PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium 2022 games: Was it a good deal?

PlayStation Plus Essential — what everyone used to call good ol’ PlayStation Plus — once again turned in an outstanding roster of free games for players who subscribe, and of course, players have to subscribe if they want multiplayer access.

But at the subscription’s new Extra and Premium tiers of service, which launched in June, it is, candidly, hard to see where the value is. This is because I am a PlayStation Plus Premium subscriber.

PlayStation Plus is not expected to be able to replicate Xbox Game Pass. A copycat would have to wait five years. But even the raw number of games available to PS Plus Extra and Premium members — most of which were inherited from the old PlayStation Now service — does little to make the PlayStation 4 and PS5’s add-on program competitive with Microsoft’s.

By year’s end, PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers — the top level of service — had access to more than 1,000 games. About 450 of these games are PS4 or PS5 games. They are also available for PlayStation Plus Extra subscribers. Rest are streaming classics that were available on the PlayStation 3 and older. That’s a lot of games, more than double what Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers currently have access to (thanks to the inclusion of the EA Play library).

But that’s also because Xbox Game Pass is curated, with games rotating out as new ones are added. PlayStation Plus Extra or Premium feel like Sony is trying to throw everything at the wall hoping that something sticks. It is almost impossible to find a top-rated game for $14.99 or $17.99 per month with PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium. PlayStation Plus Essential still costs $9.99 per monthly.

Second is the fact Sony is on the record saying it won’t launch first-party games on PS Plus’ upper tiers of service. That’s Sony’s choice, for sure, but it’s not like it’s roping third party publishers into launching on Extra or Premium, either. Stray, a console exclusive — and an acclaimed one, to be sure — is the only title to launch on PS Plus Extra the same day as its general release.

It seems strange that Sony would be such a holdout, when day-and-date launches are perhaps the defining feature of Xbox Game Pass, and especially when PlayStation Plus Essential has had no problem with day-and-date launches over the years — spanning titles like Rocket League to small indie games exclusively for the platform. PS Plus Essential had even two date-and-time PlayStation launches in 2022.

The flood of games added to the two higher tiers of PS Plus — 240 in all — isn’t really worth parsing out in the same way we analyze the smaller collection of PS Plus Essential games. Data points such as age (dozens are over a decade old), and whether titles can be found on any other service (many of these games have appeared on old PS Plus) are irrelevant.

This analysis will focus instead on what PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium could do in 2023 to make for a more worthwhile subscription, rather than dwell on what Sony didn’t do in 2022.

Photo by William Hook/Flickr

PS Plus Premium: Add Value or Kill it

The only real distinguishing trait of PS Plus’ top tier of service is that subscribers can stream hundreds of games to their PS5, PS4, or PC — but, importantly, not to a mobile device, as Xbox Game Pass Ultimate does. And the games that are available only to Premium subscribers — mostly PS3 and PlayStation Portable games at least a decade old — are not worth the extra $3 per month.

Sony Interactive Entertainment should either beef up the streaming opportunity — mobile device support at minimum — or simply extend what streaming capability they do have to Extra and do away with Premium. This extra level of service is confusing for customers and only increases confusion over what PlayStation Plus actually offers. Subscription numbers might rise due to the extra level’s generosity.

Image: Arkane Studios via YouTube

Choose a star for each month and keep it.

SIE’s approach seems to be to open a firehose of content, where their competitors at Game Pass have a more targeted approach. Notably, PS Plus Extra games don’t leave the library, and sure, that’s value to the paying subscriber. But the new game additions each month — the biggest opportunity Sony has to market PlayStation Plus — feel like more of a theme week, or an overload, than a buffet that guarantees you’ll like at least one thing.

Example: Stray’s launch, July saw four Assassin’s Creed titles — including The Ezio Collection, which is actually three games — added to PlayStation Plus Extra’s library. That’s along with Marvel’s Avengers The game launched on PS4 and PS5 in 2020. Final Fantasy 7 Remake PlayStation 5 In September 2010, the PlayStation 5 will be available. Deathloop’s availability competed with Assassin’s Creed Origins Watch Dogs 2..

You might be ungrateful for complaining that so many AAA games are available as a monthly service. But again, Sony’s shotgun approach doesn’t seem to be working, as far as distinguishing PS Plus or telling players what unique value the service has. In November, the company told investors they’d actually Loss about 2 million paying subscribers, even if overall revenue from PlayStation’s network services was up 10% for that quarter. That means some folks opted for the more expensive plans, but a 10% bump doesn’t sound like much cause for celebration.

Minimum, game additions need to fall within clearly defined genre lines. A sports title here or a driving title elsewhere, not an overflowing sea of open-world adventures that overwhelm a limited edition console exclusive launched only a year earlier.

Image: Bend Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment

Consider day-and date launches.

Sony appears to be firm about the fact that PlayStation Plus won’t have its first day-and date launches. But they’re putting out a product whose customer expectations have been set, for the most part, by Microsoft over the past five years. This might be fine in a 2022 when Xbox brought little to the table — but the disparity will become a lot more glaring in 2023.

If Sony doesn’t want to peel off a title from its stable of in-house developers, or if it can’t convince another big publisher to go in with them, that is indeed their business. Sony will have to accept that most subscribers are content to remain at the PlayStation Plus Essential level, just as they were at the beginning of 2022.