New PlayStation Plus Plans Launch June 22

At the end of March, PlayStation announced some major changes to their subscription service, and the carrot is access to 700+ PlayStation games. There will be three tiers of service depending on what you want to get out of the subscription. For us here in Australia with our slow internet speeds, we are limited in what we can access out of some of the tiers, primarily to do with PlayStation Now features which are it’s game cloud streaming service. The three tiers of plans are Essential, Extra and the third tier is Premium for majority of regions, however countries like us that cant access cloud streaming will be offered PlayStation Plus Deluxe as the top tier. Here’s a breakdown of what each tier offers gamers and the Australian costs (as at the time of posting this article).

PlayStation Plus Essential

Benefits

• Provides the same benefits that PlayStation Plus members are getting today, such as:
  • Two monthly downloadable games
  • Exclusive discounts
  • Cloud storage for saved games
  • Online multiplayer access
• There are no changes for existing PlayStation Plus members in this tier.
• Australian pricing remains the same as the current PlayStation Plus and is $11.95 monthly, $33.95 quarterly or $79.95 annually.

PlayStation Plus Extra

Benefits

• Provides all the benefits from the Essential tier
• Adds a catalog of up to 400 of the most enjoyable PS4 and PS5 games – including blockbuster hits from our PlayStation Studios catalog and third-party partners. Games in the Extra tier are downloadable for play.
• Australian pricing is $18.95 monthly, $54.95 quarterly or $134.95 annually.

Premium, but we’re limited to the Deluxe subscription

Benefits

• Provides all the benefits from Essential and Extra tiers
• Adds a catalog of beloved classic games available in both streaming and download options from the original PlayStation, PS2 and PSP generations 
• Time-limited game trials will also be offered in this tier, so customers can try select games before they buy.
• Australian pricing is $21.95 monthly, $63.95 quarterly or $154.95 annually.

If you’re a PlayStation game of the PS3 era, unfortunately we will miss out on that cloud catalogue of games thanks to our internet speeds, which is a damn shame. Who knows what the future holds though and if Xbox can provide cloud gaming to us Aussies, no doubt Sony will come to the table eventually. We can only hope.

So when will these plans come into effect and what will you need to do? If you’re happy with what you’re currently getting from PlayStation Plus, you don’t have to do anything and your plan will convert automatically to PlayStation Plus Essential. If you want to upgrade to PlayStation Plus Extra or Deluxe, plans will be launching in June sometime. Sony is rolling out these plans in a staged approach to the different regions starting with Asia and then Japan. American regions will get these plans from June 13 and Europe from June 22, so I believe this is when we will gain access to the plans.

We will keep you up to date as we get closer to June and once Sony announced which games will be available in the catalogue.

#roundtablecoop