Revamped PlayStation Plus Launches Today: Here's The Full List Of Games
PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now have existed, inconveniently, as two separate subscription services, both costing at least $9.99 per month. This made ownership of the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5's complete list of premium features expensive and unwieldy, especially if you have any interest in returning to classic PlayStation games from generations past. This is true at least when compared to Microsoft's much simpler selection of services: either $9.99 for an Xbox Game Pass subscription, or $14.99 for an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription that also includes Xbox Live Gold and supports both PC and Xbox game catalogs, and even offers access to Xbox Cloud Gaming on a multitude of devices.
Sony has been making plans to catch up with Microsoft for some time, sharing a brief teaser of the newly released PlayStation Plus subscription tiers all the way back in May. But now those very same tiers — marked Essentials, Extra, and Premium, in ascending order of included features and subscription costs — are finally available for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 owners across the Americas. Sony may yet prove itself against the relative convenience granted by Xbox Game Pass, but without carrying the same promise of offering "day one" console exclusives to those subscribed to the lowest (or even the highest) tier of its service, the all-new PlayStation Plus could still drag behind Microsoft's premium service in terms of raw popularity. For reference, Statista reported in January that Xbox Game Pass has garnered up to 25 million subscribers.
PlayStation Plus Extra hits the sweet spot
The best option for anyone looking to get into the PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 experience without shelling out an inordinate amount of cash for games will find such an experience within the PlayStation Plus Extra subscription tier, which opens up at a competitive $14.99 per month. This tier offers a catalog of up to around 400 PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 games, including modern releases like the "Demon's Souls Remake." It even comes with "Returnal" and "Death Stranding: Director's Cut," among many others. The full list, as well as the subscription portal, are both available on Sony's website.
Of course, it's still possible to pay for the same PlayStation Plus service that you may have already become accustomed to; this is included in the PlayStation Plus Essential tier starting at $9.99 per month, and it isn't notably different from the PlayStation Plus of old.
If you're more interested in playing older games, however, you'll find more luck with the PlayStation Plus Premium tier, which now essentially incorporates the benefits granted by PlayStation Now. Granted, access to older PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 games has been expanded upon, now allowing you to download certain PlayStation 2 games whereas previously you could only stream games across the network. PlayStation Plus Premium is offered at a consolidated price of $18.99 per month. You can instead purchase a three-month subscription for $49.99 or a 12-month pass for $119.99.