Sony has revealed an overhauled PlayStation Plus subscription plan, set to launch in June 2022. The new PlayStation Plus will combine the PS Plus and PS Now services as they currently exist into one service, but offer three tiers that have varying benefits.
This has widely been reported and leaked as Project Spartacus, but now Sony has confirmed what the new PS Plus will offer. On the base level, PS Plus will remain as it is in the Essential plan, with monthly free games, cloud storage for saves and online multiplayer access – it will also retain the same price point. On top of that, you have PS Plus Extra which adds a catalogue of up to 400 PS4 and PS5 games, including some games from PlayStation Studios. Finally, PS Plus Premium will add access to PS3 games via cloud streaming, and a selection of PS1, PS2 and PSP games for both streaming and download.
For the Extra and Premium tiers, Sony will be including more of their first party games, and at launch, they plan to include games like Death Stranding, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11, and Returnal. This will not include Sony’s first party games on day one, it’s been confirmed in an interview, so it seems that Sony are not matching Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass in that regard.
The launch will have a phased rollout, starting with Asia and followed by North America, Europe and the rest of the world. They aim to have most of this completed by the “end of the first half of 2022”, so through the month of June. They’ll also be expanding where cloud streaming is offered to.
Another thing to note is that PS Now subscribers will be upgraded to PS Premium with no increase to their current subscription fees at launch. Bonus!
There’s plenty more details that Sony will clarify and reveal over the coming months, but for now, here’s the breakdown of features and prices for the new PlayStation Plus:
PlayStation Plus Essential
- Benefits:
- Provides the same benefits that PlayStation Plus members are getting today, such as:
- Two monthly downloadable games
- Exclusive discounts
- Cloud storage for saved games
- Online multiplayer access
- There are no changes for existing PlayStation Plus members in this tier.
- Provides the same benefits that PlayStation Plus members are getting today, such as:
- Price for PlayStation Plus Essential remains the same as the current price for PlayStation Plus.
- United States
- $9.99 monthly / $24.99 quarterly / $59.99 yearly
- Europe
- €8.99 monthly / €24.99 quarterly / €59.99 yearly
- United Kingdom
- £6.99 monthly / £19.99 quarterly / £49.99 yearly
- Japan
- ¥850 monthly / ¥2,150 quarterly / ¥5,143 yearly
- United States
PlayStation Plus Extra
- Benefits:
- Provides all the benefits from the Essential tier
- Adds a catalog of up to 400* of the most enjoyable PS4 and PS5 games – including blockbuster hits from our PlayStation Studios catalog and third-party partners. Games in the Extra tier are downloadable for play.
- Price:
- United States
- $14.99 monthly / $39.99 quarterly / $99.99 yearly
- Europe
- €13.99 monthly / €39.99 quarterly / €99.99 yearly
- United Kingdom
- £10.99 monthly / £31.99 quarterly / £83.99 yearly
- Japan
- ¥1,300 monthly / ¥3,600 quarterly / ¥8,600 yearly
- United States
PlayStation Plus Premium
- Benefits:
- Provides all the benefits from Essential and Extra tiers
- Adds up to 340 additional games, including:
- PS3 games available via cloud streaming
- A catalog of beloved classic games available in both streaming and download options from the original PlayStation, PS2 and PSP generations
- Offers cloud streaming access for original PlayStation, PS2, PSP and PS4 games offered in the Extra and Premium tiers in markets where PlayStation Now is currently available. Customers can stream games using PS4 and PS5 consoles, and PC.
- Time-limited game trials will also be offered in this tier, so customers can try select games before they buy.
- Price*:
- United States
- $17.99 monthly / $49.99 quarterly / $119.99 yearly
- Europe
- €16.99 monthly / €49.99 quarterly / €119.99 yearly
- United Kingdom
- £13.49 monthly / £39.99 quarterly / £99.99 yearly
- Japan
- ¥1,550 – monthly / ¥4,300 – quarterly / ¥10,250 yearly
- United States
- PlayStation Plus Deluxe (Select Markets) For markets without cloud streaming, PlayStation Plus Deluxe will be offered at a lower price compared to Premium, and includes a catalog of beloved classic games from the original PlayStation, PS2 and PSP generations to download and play, along with time-limited game trials. Benefits from Essential and Extra tiers are also included. Local pricing will vary by market.
Source: PlayStation Blog
camdaz
All sounds great but I’ll be staying with Plus Essential as I don’t have the time to make either of the other levels worthwhile.
MrYd
So some people were worried that only the monthly prices had leaked and it was going to be expensive. But there’s a yearly price that only works out 1p more expensive (£49.99 each for PS+ and PS Now comes to £99.98)
One issue is that while it sounds like you get upgraded from PS Now to PS+ Premium, that’s probably not going to work out well. Who only subscribes to PS Now without PS+ as well? And they’ve removed the yearly PS Now option from the store, so you can only get a month of PS Now for £8.99. Bit of a problem if your subscription runs out before June.
As it happens, mine runs out in early June, and my PS+ runs out in July. So I should do quite well out of it.
It’s certainly looking better than expected though.
Stefan L
The yearly option is certainly very reasonable. I assume Sony’s happy with the profit margins and just want to rebrand in a way that gets a bit more attention/recognition from people.
Sony will obviously clarify what’s going to happen for existing subscribers in an FAQ, but I’d expect they will treat it as a crossover grace period (as opposed to what Microsoft are still allowing with their £1 upgrades).
MrYd
Well, they’ve said they’ll be revealing further details before launch, so they’ll explain all that properly. And if you can upgrade from Essential to Premium at a later date, I guess.
Also, “an FAQ”?? Not “a FAQ”? That seems weird. Depends if you pronounce it as individual letters or a word, I guess.
Stefan L
I pronounce letters. Calling it a “fack” doesn’t make sense to me.
Khaliel
PS PLUS ESSENTIAL “There are no changes for existing PlayStation Plus members in this tier.”
–> Uh… well, the monthly free games will be “TWO monthly games” instead of three right now… One less game for the same price.
MrYd
People seem to be jumping on that quite a bit today. But you need to remember what we officially get with PS+ at the moment.
From the PS+ website…
“Expand your game collection with new PS4 games each month, as well as regularly added PS5 titles”
And from the blog post today…
“the same benefits that PlayStation Plus members are getting today, such as” before listing 2 games as one of those benefits. A non-exhaustive list of the current PS+ benefits. No mention of the PS5 games, or other bonus games we get every now and then, or the various extra bits of DLC included.
“no changes” suggests we’ll still get all those things. Unless Sony are going to lie while making a big announcement like that?
Stefan L
Since they get rid of PS3 and PS Vita games from PS Plus in, the only guarantee has been that you get two games. The third game was pitched as a bonus for PS5 buyers, but it can also apply to PS4 as well. So nothing has really changed in terms of what they promise to dish out each month, it’s just that they’ve been going above and beyond that for the last 18 months.
MrYd
Technically, they don’t actually specify how many games you get (currently) at all. It’s just “PS4 games” every month. Which I guess means at least 2. Although the 3rd PS4 “game” this month (well, it’s half a game, isn’t it? The crap half of Ghost of Tsushima) was described as a “bonus game”.
At least they’ve said it’s 2 games now. So nobody can do the “we got 3 games last month” nonsense. And they don’t mention the extra PS5 games on that blog post, but that list of benefits doesn’t include everything anyway.
I’m sure they’ll carry on including the “regular” PS5 games.