Sony on PS Plus Price Increase: We Want to Make PlayStation Plus Great

John Elden Ring

The Thread Maker
Content Creator
5 Jul 2022
6,429
7,908
United States
ps-plus-price-increase.large.jpg



Well, in a new interview with Barron's, PlayStation exec Eric Lempel offers some degree of insight. To its credit, the publication asks Lempel directly about consumer criticism of the aforementioned price increase, to which he responds: "We want to make PlayStation Plus great. With our reboot last year and introducing the tier system, a lot of consumers have recognized that there’s a lot of value in PlayStation 5."

It's a bit of a nothing answer, but Lempel continues: "Like practically everything else in the world, we have to look at our pricing and we have to adjust to market conditions."

Lempel then goes on try and contextualise the decision: "I’m happy to say, unlike a lot of other subscription services out there, we haven’t touched the PlayStation Plus pricing for 85% of the world in many years. So, this was the first time we did something there." Hmmm.
 

Vertigo

Did you show the Darkness what Light can do?
26 Jun 2022
5,465
4,960
I think Extra is a bit lacking at the moment for my own personal tastes. However, as someone who has had plus essential since its inception … I’m totally fine with the quality of the monthly picks I’ve gathered over the years. The price increase drama is whatever to me… everything has gotten more expensive. I find value in it for sure.

PS stars program should be built into console OS however. Get more people using it for those $20 psn cards.

I’d also like to see it bundled with a video streaming app that’s not crunchyroll or Core
 
  • brain
Reactions: Gods&Monsters

Bryank75

I don't get ulcers, I give 'em!
Founder
18 Jun 2022
9,361
16,413
icon-era.com
I can only speak for myself but theres a bit of give and take there...

If we had a good flow of fully exclusive games, I wouldn't mind paying at all or the other increases in price but all the increases and so little to show for it all... (that's my opinion)

The reasoning we were given for PC ports was that they would help fund many more AAA exclusive games. Of course that hasn't turned out to be the case. The showcases are not at the standard of before and it looks like they feel good fan engagement is just a cost.... not something worthwhile.

I love PlayStation and especially the games they make, the games they have been known for...I just want more and I want PS to regain its full identity.
 

Danja

Veteran
Icon Extra
10 Mar 2023
6,065
5,842
It's already great for me. They just need to do better with their back catalog it's embarrassing how little respect they have for the PS2 library
 
  • Like
Reactions: Box and Jim Ryan
20 Jun 2022
1,007
1,445
38
Salalah, Oman
It's already great. There's so many games I can't imagine people running out of things to discover and play 🙂

Yeah I've been spending less on new games due to that, which is strange. I used to be a big spender on new games, but Extra really offers good games, especially for budget-cautious people. Pre-order/day one is now mostly for Sony 1st party and some few other games.
 

Alabtrosmyster

Veteran
26 Jun 2022
3,387
2,932
I stopped the auto renewal on my year of paid subscription as soon as they announced the change.

I was going to do the same anyway, because I wanted to renew when it was on sale again. Soo.
 
  • Like
Reactions: toadsage44

Vertigo

Did you show the Darkness what Light can do?
26 Jun 2022
5,465
4,960
Please put some real effort into Premium, why does it get thr least amount if games and some months nothing?

Just give us ps2 games already Sony

In a perfect world premium would be rolled into Extra with its video offerings and features with the essential tier abandoning the online paywall to make a fair playing field for game developers against Warzone and Fortnite. That and better PS stars integration and discount mini games.

This won’t happen because while I enjoy many of the plus essential monthly games if it didnt have the online paywall I wouldn’t subscribe at all. I don’t see them abandoning this hook.

At best maybe bringing back the ps5 launch catalog idea of greatest hits with ps5 purchase they had goin. Rolled into essential. Xbox is doin that now too. I thought it was helpful for new users to PlayStation in general.
 
12 Jan 2023
564
746
I looove Playstation Plus. I've been exclusively a pc gamer for 27 years until a couple of months ago that I bought my first Playstation so I have literally no library. The games that I played thanks to that are AMAZING. Ghost of Tsushima, Returnal... for fuck's sake even playing Alan Wake Remastered was incredible with the Dualsense, it adds a layer of immersion I never felt before so even revisiting games that I already playing is such a gret experience. And I found out that waiting every month to see the new games that we are going to have available is quite fun or exciting on its own.

While coming from pc I really dislike having to pay just for playing online and having cloud saves since those features are free on Steam. But besides that the product is amazing.
 

flaccidsnake

Veteran
2 May 2023
2,997
2,526
I looove Playstation Plus. I've been exclusively a pc gamer for 27 years until a couple of months ago that I bought my first Playstation so I have literally no library. The games that I played thanks to that are AMAZING. Ghost of Tsushima, Returnal... for fuck's sake even playing Alan Wake Remastered was incredible with the Dualsense, it adds a layer of immersion I never felt before so even revisiting games that I already playing is such a gret experience. And I found out that waiting every month to see the new games that we are going to have available is quite fun or exciting on its own.

While coming from pc I really dislike having to pay just for playing online and having cloud saves since those features are free on Steam. But besides that the product is amazing.

They could easily make online multiplayer and cloud saves a standard feature, with a paid subscription for games. Raising the price actually makes the service worse because it will inevitably mean a smaller percent of PS5 owners play paid games online. Why pay $80/year so you can pay another $70 to play Remnant 2 online without cross play? Then for some reason, you can download Destiny 2 for free and play it for free. Playstation and Xbox are sabotaging AAA online gaming with this velvet rope ripoff.