PlayStation Plus 12-month subscriptions are receiving a substantial price hike

[Shawn Knight]

TL;DR: Sony has joined an ever growing list of companies ratcheting up the cost of their subscription offering. Starting next month, the price of a 12-month PlayStation Plus membership will increase for all. Sony said the price hike will allow them to continue to deliver high-quality games and value-added benefits through the service.

In the US, the new pricing looks like this:

• PlayStation Plus Essential 12 month membership - $79.99 (from $59.99)

• PlayStation Plus Extra 12 month membership - $134.99 (from $99.99)

• PlayStation Plus Premium 12 month membership - $159.99 (from $119.99)

The new price points go into effect starting September 6. Sony said its annual plan discount will remain intact versus single-month and three-month billing, but didn't mention any changes to one-month and three-month pricing. Gamers already in a 12 month subscription will not see the new price kick in until their renewal date.

Subscription price hikes have become a serious pain point as of late, and virtually everyone is guilty of participating. Microsoft increased the price of Xbox Game Pass on July 6. Pretty much every major music and video streaming service has jacked up their rates in recent months.

A modest increase in the five to 10 percent range would be perfectly reasonable, but a 33-35 percent jump (which is what we are looking at here) feels more like a punch in the gut. So, what recourse do you have?

Well, nobody is twisting your arm and forcing you into a subscription. As Sony notes, customers are free to cancel their PS Plus subscription at any time. Conversely, you can take advantage of the current pricing while it lasts.

Furthermore, subscriptions can be stacked, so it is possible to load up on several years of PS Plus at the current price. I'm not aware of any limits on stacking (please point me to them if you know of any), and at least one co-worker has been paid ahead as far as five years at one point.

Image credit: Lee Paz

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https://www.techspot.com/news/99972-playstation-plus-12-month-subscriptions-receiving-substantial-price.html

 

[scavengerspc]

No matter how easily anyone can afford to pay for what they want, there comes a time when just paying it makes you feel like a fool, a complete sucker, regardless of financial situations. 33-35% in one jump? Those are substantial price hikes.

People screamed like a stuck siren when Gamepass went up $1.

 

[kiwigraeme]

Think I have stacked 4 more years for PS- buy it with yearly discount special - like $40-$45/year

 

[mrvco]

Seems like they should add Day One game availability w/ this price hike.

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

Think I have stacked 4 more years for PS- buy it with yearly discount special - like $40-$45/year

Yeah. I do the same thing. Every time I see it for sale (CDKeys used to be good for frequent discounts), I buy a year no matter how much time I have on my current sub. I'm the co-worker that Shawn mentioned having stacked up to five years at one point. I was currently paid up through 2024 but bought another year at regular price ($100) when I heard it was going up $35. That's too much. So now I'm paid through 2025, and we'll see where it goes from here. I have a feeling that a lot of potential subscribers will flatly reject such a steep hike and possibly a substantial number of current ones will as well. I know that if Sony doesn't backpedal, I'm downgrading Essential.

I was initially going to stay at Essential when the restructuring happened, but I happened to be browsing the free game catalog and saw enough there that an extra $40 per year was worth it since it's less than buying a single game, but now at $75 more per year, it's effectively doubling what I was paying and just decreases the overall value of the subscription. I'd rather buy one game per year for $70 and have it to keep rather than pay $75 extra per year for a catalog with just a handful of games I want to play. Maybe throw in some day-one offerings like GP does and I will think about it, but as it is right now. I don't see the value of the service equalling the price jump.

 

[scavengerspc]

Think I have stacked 4 more years for PS- buy it with yearly discount special - like $40-$45/year

And I third that.

My Gamepass sub is paid up until 3 of 2025 and PS Plus premium is paid up to 12 of 24.

 

[Rocky4040]

Yes the price hikes are the new normal these days everyone is doing it. The first thing to go for us was Netflix next was disney+ it sucked anyway. We now just have Amazon Prime with a couple channels added in from them. Other than that we have the Roku channels as well as Pluto TV and a couple other free TV options. We do not miss Netflix or Disney+ at all.

 

[kiwigraeme]

I saw an article in 2022 they would stop stacking - maybe just the premium ones - I just checked mind - 4 years and 8 months just on essential - someone on reddit claimed they had out to 2044

I don't have xbox/game pass gold - but remember people stacking like crazy went it was a bargain - promos and buying out of was it Brazil

Anyway if you see a sale of 25% before price rise -worth trying to add more

 

[scavengerspc]

Anyway if you see a sale of 25% before price rise -worth trying to add more

And if nothing else, renew\sign up from Sony. Normal price now is a lot better than what it will cost after 9\06.

 

[redgarl]

Well, Street Fighter 6 core game cost 80$ CAD for 18 characters and they charge 40$ CAD for 4 additional characters for the Season Pass 1.

And the game will probably have 5-6 Season Passes, which means the full game will cost between 280$-320$ CAD.

If you add taxes, we are talking about 322$-368$ CAD... and we are not talking about the infamous Micro-Transactions like a TMNT costume for 15$ or in-game currency that expire after 6 months.

All this to say, at least, you know what you are paying for from Sony...

 

[Shaitan]

Well, let's see: tons of AAA games not only botched at launch but with TONS of extra payments for skins/stuff (Diablo IV), Orwell-level control of the players (recording of player voice in-game in CoD), garbage politics, and inclusion and diversity hires instead of the competent people of yesterday, plus the HUGE price of hardware today (GPU insane level).
It's OK, I'm spending less and less time playing on my PC anyway.
Any Playstation 5 buying-related idea has disappeared when I saw The Woke of Us II, thus I'm very happy playing some single-player stuff on an old PS4, and reading I'm more. I happily play CyberPunk 2077 on my old 3080, will probably get Baldur's Gate 3, and definitely "MTX included = NO EFFIN WAY I'M BUYING IT" for any paid game.
Imagine I can happily live WITHOUT Disney, Netflix , Spotify and so on, listening to my old MP3 stuff and laughing hard at the corporations trying to "EDUCATE ME" lol.
As long as I can still get some books to read off of HumbleBundle and so on, Sony, Microsoft, EA, UbiCrap, and Activision can go F themselves. I'm not paying for entertainment via a game more than it costs me to get a decent bike and travel a bit in the city.

 

[dangh]

In general, the fact we're paying for online on consoles is a joke, price do not really makes a lot of difference - it should be free. No matter if it is 30 or 130 usd. XaaS is extremly anti consumer approach and sort of training people to bleed money and make everyone used to the fact nothing is owned, only borrowed. This is something we should be always wary about and use critical thinking, whatever decision you'd make.
I still going to keep this subscription up mostly because I do enjoy Sony's games and this kinda works for me and kids. I usually play games months after release due to state we're having in first months, and I do not mind waiting - in fact, I prefer it. Alright, Cities Skylines is already preordered, but - as most multi-platforms - I'll play it on PC anyway (and as Steam really do not "sell" games I'm going to GoG for everything I can - unfortunately, this game is not released there - exclusive store fronts are evil ).

 

[The Talking Tech]

With the price hike Sony better include:

Monthly Day 1 releases .

Every old and new first party game.

PC versions.

And cloud gaming

Sony has no true reason for this price hike other than greed, as they are not even offering any new games frequent enough to even justify it.

 

[bviktor]

It's so great that you need Plus to even have cloud save backups - a feature that's F R E E on the Xbox.

It's also great they had the option to save to USB on the PS4 - a feature they kindly removed on the PS5.

Pay up, or else.

For the players.

 

[McMurdeR]

That's gonna raise a few eyebrows, it's a huge increase for a so-so service. It's certainly enough to make me want to reconsider Sony's platform.

I understood Sony brought in the new sub options to counter a perceived threat from Gamepass, but Sony may be pricing themselves out of that argument altogether. They've already priced me out of standalone releases.

 

[kiwigraeme]

I just checked - I just have essential - What is weird I can fully upgrade to next levels for the next 4 years and 8 months for quite cheap
USD $89 for extra - or just under $20/year
Or Deluxe for US$119 or $26 a year ie old price for just one year
Suppose would be silly not - just that we already have a big game library - but I can see some my family would play - add in new stuff - and that Sony probably has new plans

So anyone with essential stacked out - check cost to upgrade - made be your last chance
also means if I stack more - for those years - it will cost $74 or $80 extra - or 50% discount

If I can use that method - ie get essential - then upgrade - May check first as don't want it to suddenly recalculate - as maybe based on the 25% discounts I have got for those years

 

[sheady]

This is the first time Sony is increasing the price of the base subscription. PS Plus launched in 2010 for $60. Thanks to inflation, PS Plus Essential has seen a ~28% discount since launch. This increase is still lagging inflation, if Sony kept pace with inflation, it's be $85 instead of $80.

I don't see inflation slowing down, so while it's an increase today, it will go down again as the dollar further weakens.

Sony could have increased PS Plus to $70 in 2019, which would have been about the same value as the original price in 2010.

 

[scavengerspc]

This is the first time Sony is increasing the price of the base subscription. PS Plus launched in 2010 for $60. Thanks to inflation, PS Plus Essential has seen a ~28% discount since launch. This increase is still lagging inflation, if Sony kept pace with inflation, it's be $85 instead of $80.

I think the problem people have with the PS+ is for the prices they command, they still don't do day 1 releases on the service.

 

[kiwigraeme]

Good news for me on Essential - I can still stack at USD $53 - so now 6 years and 8 months
Then I can upgrade to plus for one off cost of $89 no matter how many years -

Not sure Deluxe is worth it as don't get cloud streaming to PC or PS5 ( though that may change as server tech improves ) - only $30 more

So may stack out to 10 years - then complete upgrade to plus for $89

So anyone just on essential maybe last chance for a good bargain

I stacked it for another 8 years to 7 months - and upgraded to plus deluxe ( we do not get premium in NZ - no streaming games - but who knows may be free upgrade in future ) - just for $120 for all 12 plus years

 

[fadingfool]

This is the first time Sony is increasing the price of the base subscription. PS Plus launched in 2010 for $60. Thanks to inflation, PS Plus Essential has seen a ~28% discount since launch. This increase is still lagging inflation, if Sony kept pace with inflation, it's be $85 instead of $80.

I don't see inflation slowing down, so while it's an increase today, it will go down again as the dollar further weakens.

Sony could have increased PS Plus to $70 in 2019, which would have been about the same value as the original price in 2010.

Inflation is not an across the board increase. It is an average increase across multiple items. Sony's costs for providing this service I doubt have increased 35% - not even close. As a luxury I doubt many people will just swallow this increase (I will certainly downgrade my level come the renewal date).

 

[money]

For the payers

 

[mrvco]

Seems high with no Day1 game access, but they've sold a gazillion Playstations.

 

[OortCloud]

I'm cancelling mine. It's too expensive and not worth it. I currently have this and Game Pass ultimate and I just don't get time to play half the stuff on GPU let alone this.