Should you buy the new PlayStation Plus subscriptions?
polygon.comPlayStation’s long-awaited overhaul of PlayStation Plus goes into effect in June. Now offering three tiers of service, PlayStation Plus will more resemble the kind of subscription package for which Microsoft’s Xbox Games Pass is known. But is it a direct match of its rival platform? And is the money PlayStation’s asking for better, worse, or break-even for consumers?
We’ll recap the features and take a closer look here, but first, we have to call out the single biggest difference between the new PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass: Sony’s esteemed first-party line of titles will not make any same-day launches on PlayStation Plus. Where Microsoft has used Xbox Game Pass as a showcase for new games like Forza Horizon 5or Halo Infinite, PlayStation’s boss is very clear that big titles from studios like Naughty Dog, Insomniac, or Guerrilla Games will continue with their retail-only availability when they launch.
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“The level of investment that we need to make in our studios would not be possible,” if these $69.99 games were also available in a $14.99 monthly subscription, PlayStation chief executive Jim Ryan told GamesIndustry.biz on Tuesday. “[W]e think the knock-on effect on the quality of the games that we make would not be something that gamers want.”
That said, PlayStation Plus’ two new tiers — called PlayStation Plus Extra and PlayStation Plus Premium — are not exactly content-poor. In replacing the PlayStation Now service, Sony will offer 400 games, playable by download, to the PS Plus Extra tier, and more than 700 total in the Premium tier. PlayStation Now currently has 788 games spanning three console generations.
It appears this is just a simple library split and rebrand, although Jim Ryan, in a PlayStation
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