Playstation: Is Playstation+ Worth the Price?

While it’s only a few months old, Sony has revamped its entire approach to PS+. Initially, you were able to receive a few free games every month and as long as you were a member of the service, you could keep on playing them forever. Now with PlayStation Plus Essential, Extra, and Premium tiers there’s a lot more to choose from and of course, different pricing. If you were already a member before and don’t want to upgrade, your PS+ stays the same.

But just as with any other new thing, you want to know if the new service is even worth coughing over the extra cash to upgrade. In short, that depends on how much you game. If you’re someone that spends a couple of hours a day gaming, streaming, or just casually putzing around to pass the time then yeah you’ll find it valuable. The games they offer allow you to play a catalog of classics as well as some newer titles you’d normally have to spend $40-$60 to play. Then you almost feel obligated to stick with it knowing you just dropped that kind of money on a game.

More Playstation: Are They Copying Xbox Too Much?

At least with PS+ Extra or Premium you can try out other games you wouldn’t normally try, and if they’re awful move on to the next one. With Premium, some of the newer titles are trial only as they try and force you to still buy the game. However, it’s better to get a taste of something to see if you like it, then you can drop the full price of the game again. Especially with sporting games that release every year with little change, hopefully, it will save you some cash.

Where you really find extra value on Playstation+ is the older game titles they released from their vault. Just as Xbox released older titles on GamePass, PlayStation allows PS3 and PS4 games to be downloaded. That’s the best way to go if you want value for your dollar. If dropping $60/game seems like a lot, then dropping the $120 for a year of PS+ premium might hurt your wallet. However, that’s the most economical way to pull the trigger.

Rather than pay a monthly fee, pay for a full year upfront if you like the service. Try it for the month under the monthly cost and if you find yourself playing it enough, go. It’ll either be $17.99/mo ($215.88/yr), $49.99/quarter ($199.96/yr), or $119.99/year upfront (45% savings). If that doesn’t seem like a fair enough value, and you don’t buy more than 2 games per year, then no it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. However, and avid gamers should get their money’s worth out of PlayStation Plus packages.