PlayStation Plus price increases defended by Sony
PlayStation maker Sony has responded to the recent PS Plus price hikes.
September saw an increase for all three tiers (Essential, Extra, Premium), with the highest tier becoming £20 more expensive for a year's subscription.
Since then, Premium has received free access to a selection of 100 Sony movies to stream, and the ability to stream PS5 games. Given the rising costs of everything at the moment, often combined with wages that haven't risen in kind, fans aren't best pleased.
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In an attempt to justify the changes, PlayStation's senior vice president Eric Lempel told Barron's: "We want to make PlayStation Plus great. With our reboot last year and introducing the tier system, a lot of consumers have recognized that there's a lot of value in PlayStation 5.
"Like practically everything else in the world, we have to look at our pricing and we have to adjust to market conditions. I'm happy to say, unlike a lot of other subscription services out there, we haven't touched the PlayStation Plus pricing for 85% of the world in many years. So, this was the first time we did something there."
GamesIndustry.biz reports that Sony's Games & Network Service, which includes PlayStation, made $26.5 billion in the 2022 financial year. That's 33% up from the year before.
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Given that, it doesn't seem likely that Lempel's comments will convince many fans that a 20% yearly increase is necessary.
The executive also reiterated that Sony is happy with the amount of day one games joining PS Plus. Unlike Xbox Game Pass, it's usually indie games that come to the service on release day, with the micro-transaction-filled Destruction AllStars being a rare first-party exception.
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