Sony has hiked up the price for PlayStation Plus, its gaming subscription service, according to apparent “market conditions.” The price increase begins in a few short days on May 20.
PlayStation Plus is the subscription service for console players, providing online multiplayer, discounts, special in-game content, and an increasingly long list of quality games in the Game Catalog–an addition that many players feared would cause the price increase that’s now a reality.
Price increase starts on May 20th
In an announcement via social media, Sony confirmed that the price of PlayStation Plus would go up. For what reason? According to Sony, it’s due to “ongoing market conditions”. This incredibly vague statement means the price could be blamed on any factor on Earth, something players were quick to point out across social media platforms.
How much is PlayStation Plus going up in price?
As of May 20, PlayStation Plus is rising in price by $1 for the monthly subscription and $3 for the three-month subscription in select regions. These prices won’t apply to current subscribers (except for players in Turkey and India) until their plan changes or ends, which is a small bit of good news.
The annual plan version of PlayStation Plus was left out of the announcement, which might hint at Sony attempting to push more users towards the yearly subscription rather than using the on-and-off monthly strategy plenty of players use depending on what games are available (this month’s major draw was EA Sports UFC 5).
Price increases for subscription services are always disappointing, but never really surprising. The only time a subscription has gone down in recent years was with Xbox Game Pass after new gaming CEO Asha Sharma took over and installed some major changes to the Xbox brand–including a rebrand to XBOX.
Though for now it’s only a single dollar more a month, these types of price increases tend to come in waves throughout the year, making gaming a more and more expensive hobby as time passes.
