Here’s when the PlayStation Plus revamp launches
Sony has announced the launch dates for its reimagined PlayStation Plus subscription.
The rollout will be broke up by region, with the service launching from late May through late June depending on the country. The dates are also targets, meaning they may shift in the weeks ahead.
Here’s the official breakdown from the PlayStation Blog:
- Asia markets (excluding Japan) – targeting May 23, 2022
- Japan – targeting June 1, 2022
- Americas – targeting June 13, 2022
- Europe – targeting June 22, 2022
If you need a refresher, the new PlayStation Plus will offer three subscription tiers. The lowest, Essential, offers all the same benefits as the current PS Plus, at the same price of $10 a month or $60 a year.
The tier above, Extra, will add in “up to 400” downloadable games for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. That costs $15 a month or $100 a year. Confirmed games include Death Stranding, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11, and Returnal.
Finally, the highest tier, Premium, expands that catalog by “up to 340” games originally released on PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and PSP. Premium includes the ability to stream games over the internet (using the same technology that presently powers the soon-to-vanish PlayStation Now). Indeed, some of these classic games will only be playable via streaming.
The new PlayStation Plus is widely viewed as an effort for Sony to more directly compete with rival Microsoft’s Game Pass. While the revamped service is closer to its Xbox equivalent, there’s one key difference. Sony has confirmed that it will not include day-one first-party releases, leaving subscribers to wait an indeterminate length of time before the biggest games join the service—if they ever do.
