[GameFile] Sony is all-in on PlayStation Plus, says its most expensive tier is thriving

Topher

Identifies as young
PlayStation Plus is growing faster on PS5 than it did on PS4. And more users are signing up for Plus' highest-tier $160/year Premium than the middle $135/year Extra option.

That's according to Nick Maguire, vice president of global services at PlayStation, who recently spoke to Game File on the occasion of the pending 15-year anniversary of the launch of the PS Plus service (that's the crystal or rubies anniversary, per The Knot).

As Sony aims for increased profitability in its gaming division, the company is bullish on Plus. The three-tiered subscription deal offers players access to online gaming, piles of free games, some discounts, and PlayStation brass hopes, long-term fan loyalty.

"Engagement in Plus has never been higher than it is right now," Maguire told Game File.

Launched on June 29, 2010, for $50/year, PlayStation Plus originally provided access to a monthly offering of recent game releases, initially for the PS3, PSP and PS One (along with access to the PlayStation lifestyle show Qore …anyone remember that?).

In the years that followed, the monthly game offerings became the focus, with PS4 games added to the mix as that system rolled out. Later, PS5 titles began trickling in as well, as each monthly update expanded a subscriber's collection, as long as they kept their subscription going.

"We've given something like 500 games through monthly games over the years," Maguire said. He estimated 15% of subscribers have "hundreds" of those games in their own libraries.

An overhaul in 2022 revised Plus and expanded the program into a three-tier offering:

  • A $60/year Essential tier that included access to online multiplayer and new monthly games
  • A $100/year Extra tier that includes the above, plus a growing catalogue of PS4 and PS5 games
  • A $120/year Premium tier, including the above, plus an expanding classic games catalogue containing a mix of PS1, PS2, PS3 and PSP titles
That rework "surpassed our expectations," Maguire said. "It's really given us a new way to reach the audiences with these games, and it's given new value to partners to find new people to play their titles. And just the engagement we see from it is really positive, in terms of the number of people choosing that Catalog and coming back month after month."

As games (and more features) have been added, prices have gone up.

In 2023, Sony raised the prices of the three Plus tiers, including in the U.S., where they increased to $80 (Essential), $135 (Extra) and $160 (Premium) per year, respectively.

This spring, Sony raised the price of Plus in some regions, including Asia and Australia.


Sony's PS Plus features for each tier.
Two weeks ago Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hideaki Nishino said in a pre-recorded chat for investors that the Plus price increases had been "partly a result of increasing value we bring to the players" and had not slowed subscriber uptake of the platform. In comments that got a lot of play in the press as a potential hint of another price hike, he added, "[W]e will continue to add more value and adjust our pricing strategy in a dynamic way to maximize profitability."

Maguire said he had "no comments, no plans on pricing to talk about directly," when I asked about the speculation stemming from Nishino's remarks. "I think we just want to invest in Plus," he said. "We want to invest in the proposition, bring more value to users. And we're seeing high growth in Extra, Premium."

Premium has grown 18% in the last 12 months, Maguire said, noting Sony is able to "reinvest" in the service by adding features such as game-streaming on PS Portal and support for Sony Pictures Core. He added that "the quality of games, hopefully people will appreciate, is probably improving year over year."


PS Plus's "Classics Catalogue" is available to the highest-paying Premium users. Through it, Sony offers a range of games that demonstrate the breadth of PlayStation's 30-year history. Additions to the catalogue are not necessarily permanent. Screenshot: PS Plus website.
Sony does not say how many people subscribe to PS Plus, preferring to focus on the mix of paid tiers and expressing happiness about how things are going.

"We've gone past two billion hours of game playing in the last year across our first and third party games," Maguire said.

Plus subscribers are solidly transitioned into the current console generation. Some 81% of PS Plus subscribers own a PS5, up from 70% a year ago, a Sony rep told Game File.

Microsoft also doesn't talk user counts for its competing Game Pass service. But its subscription plans tend to get more press thanks to Xbox's splashy commitment to include new first-party releases day-and-date for subscribers.

Sony maintains that offering its next blockbusters immediately to Plus subscribers isn't a line it plans to cross.

"We've sort of stayed true to our strategy across the board, where we're not looking to put games in day and date," Maguire said.

Sony has released some third-party games into Plus on their launch days, including puzzle game Blue Prince in April and Remedy's multiplayer game FBC Firebreak this month. Sony's own games are added to Plus much later.

"Our strategy of finding four or five independent day-and-date titles—and using that to complement our strategy of bringing games in when they're 12, 18 months old or older—that balance for us is working really well across the platform," Maguire said.

Maguire said he had "no comments, no plans on pricing to talk about directly," when I asked about the speculation stemming from Nishino's remarks. "I think we just want to invest in Plus," he said. "We want to invest in the proposition, bring more value to users. And we're seeing high growth in Extra, Premium."

Premium has grown 18% in the last 12 months, Maguire said, noting Sony is able to "reinvest" in the service by adding features such as game-streaming on PS Portal and support for Sony Pictures Core. He added that "the quality of games, hopefully people will appreciate, is probably improving year over year."


PS Plus's "Classics Catalogue" is available to the highest-paying Premium users. Through it, Sony offers a range of games that demonstrate the breadth of PlayStation's 30-year history. Additions to the catalogue are not necessarily permanent. Screenshot: PS Plus website.
Sony does not say how many people subscribe to PS Plus, preferring to focus on the mix of paid tiers and expressing happiness about how things are going.

"We've gone past two billion hours of game playing in the last year across our first and third party games," Maguire said.

Plus subscribers are solidly transitioned into the current console generation. Some 81% of PS Plus subscribers own a PS5, up from 70% a year ago, a Sony rep told Game File.

Microsoft also doesn't talk user counts for its competing Game Pass service. But its subscription plans tend to get more press thanks to Xbox's splashy commitment to include new first-party releases day-and-date for subscribers.

Sony maintains that offering its next blockbusters immediately to Plus subscribers isn't a line it plans to cross.

"We've sort of stayed true to our strategy across the board, where we're not looking to put games in day and date," Maguire said.

Sony has released some third-party games into Plus on their launch days, including puzzle game Blue Prince in April and Remedy's multiplayer game FBC Firebreak this month. Sony's own games are added to Plus much later.

"Our strategy of finding four or five independent day-and-date titles—and using that to complement our strategy of bringing games in when they're 12, 18 months old or older—that balance for us is working really well across the platform," Maguire said.

That tally of four-to-five day one third-party games per year for Plus isn't set in stone.

"If there were six or seven great opportunities, then we would go for them as well," Maguire said.

(While Sony has been steadfast about not adding its first-party games into Plus at launch, I have wondered whether doing so would help with the company's unsteady efforts into live service games. Such games only thrive when a lot of people are playing, and inclusion in the PS Plus library would seemingly help swiftly give them a large audience. Last year, Sony-backed Helldivers 2 didn't need the help. It was a quick hit. But Sony-made Concord flamed out in less than two weeks and might have benefited. Maguire declined to share thoughts about how Plus could have impacted those games but said, "I think Plus has proven itself to be a great way to introduce new players to franchises. So I think there's always going to be a moment for any game where there's the right time for it to go into Plus, when it's ready to reach a wider audience or…to find new fans or new parts of our platform that it hasn't already reached.")


A Sony slide for investors from earlier this month, showing a growing percentage of PS Plus subscribers opting for the pricier tiers.
Deciding which games to add (or remove)
Sony currently adds, on average, a couple of PS5 games and a couple of PS4 games to the Essential tier of Plus each month. (June 2025's additions included last September's NBA 2K25 and 2023's Bomb Rush Cyberfunk.)

Part of the consideration, Maguire said, is "how do we create a moment to grow a franchise, maybe before a sequel is coming out?"

For the deeper PS4/PS5 game catalogue accessed by Extra and Premium subscribers, Maguire said the goal is to add at least two to three games a month, with newer games offered to both tiers. (June 2025's Extra-level games included the brand-new FBC Firebreak, 2021's Battlefield 2042 and 2023's We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie).

"They'll drop on a different day of the month to Essential and we just try to keep it fresh and bring something different each month, so there's something for players to come back to."

Sony also offers new "classic" games to its Premium tier of PS Plus. These can be from the PS1, PS2, PS3 and even the PSP. (In June, Sony added an emulated version of PS2 classic Deus Ex: The Conspiracy).

"We're trying to bring in one a month minimum," Maguire said of the older Premium classics. "Obviously there's a great emulation team in the background who are working on those with partners and internal teams, so there is a slightly longer lead time sometimes."

Classics released via PS Plus Premium this year included Armored Core (PS1), War of the Monsters (PS2) and Patapon 3 (PSP), though no games from the PS3. The PS3 is the one Sony home console whose games can't run on the hardware. They have to be played over a streaming connection.

Adding PS3 games is tougher, Maguire said, but the 2025 drought doesn't indicate an end of support. "Through streaming, we'll still continue to look at those ones." He added: "We haven't ruled them out. The opportunities are there. But there are a lot of PS3 games already streaming."

Some games, on the other hand, leave the service. That has included some first-party Sony titles, such as two PS3 Resistance games from Insomniac and Sucker Punch's PS4 debut Infamous Second Son, all of which were removed from the Extra and Premium game catalogues in May.

Maguire said such delistings are about balance. "We've got 80 collections of games across the catalog," he said. "So we want to keep it fresh and bring in new games. Sometimes that means taking a few games out at the same time to keep the proposition interesting and help people find new games as well."

Sony is planning to celebrate Plus' 15th anniversary here at the end of June, with discounts as well as game tournaments involving EA Sports FC, NBA 2K, UFC, Madden and Tekken 8. It's a "chance for people to compete together, win prizes and just celebrate and play together," Maguire said.

Some data from Sony….
Top 10 most-played PS Plus games this spring (April 1 - May 28, 2025) based on playtime hours, in alphabetical order:

Dead by Daylight

Ghost of Tsushima

God of War Ragnarök

Grand Theft Auto V

Hogwarts Legacy

The Last of Us Part I

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege

UFC 5

Sony announces additions to PS Plus' Essentials and Extra/Premium libraries every month on the PlayStation blog. Below those posts, Sony's commenters tend to offer a mixed reaction to the Essentials updates and more withering negativity around the Extra/Premium additions.

Maguire admits that he reads the comments. "It can be helpful to understand where people are at and, if we can, take that into our learnings in the future,," he said.

He said some negativity is expected because the company is trying to offer a wide range of games. "Because our strategy is about having something for everyone, therefore, by definition, there's going to be some people that don't want that particular month," he said.

The data, he said, shows many signs of satisfaction. Nearly 40% of Plus subscribers are signing up for the Premium and Extra tiers, he said, "mostly to play that catalogue, because it's where they see the value."

"I think we'll continue to listen and learn about what gamers want and try to bring more value in for them," he said. "We're very proud of what we've delivered in the last few year. And excited to sort of see the response and the engagement we get from players coming in."

That tally of four-to-five day one third-party games per year for Plus isn't set in stone.

"If there were six or seven great opportunities, then we would go for them as well," Maguire said.

(While Sony has been steadfast about not adding its first-party games into Plus at launch, I have wondered whether doing so would help with the company's unsteady efforts into live service games. Such games only thrive when a lot of people are playing, and inclusion in the PS Plus library would seemingly help swiftly give them a large audience. Last year, Sony-backed Helldivers 2 didn't need the help. It was a quick hit. But Sony-made Concord flamed out in less than two weeks and might have benefited. Maguire declined to share thoughts about how Plus could have impacted those games but said, "I think Plus has proven itself to be a great way to introduce new players to franchises. So I think there's always going to be a moment for any game where there's the right time for it to go into Plus, when it's ready to reach a wider audience or…to find new fans or new parts of our platform that it hasn't already reached.")


A Sony slide for investors from earlier this month, showing a growing percentage of PS Plus subscribers opting for the pricier tiers.

Deciding which games to add (or remove)

Sony currently adds, on average, a couple of PS5 games and a couple of PS4 games to the Essential tier of Plus each month. (June 2025's additions included last September's NBA 2K25 and 2023's Bomb Rush Cyberfunk.)

Part of the consideration, Maguire said, is "how do we create a moment to grow a franchise, maybe before a sequel is coming out?"

For the deeper PS4/PS5 game catalogue accessed by Extra and Premium subscribers, Maguire said the goal is to add at least two to three games a month, with newer games offered to both tiers. (June 2025's Extra-level games included the brand-new FBC Firebreak, 2021's Battlefield 2042 and 2023's We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie).

"They'll drop on a different day of the month to Essential and we just try to keep it fresh and bring something different each month, so there's something for players to come back to."

Sony also offers new "classic" games to its Premium tier of PS Plus. These can be from the PS1, PS2, PS3 and even the PSP. (In June, Sony added an emulated version of PS2 classic Deus Ex: The Conspiracy).

"We're trying to bring in one a month minimum," Maguire said of the older Premium classics. "Obviously there's a great emulation team in the background who are working on those with partners and internal teams, so there is a slightly longer lead time sometimes."

Classics released via PS Plus Premium this year included Armored Core (PS1), War of the Monsters (PS2) and Patapon 3 (PSP), though no games from the PS3. The PS3 is the one Sony home console whose games can't run on the hardware. They have to be played over a streaming connection.

Adding PS3 games is tougher, Maguire said, but the 2025 drought doesn't indicate an end of support. "Through streaming, we'll still continue to look at those ones." He added: "We haven't ruled them out. The opportunities are there. But there are a lot of PS3 games already streaming."

Some games, on the other hand, leave the service. That has included some first-party Sony titles, such as two PS3 Resistance games from Insomniac and Sucker Punch's PS4 debut Infamous Second Son, all of which were removed from the Extra and Premium game catalogues in May.

Maguire said such delistings are about balance. "We've got 80 collections of games across the catalog," he said. "So we want to keep it fresh and bring in new games. Sometimes that means taking a few games out at the same time to keep the proposition interesting and help people find new games as well."

Sony is planning to celebrate Plus' 15th anniversary here at the end of June, with discounts as well as game tournaments involving EA Sports FC, NBA 2K, UFC, Madden and Tekken 8. It's a "chance for people to compete together, win prizes and just celebrate and play together," Maguire said.

Some data from Sony….

Top 10 most-played PS Plus games this spring (April 1 - May 28, 2025) based on playtime hours, in alphabetical order:

  • Dead by Daylight
  • Ghost of Tsushima
  • God of War Ragnarök
  • Grand Theft Auto V
  • Hogwarts Legacy
  • The Last of Us Part I
  • Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
  • Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
  • Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
  • UFC 5

Daring to read the comments

Sony announces additions to PS Plus' Essentials and Extra/Premium libraries every month on the PlayStation blog. Below those posts, Sony's commenters tend to offer a mixed reaction to the Essentials updates and more withering negativity around the Extra/Premium additions.

Maguire admits that he reads the comments. "It can be helpful to understand where people are at and, if we can, take that into our learnings in the future,," he said.

He said some negativity is expected because the company is trying to offer a wide range of games. "Because our strategy is about having something for everyone, therefore, by definition, there's going to be some people that don't want that particular month," he said.

The data, he said, shows many signs of satisfaction. Nearly 40% of Plus subscribers are signing up for the Premium and Extra tiers, he said, "mostly to play that catalogue, because it's where they see the value."

"I think we'll continue to listen and learn about what gamers want and try to bring more value in for them," he said. "We're very proud of what we've delivered in the last few year. And excited to sort of see the response and the engagement we get from players coming in."

 
Premium has grown 18% in the last 12 months, Maguire said
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I'll move to the lowest tier if anything once my current sub runs out. Game pass I'll go to PC only. Screw this sub life.
 
I can hardly wait for the moment when the subscription no longer bows to the games - but the games bow to the subscription.
How many more years until we reach the "Netflix of gaming"? Complete with all the familiar downsides from video streaming: cheaply produced mass-market junk that exists purely to generate playtime, not quality. Games slapped together to feed the algorithm, not the players.

What happens when games are no longer art, expression, or innovation - but just content? Just filler. Trend-chasing, genre-recycling, monthly releases churned out and buried just as fast. As long as they keep users entertained - or better: subscribed.

And then come the constant adjustments. Games that aren't fully thought through, but are "tweaked" continuously because some TikTok trend demands it. Characters, stories, even core mechanics get "optimized" to go viral - not to be better.
Consistency? Depth? A coherent identity? All sacrificed on the altar of the next KPI.

Imagine playing a strong narrative game, only to find the story rewritten overnight because "act two didn't retain enough engagement." Or PvP systems reworked because some demographic converts better with more "instant rewards."
Creative decisions are replaced by dashboards. It's no longer design by vision, but design by data.

And of course: microtransactions stop being optional and become core to the subscription model. Why design a fair, self-contained game when you can keep players hooked with daily login bonuses, battle passes, and artificial grind? Long-term engagement through dopamine, not design.

The darkest outcome: a gaming landscape full of interchangeable titles that differ only in skin, not in soul. No risky projects. No quirky, rough-edged indies. Just "content" - calculated, smoothed out, anonymous.

At that point, will gaming still mean something - or just become a service we consume, forget, and replace?
 
they are hardly "all in", otherwise they also would need to offer day one and PC crossbuy like MS. They do just enough do not be really be in danger of losing against the GP offer. Also coasting on the loyalty of their customers, like myself.
 
The most expensive tier in regions without streaming is ASS. And Extra has been losing great game without giving similar quality additions, then you see subscription numbers up like that and you understand why Sony doesn't even try. If people keep on paying, they don't need to try and offer a better service.
 
It's fucking expensive, but I've been keeping a record of games included vs lowest store prices and so far at least it still saves me money every year. I also enjoy the demos in premiun, they've saved me money from lots of stuff I initally wanted to buy but ended up noping out and I've also discovered a couple of gems here and there. I'll probably stay subbed until it stops saving me money.
 
they are hardly "all in", otherwise they also would need to offer day one and PC crossbuy like MS. They do just enough do not be really be in danger of losing against the GP offer. Also coasting on the loyalty of their customers, like myself.
This says they're all in on PS Plus.
 
I haven't thought about re-subscribing to any tier of PS+ in the last 12 months, but I do enjoy how they're featuring more classic PS1 & PS2 games. Already bought some, more are on my wishlist.
 
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Sub services are a great way to catch a lot of games that you have no intention of replaying, just sucks that they had to price hike things while also not doing a better job of filling the catalog with better titles.
 
Out of the three consoles makers, Sony is the most consumer friendly..no one can convince me otherwise all while:

Nintendo kickstarted the $80 games club,charging you for gamechat and $90 for 480p camera.

MS is even worse with their $80 games, expnsive gamepass and less capable Series S,X being more expensive than PS5, Pro.

No wonder Sony is thriving, lots of refugees come to the winning camp.
 
Never once tried and never feel interested. With high price is way too much unlikely that I will ever try.
 
I wont be renewing this year. Ive reduced my Playstations to just one in my household so dont need to worry about cloud saves anymore.

The standard plus games can sometimes be decent but I dont think its good enough to warrant having a sub and I dont play online on PS.
 
they are hardly "all in", otherwise they also would need to offer day one and PC crossbuy like MS. They do just enough do not be really be in danger of losing against the GP offer. Also coasting on the loyalty of their customers, like myself.

Unlike Microsoft, they don't want to flatline their game sales.
 
The Sony way. Don't release exclusives, set record console sales.

Hey now, give credit where it's due - Nintendo just broke day 1 sales records with a new system that has literally 1 new iterative family/casual game and a bunch of ports that are still worse than existing versions.
 
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To give Sony credit, I've been surprised by how decent Ps+ Essential has remained.
When they announced the higher tiers I was sure Essential would basically go the Games with Gold route, offering whatever 10 years old indie game they could get for cheap to fulfill the "monthly games" promise.

But the quality of the content has pretty much remained the same. Over the last year there have been several months where I've found the games on the Essential tier to be more appealing than the ones on Extra or Premium.
 
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I haven't had a PS Plus subscription in years. It doesn't look like good value to me, but that's just me, I guess.
 
Sadly I'm part of the problem, I renewed my subscription on the most expensive tier thanks to the 33% off days of play even though I pretty much don't consume the extra features, in my country there is no cloud streaming available and the classics catalog is bleak without it. I'm guessing this is the fear of missing out on a future content, but I need to come to terms with the idea that to Sony, the current service is good enough since they are seeing it grows without any real effort.
 
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I can hardly wait for the moment when the subscription no longer bows to the games - but the games bow to the subscription.
How many more years until we reach the "Netflix of gaming"? Complete with all the familiar downsides from video streaming: cheaply produced mass-market junk that exists purely to generate playtime, not quality. Games slapped together to feed the algorithm, not the players.

What happens when games are no longer art, expression, or innovation - but just content? Just filler. Trend-chasing, genre-recycling, monthly releases churned out and buried just as fast. As long as they keep users entertained - or better: subscribed.

And then come the constant adjustments. Games that aren't fully thought through, but are "tweaked" continuously because some TikTok trend demands it. Characters, stories, even core mechanics get "optimized" to go viral - not to be better.
Consistency? Depth? A coherent identity? All sacrificed on the altar of the next KPI.

Imagine playing a strong narrative game, only to find the story rewritten overnight because "act two didn't retain enough engagement." Or PvP systems reworked because some demographic converts better with more "instant rewards."
Creative decisions are replaced by dashboards. It's no longer design by vision, but design by data.

And of course: microtransactions stop being optional and become core to the subscription model. Why design a fair, self-contained game when you can keep players hooked with daily login bonuses, battle passes, and artificial grind? Long-term engagement through dopamine, not design.

The darkest outcome: a gaming landscape full of interchangeable titles that differ only in skin, not in soul. No risky projects. No quirky, rough-edged indies. Just "content" - calculated, smoothed out, anonymous.

At that point, will gaming still mean something - or just become a service we consume, forget, and replace?
Games and Movies/Shows are different mediums; sure there will be a larger number of slop added to pump up the numbers but by the nature of gaming being an interactive form of entertainment people will simply refuse to play them.
 
I like the catalog.

But I hate it when I start playing a title and they say they're going to remove it in 15 days...
 
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Out of the three consoles makers, Sony is the most consumer friendly..no one can convince me otherwise all while:

Nintendo kickstarted the $80 games club,charging you for gamechat and $90 for 480p camera.

MS is even worse with their $80 games, expnsive gamepass and less capable Series S,X being more expensive than PS5, Pro.

No wonder Sony is thriving, lots of refugees come to the winning camp.
Didn't you just come off a ban for console warring?
 
it's the only thing they currently offer worth getting... 🤷‍♂️

outside of astrobot and returnal they've not really offered a whole lot.
 
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