PlayStation Plus Upgrades This Summer To Take On Xbox Game Pass: All The Details
Sony has been reportedly working on an Xbox Game Pass competitor for months and, today, we finally got to see what the company has been plotting all this time. Sony has revealed that PlayStation Plus will be getting an upgrade in June 2022 that will introduce new subscription tiers with varying perks, including downloadable games and PlayStation Now streaming. The name of the service isn't changing — it'll still be called PlayStation Plus — but this is clearly Sony's answer to Xbox Game Pass.
If, however, you already know that you don't want the extra stuff and you'd rather just stick with the basic PlayStation Plus subscription, you can do that. While Sony is introducing new subscription tiers, the lowest — dubbed PlayStation Plus Essential — grants you everything a PlayStation Plus subscription does now for the same price. That means you'll get access to online multiplayer in games that support them, a pair of downloadable games each month that will remain accessible as long as you stay subscribed, discounts on games from the PlayStation Store, and cloud save game storage for $9.99 a month/$59.99 a year.
Souped-up PlayStation Plus brings a library of modern and classic games
This overhaul of PlayStation Plus will add two subscription tiers beyond PlayStation Plus Essential. The middle tier is called PlayStation Plus Extra and includes all of the benefits of the Essential tier plus a library of "up to 400" PS4 and PS5 games that can be downloaded and played as long as you remain subscribed. The PS4 and PS5 games will span first-party PlayStation Studios games and third-party games, but beyond that, Sony didn't get very specific. PlayStation Plus Extra will run $14.99 per month/$99.99 per year in the U.S.
Then we have PlayStation Plus Premium, the most expensive tier. This will offer everything from the Extra and Essential tiers along with an additional library of games that includes streamable PS3 games and PS1, PS2, and PSP games that are both streamable and downloadable. Subscribing to the Premium tier will also allow you to stream the games included in the Extra package, though it's worth noting that this functionality will only work in locations where PlayStation Now is currently available. Just like with PlayStation Now, players subscribed to PlayStation Plus Premium will be able to stream games to PS4, PS5, and PC. Finally, this tier will include time-limited game trials, but those seem like a small perk compared to the rest.
PlayStation Plus Premium is going to cost a fair amount of money: $17.99 per month/$119.99 per year. It's worth pointing out that Premium's monthly cost is a little bit more than the $14.99 Microsoft charges for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which bundles Xbox Live Gold with the console and PC versions of Xbox Game Pass along with Xbox Game Streaming.
Sony details new PlayStation Plus release date and launch games
While Sony wasn't ready to talk specifics about many of the games today, it did reveal a few of the titles that will be available at launch. We can expect to see titles like "Death Stranding," "God of War," "Marvel's Spider-Man, "Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales," "Mortal Kombat 11," and "Returnal" available through the overhauled PlayStation Plus when it launches, though that's a small portion of the roughly 700 games Sony plans to offer.
We'll see this new PlayStation Plus roll out beginning in June, though Sony says it will be taking a "phased regional approach" to this launch. Asian markets will be the first to get it, then North American and Europe, then other regions of the world where PlayStation Plus is available. Sony says that it's planning to have "most PlayStation Network territories live" by the end of the first half of 2022, so this roll out is going to happen fast once it gets underway in June. We'll let you know when Sony shares more details about the revamped PlayStation Plus, so stay tuned.