News broke earlier today that PlayStation Plus is increasing to £50/€60 next month which is a huge £10/€10 increase for the service. As soon as I saw the news, myself along with many other PS4 owners were not happy about this price increase. I think every subscriber in Europe should be furious at Sony right now over this because they are no longer price matching their competition, and are instead charging us PS4 owners much more because of their huge lead in console sales. Having that kind of lead allows Sony to have more arrogance, and that arrogance has caused a big price increase in their online service.
It wasn’t that long ago that the PlayStation online service was free, and PlayStation Plus was just an optional feature. It was an optional feature that people loved during the PS3 as it would provide some exclusive features and mostly recent AAA games as their “free” games per month. PlayStation Plus’ free games since going to PS4 have been kind of mediocre, sure there’s been an increase in the value of the games they are offering as well as offering more AAA content, but it’s not worth that kind of price increase. I mean, I would rather pay less then get games that I thought were “pretty good” or causing me to only think “I’ll give it a try” rather than be excited for what’s on offer this month. Every new month is going to be judged much differently with a price increase, and I will discuss why that will happen further in this article.
The biggest point I want to make is that with Xbox Live costing £40 and Switch’s online costing around £18, Sony has now made their PlayStation Plus service the premium service of all consoles. Now that is going to come at a cost for Sony, because when people pay a higher premium, they are going to expect a premium quality service, and a service which is much more reliable than what the competition is offering for a cheaper price. When something happens with PlayStation Plus, like a network issues, it’s going to cause a lot more outrage than it would’ve done had there not been a price increase because as mentioned before, subscribers are going to want and expect a premium service when paying more for an online service.
It’s also going to cause a lot of negative reactions surrounding the instant game collection updates per month (AKA “the free games”) because like the online service, people are going to expect better games from now on, and when PlayStation Plus has a month that is considered not that good, there’s going to be a much larger negative reaction towards it. You can even imagine what the comments would be already, “So we’ve paid extra for this crap month?” and even months that are considered acceptable are also going to be negatively received because like I’ve been saying throughout this whole article, SUBSCRIBERS ARE GOING TO EXPECT MORE! Not equal or less, and Sony are going to have to deal with those consequences of fan backlash.
This is a dumb decision on Sony’s behalf, and it’s a decision that even the biggest PlayStation fan in the world would disagree with because who likes paying for more of the same? I sure don’t, and neither does the many other PS4 owners out there who are just as angry over this decision today.
Make sure you don’t miss out on buying a 12 month subscription before it goes way up in price. Here’s were you can buy it for even cheaper than the current retail price.
PlayStation Plus 12 Months UK – £37.89 – Link
PlayStation Plus 12 Months Spain – €42.99 – Link
PlayStation Plus 12 Months Austria – €42.99 – Link
PlayStation Plus 12 Months Switzerland – €42.99 – Link
PlayStation Plus 12 Months Germany – €44.99 – Link
Sylmaron
Point is that for the price increase gamers will expect better games in the monthly lineup. This might bite Sony in the back if they don’t live up to those expectations.
Hans Wurst
The games the last three months have been pretty stellar already.
Sylmaron
Yes indeed but after a price increase gamers will expect that they maintain that level.
Hans Wurst
I assume that’s what Sony is planning to do, as one of their pillars to fight Xbox One X (if they’ll even have to at that price). They promised to improve PS+ and it seems they stick to their promise.
Fweds
They have one big problem and that is apart from 2 months Games with gold have been the better titles by far.
Sticky Notes
I think Sony is required to maintain their level of game release regardless of this. This is like saying Nintendo gets a pass on their games because their online is cheaper.
Fweds
So what’s their excuse for the terrible releases 2 months before the price increase ?
Sticky Notes
Not sure what you mean. We got Until Dawn, and Just Cause (which I am playing right now actually) and they are both stellar games. There is nothing to excuse.
Fweds
Talking about all the other months being mainly indie but now giving something more decent around the time of a huge price rise announcement.
Hans Wurst
If people go furious about something like this, how are the going to react when everything else will also become more expensive due to Brexit?!
They’ve just adapted the UK prices to the EU prices. TGG at its worst again.
Fweds
Stop talking rubbish, prices are nothing to do with Brexit, Sony themselves said that.
Stop trying to make excuses for a multi national corporation who wants your money.
ruefrak
Nobody was outraged when they added more consoles and more services to PS Plus without charging more. So now that things are balancing out, what’s to complain about?
Sticky Notes
So, TGG will have need an article for XBL since it is now the same price as XBL. They need to take off their bras and burn them while protesting until all Xbox fans are furious. Really think about this when reading this. If you want to be pro consumers, be more than just pro Xbox and think about the consumer. I know as Xbox ambassadors, you are required to hate on their behalf.
Edonus
Control that damage…… control……….. that…………. damage.
angh
http://origin.webcdn.theblackdesertonline.net/forum/service_live/monthly_03_2016/why_so_salty.gif.73783d6cf531d5a74347bd8c57b8a9c0.gif
Sticky Notes
Think about it…. then you will see that the PS4/Xbox One rivarly is more about accepting psychosis than anything else. Its like saying Microsoft controlled you so hard that you can only complain when Sony does it. Thats kinda sick right?
Edonus
You aint getting no resistance from these ponies. Sony gamers only complain about Xbox One.
WTF…. did this article just say PsN is more reliable and premium than XboxLive?
This is why real gamers don’t rust the gaming media. Of the top of the head xbox live has dedicated servers for exclusives, better sound quality, clubs, tournaments and 12 player parties. Even if he wasn’t going to be objective he could have just left out the part trying to sell and damage control this price hike like its because you are getting the best. We could have just said it was fair….. not try and diminish other services to justify greed.