They're increasing the price of Essentials precisely because people are leaving, millions of them already left, and in order to not lose significant revenue, and get into too much trouble with the bosses up top, much less the fickle investors, they're doing the "next best thing" to show they're in control - naturally that is to squeeze more money out of fewer consumers as "the solution". Incidentally, the strategy can even go beyond just breaking even for the amount of users lost and actually show a net increase in revenue. I think with the data from this leak we can work the math out, using that snapshot in time as a starting hypothetical (pre price increase - post price increase) but I won't bother with that.
Bottomline, they know they're losing users and will lose more with a price increase but they're banking on those that stay to make up for that loss (and then some).
It all stems from the fact that for real, healthy growth in subs to occur Sony needs to sell a significantly higher amount of consoles than what it's doing now, which is more or less on par, or slightly trending above PS4. PS Plus simply hit plateau with a post-Covid correction for around ~ 100 mill MAU - there are obviously other macro-economic factors having a say although harder to correlate. Sony literally has the ultimate hook to get you in - an artificial paywall for online play. It can't be any more force fed, and coerced (although I guess requiring a sub to boot up the console is an extreme possibility - something even shitstain MS could try - I've seen idiots float this idea).
Anyway that is the core problem - they need to sell a significantly higher amount of consoles for real, sustainable growth to which a price increase for Plus is not the solution, but don't let that get in the way of a business trying to squeeze more dollars out of its loyal base - in this case, offering the same while asking for more to keep revenue stable, and if possible "increase" it for the next time they do a financial release. That's how the incentive structure is built for corps. Corps are not anybody's friend. If you give it proper perspective, the price increase is in some ways a reflection of their failure to significantly sell more consoles than during the PS4 gen, and you're paying for their mediocre performance, not them (they're merely passing you the bill). Now you can make a mountain of excuses as to why they're selling slightly more than PS4 launch aligned but in the end they're all excuses, no matter how elaborate or considerate.
