As was rumoured earlier this week, PlayStation has announced it’s expanded PlayStation Plus subscription service. It’s still PlayStation Plus but it now will be split into three tiers come June 2022. PlayStation Plus essential (the same as what we know PlayStation Plus to be now), PlayStation Plus Extra which will add 400 PS4/PS5 games and be $14.99 USD a month ($20 AUD) as well as PlayStation Plus Premium (or PlayStation Plus Deluxe in Australia) which adds another 340 additional games including PS3 games that can be streamed via cloud (not in Australia) as well as a catalogue of PS1, PS2 and PSP games that can be downloaded as well as limited game trials for $17.99 USD monthly (24.00 AUD).
Both the PlayStation Plus Extra as well as PlayStation Plus Premium tiers will include games such as: Death Stranding, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11, and Returnal, with more games to be confirmed closer to launch.
The bad news is that it seems like the PS3 games which are only available via streaming games will only launch in the countries that had PlayStation Now, so Australia doesn’t appear to be on that list for June, although we are waiting for confirmation from PlayStation Australia. We will however get the PS1, PS2 and PSP games although it sounds like some of those might be streamed too. Due to the fact that this is rolling out across a slow timeframe starting in June, maybe PlayStation will roll streaming out to Australia by the time it gets here.
Same price
$14.99 USD per month (roughly $17.99 AUD) / $99 USD yearly (roughly $131 AUD)
$17.99 USD per month (roughly $23.99 AUD) / $119.99 USD yearly (roughly $160 AUD) – set to be discounted
The new Extra and Premium tiers represent a major evolution for PlayStation Plus. With these tiers, our key focus is to ensure that the hundreds of games we offer will include the best quality content that sets us apart. At launch, we plan to include titles such as Death Stranding, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11, and Returnal. We’re working closely 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 new PlayStation Plus service.
When the new PlayStation Plus service launches, PlayStation Now will transition into the new PlayStation Plus offering and will no longer be available as a standalone service. PlayStation Now customers will migrate over to PlayStation Plus Premium with no increase to their current subscription fees at launch.
As this is a massive launch effort, we’re rolling out the new PlayStation Plus offering in a phased regional approach. In the June timeframe, we’ll begin with an initial launch in several markets in Asia, followed by North America, Europe and the rest of the world where PlayStation Plus is offered. We aim to have most PlayStation Network territories live with our new PlayStation Plus game subscription service by the end of the first half of 2022. We also plan to expand our cloud streaming benefit to additional markets, and will provide more details at a later date.
Building upon more than 25 years of expertise in gaming innovation, this change to our subscription services highlights our continued efforts to evolve our network services business to match our customer’s preferences. With the all-new PlayStation Plus, we’re focused on delivering a compelling game subscription service with curated content from our exclusive PlayStation Studios team and our third-party partners. The newly enhanced PlayStation Plus will enable our fans to discover and engage with more content than ever before, and deepen their connection with the PlayStation community through shared experiences.