Right off the bat, I can tell you that it’s definitely not PlayStation gamers. Sony announced today that they will be raising subscription prices of PlayStation Plus starting May 20th due to the ongoing market conditions. In other words, Monthly Essential subscriptions will cost $10.99 instead of $9.99, while three months of the service will require $27.99 instead of $24.99. Not as bad as you thought, right? Well, at least not when you compare it to what Microsoft did.
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Xbox Game Pass Ultimate was reduced from $29.99 per month to a whopping $22.99 per month, while PC Game Pass will now cost users $13.99 instead of $16.49. Sure, the subscription won’t include Call of Duty anymore, but hey, you still get everything else for a lot cheaper. Microsoft made its move and framed it as a win for subscribers. Sony, meanwhile, is pointing at “market conditions” and asking you to pay more. The optics could not be more different.
Of course, Sony isn’t completely wrong about costs increasing. Memory shortages, spurred on by the AI boom, have pushed component costs up all around the world, and Sony’s CFO had already warned that the company would increase network service costs to mitigate that pressure. It makes sense. The problem with that, however, is that it’s terrible timing. After already raising prices on PS5 consoles in March for some models by as much as $200, anyone entering the PlayStation world is now being asked to pay more at every single access point.
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That, of course, is exactly why Microsoft knows where to stick their blade. The new Xbox CEO at Microsoft has worked to rebrand the Game Pass as the value offering, and Sony has now gifted them one of the most straightforward marketing messages they could possibly use. Game Pass Ultimate includes game passes for consoles, PC, cloud gaming, online multiplayer, and EA Play and it has got even cheaper. The online multiplayer paywall that is PS Plus Essential just got even more expensive.
Where exactly does PS Plus come out ahead? Exclusives and ecosystem lock-in. If you are a PlayStation-first gamer – which, let’s be honest, most PlayStation gamers are – this will not be enough of an incentive to jump ship to the other side simply due to the extra dollar. Sony is aware of this and this price increase was based on exactly this notion, that PS Plus subscribers are too sticky for their own good and can handle paying an extra dollar per month.
But while “sticky” customers are great, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are happy ones. The gamer response to the PS Plus price increase has been swift and negative, and comparing it to the Xbox price decrease was inevitable. Sony has the better exclusives while Microsoft has the better deal. So for me, Microsoft wins the narrative right now and that matters almost as much as the price tag.
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