game market
Playstation Plus Premium: Sony presents games flat rate with over 700 games
With strong titles like “God of War”, Sony wants to make its flat rate palatable to gamers
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The battle for supremacy in the console market is entering the next round. In response to Microsoft’s Gamepass, Sony has now introduced its own gaming flat rate. But the revolution doesn’t happen for the time being.
It was a shock for the games market: when Microsoft made its game library on Xbox and PC a flat-rate subscription with Gamepass Ultimate, Playstation gamers could only watch with envy. After a long wait, Sony has now presented its own game flat rate – and is remarkably close to Microsoft.
Sony hasn’t reinvented the wheel, even with the name. The new flat rate is part of the established subscription service Playstation Plus, which is now being expanded to include two additional price levels. The streaming offer Playstation Now, which was previously available separately, is no longer available – and will be part of the two new price levels.
This is what the new Playstation Plus offers
However, the old PS Plus will remain. Now called Playstation Plus Essential, it not only keeps all the previous features – about two games every month, cloud storage for the savegames and access to online games – but also the same price of 9.99 euros per month (or 59.99 euros per year). Sony emphasizes that nothing will change for existing Plus subscribers. The service is simply renamed.
The situation is different for the two higher price levels called Playstation Plus Extra or Premium. Although they also contain the Essentials package, they offer numerous additional perks. Extra subscribers can download up to 400 games for Playstation 4 and 5 as a flat rate offer and play them at no additional cost. The surcharge on the basic level is moderate: Sony charges 13.99 euros per month and 99.99 euros per year.
Premium customers get even more. You get the streaming offer PS Now including 340 additional titles on top and can play many of the flat rate games for PS 2, 3 and 4 as a stream. As with Playstation Now, you don’t even need a Playstation for this, but you can also stream the games to a Windows PC. In addition, there should be the option for selected games to try them out in detail before the test. The price is 16.99 euros per month, for a whole year in advance you pay 119.99 euros. Sony emphasizes that this level is only available in countries where PS Now is already available.
Not a big hit
It’s supposed to start in June. Sony wants to slowly roll out the new model, first in some Asian markets, then North America and Europe. When exactly the new stages will also be available in Germany is not yet known. Because PS Now can already be booked in this country, the premium offer should also be part of the German subscription.
If you expected a real revolution from Sony, you might be disappointed. The group’s offer is based surprisingly closely on that of its biggest competitor Microsoft, and the price is even higher than the Gamepass Ultimate, which costs 12.99 euros. The only thing that’s really new is the option to test games before you buy them. However, because this will not be possible in every game, it remains to be seen how useful it actually is.
A major limitation is the continued lack of streaming of Playstation 5 titles. Many PC gamers may have hoped to be able to enjoy them on the computer without having to buy a PS5. This was not previously possible with PS Now either. On the other hand, the separation of streaming and download flat rates is good. If you don’t want to stream, you can simply save the extra charge.
Source: Sony