While Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft have been the three main console manufacturers for the past few generations, the companies do more than just produce game systems. In addition to hardware production, each company also makes games for their respective consoles, but the last several years have seen an increase in desire for the companies to also be involved with the creation of industry services like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus. As time has gone on, the services have offered more and more, but it seems like PlayStation Plus could use an upgrade in the form of a higher-priced membership that includes more content.
As it stands right now, PlayStation Plus subscribers pay roughly $60 per year for the ability to play most games online and are offered three to four free games each month for download. It's not a bad deal, all things considered, because the free PS Plus titles are usually relevant games that oftentimes include add-ons such as DLC. Some have speculated, however, that a higher-priced PS Plus membership that would give subscribers even more value for their money is in the works. If such a thing were to exist, it would need to really sweeten the deal.
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Perhaps the obvious answer for what Sony could include to make a pricier version of PS Plus worth it would be to bundle the service with a subscription for PS Now. PS Now gives subscribers access to hundreds of PlayStation titles ranging from much older PS1 games to some recently released hits via streaming. A PS Now subscription is currently priced the exact same as a PS Plus subscription at $60 per year, but merging the two for slightly more than $60 would allow subscribers to have the best of both worlds, especially if they were already on the fence about purchasing a PS Now subscription.
One drawback for including PS Now as a bundle with PS Plus is that it sometimes feels like it's been forgotten about by Sony. While there are plenty of new games being added to PS Now each month, the service isn't as widely advertised as PS Plus. This may be because many games available on PS Now require a steady internet connection as they're being streamed to the console instead of being downloaded onto it. This means that people with weaker or more unreliable internet connections are out of luck when it comes to playing many of the games on the service. Some games are able to be downloaded, but it's just not as reliable of a service to be all that's included in a PS Plus price increase.
The past year has seen Sony make a handful of partnerships with and purchases of other media companies. This past May, Sony announced a partnership with the popular instant message and community-building service Discord, with plans to bring the service into the PlayStation ecosystem. Earlier this week, Sony bought the popular anime streaming service Crunchyroll in a move that could potentially bring the site's anime communities together with Sony's gaming communities. Additionally, there have been rumors and reports about a potential Sony-Netflix partnership that would bring games to the streaming service. Sony has a lot of plates currently spinning across a handful of different media companies, so it would make sense if a higher-tier PS Plus subscription service included something from one of the many partnerships and acquisitions.
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It seems that the easiest deal to make happen would be one with Crunchyroll, as Sony acquired them and has a lot more leeway with the company as a result. This means that a free subscription to the anime streaming service might come packaged in with each PS Plus subscription. Similar bundles might also be available for Netflix if the rumored deal is actually in the works.
Because Sony's partnership with Discord is official, a Discord bundle might come to the potential PS Plus upgrade before Netflix. There will likely be a free Discord app available to anyone with an account, but Discord Nitro, the premium version of the service, will cost extra. The additional fee for Discord Nitro might be waved for upgraded PS Plus subscribers as an additional way to sweeten the deal. As there's not currently a Discord app available on PlayStation, it's unclear if Nitro will even be available, but if it is, pairing it with PS Plus just seems to make sense.
Although extra add-ons and bundles would go over well with much of the PlayStation community, it's likely that nothing would make them happier than simply offering more free games each month. So far, the free PS Plus titles for 2021 have been pretty stellar, with plenty of options for fans of all different types of genres. If a premium version of PS Plus were to include an additional one or two titles, though, it would likely influence plenty of current subscribers to upgrade. The games included in the upgrade, however, would really need to be quality titles that are worth the additional monthly price increase.
The monetary value of individual video games is sort of all over the place. The industry standard is between $60 and $70 for AAA titles and $40 to $50 for select smaller games, but when games aren't brand-new, they tend to lose their value relatively quickly. That's why it might be in Sony's interest to put one or two newer releases up on the premium version of PS Plus to incentivize new subscribers. While this might seem undoable from a financial perspective, one quick look at the sheer volume of titles that come out on Xbox Game Pass on the day they launch proves that it's certainly possible. Sony is in a much different financial position than Microsoft, so it might be a much larger risk, but it could potentially pay off if it leads to the number of PlayStation Plus subscribers increasing in a significant way.
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