Christmas could have come early for PlayStation subscribers with the news that Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has merged its Plus and Now services to create an all-new Plus platform. And the tech giant says it will “provide more choice to customers across three membership tiers globally” when it goes live in June.
There will be three tiers – Plus Essential, Plus Extra and Plus Premium. Essential will remain the same price as the current PlayStation Plus at £8.99 a month (£49.99 a year), while Extra will be £13.99 a month (£83.99 annually) and Plus Premium £16.99 a month (£99.99 a year).
SIE said: “Our focus is on providing high-quality, curated content with a diverse portfolio of games, and ensure that the hundreds of games we offer will include the best quality content that sets us apart. The new Extra and Premium tiers represent a major evolution for PlayStation Plus.”
Essential will perform along the same lines as Plus does now, with no changes or extra costs for those already in this tier. Extra provides the same benefits as Essential, plus it adds a catalogue of 400 of the best PS4 and PS5 games, “including blockbuster hits from our PlayStation Studios catalogue and third-party gamers”.
The deluxe Premium package combines the previous two tiers, plus adds another 340 additional games, including PS3 goodies via cloud streaming and even some from the original PlayStation, PS2 and PSP generations. There will also be the option for customers to trial games before they buy them.
SIE say they are planning to include a raft of titles on launch. These include Death Stranding, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11 and Returnal.
“We’re working closely with our imaginative developers from PlayStation Studios and third-party partners to include some of the best gaming experiences available with a library that will be regularly refreshed,” SIE added. “More details to come on the games we’ll have on our new PlayStation Plus service.”
The news has already gone down well with PlayStation’s Twitter followers. With @bryanswood saying: “I’ve enjoyed PlayStation now since the beginning and have encouraged others to give it a chance. Hopefully the new PlayStation Plus service will get people to at least try it."
There was also praise from @dblacc1024, who tweeted: “This is way better than Game Pass. Sony's backlog of games is way better than Xbox’s – this service will have over 700 at launch including newish PS5 games.”
Not everyone was on board with the plans, though, with @SantiafoCapell1 commenting: "No thanks, Sony. We don't really know which games you'll put into those services."
And @DevilNergigante added: “£100 for Yearly Premium just for PS3, PS2 and PS1 games? I’ll just stick with my Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership that has loads of games from all four generations.”
SIE will initially launch the new service in Asia, in June, followed by North America, Europe and then the rest of the world. It also plans to expand its cloud streaming benefit to additional markets.
“The newly enhanced PlayStation Plus will enable our fans to discover and engage with more content than ever before,” added SIE. “And it will also deepen their connection with the PlayStation community through shared experiences.”
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