Sony Introduces an Updated PS Plus Service.

Rumors about the PlayStation Plus service update have been circulating for a while – since December of last year. At that time, the new project had the working title Spartacus. Finally, Sony officially revealed what the future holds for PS Plus.

As expected, Sony has merged PS Plus with another online service, PS Now, and introduced three different tiers:

• 1. Basic PS Plus Essential – essentially, the unchanged PS Plus. Subscribers to this tier get two free games monthly, exclusive discounts, cloud storage, and access to online multiplayer. The cost of the tier in the US is $9.99 monthly / $59.99 annually, and in Europe, it’s €8.99 and €59.99, respectively.
• 2. PS Plus Extra – in addition to everything offered by PS Plus Essential, this tier also includes a catalog of 400 games for PS4 and PS5 – both from Sony’s internal studios and third-party developers. The cost of the tier is $14.99 monthly / $99.99 annually in the US, and €13.99 / €99.99 in Europe.
• 3. And finally, the “top” tier PS Plus Premium. For $17.99 / $119.99 in the US and €16.99 / €119.99 in Europe, users will get all the benefits of Essential and Extra tiers, plus an additional 340 games for PS3, PS2, PS1, and PSP. PS3 games can only be “kept” from the cloud, without the option to download to the console. Additionally, users in regions where the PS Now service is available, the Premium tier will provide access to cloud streaming of games from the Extra and Premium catalogs on PS4, PS5, and PC.

In addition, in some regions where there is no access to PS Now, an additional tier called PS Plus Deluxe will be offered – similar to Premium but without cloud games (and without the PS3 catalog) at a lower rate.

The launch of the updated PlayStation Plus is planned for June of this year in select Asian countries, followed by North America and Europe. Sony promises to open access to “most other countries” by the end of the first half of 2022 – almost immediately.