PlayStation owners across Europe received a sad email recently, informing them that the price for PlayStation Plus was going up by 25% at the end of August.
On August 31st, 2017, the price for a PlayStation Plus membership will increase across Europe. In the UK, the price will go from £5.99 to £6.99 a month, £14.99 to £19.99 for three months, and £39.99 to £49.99 for a year. Fans across the UK originally thought this increase might be linked to Brexit until it was revealed that the price was going up across Europe. The countries that use the Euro will see an increase to €7.99 a month, €24.99 for three months, and €59.99 annually.
This price increase is also happening in Australia and New Zealand. PlayStation Plus will be increasing to $11 for a month, $34 for three months, and $80 for a year.
Fans weren’t totally shocked by the price increase, as a similar one happened to the US service in 2016. PlayStation Plus is now officially the most expensive of the online membership services for consoles. Xbox Live Gold remains at £40 annually in the UK, while the Nintendo Switch’s online service is free until 2018 when it becomes $20 a year. The Nintendo Wii U and 3DS will also have free online services for the remainder of their run. It remains to be seen if this price increase will have a significant impact on Sony’s current domination of the console market. The PlayStation 4 is the current leader in sales, with over 60 million consoles sold, while Microsoft has yet to reach even half of that. The Wii U only managed 13 million consoles sold throughout its lifespan, which leaves a huge void for the Nintendo Switch to fill in order to become a dominant figure in the marketplace.
The PlayStation Plus service is required for people who want to play games online. If you enjoy titles like Overwatch and Destiny, then you need this service in order to play with other people. You can still access other online services without a PlayStation Plus membership, such as the store or the video streaming apps. Having a PlayStation Plus membership will net you several free games a month across the PlayStation 4/3/Vita, though these can be of questionable quality.
One option that remains for people who want to pay for more PlayStation Plus at the current price is to simply buy more time on the service. If you purchase a month/three months/years worth of PlayStation Plus right now, it will be added to your current amount of time remaining. You have until the end of August to snag some more membership time at the lower cost if you feel that it’s worth it.
The price of PlayStation Plus will increase in Europe and Australia on the 31st of August.
