Sony’s new PlayStation Plus service launched in select Asia markets earlier this week and the rollout taught us a lot about how things will work when it releases here on 23 June. We got a look at the entire lineup of games as well as all the classic titles and how they will work on PS4 and PS5. However, it seems that players are running into some issues with the new PlayStation Plus and it is costing them some money.
The issues seem to stem from Sony’s upgrade system that will essentially move your standard PlayStation Plus account to the new tiered system that offers free games and incentives every month. Seen as the new system costs more money, Sony has implemented an upgrade fee that allows members to move up from the Essential plan (the current basic package) to the Premium and Deluxe tiers by paying the difference in cost. Sadly, this “difference in cost” is actually working out to be a hell lot more money than everyone thought.
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Users who have managed to get the new service report that Sony is charging them quite a hefty penny to upgrade their tier. Some players also claim that because they had purchased a discounted version of PlayStation Plus, Sony is now charging them the full price for the upgrade.
For example, one user claims that they purchased PlayStation Plus at 25% off during a sale that cost them $45. Usually, Sony would charge the difference between the base price of the service and the price of the new tier you are moving to. For example, PlayStation Plus costs $100 for the Essential tier so you would think customers should only pay $55. However, Sony doesn’t acknowledge the discount at all. In fact, the upgrade is based on the number of days you have left on your account and not the money you saved by stacking memberships in the past. Thus, members have been forced to pay the full $65.
觉得索尼该倒闭的来点赞。我上次会员买了那么多年。你让我一次补差价续费，我只能说你该倒闭 pic.twitter.com/zQv8ywqwsA
— malove (@i31665960) May 24, 2022
Other users are also taken back by the hefty upgrade fee that comes from upgrading stacked memberships. If you have gone ahead and purchased ten years of PlayStation Plus, Sony forces you to upgrade to ten years of the new PlayStation Plus. If you have purchased two years of PlayStation Plus, you won’t be able to just move to one year of the new Essentials or Deluxe tier. You’ll need to pay for two years of the new service at the start.
These upgrade fees seem to stem from Sony’s need to recoup the losses they made by users purchasing and stacking multiple years of PlayStation Plus ahead of the new service’s rollout. If you have ten years of PlayStation Plus, it could cost you $600 to upgrade all ten years to the new service. Either that or you create a new PSN account without any membership from the start.
Users are obviously quite upset about it. A Reddit thread highlights some of the issues gamers are having upgrading to the new service. One user explains how he would have to pay a lot of money to upgrade his current 2563 days to the new service.
I have 2563 days left (7 years and 6 days) on my ps plus. Deluxe upgrade price is Rp5834134 (Rp2276.3/day).
If added on top of my purchase price (purchased before psplus increased their price in 2019, Rp350000/year) for the current stacked ps plus, my total price for 7 years of ps plus Deluxe is Rp5834134 + Rp2450000 = Rp8284134.
It’s more expensive for me to upgrade than to create a new ps account and subscribe ps plus Deluxe for 7 years = Rp1075000 * 7 = Rp7525000
Basically, they would have to pay R8800 to move seven years of PlayStation Plus to the Deluxe package. Seven years of service would cost roughly R7700 without an upgrade from a previous membership.
Sony has yet to comment on the ongoing controversy.
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Source: Reddit
