Sony Launches New PlayStation Plus Subscription Service

Synopsis – The company will first roll out the bundle subscription in some Asian countries before making it available for the customers in North America, Europe, and, other countries. It will begin to start working in June this year. 

In a bid to counterattack Microsoft’s Game Pass, Sony has announced to launch of a new video game subscription service this year. The company will bring together the services of PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now into one named PlayStation Plus subscription.

The company will first roll out the bundle subscription in some Asian countries before making it available for the customers in North America, Europe, and, other countries. It will begin to start working in June this year. New subscription services are divided into three sections, PlayStation Plus Essential, PlayStation Plus Extra, and PlayStation Plus Premium.

Jim Ryan, President, and CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment, said in a statement, 

The new Extra and Premium tiers represent a major evolution for PlayStation Plus. With these tiers, our key focus is to ensure that the hundreds of games we offer will include the best quality content that sets us apart. At launch, we plan to include titles such as Death Stranding, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11, and Returnal.

Ryan added,

We’re working closely with our imaginative developers from PlayStation Studios and third-party partners to include some of the best gaming experiences available with a library that will be regularly refreshed. More details to come on the games we’ll have on our new PlayStation Plus service. 

PlayStation Plus Essential is the basic or lower-tier among the three. It offers similar benefits as PlayStation Plus users currently enjoy. The subscription includes two monthly downloadable games, exclusive discounts, cloud storage for saved games, and online access to multiplayer. Along with this, the prices of the subscription also remain the same as PlayStation Plus, $9.99 per month, $24.99 per quarter, or $59.99 per year, and in Europe, it is €8.99 per month, €24.99 per quarter, or €59.99 per year.

Next in the line is PlayStation Plus Extra which apart from the similar perks as earlier, includes a selection of up to 400 PS4 and PS5 games. The company mentions that the subscription can be downloaded for online play. Its cost will be $14.99 per month, $39.99 per quarter, or $99.99 per year and in Europe, the prices will be €13.99 per month, €39.99 per quarter, or €99.99 per year.

Among the subscriptions, the top one is PlayStation Plus Premium which is priced at $17.99 per month, $49.99 per quarter, or $119.99 per year, brings access to everything in the Essential and Extra tiers, that also comes with 340 games that are available in the modes of streaming and download options, original PlayStation, PS2, and PSP games. The company will also offer time-bound trials in order to help the customers to try select games before actually buying them.