Major Price Increase coming to PS Plus in Sept

[Havok83]

From the blog: https://blog.playstation.com/2023/08...neration-zero/

We also wanted to let you know that starting September 6 we will be increasing the price for PlayStation Plus 12-month subscriptions globally across all benefit plans. This price adjustment will enable us to continue bringing high-quality games and value-added benefits to your PlayStation Plus subscription service.

Here are the new prices for PlayStation Plus 12-month subscription plans.

PlayStation Plus Essential 12-Month Subscription
79.99 USD | 71,99 Euro | 59.99 GBP | 6,800 Yen

PlayStation Plus Extra 12-Month Subscription
134.99 USD | 125,99 Euro | 99.99 GBP | 11,700 Yen

PlayStation Plus Premium 12-Month Subscription
159.99 USD | 151,99 Euro | 119.99 GBP | 13,900 Yen

The new prices for the 12-Month subscription will remain at a discounted rate when compared to purchasing the 1-Month or 3-Month subscriptions over a 12-month period.

For current 12-month subscribers, this price increase will not take effect until your next renewal date that occurs on or after November 6. However, any membership changes you make on or after September 6, such as upgrades, downgrades or buying additional time, will update your plan reflecting the new prices. You can change or cancel your subscription at any time, details here.

[The Apocalypse]

So £60, £100, and £120 for us in the UK respectively. I'll stick with the basic. I was considering upgrading but for me, it's not worth it especially after these price hikes.

[Zivouhr]

I'm thankfully not affected as an offline gamer.
Was the PS Plus price originally $59.99 a year for PS5, and now is 79.99?
The near $200 a year is a bit much but I guess gamers like the program.

[NARMAK]

Sony quite frankly are full of crap many months and the offerings imo under PS+ Extra etc. aren't exactly lighting the world on fire. They'll basically cream the extra cash off consumers and never bother investing as they claim.

In the UK, we're already stuffed with high inflation and a cost of living crisis, and i can't imagine globally its much better in some places but economically it seemed more sound there, so i do not see the real justification for this hike other than greed.

[dyne]

If they had 1st party offerings day 1, okay maybe.

[bhampton]

I'm pretty much done with PSPlus.

When prices on things go up I see my invitation to save. They essentially remind me it's not worth it.

I guess I'm glad I'm not hooked on a multi player game.

[tcripe]

Yikes.

[NARMAK]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I'm pretty much done with PSPlus.

When prices on things go up I see my invitation to save. They essentially remind me it's not worth it.

I guess I'm glad I'm not hooked on a multi player game.

I used to feel that maybe here and there the monthly games might balance out the monthly cost and that's why i went with PS+ Extra for a bit, but i am also realising i don't play anything online that requires PS+. I play Fortnite and that's free 2 play so free online.

I did try to make use of the PS+ Extra games but i'm just very slow and lazy generally on that front so didn't play as many as i could if i was dedicated but it's just becoming obvious to me, Sony is just interested in fleecing gamers this generation as much as they possibly can compared to last gen.

They firstly hiked up the prices of games to £70 rrp, then increased the PS+ pricing with tiers and now hiking it again, and that's before you mention the BS price hike on their consoles as they began to benefit from economies of scale and costing them less to produce the consoles.

For The Gamers was last gens tagline. This gen is "For The Shareholders"

[un4gvn94538]

I've had ps+ since the beginning. I rarely play online and the free games I didn't already own haven't interested me for a long time now. Looks like I'm done with it. Everything has/is going up and I can't justify the cost anymore.

[Vincanws]

I have never felt the need to go to a higher Ps Plus than the essential tier. I don’t get through anywhere near enough games as is to justify extra or premium. I buy what I want to play or play the ‘free’ stuff that comes with essential. I’m ok to pay this extra £10 in a year. I typically have always gotten a ps plus renewal in the sales anyway.

The increase on the extra and premium tiers will lose Sony a good few subs I would imagine. Essential tier is absolutely fine for most PlayStation gamers.

[Talal86]

Surely it's about time basic online functions (online play and save backup) shouldn't be locked behind a pay wall? Apple gives 5GB cloud storage for free, Google free tier is 15GB, Sony should offer a free $1GB for ps5 owners

or maybe a new tier? Ps Plus Basic for a $10 a year or something? $80 a year is way too much for someone who just wants to play online

[Zivouhr]

Digital games and renting digital games are much cheaper for publishers than printing games, so they're making a bigger percentage now that digital games are more popular than disc games unfortunately many times now in 2023. I feel there is room for both, but it seems disc media is starting to decline if the walk in retailer stores are anything to go by, where they dumped most of their inventory and barely even stock the shelves for new release day of disc movies.

$20 increase for PS Plus basic, that's a huge price increase if I have that right. I could understand $5 to $10, but it's not a good time to be ripping people off. Then again, all of the utility companies are already doing that, all fueled by the increase in fuel costs...

Originally Posted by NARMAK

Sony quite frankly are full of crap many months and the offerings imo under PS+ Extra etc. aren't exactly lighting the world on fire. They'll basically cream the extra cash off consumers and never bother investing as they claim.

In the UK, we're already stuffed with high inflation and a cost of living crisis, and i can't imagine globally its much better in some places but economically it seemed more sound there, so i do not see the real justification for this hike other than greed.

Sorry to hear inflation hit the UK too. That stinks.

I'm not an expert, but from what I saw, 2022 was probably one of the worst increases in a very long time, and the absolute highest prices ever for grocery food, due to the major spikes in price per barrel of fuel that the oil barrel corporations brought to everything as a result of the Ukraine War, when fuel went from $2.30 a gallon at the most maybe, to an insane $5+ and in California, $7+. It's around $4+ now in August 2023.

With everything needing to be transported, unfortunately the stores and food chains had no choice but to raise the prices. Food in the US that is normally $0.99 cents, is now $3.00 in many cases or worse, in only a year's time. I bet it's just as bad or worse in Europe and the UK for all the price hikes spurred by greedy Oil corporations and governments that take a huge cut of fuel prices. In the US, it's something like 40% of every dollar for gas that the government takes for taxes, State and Federal combined for that amount last I checked.

Some are saying the economy is only going to get worse yet. Now is the time to save when possible IMO. The deals on the PSN store have been great in 2022 and some of 2023. If it's not a must have game, I'll often wait for a sale price, which adds up since gaming can be an expensive hobby, nevermind all the other hobbies like movie theaters, movies on disc, cost of living, pets, etc.

[Derb]

Originally Posted by Talal86

Surely it's about time basic online functions (online play and save backup) shouldn't be locked behind a pay wall? Apple gives 5GB cloud storage for free, Google free tier is 15GB, Sony should offer a free $1GB for ps5 owners

or maybe a new tier? Ps Plus Basic for a $10 a year or something? $80 a year is way too much for someone who just wants to play online

Good point about cloud saves.

Sony gives you 100GB but yeah it’s locked behind PS+.

I play online games with friends & PS+ is a requirement for the games I play online. The deals you get with + are not that great nor the “so-called” free monthly games. If Saints Row is what Sony thinks is “High Quality” us subscribers will be disappointed long term.

Basically Sony needs to up their game. Microsoft will walk all over them once their acquisitions start releasing “good” exclusive games on Gamepass Day 1 while Sony gives us shovelware.

[36chambers]

I can't be the only one that usually deletes the free monthly games after trying them out. The only huge scores for me were Mass Effect trilogy, uncharted 4, remnant, days gone and a couple others. But overall most the freebies aren't for me and I don't play call of duty anymore so absolutely no need to pay 80 bucks for that. 50 bucks a year was no problem considering it was free in the early days. Now 80 is just not worth it for most plain and simple. Of course they will still be thriving though because of all the kids that play online and ps plus is required.

[NARMAK]

I think basic online services being charged as high as they are is a complete and utter joke. There should be a completely free PS Online available or for an extremely reduced price if they want to claim they're only charging for maintenance of the infrastructure.

Sony haven't really invested in their basic online services AT ALL. Unlike MS who seemed to offer dedicated servers and so on, what Sony did was make developers etc. Take fare of their own servers and basically charge you to play on them using PSN IDs.

In fact, why the hell are we paying for that basic access when PC it's entirely free? I don't ever hear them reopening game servers etc. do you guys?

Charging for a monthly tier with games i can understand and that's what the very first model used to be, but paid for access to servers Sony doesn't even really own or maintain is an absolute lie.

[Steedeel]

I will be sticking with it, I’m probably unique in the sense I have around 6 years worth of content to play (I was exclusively VR in that time), so value wise it’s still great for me. Working my way through PS4 and PS5 titles. Already played (and completed) Returnal, GOT, Deathloop, Spider-Man, A Plague Tale, Tomb Raider (Rise Of), R&C: Rifts Apart, Inside and Little Nightmares from the extra tier. Now playing God Of War.

[dyne]

Originally Posted by Talal86

$80 a year is way too much for someone who just wants to play online

Part of me thinks this is exactly why they bought Bungie. This seems like something their bean counters would have said will work. There's no other way to play online. So what if they slip off a couple thousand subs? They're making it up and then some by what they're charging the die hards that need the online play.

Percentage wise the increase is absurd. I'm on the middle one that's going from 90-130. That's what? 44% increase with no new features added?

[VictoryAtNight]

I’ve been a single-player gamer for a very long time. I thought about subscribing so I could get those monthly free games, but never did. The price increases will dissuade me even more.

[InfinTravs]

Originally Posted by Talal86

Surely it's about time basic online functions (online play and save backup) shouldn't be locked behind a pay wall? Apple gives 5GB cloud storage for free, Google free tier is 15GB, Sony should offer a free $1GB for ps5 owners

or maybe a new tier? Ps Plus Basic for a $10 a year or something? $80 a year is way too much for someone who just wants to play online

100% right. There needs to be a basic/lite offering without the games. Sony should allow players to export their PS5 saves to a USB drive. At the very least allow us the option to select which games to back up using the Backup & Restore feature.

[Nunab18]

Eh, this price increase is kinda ridiculous. The monthly game line-ups are usually nothing special. I only have plus because of the cloud saves and the occasional multiplayer match I might play. My membership for essential is paid up through next August, but I might add some time in the next couple days to lock in the cheaper price for a little longer.

EDIT: If your looking to beat the timeline to re-up at the current cheaper rate, it looks like you need to go directly through the Playstation Store. A lot of retailers and key sellers appear to have preemptively raised the prices already.