For years, fans have wondered how PlayStation would respond to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass program, which lets players download and play games at a subscription price. Now, Sony has come out with its version of the service by merging its PS Plus and PS Now services.
PlayStation announced the service via a press release earlier today. In it, Jim Ryan lays out the pricing and the benefits of each tier. The service will be turned into a three-tier program, including PlayStation Plus Essential, Extra, and Premium. Each level grants more features and access to players, even reaching PC in the highest tier.
Even More PlayStation Games
As previously mentioned, the PlayStation Plus tiers will now be split into three increasing platforms. Essential is the standard PS Plus that users have now and won’t see any extra charges when the program goes into effect. These users will still have access to the same features, including two monthly downloadable games, exclusive discounts, cloud storage, and online multiplayer access.
The Essential tier account’s price goes up to $15 per month and grants access to a catalog of 400 PS4 and PS5 games for players to download and play while subscribed. You can also charge the subscription quarterly for $40 or yearly for $100.
The PlayStation Plus Premium is the highest tier in the new PlayStation Plus system, and it provides all the benefits of the levels before it. In addition, players will also have access to PS3 games via cloud streaming and streaming or download for some PSP and PS2 generation games.
Customers will be able to stream games to their PC and play them using a PS4 or PS5 controller. The Premium service will cost $18 per month, $50 per quarter, or $120 per year.
PlayStation Plus Day One Exclusives?
You’ll likely be disappointed for players who want PlayStation’s games to appear on the service on day one. Jim Ryan discussed the chance with gameindustry.biz and told them that it’s not a road that Sony has gone down in the past. He then says that it isn’t something that Sony plans to do with its new service.
Ryan explains that it would somehow break the PlayStation Studios cycle of games to release games at launch onto the service. While that might be an intelligent business decision in the short term, it does put PlayStation a step behind Xbox’s similar program.
PlayStation hopes to begin phasing in this new PlayStation Plus formula starting in Asia in June before moving to America and Europe.
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