PlayStation Plus Essential vs. Extra vs. Premium: Which plan is right for you?
Sony has reworked its online PlayStation Plus service to serve as a competitor for Xbox Game Pass. The video game subscription service was making rounds on the internet, under the working title ‘Project Spartacus,’ and features three tiers with over 700 games.
PlayStation Now, which offered a back catalogue of select games for free per month, no longer exs. Instead, Sony has decided to combine it with Playstation Plus to deliver an all-around monthly gaming experience. As previously leaked games journal Jeff Grubb, the service will be divided into three plans – Essential, Extra, and Premium.
PlayStation Plus Essential
The PS+ Essential tier is the basic plan, which offers the same benefits members are receiving today, such as two monthly downloadable games, exclusive discounts, cloud storage for saving game progress, and the ability to play online multiplayer on the console.
Price also remains the same, with subscribers being charged $9.99 per month (about Rs 760). Those satisfied with the plan can also opt to pay quarterly on yearly, shelling out $24.99 (about Rs 1900) and $59.99 (about Rs 4600) respectively.
PlayStation Plus Extra
The comes PS+ Extra, which includes all the benefits from the Essential tier, and brings in a collection of up to 400 of the most enjoyable PS4 and PS5 titles. According to Sony, the catalogue includes “blockbuster hits” from their first-party PlayStation studios (exclusives) and some third-party titles as well – all available to download and play instantly.
This is valued at $14.99 monthly (about Rs 1,140), while the quarterly and annual memberships are led at $39.99 (about Rs 3,030) and $99.99 (about Rs 7,600) respectively.
PlayStation Plus Premium
And finally, you have the Premium plan, which as expected, includes all the benefits from the Essential and Extra tiers, and adds another 340+ classic titles to the mix. A catalogue of beloved games from the original PlayStation, PS2, PSP, and PS4 games will be available to both stream from the cloud and download separately.
Playstation 3 games, however, will only be available to play via cloud streaming. Additionally, Sony will offer members of this tier, limited-time game trials, allowing players to test out the titles before purchasing them. It is not clear whether the clock/days will start ticking from the moment it is launched and closed, or if it only logs in-game time, but is a welcome addition to the console ecosystem.
The Premium subscription is priced just a wee bit higher than the Extra tier, costing $17.99 per month (about Rs 1,400). The quarterly and yearly plans are led at $49.99 (about Rs 3,800) and $119.99 (about Rs 9,100) respectively.
At launch, Sony has confirmed a few games to be available on the PS+ Extra and Premium plans, while promising a library that will be “regularly refreshed.” The l includes Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding, God of War (2018), Mortal Kombat 11, Returnal, and Marvel’s Spider-Man (+ Miles Morales).
“We’re closely working with our imaginative developers from PlayStation Studios and third-party partners to include some of the best gaming experiences available with a library that will be regularly refreshed. More details to come on the games we’ll have on our PlayStation Plus service,” reads the blog post.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, President Jim Ryan was asked about launching new games on day one on the PS+ service, similar to Xbox’s model. He responded saying, “- putting our own games into this service, or any of our services, upon their release… as you well know, this is not a road that we’ve gone down in the past. And it’s not a road that we’re going to go down with this new service.”
“We feel if we were to do that with the games that we make at PlayStation Studios, that virtuous cycle will be broken. The level of investment that we need to make in our studios would not be possible, and we think the knock-on effect on the quality of the games that we make would not be something that gamers want,” he added.
