All-New PlayStation Plus Game List
Features Gaming News PlayStation Tech

How The New PlayStation Plus Works in South Africa

Sony’s all-new PlayStation Plus service is officially live in South Africa and while fans are excited to jump into the three available tiers, understanding how the new system works and how to upgrade your membership to a higher tier is extremely confusing.

The new PlayStation Plus service offers three tiers to gamers. Each one comes with its own perks and games. The important thing to note is everyone who previously had a PS+ membership is now officially an “Essential” member. The Essential tier comes with all the perks you previously had including online multiplayer, game discounts and free monthly games. However, the other two tiers, “Extra” and “Deluxe” also have their own cool incentives.

If you want to check out our entire game list available on PlayStation Plus in SA follow this link here. 

To catch you up, here’s a breakdown of the three tiers and what they each offer.

  • Essential
    • 1 month R 119.00
    • 3 months R 319.00
    • 12 months R 749.00
  • Extra
    • 1 month R 179.00
    • 3 months R 519.00
    • 2 months R 1,239.00
  • Deluxe
    • 1 month R 209.00
    • 3 months R 609.00
    • 12 months R 1,429.00
Essential Extra Deluxe
Monthly Games Monthly Games Monthly Games
Online Multiplayer Online Multiplayer Online Multiplayer
Exclusive Discounts Exclusive Discounts Exclusive Discounts
Exclusive Content Exclusive Content Exclusive Content
Cloud Storage Cloud Storage Cloud Storage
Share Play Share Play Share Play
PS Plus Collection PS Plus Collection PS Plus Collection
Game Help Game Help Game Help
Game Library Game Trials
Game Catalog
Classics Catalog*
Game Trials

*Classics Catalogue does not include PS3 titles through cloud streaming on the Deluxe tier.

Moving from the PlayStation Plus Essentials tier to Extra and Deluxe is quite simple but the process of converting your current time left on the service to the new tiers can be daunting. Basically, when moving from the Essential tier to Extra or Deluxe, your current subscription that you have left as a PS+ member is converted to the new tier at a different rate.

For example, suppose you have 12 months of PlayStation Plus Essential left. In that case, this will be converted into 6 months of PlayStation Plus Deluxe and 9 months of PlayStation Plus Extra (a rough estimate as Sony converts the actual days left and not the month duration). Sony works this out as the following:

  • PS+ 1 Month
    • 30 days of Deluxe – 18 days of Essential
    • 30 days of Extra – 20 days of Essential
    • 30 days of Essential – 30 of Essential
  • PS+ 3 Month
    • 92 days of Deluxe – 49 days of Essential
    • 92 days of Extra – 58 days of Essential
    • 92 days of Essential – 92 of Essential
  • PS+ 12 Month 
    • 365 days of Deluxe – 191 days of Essential
    • 365 days of Extra – 220 days of Essential
    • 365 days of Essential – 365 of Essential

So using that above, you can roughly work out how many days of the new service you will get when taking your current time left and moving to the new tier. However, it isn’t as easy as getting credited with the new membership. Instead, Sony upgrades your membership from the exact duration you have left on Essential to the same duration on the new tier.

This means if you’re upgrading from 12 months left on Essential to Deluxe, you’ll need to go to a 12-month membership on Deluxe. You can’t simply get six months (worked out using the day value above).

Sony then takes your current membership and gives you pro-rata for whatever you have left. Users then need to pay the difference between that and the upgraded duration. For example:

A rough estimate based on monthly conversion rates

  • 12 months of Essential = 6 months of Deluxe pro-rata / 6 months of Deluxe costs R609
    • You’ll have to pay R609 to get a full year of PS+ Deluxe
  • 24 months of Essential = 12 months of Deluxe pro-rata / 12 months of deluxe costs R1,439
    • You’ll have to pay R1,439 to convert your 24 months of Essential to 12 months of Deluxe

So I had to pay R35 to convert my current remaining 18 days of Essential PlayStation Plus to the new Deluxe tier. It works out to around R2 a day so, with that in mind, you can kind of calculate what you are going to pay.

Once upgraded, you will be charged for the full-service cost when your remaining days come to an end. For example, my Essential had 18 days and now my Deluxe also has 18 days (because I paid to upgrade them). This means on 11 July I will be charged R1,429 (fml).

PlayStation Plus South Africa

How to Upgrade Your PlayStation Plus Membership

Going from the base Essential package to Extra or Deluxe is pretty simple. When the service is live, simply follow the steps below depending on your platform:

PS5 and PS4

  • Go to the PlayStation Plus Icon on the left side of your home screen or in the PlayStation Store on PS4
  • Choose the “Upgrade” option from the menu
  • A screen will display your conversion rate depending on how many days you have left
  • Click on the package you want to move to and proceed with entering your password to complete the upgrade

From a Web Browser

  • Head over to the PlayStation Store and click on your profile image in the top corner
  • Click on subscriptions management and click on change
  • Choose the plan you want to move to by looking at the upgrade fee depending on the time you have left.

Check out the full list of games here and find out more about the service on the official site here. 

Marco is the owner and founder of GLITCHED. South Africa’s largest gaming and pop culture website. GLITCHED quickly established itself with tech and gaming enthusiasts with on-point opinions, quick coverage of breaking events and unbiased reviews across its website, social platforms, and YouTube channel.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *