Sony announced at the end of August a considerable increase in the prices of PlayStation Plus which generated discomfort among subscribers. Despite the poor reception of the news among users, the company defended the decision and justified it based on market conditions.
Eric Lempelhead of business at Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), referred to the matter in a recent interview with Barron’s. The executive argued that the increase applied to the value of subscriptions would arrive sooner or later, considering the challenging international economic context since the relaunch of the service.
“Like practically everything in the world, we have to analyze our prices and adjust to market conditions. I’m happy to say that unlike many other subscription services out there, for many years we didn’t touch the price of PlayStation Plus for 85% of the world. “This was the first time we did something of this kind,” Lempel said.
Likewise, the manager took the opportunity to revalidate Sony’s commitment with the new version of PlayStation Plus. Let us remember that the subscription underwent a restart in 2022, after the merger of PlayStation Now and what was already known as PS Plus. Despite the initial expectation, the Japanese corporation’s bet did not bear the desired results in the first months after its launch.
One of the great criticisms made of the platform was the decision not to include its own AAA games from day one, as Microsoft did in Xbox Game Pass. “Putting our own games on this service – or any of our services – upon release, as you well know, is not a path we have taken in the past. And it is not a path we are going to follow with this new PlayStation Plus,” Jim Ryan said at the time.
The price increase of PlayStation Plus
Lempel argued that, despite the criticism, Users have been able to value what this proposal brings with it.. Especially since PlayStation Plus was subdivided into different levels according to the demands and economic possibilities of the public.
When Sony announced the price increase for PlayStation Plus, it said that this would allow it to “continue to provide high-quality games and value-added benefits.” However, the magnitude of the increases generated surprise—and anger—in users, since many considered it too abrupt.
The curious thing about this situation is that the increase in was not identical in all territories. In the US, for example, annual subscriptions to PlayStation Plus increased by 33%, while in Europe they cost 20% more.
With the price increase that came into effect on September 6, PlayStation Plus subscribers in European markets must pay 71.99 euros for the Essential plan. For its part, the extra variant costs 125.99 euros; while Premium, the most expensive alternative, requires the disbursement of 151.99 euros by year.
The PlayStation Plus price hike was announced shortly after Microsoft made the Xbox Game Pass subscription more expensive. This measure impacted both the console version of the service and the Ultimate plan; However, it did not affect PC Game Pass.