Sony Announces New PlayStation Subscription Service

Sony has announced it will launch a subscription-based version of PlayStation Plus in June, with hundreds of games, including “Spider-Man: Miles Morales,” in the U.S., Europe and Japan, Reuters reported Tuesday (March 29).

The subscription-based version of PlayStation Plus won’t include new releases, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan told Reuters, but users will still find some of the company’s most popular titles, including “Returnal” and “God of War.”

Sony sold 17 million PlayStation 5 game consoles amid the chip shortage but has been behind the curve on offering a subscription service, according to the report.

The subscription service will combine PlayStation Plus, which has 48 million subscribers, online gaming and a few free games every month, with PlayStation Now, which has 3.2 million users and a library of games to download and stream, the report stated.

Subscribers can choose from three levels annually. The lowest-price tier, PlayStation Plus Essential, mirrors the current PlayStation Plus. PlayStation Plus Extra adds PS4 and PS5 games, while PlayStation Plus Premium features older titles, cloud streaming in major markets and time-limited game trials, according to the report.

Sony is excluding its new games from the subscription service in an effort to preserve new game sales as it launches the flat-fee offering, the report stated.

Sony’s subscription service represents the company’s answer to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass, a Netflix-style suite of video games with more than 25 million subscribers. There have been more PlayStations sold than Xboxes in recent years, but Sony hasn’t offered a subscription service until now.

Read more: Sony Expected to Unveil PlayStation Subscription

Sony was charged in May in a class-action lawsuit brought by gamers for allegedly behaving in an anti-competitive manner by denying digital download codes of PlayStation games by third-party vendors, including Amazon and Walmart. The lawsuit accused PlayStation of limiting game downloads exclusively to its in-house store in 2019.