Sony temporarily shuts down subscription extensions to plug a monetary loophole

Cal Jeffrey

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In context: Sony has long allowed PlayStation Plus subscription stacking. I, personally, am paid up through 2024 because I buy a one-year subscription every time I see it on sale through CD Keys. However, now tons of people are prepaying years and years in advance to lock in a 50-percent discount on the new PlayStation Plus Premium which will go for $120 at launch.

If you are sitting there agitated that your PlayStation 4 or 5 is not taking that one-year extension, you just bought, chill for a minute. Sony has put pre-purchasing subscriptions on hold for the time being. It instituted the temporary shutdown because people have been using a loophole to gain huge discounts on the PlayStation Plus (PS+) Premium well into the future.

When Sony officially announced its PS+ restructuring last month, people had questions about what would happen to their existing subscription time. Sony explained in its FAQ that old plans would migrate to the new tiers. So those that have just PS+ will go to the $60 PlayStation Plus Essential level. Those who have PS+ and PS Now — each costing $60 per year — will automatically get put into the new PS+ Premium plan, which is $120 per year.

However, Sony created a loophole when it decided how to fairly reposition subscriptions of unequal length. If a player has both a PS+ and PS Now subscription of unequal length, they will get Premium for the longer subscription duration. So a customer with one year of PS Now remaining and two years of PS+ will get Premium for two years. So, almost immediately, users began buying up $60 subscriptions to one or the other to extend the $120 subscription as far as their wallets would allow. Sony saw that people were abusing this loophole, so it has shutdown voucher claims until the launch of the new subscriptions.

For now, the voucher entry screen will only accept claims from those whose subscriptions have expired. Anyone else will have to wait until PlayStation Plus relaunches. It's coming to some Asian regions on May 23, Japan on June 1, North and South America on June 13, and Europe on June 23.

It's important to note that if you have vouchers now, their values will change after the transition depending on what subscription level you want or already have. For example, a one-month PS+ or PS Now code will get you one month of Essential or half a month (17 days) of Premium.

Image credit: DC Stock Photography

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I'm not sure how much Sony should care. Launch is probably going to have a few rough patches so you'd think they wouldn't go too crazy on people getting a discount. Its a decent way to launch the subscription if they let early adopters have a little boon.
 
Can we assume Sony will let those people keep their loopholed subscriptions if they caught it fast enough?

I love cd keys. Bought close to a dozen games and DLC from there over the years. Just got NBA 2K22 for $33CAD recently on PC.
 
Can we assume Sony will let those people keep their loopholed subscriptions if they caught it fast enough?

I love cd keys. Bought close to a dozen games and DLC from there over the years. Just got NBA 2K22 for $33CAD recently on PC.
I love CD Keys too. It always has PS+ at a discount, and fairly frequently marks them down to under $40 per year. Ut's the only place I'll renew my sub from.

As far as those who already took advantage of the loophole, Sony is allowing those to migrate as described. The website did not mention any changes to the migration policy, only that extensions are on hold for now.
 
If you think later on Sony would keep allowing you to (ab)use the extension subscription loophole then you are thinking too high of them.

Chances are they stopped that loophole in order to properly readjust the stacking in their benefit not the consumers.
 
If you think later on Sony would keep allowing you to (ab)use the extension subscription loophole then you are thinking too high of them.

Chances are they stopped that loophole in order to properly readjust the stacking in their benefit not the consumers.
So far they have not informed users otherwise. They've only stopped extensions but support says nothing has changed as far as how they are migrating accounts. Obviously, everything is subject to change, but screwing the subscribers would likely not go over well.
 
I love CD Keys too. It always has PS+ at a discount, and fairly frequently marks them down to under $40 per year. Ut's the only place I'll renew my sub from.
Is CD Keys legit? It seems like it might be one of those questionable key reseller sites. The ones that obtain game keys through fraud, stolen credit card info, etc.
 
Gamepass had the same thing at launch, you could buy Live gift cards and stack them for up to two years and then convert them to Gamepass at 1:1 month ratio even though Gamepass was more expensive than Live. Microsoft didn't suspend stacking they advertised it and encouraged it. It was a great way to encourage long time users of Live to subscribe to Gamepass.

Shame on Sony for being so short sighted.

Edit: Microsoft did stop the conversion from Live to Gamepass @ 1:1 month ratio several months after launch, you could still stack they were just worth less if you stacked before transitioning to Gamepass.
 
Gamepass had the same thing at launch, you could buy Live gift cards and stack them for up to two years and then convert them to Gamepass at 1:1 month ratio even though Gamepass was more expensive than Live. Microsoft didn't suspend stacking they advertised it and encouraged it. It was a great way to encourage long time users of Live to subscribe to Gamepass.

Shame on Sony for being so short sighted.

Edit: Microsoft did stop the conversion from Live to Gamepass @ 1:1 month ratio several months after launch, you could still stack they were just worth less if you stacked before transitioning to Gamepass.


I think they still let new Xbox live gold subs to move their current (up to 3 years) of live gold over to Gamepass ultimate if you only pay $1 for the conversion.

The conversion system is also in place and it does convert less programs to a portion of a month of game pass ultimate but that only apply to those who already have game pass and are extending their time.

New customers to game pass coming from gold can still get their time converted 1:1 (again I believe)
 
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