Sony wants up to $40 more per year for PlayStation Plus subscriptions

In a blog post announcing its latest monthly PlayStation Plus games, like sandbox playground Saints Row and 1980s mecha co-op shooter Generation Zero, a Sony director “also wanted to let you know that starting September 6, we will be increasing the price for PlayStation Plus 12-month subscriptions,” across all levels. The move comes just two months after Microsoft similarly raised prices on its Game Pass subscriptions.

The new prices take effect September 6 and, Sony’s Adam Michel, director of content acquisition and operations, says the increase will “enable us to continue bringing high-quality games and value-added benefits” to Plus subscribers. If you have a current multi-month subscription, the new prices won’t take effect until your next renewal data that occurs after November 6. Making any changes to your plan after September 6, however, will incur the new pricing. That gives subscribers about a week’s time to stick another year or more onto their membership at current pricing.

PlayStation Plus’ new prices are $80 per year for Essential (formerly $60), $135 for Extra (from $100), and $160 for Premium (from $120). All of these prices are notably below Microsoft’s Game Pass prices, though Microsoft makes its first-party games, like the upcoming Starfield, available on day one through that service, and only Sony’s Premium plan offers the kind of large library of games that compares to Game Pass. PlayStation Plus is not an easy subscription to understand—so much so that we were compelled to make our own explainer—but the company has been clear that it’s not planning to put its own games on its own service at launch.

As for the games included with this price announcement, they’re not known for their critical acclaim. Generation Zero launched in spring 2019 with a host of technical issues and a shallow, empty environment. The Saints Row reboot was reviewed here with the headline “an open-world mess beyond redemption.” Black Desert, an MMORPG from 2016, has decent if not compelling reviews, though millions of people have at least tried it.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1964413