As part of a conference call to tie in with Sony’s recent financial results, the company talked a little bit about its plans for the PlayStation business moving forward. It was noted that more than half of its sales in the current fiscal year will come via the PlayStation Store, and thus it suggested that monthly active users are fast becoming a more important metric than hardware sales.
Essentially, the organisation’s goal is to retain users, and it talked about how it wants to make PlayStation Plus more attractive for existing members in order to keep them subscribed to the service. While it didn’t reveal any specific ways it intends to do this, it did note that it’s already implemented some measures to achieve this goal. This is perhaps reflected by the overall improvement of the free games of late, as well as the increase in discounts and other bonuses.
What do you think the Japanese giant can do to keep you subscribed? Are there any changes you’d like to see made to the way PlayStation Plus works – and why? Re-up your membership in the comments section below.
Comments 46
Don't raise the price without any improvements for starters. Wouldn't mind PS Now thrown in (or even 7 days a month for free, refreshing every month with a discounted price).
We'll soon be getting our home consoles free on a 48 month contract. I think MS did something like that with the Xbox in the past actually. It's the way things are going as it becomes more service based.
I guess I'd like to have a few PS Now/Movie rentals per month included in the fee.
Has always been a great service. I never ever buy games for my Vita lol. And good games for PS4 too. Makes me wish I never sold my PS3 lol
Go back to the old price for starters. Like Worlock_ed said, don't increase it by 25% and make no changes!
Some sites (yourself included I think?) predicted that PS Now would be thrown in to sweeten the deal. Shame that never happened, that might have made me (and several others) more accepting to the price hike.
I think there's still a number of things Sony could learn from the Xbox that they claim "gamers don't want". For example, EA Access, Backwards Compatibility are both very popular on Xbox. Throw one or both of those our way and I expect a lot of people would be a LOT happier
Movies would be good, allowing me to change my freaking username would be another. Overall, the games this year have been worth it for me. I would like more flash sales and heavier discounts for members personally. It would be a great way to get me tied further to their eco-system.
PS Now implementation (a couple games a month or something), Sony Movie implementation, PlayMemories cloud storage integration for screenshot/game clips, monthly choices on free games (say choose from 1 of 3), no sudden price increases, better game discounts (most retailers give 15-20% off pre-orders, they should consider offering that for PS+), and organize the PS Store better.....
Why don't you just announce the ps plus games first? Don't take a step bigger than your leg
Not much, really. They're doing the Lord's work. Obviously, I would like better free games but then one must be realistic about these things. I'd also like some sort of PS Now integration, perhaps paying a bit more to get access to the service or whatever.
Throw us all a free game of our choice from a selection of 100 for xmas.
Of late the quality of titles were getting are superb as long as Sony keeps these good quality titles i’ll Stay subscribed, also the discounts are the best in the industry in my opinion because of that most of the games I buy are digital and will continue to be 😁👌😎
I like the idea of a few free movies and PS Now. It does boil down to the quality of the free game offerings, though. If those are kept high, then people will renew and stay on board. I don’t play much online so it’s the free stuff and the sales that keep me.
I also feel that the time to continue to support the PS3 is coming to an end; not that no one plays the PS3– just the library is not expanding, so free game offerings are getting kinda lame. I would do away with the PS3 game offering or maybe reduce to just one game, then add another PS4 game. Like one AAA game and 2 indies for the PS4 per month, maybe just 1 PS3 game (that I’ll never play), and 2 Vita games (one of which I may play).
The sales have been pretty good, but mostly they include older titles and indies. I also would like Day 1 exclusive offers on new releases. Like bonus content, early access, or a $5 discount or something. Or if they can’t swing a discount, then some kind of point system where you earn “PSN bucks” when you buy a new game or something that can be exchanged for goods or services. With Gamers Club Unlocked and Gamestop Pro Club, people get perks for preordering and buying physical releases, so they need to compete with those retailers.
I don't need backwards compatibility but I think it can be an important tool to retain customers moving forwards (PS5).
It makes no sense to reset the install base and game library at every generation. If someone is already attached to the PlayStation ecosystem, they are far less likely to change 'brands' if they have an investment (games) in that system.
I also believe Sony should introduce a rewards system. Get points back for in-store purchases (more points for +members) and even trophy levels which be an added incentive to game on their platform.
Like others have mentioned 1-2 movies a month would be cool. Would certainly be appealing to the more casual gamer.
When you start adding in features like PSNow and PlayStationVue I think then we're looking at tiered subscriptions- which I believe is an inevitability.
I'm already sold on PS+. It's great. I stocked up 3 years worth, last time it was on sale. Through discounts and free games I've already more than tripled my yearly investment.
If you buy an overpriced {in my opinion} digital copy of a game on the playstation store, Sony should send you a physical copy of the game. As digital games seem to be more expense I've than physical somehow.. Unless. It's a did it all only game obviously
Sony has the best improvement coming next year, when Nintendo starts charging for online with their "Bring your own smartphone for voice chat" app. Nintendo is cheaper, but just the fact that those 15 million Switch owners will be required to pay to play online makes Sonys service look a little more palatable.
One of the first screens you see when you buy a Switch.
Keep including games like MGSV every other month and their shouldn't be any problem. Though now that it's $60 don't raise the price for a few more years. And if they don't already include a free month with every PS4, PS4 Pro or PSVR purchase. Gotta give people the first hit free.
@Fight_Teza_Fight
Agreed. Sony should have something like Nintendo did and ditched on Wii U. Get 10% (or any other %) of your purchases back as psn credit, encouraging more digital sales.
Sales are good but mostly they are for games I either own or dont care about, same for the "free" games.
I would not mind them adding PS1 and PS2 games, one of each added every month to PS+. Wish they would add more to the Store as well.
Either remastered or add it to the PS4's PS2 Emulation thing, so you can play it on there with Trophies and a little boost to the graphics.
One other thing I am surprised they haven't done yet is add rewards for Trophies you get in a game. This isn't related to PS+ though.
Example: You're playing FF14 Online or a single player game, the Trophy is you need to kill Ifrit, when you do you get a Final Fantasy 14 PS4 Wallpaper of Ifrit for your system, or maybe an Avatar for your profile. It can be any number of things. Discount for the next FF game and what have you.
There is so much they can do with this. If you play a lot of RPG games you can get like a Badge for your gaming Profile or some thing, I'm sure people can come up with some fancy stuff to make Profiles more unique.
@Matt_Berial they do have something similar to that wallpapers for trophies idea from some of their third parties. I know the kingdom hearts collection had that in a limited form - if you beat one of the three games/movies included, you got a wallpaper. So it could work, but that’s a lot of designs if you do every trophy for a game.
@Worlock_ed Im still ok with the price and the games did improve.
@Matt_Berial I really like that idea.
@Th3solution You would lose a lot of cash if you do that. Even if they only have million PS3 plus subscriptions that means a lot of cash.
drop the free games and throw in PS Now instead
@ztpayne7 That is very true, would be pretty awesome if they did it. lol
Drop. The. Free. Monthy. PS3. Games.
Focus on an improved range of PS4 & PSVR/Vita games instead. Simple.
A free movie rental or free PS Now game maybe? Cant see them offering freebies for PS3 or Handhelds for much longer, so that would be a nice replacement
Charge me something so I can change my PSN name please dammit! Anyway, how about each month Sony releases 10 songs from games which we get to choose three for free, download and play on our ps4/ps3/vita or smart device (via PlayStation app) as MP3? I love listening to game music whilst I work, commute or chilling at home. Eg. Music taken from Final fantasy 7, God of war, Call of duty, secret of mana, patapon, Uncharted, etc. 8-bit and all the way up to modern scores. It's still game related.
I’d love it if screenshots/videos got uploaded directly to a ‘cloud’ where you could access them immediately on any browser - similar to what Xbox does where you can use sites such as xboxclip or xboxdvr to view or download them. Maybe provide PS+ members with 2GB storage space or something.
Bring back Qore!
Jk
More discount, more exclusive beta like monhun on december, also cut psvita and ps3 games and give ps4 owners better psplus games, and psvr owners free games every month.
Pretty sure there’s something with Xbox gold service that you can keep certain games even if your sub runs out. Quite happy with plus offerings of late but never really liked the fact that even though they offer these games you don’t actually own them. Even if you had a bigger selection each month but were limited to 1-2 games you wanted to actually keep. I think that would be better value for money plus I think it would make even a few people that don’t use plus sign up if it was linked to 3-12 month subscriptions.
Maybe a 10-15% discount on all digital games to bring it closer to physical prices. That would be win win for Sony but would also suit me fine as I prefer digital.
I understand that majority rules but id be pretty mad if the price went up and it was justified by including psnow or movies (of their choosing) or any of their other apps. I have absolutely zero interest in any of that stuff. Only thing i care about is ps4 games/discounts. Perhaps let us pick a free theme and avatar once a month.
How about a membership option that consists of no free games or game discounts and just access to multiplayer for $30 a year? that would make plus attractive to many more people.
my sub expires in 5 weeks time.. still not sure whether to bother renewing or not. the only thing i've really used it for in ages are discounts, and a few multiplayer betas.. and a couple of days when i borrowed destiny 2.
i think i'd prefer a tiered options where you could choose beween services (PS+ games, cloud storage, discounts, online multiplayer, psnow, psvideo....) you wanted. i don't think i've downloaded a single ps+ game all year.. not saying there haven't been good games, but typically i already own or have played the ones that interest me, and ones that don't, i feel no inclination to try them even if they are free. so if i could get cloud storage, discounts, and replace the free games with a couple of free videos (of choice) that would be more incentive to renew for me.
A crate of beer at xmas.
Tbh PS Video should be included completely. With services like Netflix or people just torrenting how TF are they even making money trying to rent out movies. There's a reason physical video rental stores no longer exist, digital should be next.
People complaining about the plus price rise....
Have you never heard of inflation? It's been the same price since day 1.
If they stop supporting PS3 with free games then they will have to stop promoting Plus for that system. And the issue with that is money we don't know how much the PS3 is still bringing in for Sony. Some people now have jumped on the PS3 brand and will this Christmas because PS3 consoles are cheap as chips. And it has cheaper games for families. I would like to see a free movie or 2 on my PS4 just justify the £10 increase yes free games have been great last 5 months but they don't make me feel the increase covers that cost
I found I was paying just for cloud save game storage so I stopped. Don't think there was ever a monthly game I was overly interested in that I did not have and I buy games physical so discounts mean little to me. Unless I want to jump into multiplayer which I have off over the last couple of years nothing much is going to tempt me back
@themcnoisy I've been thinking something along those lines: Rather than picking games for us, let us pick a couple from a larger selection so that we have a chance to get games we don't already own.
So let me getting this right... they higher the price and THEN ask what they can do to keep people?!?! Yep sounds just like Sony haha
Make it cheaper (yes, even cheaper than the old price) and let me keep the monthly games even if my subscription runs out. I know that's contradictory, but it wouod be a show of goodwill that goes a long way if you want me to subject myself to a horribly confined online service.
Also, free cloud saves for everybody!
"it suggested that monthly active users are fast becoming a more important metric than hardware sales."
Heheh, we've had quite a few talks on here about the importance of growing active subscriptions. Microsoft has quietly been tailoring XBL to this group as XBO always struggled in hardware sales.
PS+ has a long way to go. PSNow isn't appealing, the yearly price is going up, and the free games line-up takes huge dips in quality. You could tell they really pull out the shovelware when there isnt an MGSV or Until Dawn to give to subs.
Welp. This month didn’t do much to improve upon the plus service imo.
I feel Sony has done a great job with PlayStation Plus. I have been a member for 5 years or more now. I tag every game as purchased, and my library is huge. I take advantage of sales with Plus discounts. Looking at Plus for a whole year at a time, I have never felt it fell short on value. They have even added several PSVR titles as a bonus. Keep up the good work is all I need to ask for and say Thank You!!
@StygianAgenda THIS!!!! So much this!!!! great call, Stygian.
I would keep PS Plus if they could release good PS3 games. All they have to do is pick them and not worry about whether people have them or not. I'm sure that many members don't have every good game. I would still keep the plus if I already had an offered game because I will know that they are offering good games regardless of their age. I say this because they were running out of game options, but they should just pick good games to give away and not worry about age, who has it, or anything else. Besides, there were a lot of missed opportunities anyways when the subscription expired.
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