Game, Complain, Repeat

PlayStation Plus has reached an inevitable impasse. Having introduced the mandatory subscription service to the PS4, if you wanted to play online games that is, Sony needed to justify the additional monthly tariff that consumers like me had no prior use for. An annual £40 surplus was a considerable investment, one that I initially felt was validated. Providing a select range of free games for the PS4, PS3 and Vita every month. Ensuring a more secure online network, an essential resource considering PlayStation’s infamous fallibility in this area. The capacity to save game data onto the cloud. All of this functionality was a clear and definitive incentive, albeit one passively enforced by Sony. But a lot has changed since then, most notably the price of subscription.

Being the purported “Sony Pony” that I am, with my previous statements advocating the online service that only further reinforces that sentiment, it can be rather difficult to accept failure in certain area’s. But I’m not so totally complicit with my allegiance that I can’t call bull when I smell it. And Sony’s currently inflated pricing of PlayStation Plus has a distinctly pungent aroma of a recently destroyed China shop. By increasing the price of admission you’d expect to be getting more for your money. In fact your getting less! Fewer games are now available monthly, with Sony depriving users of the PS3 and Vita titles. But neglecting to subsidise those loses by increasing the number of PS4 titles. Increasing the price by 25% isn’t so bad in and of itself, but offering less of a comprehensive service is! With only 2 free games being made available every month, with arguably only one of those being a recognised, critical title that most gamers have probably already purchased, PS Plus is just a antiquated reason to charge gamers to access online content. The only real solution to rectify this brazen manipulation of its fans is to incorporate PS Now into the price.

Comprising these two separate features into one comprehensive utility is really the only way Sony can justify the escalated cost, without further propegating the perception that Sony are simply greedy (like any corporation I guess). Its a mutually beneficial integration, one that at the very least makes the excessive price more alluring. PS Now as a separate entity simply isn’t viable. Its a service that really only holds a peripheral interest to me, as streaming games isn’t really practical considering the snail powered WiFi I have at my disposal. Though it’s possible to download games, it still doesn’t incentivize me enough to have it separately from PS Plus. But intergrated with it, to me at least is a much more feasible alternative.

With the announcement of the PS5, tentatively confirmed for late next year, PS Now should be a compulsory integration with PS Plus. This could be the perfect accompaniment. Permitting access to a wide range catalogue of iconic PlayStation games on a new generation of consoles. It’s the ultimate backwards compatibility. Something that makes PlayStation Plus a more inviting prospect.

Should PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now merge? Would you use PS Now if it were intergrated with PS Plus. Let me know in the comments below. Cheers.