Following rumours that Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) would roll out a new PlayStation game subscription, the company has done just that.
Announced via a tweet and blog post on March 29th, the new subscription will be a combination of Sony’s existing PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now services. It will still be called PlayStation Plus, but will have three price tiers with different benefits.
The new PlayStation Plus subscription will launch in Asia in June, followed by North America, Europe, and the rest of the world. The company plans to have most PlayStation Network regions live with the new Plus subscription by the end of the first half of 2022. Moreover, SIE will no longer offer PlayStation Now as a standalone service after the launch.
All-new PlayStation Plus launches in June with three flexible membership options.
First details: https://t.co/2KXcEp7XWs pic.twitter.com/jAU9Do3CfE
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) March 29, 2022
PlayStation Plus Essential
The first tier of the new subscription, ‘PlayStation Plus Essential,’ is effectively the same as the current PlayStation Plus subscription. That means it includes online multiplayer access, two monthly downloadable games, discounts, and cloud storage for saved games.
The pricing for Plus Essential will be the same as the current PlayStation Plus plan, at $9.99 USD monthly / $24.99 USD quarterly / $59.99 USD yearly.
Sony only shared pricing for U.S., Europe, U.K., and Japan in its blog post, but the current PlayStation Plus costs $11.99 monthly / $29.99 quarterly / $69.99 yearly in Canada. Plus Essential should cost the same.
MobileSyrup has reached out to Sony about Canadian pricing and will update this story accordingly.
PlayStation Plus Extra
The next tier is ‘PlayStation Plus Extra.’ It provides the same benefits of Plus Essential along with a catalogue of up to 400 PS4 and PS5 games that PlayStation owners can download and play. Sony says the 400 titles include “blockbuster hits” from the PlayStation Studios catalogue and from third-party partners. However, it’s not clear if subscribers will get day-one access to new titles from Sony.
U.S pricing for Plus Extra is $14.99 monthly / $39.99 quarterly / $99.99 yearly.
PlayStation Plus Premium
The third and final tier is ‘PlayStation Plus Premium.’ It includes everything in the previous two tiers along with up to 340 more games with PS3 titles available via cloud streaming and a catalogue of “beloved classic games” from the original PlayStation, PS2, and PSP available both through streaming and download options.
Plus Premium will also offer cloud streaming access for original PlayStation, PS2, PSP, and PS4 titles offered in the Extra and Premium tiers where PlayStation Now is currently available. Customers can stream games using either PS4 or PS5 consoles or on PC. For markets that don’t have cloud streaming, Sony will instead offer PlayStation Plus Deluxe at a lower price with similar features, but no cloud streaming.
Finally, Plus Premium will include time-limited game trials so customers can try select games before buying them.
U.S. pricing for Plus Premium is $17.99 monthly / $49.99 quarterly / $119.99 yearly.
Other details
Sony said that there are “more details to come” about specific titles available on the new Plus service. Moreover, the company mentioned in a blog post that it plans to include titles like Death Stranding, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man and Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11, and Returnal at launch.
When the new Plus launches, Sony will automatically transition PlayStation Now subscribers to the new Plus Premium tier with no increase to their current subscription fees at launch.
You can learn more about the new PlayStation Plus here.
Source: Sony
