Sony’s PlayStation Plus subscription is ten years old
Monday marks exactly ten years since Sony introduced its paid PlayStation Plus subscription. Initially, that subscription offered extras like a number of free games per month. On the PlayStation 4, the subscription is required to play multiplayer games.
Sony announced its PlayStation Plus subscription during the E3 games show in mid-June 2010. At the end of that month, the subscription was available for fifty euros per year or fifteen euros per quarter. Subscribers got free games and extra features, such as automatic updates for the PlayStation 3. One of the first games Sony gave to PS Plus subscribers was WipeOut HD.
In 2011, a new feature came to PlayStation Plus; subscribers could then save savegames of PS3 games online. 150MB of storage space was available for this. Later that was increased to 10GB and since the beginning of 2019 users have 100GB of space for savegames.
In the PlayStation 3 era, the subscription was not required to play multiplayer games. Competitor Microsoft required the paid Xbox Live Gold subscription for this. With the introduction of the PlayStation 4 in 2013, Sony followed Microsoft’s lead. The PlayStation Plus subscription is required to play multiplayer games on the PS4.
In 2015, Sony increased the price of the quarterly subscription from fifteen to twenty euros per three months. The price of the annual subscription remained unchanged. That also changed in 2017. Then Sony raised the price for an annual subscription to sixty euros. That is also the current suggested retail price.
In 2015, Sony introduced the Vote to Play concept, where PS Plus members could vote for a number of games to determine which titles would become available. That initiative was scrapped a year later.
For years, PlayStation Plus members received two games each month for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 as well as the PlayStation Vita handheld. That came to an end in 2019. Since then, members only get PS4 games. That drop from six to two monthly games drew criticism from members. Despite this, the subscription remains a success for Sony. At the presentation of the quarterly figures in May, the console manufacturer announced that there are 41.5 million paying members.
Sony is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of its PlayStation Plus subscription with the release of an additional PlayStation 4 game this month. Subscribers get NBA 2K20, Rise of the Tomb Raider and the interactive movie Erica as a bonus game. A free PS4 theme will also be available with the 10-year anniversary of PlayStation Plus as the theme.