Sony has announced that the subscription plans for PlayStation Plus are being raised for U.S., and Canadian gamers starting September 22nd.
Sony sneakily added the update to the July 27th PlayStation Blog post that rolled out the PS Plus free games for August.
In the update, PlayStation Pluys content partnership manager, Greg Lewickyj, explained why they were raising the price for the first time in the U.S., and Canada for PS Plus subscribers, stating…
“The new pricing reflects the current market conditions while enabling us to continue providing exceptional value to our members. As a member, you will continue to enjoy the benefits and features that enable shared experiences, such as online multiplayer, free games, and exclusive discounts.”
“Current market conditions”? Does Lewickyj mean being the current frontrunner in the console wars? Because how does being first dictate having to raise the praise on current PS Plus subscribers? Is it for the free PS Plus games each month? The quality of the titles absolutely pale in comparison to what Microsoft offers each month, so it can’t be that.
I’m curious exactly what “market conditions” Lewickyj is referring to? Because right now Sony is making money hand-over-foot from the PlayStation brand. It would be different if Sony were wading through the market fluids of consumers’ sloppy seconds like Microsoft and Nintendo, but that isn’t the case at all.
As for the actual pricing, PS Plus’ annual subscription is going up from $50 to $60 in the U.S., and it’s going up from $50 to $70 in Canada. The three month plan is going from $18 to $25 in the U.S., while Canadians will get stuck paying $30 for three months of PS Plus. The U.S., will get a little bit of leeway on the month-to-month plan, which will stay at $10 while Canadians will have to pay $12, and likely apologize for not being more subservient to the price change.
Clearly, being in first place is already going to the head of Sony’s executives. Right now, I hate to say it but between the Xbox One and PS4, Xbox Live Gold offers far better incentives and features than PlayStation Plus.
Even Lewickyj seemed to understand that this was not going to go down well with many PlayStation fans, adding in the one exception to the price change, writing…
“If you do not wish to continue your subscription, please be sure to cancel it by turning off auto-renewal in your account settings before September 22, 2016.”
Based on the comment section on the blog post, I’m guessing more than a fair few of PS Plus subscribers will be turning off their auto-renewal. The post has been downvoted to 1.6 stars out of 5, and it has more than 1,000 comments decrying the change.
SirCam-ron made a good point about Steam not charging PC gamers to play online, writing…
“This is absurd. It really feels like us gamers are subsidizing Sony’s flailing..well everything else not Playstation related.
Or are we paying for them new shiny olympic playgrounds?
Remember when Steam started charging PC gamers for the privilege of playing their games online? Yeah, me neither.”
Warezlbanez pointed out that the quality of content is less than previous generations but the prices are going up, writing…
“You guys want to prevent people from flocking over to PC, and yet…
You’re charging more for your walled-off service for multiplayer games
You’re not providing value for continued subscriptions with your game library lineup
First party exclusives are drying up and are worse than what were available from previous generations.”
Most gamers expressed discontent with the free game offerings, and were even less thrilled for being forced to pay to play online, something that’s free on PC and Nintendo consoles. Sky-kid009 summed up a lot of frustrations by writing…
“PS+ doesn’t even really seem worth it anymore, the free games are lackluster and you’re pretty much pigeonholed into buying it if you want to play online. I think I’ll just stick to local multiplayer and single player games for the time being.”
Sony is really going to have to step up in what they offer for their paid service, because right now people are paying an arm and a leg for the kind of features they could get free elsewhere.
