PlayStation Plus 12-month subscriptions are going up in price, with another £20 added on to the Premium tier.
Sony has announced that 12-month subscriptions will be increasing in price across all three tiers of PlayStation Plus: Essential, Extra and Premium.
From 6th September, the cost of a year’s subscription will increase as follows:
- PlayStation Plus Essential will go up from £49.99 to £59.99 ($79.99, €71.99)
- PlayStation Plus Extra will go up from £83.99 to £99.99 ($134.99, €125.99)
- PlayStation Plus Premium will go up from £99.99 to £119.99 ($159.99, €151.99)
That’s another £20 per year added on to the Premium tier, and a roughly 20% increase in the yearly subscription cost across the board.
Sony emphasises that buying a yearly subscription still works out cheaper than purchasing 1-month or 3-month subscriptions over the same 12 months, but it’s a big price increase nonetheless.
The price hike won’t affect people who currently have a 12-month subscription until their next renewal after 6th November. However, any membership changes on or after 6th September will be priced at the new level.
At the same time as announcing the subscription price increases, Sony unveiled the PlayStation Plus Monthly Games for September: Saints Row, Black Desert – Traveler Edition and Generation Zero. It’s hardly a banner month – the PlayStation Metacritic scores for these titles are 61, 61 and 45, respectively – which perhaps makes the price hikes an even bitterer pill.
Sony’s move comes after Microsoft increased the price of Game Pass at the start of August, with Xbox Game Pass going up from £7.99 to £8.99 a month, and Game Pass Ultimate increasing from £10.99 to £12.99. Microsoft has also removed the £1 trial offer for Game Pass ahead of the launch of Starfield.
Sony’s earnings statement for Q1 2023 omitted to disclose the number of PlayStation Plus subscribers for that quarter, instead only providing subscriber numbers for the previous year. As of Q4 2022, there were 47.4 million PlayStation Plus subscribers – almost exactly the same amount as in Q1 2022.
Read more: The future of games: subscription-based?
