Sony’s new and improved PlayStation Plus program has already been released in some parts of the world and it looks like gamers are having all sorts of problems. But what frightens players the most right now is a possible wrinkle in the running of the upgrade prices that could leave some of them stuck for hundreds of dollars.
The big overhaul of PS Plus, which is currently already taking place in Asia, effectively combines it with PlayStation Now and breaks down additional benefits on three levels. Essentials is the same as the current subscription, Extra includes an on-demand game library similar to Game Pass and Premium offers subscribers access to cloud streaming and classic games. The new levels are $ 100 ($ 139) and $ 120 ($ 167) per year, and will require PS Plus subscribers to upgrade to access them. Makes sense.
I think Sony should get out of business. My last subscription was purchased many years ago. You asked me to renew the difference once, all I can say is that you should leave the business pic.twitter.com/zQv8ywqwsA
– malove (@ i31665960) May 24, 2022
But what some gamers are discovering is that if they had previously bought a discounted version of PS Plus, they will now have to pay the difference to fully upgrade to the more expensive new levels. That’s according to a post that has drawn a lot of attention to the PlayStation Plus subreddit. “For example, if you bought 1 more year with a 25% discount, that’s $ 45 ($ 62),” he says. “To upgrade the additional plan, you have to pay 100 – 45 = $ 55, not 100-60 = $ 40.”
Another problem is that players apparently can’t just update for a month or a year, but have to update for the duration of their current subscription. So if I don’t know, you decided to buy an extra 10 years of PS Plus when you had a big discount, now you have to pay to upgrade the whole decade to the full price.
This may sound strange, but it’s not uncommon for some of the biggest PlayStation fans to accumulate years and years of subscriptions when there’s a particularly big discount. This is what happened earlier this year when PS Now was half sold and a lot of players rushed to capitalize on the deal, mostly because subscriptions would be automatically transferred to PS Plus Premium subscriptions once combine the programs.
Nathan Drake tries to remember how many PS Plus subscribers he stacked. (Screenshot: Sony)
“How many years have you been stacking,” asked Wario64, who first announced the sale in April. Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad appears to have filled up by 2031. Others did as well. Sony finally blocked the stacking of subscriptions a few weeks later. Now it looks like the PS5 maker plans to recoup the small savings that gamers may have been able to get out. In the case of a 10-year stack, subscribers could end up having to pay an additional $ 600 ($ 833) to fully upgrade.
Potential scenarios like this are already provoking a small reaction in the comments on Reddit, social media and the PlayStation blog. “PlayStation is the most profitable ever and has accumulated billions and billions of dollars,” MBG tweeted. “Waiting for a little goodwill and a little less greed from time to time is fine.”
At the same time, it is possible that current anecdotes from players like Hong Kong are simply price errors that will soon be corrected. The upgrade process may also differ from region to region. Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment to clarify.
One thing is certain, much of the launch of the PS Plus review has been unnecessarily confusing. In April, Sony released a dizzying chart showing PS Plus and Now voucher conversion rates for subscribers switching from current to updated service. And earlier this month, a PlayStation blog post described a sample of the games that will arrive in the new version of the service full of warnings and asterisks.
Hopefully one of those big asterisks doesn’t turn out to be a hidden fee for stacked members. The revamped PS Plus program will begin in the US on June 13th.