Sony has finally taken the wrapper off of its Xbox Game Pass rival and it's a super-charged version of its current PlayStation Plus service.
PlayStation Plus has been around for some 12 years now, and while it was the first console membership service, it has begun to lag behind what Microsoft is doing with its Games Pass.
Sony knows this and has revealed that there will now be three tiers to PS Plus service, which will now - depending on the tier you choose - wrap PlayStation Now into the mix.
The good news is, if you currently use PlayStation Plus and you don't want things to change, then there is a tier for you...
PlayStation Plus Essential
PlayStation Plus Essential is essentially the PlayStation Plus service that is available right now, offering the following features (plus everything you currently get): Two monthly downloadable games; Exclusive discounts; Cloud storage for saved games; Online multiplayer access.
This option is: $9.99/£6.99 monthly / $24.99/£19.99 quarterly / $59.99/£49.99 yearly.
PlayStation Plus Extra
Things begin to get more interesting with the PlayStation Plus Extra tier. Here you get everything from PlayStation Plus Essential as well as "400 of the most enjoyable PS4 and PS5 games" to stream.
This costs: $14.99/£10.99 monthly / $39.99/£31.99 quarterly / $99.99/£83.99 yearly.
PlayStation Plus Premium
The third tier is PlayStation Plus Premium. This offers 340 additional games from PSOne, PS2, PS3 and the PSP (hello, PS Now). Cloud streaming and time-limited game trials will also be offered in this tier.
Price-wise for this one is: $17.99/£13.49 monthly / $49.99/£39.99 quarterly / $119.99£99.99 yearly.
According to PlayStation, "the new Extra and Premium tiers represent a major evolution for PlayStation Plus. With these tiers, our key focus is to ensure that the hundreds of games we offer will include the best quality content that sets us apart."
As for the PS5 games that will be available at launch of the service, you will get the likes of Death Stranding, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11, and Returnal.
PlayStation hopes to have the service rolled out to Asia, followed by North America, Europe and the rest of the world in June. The cloud-gaming element will be available in the latter half of the year.
Sony is certainly being more selective with the games it is offering with its new PlayStation Plus, especially compare to Game Pass, but it makes complete sense for it to merge PS Now into PlayStation Plus.
Whether it will be a true Game Pass competitor is something we will find out when it launches in June.
Here's something to get you excited about all the games you will be able to play on the PS Plus:
- The best PSOne games
- The best PS2 games
- The best PS4 games
- And, of course, the best PS5 games to play
