So after months of waiting, we finally have the details of the new monthly subscription game service from PlayStation thanks to this blog they just posted. PlayStation is looking to move to a three-tiered approach combining PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now into one subscription service providing more choice via said tiers. They're looking to roll out this new subscription service in June 2022 globally for PS4 and PS5 players. So in this article, we're going to break down the tiers and what they're providing; then give some opinions on this and see how it matches up to Xbox's premier subscription service Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. We're also gonna provide some handy tips that could you save a lot of money on PlayStation Plus Premium memberships.
Playstation Plus essential is the new entry-level tier and will provide the same benefits that PlayStation Plus members are already getting each and every month. If you already have a PlayStation Plus subscription they will be converted to this new base tier.
The next tier is PlayStation Plus Extra where the main draw is that you're going to get access to a large catalogue of PS4 and PS5 games both first-party and third-party. PlayStation are yet to release the full list of games as of yet.
The third and final tier of the new subscription model is PlayStation Plus Premium. This is the most expensive and most feature-rich subscription available from the reformation. It adds more downloadable games and specifically a large catalogue of classics from the original PlayStation, PS2 and PSP console generations. They've specified some decent titles such as Death Stranding, God of War, Spider-Man Miles-Morales and Returnal.
This tier is also where the features of PlayStation Now also come into play which is actually very important as the blog article has stated that your PlayStation Now memberships will be converted to PlayStation Plus Premium. This is important as you will be able to get PlayStation Now memberships for significantly less than the stated price for PlayStation Plus Premium. So if you know you're going to buy PlayStation Plus Premium it could be worth stocking up on some PlayStation Now months so that they get converted to the new highest tier, we'll include some decent prices for PlayStation Now at the bottom of this blog.
Down below I've dropped some great prices on PlayStation Now that is significantly cheaper than a subscription to PlayStation Plus Premium is going to be directly from the PSN store. But when the switch-over occurs your PlayStation Now subscription will be converted into a PlayStation Plus Premium membership. This was stated at the bottom of the blog from PlayStation.
PlayStation has definitely been behind in its offerings when it comes to the gaming subscription model and Xbox has really been ramping up the pressure with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. So this change-up will most likely be welcomed by Sony fans but it's hard looking at this blog to say if it's enough to make me jump to a higher tier personally. The biggest issue for me is that there are three tiers and even the most expensive isn't going to provide day-one access to their first-party titles. Meanwhile, this is something Xbox Game Pass boasts for not only first-party but also a lot of third-party titles. The games they're boasting such as God of War, Spider-Man etc are all fantastic titles, but the big PlayStation fan most likely owns these titles.
Obviously, we haven't seen the full catalogue of games yet so perhaps I am jumping to unfair conclusions but reading all this I still think Xbox Game Pass is a far better value proposition for the gamer of today. The reality is though that PlayStation most likely does not need to compete with Game Pass as a result of being so far ahead in console ownership.
We're looking forward to more information about PlayStation's new offerings, and will keep this page updated as we hear more. We'd love to hear from you in the comments, what are your thoughts on this new subscription model? Do you agree with me or not? Let us know.
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