PS Plus Price Hike Drives Sony Share Prices Up Dramatically

Shareholders only see money, obviously, and Sony is promising more of it.

Theses gaming companies ain’t your friends they’re businesses that need to make money to stay afloat. I’m not damage control the price hike. I think consumers should vote with they’re wallets, but they won’t people will b*tch and complain about the price hike for the clicks and likes but still buy a year of plus secretly.

They won't be so happy when they lose half their subscriptions due to their greed

Meanwhile in Turkey, Sony blocked to purchase of PS Plus so we can't extend our subscribtion before new prices.

And it will tumble immediately after they find out many people will just cancel their subs, I guess that's why sony don't want to say subs number anymore lol.

My subs is valid until 2025, I guess I have to finish elden ring before that time since I actually like the online mechanism (sign/blood/invader), it's kind of annoying though that as a single player only fans I still need psplus for single player games.

@Jacko11

There's raising the prices and then there's raising the prices

Obviously nobody wants to pay more for anything, that pretty much goes without saying, however if it was a just a small increase from time to time then most sensible people would accept it and get on with it.

These are far from small increases though unfortunately

"The most they've gained in more than a month"? Doubt this correlates with the price hike, more likely if it were quarter numbers.
I doubt many will actually unsub, but initially stocks depend more on public perception than cold numbers and facts (that comes later), so yes, let's show Sony how displeased we are about this case of greedflation and make sure it is known how out of touch Sony is in this generation.

I won't be resubbing. Not having access to cloud saves will take some adjusting to, at first.

The overall numbers will go down to combat the increased revenue so is it really a win for them in the end?

This is why we must never ever have "loyalty" to a corporation. Only use them as long as they are useful to you. Once that stops, abandon ship with haste.

@Member_the_game
We all know that's not going to happen. One thing I've learned is there's a large segment of the PlayStation fanbase that will just bend over for Sony no matter what the company does. And of the few who do complain, 90% have no backbone and will just resubscribe when it's time.

@Member_the_game well, that's okay then, because they won't lose half of their subscribers 😅

They will lose about 14% of the people who voted that way in the push square poll, if that.

The vote was just a way to say "I'm not happy with it"

@Ravix True, most people lack the backbone to standup against a greedy company. I my mind those people don't have any right to complain.

Will be letting my plus lapse for the first time ever. Been subscribing since day one. Now the monthly free games are not so important to me and I only play rocket league online.

@Tielo it's the same as everything, price increase or price decrease, if it provides value for me I make a decision off that. I'm likely downgrading because I've not played any extra games in my second year, yet, after playing maybe 8 or more in my first, but I'll still get value out of the online guff, because I also play sports games like a mad lunatic, instead of just good games 😅

Basic tier price increase is literally 83p a month, and you can get it in a sale anyway and use voucher codes, so idgaf lol.

I do advise anyone who isn't getting value out of anything in life to not blindly pay for it though.

@Saucymonk there's an argument you should let it lapse even without a price hike, or should have already done so anyway if you aren't really using the product, as that is just paying for the privilege 😄

Sony knows most gamers can't help themselves, I mean look at how many fools pre-order games.

A fool and his money are easily parted!

@Jacko11

Just because my opinion is differs from yours does not make me "Wrong".... and it certainly doesn't mean that you're "Right" either

No disrespect intended but your posts come across with a very arrogant tone suggesting that everything you say is a Fact when at the end of the day it's just your opinion... that doesn't make you or anyone else right or wrong

@IMustardMitt Just buy a used PS4 and back up your saves to USB.
Wonder why they didn't implement that feature on the Tub o' Lard? (hint: $$$$)

@Jacko11 usually, I find most price increases reasonable. This isn't one of those cases. In any shape or form.

@Gamer83 Nah. Sony releases all sorts of things that fail or underperform. Sony fans only embrace certain things (mostly home consoles). They're not as devoted as Nintendo fans who will buy amiibos, expensive retro consoles, 5 year old games at full price, remakes that become evergreen etc. A ps5 owner may buy the console and COD and zero first party games. That's not the case for the average Switch owner. If Sony were to make an average tennis game with Kratos, it wouldn't sell well like Mario tennis for example.

@naruball It's definitely not for all tiers, specifically essential and premium, but when I look at what I've received on extra over the past 12 months, I really don't think £1.33 more a month is an unreasonable increase.

Way I look at it you can either
a) stump up the money through gritted teeth or
b) wait until there's a Black Friday-esque sale and purchase it using the wallet top-up vouchers on ShopTo and that's if you've got a requirement to play online.
Of course you also get to back up your save games, though this is one situation where PS4 owners have the last laugh.

Thank God each of the shareholders can now more adequately afford that Bugatti Veyron they've had their eye on.

@sanderson72

Price increase or no price increase I'd like to think most sensible people would always opt for option B anyway.

I got a years worth of premium for £64 last November when it was on sale and through an Amazon voucher loophole.

There's very rarely a better time of year to buy

For the Shareholders

I let my sub lapse after 10 years this year (couldnt justify the sub just for 1 game SF6.....but was planning to resub with MHW2)

Now its made me seriously consider the PC version (especially now I picked up an Ally too so I get switch to portable play as a bonus)

It all now hinges on whether it supports crossplay or not. (My friends will pick it up on PS5 so.......I wont have a choice if it doesnt have crossplay)

I never would have thought Id opt for a PC version title of any game. But I can see myself opting for all my online multiplayer game for the the PC in the future (its all down to what happens with MHW2.......I cant ditch friends of 15 years)

@EpicMouse what? That is just plain wrong. I've been a console enthusiast since the 90's but seriously considering moving to PC now

@Jacko11 Nice to see your wallet isn't bothered, but you shouldn't think the wole gaming community shares your bank account digits.

Unlike some of the commenters, I do think some of the current subscribers will drop their subs due to the price increase. Definitely not half of them like the poll suggests (maybe closer to the 14% number that @Ravix pulled from the air 😅. I’m going with 13.4%) However, I think Sony is also likely to gain a group of new subscribers over the next 2 years due to 1) the deluge of live service games it’s releasing and 2) the supersonic velocity that PS5’s are being purchased now. A certain percentage of new PS5 owners will subscribe. So the departing subscribers will be balanced by new subscribers, I suspect

Price hike is because everyone else is doing why not us.

@Th3solution Some will lapse, but others will just drop to essential. I think the dropping one will be more notable, especially for premium, and the new subs will be less likely to get a higher tier.
I wonder if this will make a PS5 look more intimidating to get though, because $80+ the $500 makes it feel like a more expensive purchase.

@Th3solution haha 😆 yeah, if anything the 3.4% increase to shares should probably be higher. Sony is going to make bank, all things considered 😬

On one bright side for us lowly consumers, they will at least invest some money back into the making and backing new games so we have some unique experiences to try out, rather than just trying to buy up everything under the sun with money from their corporate overlords in the hope that that helps improve quality of their output 🙄

@Jacko11 "I see no issue in the raise in price.
People need to get over themselves."

Imagine being upset that people are upset about a giant increase 😶 if you love Sony so much why don't you send them your whole paycheck? Don't just talk about your unconditional love prove it!

@Jaz007 Yeah, that’s really true too. Imagine if someone is thinking that they want to join the PlayStation ecosystem because they like the looks of one of the new live-service games like Fairgames or Concord. So they buy a PS5 ($500) then the game ($70) then the PS Plus sub ($80). That’s a $650 entry fee. And they only have one game with that. So they might figure they should go with Extra tier ($135) and have access to an instant collection of games. So now they are instead plopping down $705. And if they are in the US, don’t forget to add taxes. So now it’s up to $775. All just because they wanted to play an online shooter with their friends. 😅. Heaven forbid they also need another $70 controller and a longer HDMI cable.

@Whately86 Unfortunately very disappointed by this move from Sony. I won't renew my subs after it expires and probably sell my PS5 and PS4.

Of course investors are jumping for joy this price increase is for their benefit, they can now go home happy with even more money. It won't be from my wallet though as I think is basically armed robbery paying $80 for the privilege and honor of accessing online

Had already decided to downgrade from premium to essential as just don’t have time to play what is there.

@Ravix Yes, that’s a good point. It does seems like Sony reinvests into their first party with consistent high quality new experiences. Now that you say that, I feel better about paying a little more. 😅 Like you say (or allude to), I think if I was on the other side of the fence I’d be really impatient right about now and would definitely feel more like I was being taken for a ride.

And I do still think the value proposition is fair enough to keep my sub. Like you, I’ve slowed down on playing games from the Extra tier, but I still anticipate over the coming year to hit that 5-6 games played from the catalogue which makes it a wash money-wise.

Great. I get stung but at least I make some capitalist vampires richer. SO COMRADES, COME RALLY, FOR THE STRUGGLE CARRIES ON!!!!!!!

Oof. Sony is really milking their base right now, and the more moves like this fail to produce a negative result, the harder they'll push in this direction.

I'm increasingly thankful I have a giant backlog of games to play through.

@Intr1n5ic indeed. Extra offers tremendous value, but the yearly increase is significant and they didn't announce anything... extra (sorry for the pun) to justify the increase. If you look at it how much you pay per day it looks even better, but that's not the case. The reality is that it went up by around 30% for no apparent reason when they're performing extremely well financially.

@Tecinthebrain @whately86 @naruball @Member_the_game

Premium, yes outrageous increase cause its overpriced now.

But you cannot honestly say that a £20 increase for a yearly subscription on Essential and Extra is a heinous thing.

Gaming is a luxury hobby, you can’t deny that. I’m am by no means rolling in money, very much the opposite but if you can’t afford that extra £20, but can buy a £70 game then you’re the issue tbh. Because you are ignorant of the value proposition.

And if you have any value for videos games then you’ll know that what you get in a year from this subscription service in terms of games, it more than pays for itself and its not even close to debatable.

Sick of gamers being so entitled and want everything for free. We should be getting charge £100 for some of these games based on the cost of them so consider yourselves lucky. Don’t believe, just compare against rise of inflation since the 90’s and dare tell me i’m wrong.

Feel free to respond, any of you. I genuinely encourage a solid counter to any of those points.

That's okay. When Microsoft announced they were buying Activision, Sony's shares (as in the entire company, not just PlayStation) dropped by 10%. So if you want to get back at Sony for being the second guys to do a price hike for their subscription service this year, just tell Microsoft to buy Sega, Ubisoft and EA. That'll teach Sony!

Man it's like they did this as an easy way to have revenue go up without doing anything major

@naruball I don't disagree. I think the lack of reasoning to justify it and also the timing of the announcement was extremely poor. Communication as ever from Sony is awful.

The increase for us in the UK on extra is 19%, which understandably is a big jump for some. I can only speak for myself on that, but I purchased my 12 month sub during black Friday last year and I feel like I heavily underpaid for what I received from it. Had it been the full £84 I would think the same.

@4kgk2
I don't doubt that many ppl will do that. However, I had already decided to cancel before this announcement, which just reinforces my resolve.

@Ralizah same

@Jacko11 Underpaying for our games!? Bruh, what? Lmao you living in a different universe.

@Intr1n5ic yeah. I know what you mean. I got a free upgrade to premium from one month of ps now and several years of ps+ I think, which was a steal and to see all that content on extra felt plain wrong (too many amazing games to play).

I just think it all adds up. Everything is getting more expensive, so if something doesn't need to be, it stings even more. I genuinely don't mind getting PSVR2 games at launch just to support the developers, knowing full well I won't be able to play them for months or years and by the time I do they will cost a fraction of what I paid for them. But they need all the funds they can get. Sony doesn't. I felt the same way about BP announcing record profits...

@naruball
Sony fans will certainly lap up remasters/remakes and have. And speaking specifically to this recent decision I've already seen the damage control that leads me to believe the subscriber numbers will not see a dramatic decrease. Already seen a ton of 'well MS raised the price on Game Pass.' It's always some sort of deflection to defend Sony's actions.

Sony tricked me. I never pay full price for PS+, always buying a few years ahead, so I am never forced to buy a subscription when PS+ is not on sale. However, I just bought a year at full price because, in a few days, that full price just might be lower than any sale price in the future.

Sony is going to keep farming you guys lol they know they have millions of die hard zealots who will pay anything. Move to pc if you don’t want to be milked.

@TheRickestRick
What are you talking about? You don't agree that we should be paying $100 for the broken, bug-filled messes that many 'AAA' studios produce these days? How entitled of you....

@Gamer83 I don't think people on here are too happy about Microsoft raising prices either (and probably not on PX either), but Microsoft managed to make sure those articles were flushed away faster than the world's lightest turd.

@Gamer83 <-------This guy gets it.

@Jacko11 idk, I'm pretty sure if there were games that should be $100, they'd be $100. No one's losing money at the current price point.

It also shouldn't go unnoticed that there are plenty of editions of games that go for well over $100 now. It's pretty unremarkable. So where they feel we should, we're paying what you feel we should be paying.

As distasteful as a 30% increase is for seemingly not much change I think it will still sell and not damage the user base too much, sadly. Too many people have been conditioned to accept price increases without question now "oh well everything else is going up, this is a luxury hobby don't you know". Everything now just goes up constantly just "because it's supposed to". Corporations raking in record profits because they realize they can just jack up prices massively and people will keep paying. Can't blame them really, reality is most consumers are suckers who won't put their foot down. And they haven't seen anything yet - wait till everything us digital only & subscription only. Then the screws will really turn in.

@Marquez Bypass Paywalls Chrome Clean is your friend.

People over-reacting like crazy. $3 a month killing everyones bank account? I understand the principalities of being against the increase, but people are acting like it's a $20-$40 a month increase when it's a measly $2-$3.

@Th3solution I thought a lot of those (if not all) planned Sony GAAS were going to be F2P because that is how the big bucks are made (i.e. with the MTs like with Fortnite or Destiny) and you need a large user base right away that F2P provides. Sony can't release 12 GAAS and expect any of those to work if they are charging for them and then closing them if they don't show profits immediately. People will just stop buying them. They are going to have a problem with so many being release and most not having any return at all which leads to closing them anyways. As that will affect mindset of users willing to invest in other first-part GAAS From Sony as time goes by

So, unless Sony has changed their current policies F2P (and I believe they haven't) it will still mean you don't have to pay for PS+ for online play with those free to play games. Which means I don't see sub numbers increasing very much as most gamers of GAAS pick one or two games and stick with it and aren't jumping around because of the need to be invested to be competitive with others and definitely are primarily focused on those games much more than paying oth MP games like COD (but would play CW2) and Sony's other first-party games (i.e. SM, GOW, Horizon, other than GT) don't incentivize any need to pay for an online service because they have no online game component..

Finally got a PS5 as my Spider-Man edition arrived yesterday. I don’t plan on getting PS+ at all, especially with this steep price-hike. All the games I have for it and want to get are single-player, anyways.

End of the day Sony are a business and there aim is to make money from us and that's it!

This price hike will be forgotten soon like all the other dramas over the console generations.

Just buy a few less fancy coffee's and that will pay the extra fee. 😂

@ImGumbyDammit I’m honestly not sure about the cost of these GaaS coming up. I just assumed at least some of them would be full fledged $70 games, like some of Sony’s other live service games — GT7, MLB The Show, Destiny 2 (at least it was initially only available for purchase), Dreams, etc. In fact has Sony had any recent F2P first party games? They released some on PS+ like Destruction All Stars (second party game actually) but nothing recently F2P. I might be wrong about that.
Regardless, some of the GaaS stable might be free, some might be for purchase.

@BeerIsAwesome Unlike Sony, MS did not raise prices on the base pay to play online tier what was Live Gold now called Game Pass Core. That is still the same yearly price and MS actually added value by getting rid of the god-awful monthly games and instead is providing a mini curated GP catalog. Most of the complaints were that people were upset that pay for online was still a thing, when most of us consider it an archaic practice that has no purpose anymore especially when both PC and mobile gaming don't have it (i.e. it is cash grab from both console companies).

Also, people weren't as upset (still were but not as much) because you could see the value with the announced and first-party and some third-party) coming day one. With Sony you have no idea what, if anything, those extra dollars you are going to be paying Sony will in return be providing you with any of the PS+ tiers at all.

MS also hasn't raised prices since Game Pass released 6 years ago. Meanwhile Sony's revamped PS+/PS Now service and its current pricing was released in June 2022 and year later Sony is raising prices. That is a pretty big difference in how the services have been treated. And PS+ bumps are quite large comparatively to GP.

Edit: minor point but Microsoft price increases are not global like Sony's increases. Microsoft's increases affect only certain countries. It still the bigger markets but not all markets.

A little hyperbolic there with "prices up dramatically". Where were your stories that Sony stock dramatically drops with PS Portal announcement? Sony's stock was $91.66 at the start of August. Now at the start of September (even with that recent "dramatic" bump) it is sitting at S83.19. That means the current price is remains over a $7 loss in share value in one month. BTW, the start of the increase at 8/25 (when the stock was $80 down $11 from start of August) happened before Sony announced their PS+ price increases. So, you are putting way too much value on how the market reacted to the PS+ price increase. It may have played a role, but timing shows it was not the origin. Well unless you believe the market was acting clairvoyantly the week before the announcement when the slight price adjustment started an upwards move. You know what also happened, Sony announced new cameras coming at the end of August (coincidentally around the stock price uptick). They also announced chips advancements.

BTW, if $3 up in the past 10 days is dramatic what was it when the Sony stock was down $11 for the month? I never saw a story explaining that.

@ImGumbyDammit Really all they are doing is just matching prices. You should know by now that gaming companies are a cabal, and they are more than willing to gouge you out of as much money as possible. But people don't like cynics pointing out conspiratorial stuff like that.

Haven't many switched to primarily f2p online games that don't require ps plus membership? This is definitely going to lose Sony many essential subscribers. Corporate and shareholder greed has always diminished quality of services and products for consumers nothing new unfortunately.

“Sony’s decision to increase annual PS Plus prices dramatically“
@get2sammyb $3 per month for premium and $1.50 for essential is hardly a dramatic increase 😂

@PJ5 I doubt it will lose them many subscribers. It’s such a small increase that 90% of ps plus members probably won’t even notice.

@ArmoredMore This certainly seems to be the talking point, talk of it in monthly metrics to hide what is in totality a 30%+ increase with most people buying an annual sub anyway. A 30% all at once increase is dramatic however much you try and massage the numbers. It's like saying your water bills only gone up by $5 @ month and your loaf of bread a $1 @ loaf etc. Its a talking point designed to minimize what will over time constitute significant accumulated cost increases. How much will PSN cost after an 8+ year life cycle + a console? Mask & defer costs to boost lifetime revenue that would be unpalatable if laid out fully. Although admittedly this argument is usually parroted by corporations or the media and associated interests, odd seeing so much stockholm syndrome from punters themselves.

My subscription doesn't run out until March so after that, I'll see what games they're giving for "free" and seeing if their services improve. I think online play should be free but an option for "free" games with a subscription like PS3 was. I play online but the monthly games and the other games they're giving away are absolutely terrible. Hardly any PS5 games and I didn't buy a PS5 to play PS4 games. Unfortunately, even if the games don't improve, loads of people will still buy it and say "it's a bargain".

The old saying, mess around and find out, comes to mind. -edited for profanity

I'm out. I've had every playstation from 1 to 5.
Bought an Xbox X just for Starfield and subscribed to game pass to get the game free - and found a few truly excellent game pass games along the way. I'm sticking with game pass and ditching ps plus which I'd been subscribed to since day one.

Of course they're happy. Probably was their idea.

@Sequel I only break it down monthly because that is how most people usually break down subscription costs.

Annually it’s a $20 per year for essential which to me sounds equally inoffensive 🤷🏻‍♂️

@Jacko11 How DARE people decide how they want to best spend the money they earned!!!!!! Animals, all of them!

And if they don’t agree with your personal opinion that PS Plus is still worth their money-well that is just the biggest disgrace of all. They really should get over themselves and just set their money on fire.

Yah until these morons have to report a drop in subscriptions next financial report....

@Jacko11 I think you misunderstand, but it's all good.

@ArmoredMore monthly is a pretty fair way to break it down. but it's also fair to take into account the percentage of increase (which is a tad high) along with the justification for the increase (which seems to be non-existent).

I don't think it's a matter of 3 more dollars putting anyone into bankruptcy.

@Jacko11 You expect somebody to offer a “valid counter” to your personal opinion? When someone has a different personal opinion than yours, it is valid. They just don’t agree with you. That is the point. You think the price hike is fine. Some don’t. You don’t need to justify your opinion about how your money is spent, and neither do they.

Please do some thinking about the difference between fact and opinion. It may make these discussions seem less “crazy”.

If you look at the essential tier from afar you are not actually getting anything in return for the subscription fee. PS plus games you don’t own, stop working without a subscription and a high probability you will have already bought. To allow you to play online in a game you paid for. And to access a backup of a save file that originated on the console you paid for and send to the cloud on a internet service you paid for but you have no alternate access rights. Think I will take 10 years of premium subscription fees. Buy an off the shelf pc, get epic, Gog, Amazon free games, have full control of my save files and play online for free.

@zupertramp true they didn’t really justify it and that is annoying. But they did say they’re doing it to better games to the service in the future (or something along those lines). So If the service is worse over the next 12 months than previous, it’s definitely worth voicing your concerns to some extent, and maybe even considering leaving the service. But if it’s better over the next year your price is justified and complaining about it would’ve a been a waste of time anyway

@Gamer83 I strongly disagree. Of course out of the 100 people who comment, you'll find one or two persons who will be ok with any decision, but they don't represent the average person. I mean, even if there was a fire and children were dying, they'd be at least some debating whether we should save them or not.
But the average person who comments on push square is not ok with it and it shows. You can't take the exception and try to prove a point.

As for the remasters, look at all the backlash the remaster of The Last of Us I got compared to all the remasters released by Nintendo. Then also look at their sales. The difference is night and day.

"It's always some sort of deflection to defend Sony's actions."

If that's all you see, then we have a clear case of confirmation bias. Because, again, that's the exception. Most don't feel or act that way. So if you see 50 comments criticising it and 2 defending it and draw the conclusion that Sony fans are on damage control, then that's on you.

@EpicMouse I thought everyone used Turkey PSN store to feast on goodies 🦃🇹🇷 Oh well, here Sony take £199 for my Portal and another £200 as I can’t use my Bluetooth headphones 🤣

Are you freaking serious?
20 eur more per year is only 1,6 EUR more per month.

You will pay and Sony knows it.

Also good news is finally all this subscription bullcrap flattened and doesn't grow.
And while it is still not a downward trend, Sony tries to earn some money on it.

@Jacko11 okay heres a counter. The playerbase has increased massively over the decades, hence games can easily be profitable without price hikes.

@naruball that because they complete different. Look at Nintendo exclusive and Playstation exclusive. Nintendo have Mario, Mario Kart, Zelda, Animal Crossing. Playstation exclusive The Last of Us, God of War, Ghost of Tsushima. They completely different games. Nintendo players love Nintendo games, Playstation players love Playstation games. Switch seem to me like 2023 retro console. If they remade NES with updated tech you’d get Switch.

@Flurpsel the economy is most countries around the world has gotten drastically worse making it more difficult to pay for games.

Also making it more expensive to create games and employ people on good salaries.

Point shut down. Next.

@Jacko11 The only people that owe you an apology are the people who were supposed to be teaching you the difference between a fact and an opinion.

You are not presenting any evidence. You are cherry picking facts that support the way you want to see the world. The variable you are willfully missing is that what people choose to spend their money on is highly subjective, with a lot of variables that you can’t anticipate. Just because it makes sense to you to pay this money doesn’t mean it makes sense to everyone. They have a different income than you, different family situation than you, and a different value system than you as a consumer. None of the facts you are citing as evidence mean anything, because each individual gives different weight to them depending on their own situation.

Your posts about this are silly.

@Pimpernel indeed. They are very different. My point was that Nintendo players are much more likely to purchase something that Nintendo releases compared to Sony players and Sony products.

@naruball of coarse, Nintendo fans love anything Nintendo. Like you said, Mario tennis, Mario Olympics, Mario car racing, etc. Kratos Kart or Nathan Drake Olympics would not sell same! I agree. I love play my kids Switch but only wen in mood, like sometime i in mood to play old, retro game. My fav type games are Playstation exclusive, story driven game. Like Netflix series but video game.

I decided earlier this year I'm not re-subscribing when my PS plus essential subscription expires in December. It's wasted in me. I bought it for GT7. I don't do the daily races anymore because of people ramming. I suppose this is what happens when you're stuck in B class.

@Marquez It's called greed! I also read the the article were it said further price hikes could happen. Yea well were done in a busted economy were people are scrapping to get by let them keep temping fate to the point its no longer a deal and watch how install base falls because people can't afford it. Vanity is a ugly monster so let all of their success go to their head as they have done so many times and loose some of that success like so many times before.

@ArmoredMore gonna be pretty hard to quantify a difference in quality for a service like this though honestly. Not to mention most folks, much to my chagrin, argue that these "free games" we get through essential aren't really what we're paying for so I'm not sure why the price would need to increase to offer better titles. Kinda proves they aren't free once and for all though so at least there's that.

Extra is an entirely different beast though and a price hike there seems far less an issue imo. Premium, I don't even know why anyone would pay any amount for that but that's just me.

@Gamer83 what do you want everyone to do? Leave ps plus and not subscribe because of a $20/year price hike??? 😂 and then where do we play our games? Xbox? Where the subscription is even higher???? 😂😂😂

@zupertramp I mean looking over the last 12 months of ps plus and deciding if you think it’s improved over previous months is a fairly simple task to carry out in my opinion 🤷🏻‍♂️

@Jacko11

Honestly, I get some of your points, just don't agree 100%.

How many months do we get games that no one wanted to play? Who spends 70 on games? I ain't buying day one 90% of the time. I trade discs, buy used games. The gaming community isn't just about paying full price.

I understand there is value in the subscription but don't agree it makes sense for such an increase. There's no added value, just an increase coming in the next couple of days.

Plus, a lot of things are luxury. Like cinema, eating out and games. Doesn't mean it's ok for prices to be spiked without need. Where I live, cinema became way too expensive. I rarely go. I play games since 1990 and don't intend to stop. But might take my business to PC and not have to pay to play online, in the next generation.

@Jacko11 I do and since I do most of my multiplayer / multi-platfrom gaming on Xbox I canceled. I’m subbed to Gamepass ultimate til 2026 so didn’t see any value to keep it at this rate.

For the payers screw these subscriptions services they take away ownership of games. Glad if I play online, it's not on console. So I just buy the games if I really want them. If not, it drops in price quick. Thing with Sony increasing prices is that I can't see them getting better on classic games side of it. PS3 it was good with classic games and PS4 they kind of gave up on it in the middle of that generation.

@ArmoredMore my enjoyment one year to the next is, more often than not, complete chance. but I guess if you end up liking the upcoming offerings more and want to chalk it up to the price hike, that's cool. still, I think most folks aren't going to see a noticable difference, as I suspect there's only so many games $6.66 will get you that 5 dollars couldn't.

@zupertramp well sure not much difference between $6.66 and five bucks (that was actually my original point!) but you have to consider that it’s $1.66 x 50 million 😂 so could absolutely make a difference 👍

$80 a year is very expensive. I'm only a Plus subscriber because I want to play online. Probably not going to continue my subscription when it expires next year and will only re-subscribe when there's a online multiplayer game that I want to play.

@ArmoredMore but there's still only so many games to choose from and we know they aren't going the gamepass day and date route so idk, I predict it'll be the same slightly dated games that's it's been for a minute now. which, y'know all in all seemed fine with me especially when Extra came along but this thing where essential goes up every couple years... it's not for me. But that's pretty much every subscription these days which is why I generally opt out.

Again though, fwiw, Extra was probably undervalued from the jump and it seems reasonable to rectify that but bumping the bottom tier service up 20 bucks a year? Nah they're wrong for that. Just my humble opinion.

@Marquez most tech companies have jumped up over the last couple of days... there might be a PS Plus impact, but I would imagine it is a secondary driver...

@Member_the_game There are rumors of a new State of play this month. And here they come with an explanation for this increase. I hope they announce something spectacular to justify this price increase.

I've been a PlayStation gamer for many, many years, love so many Sony exclusives, but man, they are just all in on the greed this generation. It would be so nice to think they were investing all this extra money back into creating the amazing games they are known for, but it really is looking like it's just going into shareholders' pockets and live services no-one wants.

Here is the part of the calculus that people don't realize: the very same users that churn from the service are the users that will buy more games through the traditional means.

The money Sony potentially loses when a user drops from PS+ is the money they'll get anyway when that user buys a new game at launch.

Subscription services are great for companies from the recurring revenue perspective, but it's not a win-win scenario. Especially in videogames.

@EpicMouse I live in Brazil. Extra went up 40%. It's just disrespectful. No improvement pf service, no added value.

I have a PS5, just acquired an SSD for around $150. If I had spent $650 getting myself set up with a PC....

I'll keep my PS4 (going yo pass it to my daughter when I get a new TV) and will play the exclusives on PS5. But Sony is really forcing me to consider other options.

The funniest of all are the people that have money and don't care, thinking they are the main player base. Most people don't have the money, but these people to whom a $20 price hike doesn't bother them think the WHOLE gaming community is made of rich kids that live with their parents.

At this rate, I wonder ow long it'll take for the sony gaming community to be just the rich kids playing amongst themselves.