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Long gone are the days of playing console video games online for free. Switch owners need to pony up for Nintendo Switch Online, Xbox users have to sign up for Xbox Live Gold, and those of us loyal to Sony have to pony up for PlayStation Plus to play against friends and strangers alike. But things are chancing at Sony, which has announced changes to its subscription services, taking effect in June. With these changes only months away, the question arises: Should you cancel or change your subscription?
The long and short of it is no—if you like how PlayStation Plus is working for you right now, it can stay that way. Sony’s new pricing plan lists PlayStation Plus as its bottom tier option, now called “PlayStation Plus Essential.” It retains all the familiar perks and benefits that make the subscription worth it, including two free monthly downloadable games, discounts, cloud storage, and, of course, online gaming.
The pricing for PlayStation Plus Essential stays the same as the old PlayStation Plus plan: $9.99 per month, $24.99 per quarter, or $59.99 per year. If your subscription doesn’t expire before the changeover, you’ll automatically be enrolled in this “new”—but very much the same—plan.
However, you don’t have to stay on the basic plan you’ve been using. If you’d like to try something new, Sony has two fresh subscription options for you, each with their own interesting perks. The first, called PlayStation Plus Extra, offers all the perks of PlayStation Plus Essential, and adds in a library of 400 downloadable PS4 and PS5 games you can play at any time. Sony says you can expect to see titles like Death Stranding, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11, and Returnal included in that mix at launch.
Pricing for the Extra plan is $14.99 per month, $39.99 per quarter, and $99.99 per year. It’s a jump from the Essential plan, but when you consider the number of games you’ll have access to, it might be worth it.
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The third tier, PlayStation Plus Premium, offers the most, for the most money. In addition to all the features of the other two tiers, Plus Premium members can access an additional 340 games spanning the PS2, PS3, and PSP. While PS2 and PSP games can be streamed or downloaded, PS3 titles are only available through the cloud. You’ll also get access to time-limited game trials for full-price releases, which will give you a good way to demo new games before buying them.
PlayStation Plus Premium runs $17.99 per month, $49.99 per quarter, or $119.99 per year. It’s expensive, especially when compared to PlayStation Plus’s legacy cost of $59.99 per year. Still, it offers a lot more, and if you pay $119.99 up front, it’s really like spending $10 per month, which is the monthly cost of the base Plus Essential plan. For that, you’ll be able to play 700 games from across Sony’s history of consoles.
If you’re currently a PlayStation Now subscriber, you’ll automatically be enrolled in PlayStation Plus Premium. That’s great news for anyone who subscribed to PlayStation Now for a year, since that $60 you spent will now grant you access to a $120 per year service, plus the addition of online gaming. Unfortunately, it’s too late to take advantage of this deal if you weren’t already signed up: You can only subscribe to Now on a monthly basis as of this writing.
