Multiple tiers added to PS Plus as Sony it morphs its offerings
After a long, long time in rumorville, Sony has finally revealed its competitor to Microsoft’s Game Pass. The muted announcement came as a blog post, not as the kind of fanfare that one might have expected in the past.
And it’s PlayStation Plus! Surprise!
Actually, it’s a few tiers on top of the standard PlayStation Plus. The new tiered system mimics what Xbox currently does with Gold, Game Pass, and Game Pass Ultimate. The current PlayStation Plus we all know and use will be renamed PlayStation Plus Essential. No other change except the renaming. The price will even stay the same ($9.99 monthly, $59.99 yearly).
The new tiers are Extra and Premium, and the big change revolves around the merging of the standard service with layers of PlayStation Now.
PlayStation Plus Extra will incorporate all of the Essentials alongside a catalog of nearly 400 downloadable PS4 and PS5 games, featuring first- and third-party titles. Think of it as the direct competitor to Game Pass. However there’s one big difference: Sony’s Jim Ryan has come out to say that new titles won’t launch day-and-date on the service alongside retail for fear that it would somehow “cheapen” the PlayStation brand and its value to consumers. OKAY! It’ll run for $14.99 monthly/$99.99 yearly.
Finally, PlayStation Plus Premium will take in everything from below it as well as add in up to 340 streaming games from the PS3 era and both streaming and downloadable games from the PS1, PS2, and PSP. These will be playable on the PS4, PS5, and also PC. — PC! PERSONAL COMPUTER! Yes, you’ll be able to play PlayStation games on your PC via cloud streaming if you want to brave the jittery Internet. This tier will also offer some time-limited trials in case subscribers will want to “try before you buy” some of the games. The tier will run for $17.99 monthly/$119.99 yearly.
And there you have it. Play some older games, and some recent-ish games, but not necessarily brand, brand new games (from Sony) on a few of your devices. The biggest draw may not be the newest products but the classic, awesome back catalog of PS1, PS2, and PSP games — many of which have been lost to time and unplayable elsewhere. Sony says that the service updates will begin rolling out in June around the world, so get excited to play Crisis Core like I am already.
**fingers crossed**
Source: Sony
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