the ONLY noise) are the ones angry they couldn't stack and get Premium cheaper than the market rate. And they're probably even angrier because they see people owning loads of Plus from the past benefitting.
Well, welcome to life. Swings and roundabouts. Winners and losers.
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