The Tiers of PS Plus
Console gamers since last gen have had to pay a subscription fee to play their games online.
Something PC gamers have for free and still do.
Where Xbox has one subscription fee that covers it all including remote play on any smartdevice (and Samsung TVs) PlayStation have changed their subs model to three tiers at differing prices.
PlayStation gamers no longer have to be locked in for 12 months with the new PlayStation Plus offering ‘Essential’, ‘Extra’ or ‘Deluxe’ at 1, 3 or 12 month options.
Sure, a 12 month sub is the most cost effective, but, you know, maybe you’re not going to make use of online gaming every week for every month throughout the year. The 1 month I kinda relate it to a prepaid scheme.
Whichever duration you go for, the differing tiers offer up some very different features.
‘Essential’ is the cheapest of the three and will still give you free-to-play PS Games of the Month as well as online play for compatible titles.
‘Extra’ expands on the ‘Essential’ and offers up a full library of PS4 and PS5 games that are available as free-to-play for the duration of your subscription.
Then ‘Deluxe’ gives you all of the the above and a back catalogue of Classics, PS3, PS2, PSOne and according to PlayStation, PSP games.
All of the 3 tiers give you cloud based game saves too.
Having been able to try out the ‘Deluxe’ for a very limited time I was rather excited at the prospect of picking up some older PS3 and PS2 games to replay.
There wasn’t a lot on offer though as far as the Classics go. A handful of first party PS2, PS3 and PS One games but no PSP titles at the time of writing. I do expect that this will expand over time though.
So, across the now three tiers of PlayStation Plus it will now depend on your gaming tastes, whether you want to delve back in to the glory days of PS3 and PS2 or just play your new FPS online for a few weeks.
This new initiative also caters for all budgets. With ‘Deluxe being just under $200 NZD per year (12 months) and the ‘Essential’ coming in at just under $100 NZD.
If you haven’t had a PS Plus sub before but keen to get a few free-to-play games and join the battlefield online now’s the time to try it out without being locked in for a full year.
[paypal-donation]
Hmmm… what’s happened to PlayStation??!! I get that it’s so people aren’t locked in to 12 months and makes it cheaper for a month of free play, but their back catalogue of older ‘classic’ games has never really been alot. And games I bought way back on PS3 digitally I can’t see on their back catalogue and have never carried over in to my PS4 or PS5 profile. They’re gone. Are PlayStation are losing their way. No new first party games for a while. At least with Xbox – I still have all of my digital buys in my gamer profile going back to the days of 360 – and Xbox has a HUGE back catalogue of both first and thrid party games. C’mon PlayStation – this isn’t what we wanted, give us some new first party games!
Hey STG – I’d have to disagree with @Martin K. The breaking up of subscriptions is a good idea. Me and other gamers I know don’t always get the time to play online every day or sometimes even every week. So if I know I’m going to have a month or so of free time then I can just get the one month. I’ve never really been in to the free-to-play and true PlayStation really needs to work on their back catalogue of older stuff. There’s heeaps of excellent games that released for PS2 and PS3 (I’m not old enough for PS 1) but they’ve never made their way in to the PS Store. And there’s no point moaning about pc gamers having free play online. It’s a completely different form of gaming and pc gamers are different to console gamers. Just my thoughts on it. Love you site guys.
i think playstation is just trynna cater for all. thats not a bad thing. and who wants to play old games these days anyway?
Hahahahaha. Mariah go back to your baby games on Nintendo Switch.
@Mariah lots of gamers, new and old still jam on old Ps games. My 2 cents on this is that I can play Xbox anywhere, but only Ps at home (not that I can even get my hands on a PS5!). All my games available in Game pass, one 12 month subs fee for everything. Xbox is on track, Ps is going sideways ????
Hell yes! There’s butt loads of PS 1 & PS2 games I’d love to replay. Even if they havent aged well. But where are they??!! Not on the PS store, there’s almost nothing in the way of back catalogue. I tried one month of PS Deluxe – what a waste of money. Sony selling a dream that they aren’t delivering on. Xbox all the way.