A few weeks back I reported on the Playstation Answer to Game Pass where I gave some of my own estimations on pricing in Australia based on the already announced overseas pricing. Now, I’m pleased to say that PlayStation has released the official pricing for Australia and I wasn’t too far off.
In case you missed it. PlayStation Plus will be changing on 22 June and merging with PlayStation Now. This new PlayStation Plus offering will be three membership tiers to choose from, with a variety of benefits and game libraries based on the tier you choose. You can pay either monthly as you go, quarterly to save a bit or just go all-in on annual membership.
Here is a look at the value in each of the three tiers that will be available in Australia on June 22, 2022.
Tier 1: PlayStation Plus Essential
Enhance your PlayStation experience with core features, including online multiplayer access, two PS4 and one PS5 game to download every month, exclusive discounts, and more. If you currently have a PlayStation Plus subscription your package will automatically change over to this.
Pricing: 1 month $11.95/ 3 months $33.95/ 12 months $79.95
Tier 2: PlayStation Plus Extra
Enjoy all PlayStation Plus Essential benefits, and explore a world of incredible gaming experiences with the Game Catalog, featuring hundreds of downloadable PS4 and PS5 games.
Pricing: 1 month $18.95/ 3 months $54.95/ 12 months $134.9
Tier 3: PlayStation Plus Deluxe
Get all PlayStation Plus benefits from the other plans, plus game trials, and access to definitive games from years gone by in the Classics Catalogue.
Pricing: 1 month $21.95/ 3 months $63.95/ 12 months $154.95
PS Plus Thoughts
In the previous article I mentioned that I thought that Essential would be $11.95 a month, Extra $19.95 per month and Deluxe $24.95 per month. Pretty close, but happy to say that PlayStation beat expectations by coming in cheaper than those predictions by a few dollars.
Obviously one of the main benefits of PlayStation Plus is the fact that it opens up the system to Online-Multiplayer so there’s a great reason to have even the essential tier.
The monthly release of 3 Plus games to add to your collection has been great value, in April we saw the awesome title Hood: Outlaws and Legends and in May we grabbed Fifa 22 for “free”.
It’s also been said that PlayStation is asking developers to create “demo” versions of games to include in the higher tiers. Here we go back to the days of demos. Although Nintendo has seen some success with this format, especially with the recent release of Kirby and the Forgotten Land where the demo did encourage me to buy the full game.
Games available in the PlayStation Plus Collection are strong also with
Bloodborne, Days Gone, Detroit: Become Human, God of War, Infamous Second Son, Ratchet and Clank, The Last Guardian, The Last of Us Remastered, Until Dawn, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Batman: Arkham Knight, Battlefield 1, Call of Duty: Black Ops III – Zombies Chronicles Edition, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, Fallout 4, Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition, Monster Hunter: World, Mortal Kombat X, Resident Evil 7 biohazard
It will be interesting to see what major titles will be added to the new version of Plus in June. already announced is Returnal, Death Stranding, God of War, Mortal Kombat 11, Spider-Man and Spider-Man Miles Morales.
At this stage, The “Extra” seems to be the package with the best-added value for me even though it’s not close to the value of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate which for one year is under $100. Retail stores are selling PS5 games at between $89.95 and $139.95 depending on the edition you want and the store you go to. With that in mind, a yearly subscription with access to lots of games is still ok but it would be nice if this pack could have been kept under $100 for added family value.
