Sony Increasing Already Overpriced PlayStation Plus Subscription Fees

It might be obvious from the title that this is going to be a little bit of a rant – and that’d be accurate. I have never liked Microsoft’s or Sony’s requirement for paid subscriptions in order for gamers to play with their friends online, but Sony’s brand-new price hike for PlayStation Plus has pushed me over the edge. It’s getting ridiculous.

Over at the official PlayStation Blog, an older post has been updated to reflect PS Plus pricing that will go into effect on September 22: Canadians will jump $20 to $70/yr; and Americans will jump $10 to settle in at $60/yr. What’s that cost get you? Free games, of course. Free games that many, including myself, never touch.

$50/yr PS Plus pricing is soon to go the way of the Dodo

One of the things I loved most about the PlayStation 3 was the fact that it didn’t have forced subscriptions for online play, and it was likewise something that bugged me to see go away with the release of the PlayStation 4. Despite it being an absolute requirement to subscribe to Xbox Live or PS Plus to be able to play online with your friends, both companies justify it by offering players “free” games – which they pay for via this subscription. If you ever cancel your respective subscription, you’ll lose access to those “free” games. How that’s “free” is beyond me.

Last December, I bought a PS4. A ton of my friends have one, and almost none of them own a gaming PC. I decided to cough up the $50/yr to play with them online, despite the fact that such functionality is completely free on the PC. I sucked it up because it was a choice of paying for the subscription or not playing online – something which would have made purchasing the console pointless.

I sucked it up, hoping that somehow, I’d find value out of the subscription – outside of being given the de facto privilege of playing online with friends. Up to this point, I haven’t found that value.

Each month, Sony offers a collection of “free” games to download, and on the surface, it sounds alluring. If you take advantage of all of the “free” games, that’s 24 per year for the PS4, or about $3 CAD per title. Again, impressive, but it’s really only impressive if you actually have interest in the games. Remember that these games disappear as soon as your subscription runs out.

I know I’m not alone here: I just don’t care about PS Plus’ “free” games. I’ve purchased the games I’ve wanted to play. Rather than shell out $70/yr, do you know what I’d prefer? Being able to browse the store on my own and choosing where I want to put my money – not just take a random selection of titles each month to choose from.

PSN’s download speeds are hardly impressive (26.4Mbps=3.3MB/s)

I might be able to understand the subscription fee a wee bit if I considered PSN to be a fast, robust network. But if it is, I’m not seeing it. Downloading a brand-new game can take hours on a high-speed Internet connection. Meanwhile, a service like Steam or Origin doesn’t require a subscription fee yet offers unparalleled download speeds. I have averaged that I get about 2MB/s when downloading content on PSN (I benchmark a bit quicker using the built-in test); on Steam, I reach almost 40MB/s. That’s 20x the speed for 0% of the subscription fee. How does that work? What in the heck am I paying for?

Despite being a free service, Steam offers incredible download speeds

Let’s be very clear about one thing here: Sony’s PS Plus subscription includes A) Online play; B) “Free” games; and C) Discounts on games. If someone doesn’t take advantage of the latter two, and have no interest to, then they’re paying a lot for a service that should otherwise be free. I am not sure how that could be argued: we’ve had free online play on the PC forever, and as we’ve seen above, PSN doesn’t help negate the feeling of paying for nothing by providing a fast network… when Valve can somehow manage it without a subscription fee with Steam (and likewise EA with Origin).

I feel like I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. My PS Plus renewal happens in December, and if I don’t want to give up playing Destiny and other games with friends, I will be forced to cough up $70 CAD for the privilege. For the record, that’s the price of an entire AAA game at launch. In fact, the three games I play most online cost a total of $70 (Trials Fusion, Destiny, and Rocket League) – and here Sony is asking me to pay just as much to merely play them online, rather than use that money elsewhere – even on other games – to feel like I actually got something for my dollars.

That is ridiculous.