Playstation Plus is landing in several Asian countries, and its users are encountering the first stumbling block, and also an especially unexpected one: if they want to change their plan and either it is more expensive than the one they have or they have benefited from discounts, they have to pay the difference of that discount. In many cases, that can be a tremendous outlay.
As we know, the new Playstation Plus has three plans: Essential, Extra and Premium, each with different prices and features. The three prices are 8.99, 13.99 and 16.99 euros per month respectively, or 59.99, 99.99 and 119.99 euros per year. The problem: some of the users who have upgraded their Essential plan to Extra or Premium are receiving payment requests from Sony for the money they have saved on what they have already paid. That is, it is not calculated based on the annual discount, but through the computation of the months.
An example to clear up this gibberish: a user has 12 months of PS Plus subscription already purchased and active and wants to upgrade to the Extra plan. Apart from the 39.99 euros that you would have to pay, you will have to add 59.99 euros, the 4.99 euros multiplied by the 12 months of that year. If, in addition, that renewal had occurred through a promotion that had left the price below the official price, you should pay the amount you saved.
Especially affected are those who accumulated whole years when the new plans were announced and tried to take advantage of a discount card that Sony, by the way, warned that they were going to be blocked from a certain date. At the moment it is Asian users who are receiving these warnings, as some Reddit users have revealed, and also many tweeters.
The case of Playstation Now
Also, there is an extra problem with Playstation Now, the cloud gaming service that now disappears and is integrated into the most expensive option of Playstation Plus, the Premium. Subscriptions to Now that are still active in June 2022 will be migrated at no additional cost to Premium until the end of the time contracted in Now, and the days that remain in it can be redeemed for days in Premium (or Essential): 18 days per month or 183 days per year. What remains will have to be paid.
What happens then? As we mentioned above: if someone has bought several years of Now taking advantage of an offer (a risky move, everything is said), he will have to pay to upgrade his plan. In the aforementioned Reddit thread, the corresponding calculation is made: someone who has Now contracted until 2031 has to pay $430 to become Premium.
What option do many users on Reddit and Twitter propose? Open a new account and start from scratch. But of course, that means not only lose the benefits acquired and the money that has been invested buying future subscriptions of the account, but also the achievements and trophies that have been achieved through it. An unfair solution with the players that Sony still has time to correct before the service reaches Spain.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism