Sony has ended up ruffling feathers by announcing a significant PS Plus price increase alongside a pretty weak September 2023 line-up for the Essential tier. Generation Zero holds a Metacritic average of 45/100, whereas Black Desert and Saints Row both received middling user and critic reviews.
PS Plus price increase isn’t justified, fans say
Players took to social media and gaming forums to voice their frustration over the price increase and feel that PS Plus Essential’s September line-up only adds insult to injury. Some have vowed to downgrade their subscriptions to the most basic tier, while others are canceling their subscriptions altogether.
Fans are of the view that PS Plus Premium has yet to offer value for money, especially with a lackluster classics line-up (some regions don’t get PS3 games at all due to streaming limitations). Some of the classics have also been panned for poor performance on the PS4 and PS5, but rumor has it that Sony’s working on a revised PS2 emulator.
“Essential is dwindling in quality monthly,” wrote one Redditor. “Crazy it costs this much for access to online play at a bare minimum.” “And they tell us this [price increase] alongside THAT list of monthly PS+ games,” wrote a ResetEra user. Others echoed these comments, and threads about the price increase and Essential line-up are rife with criticisms.
It’s unclear how Sony will respond, if at all (we have some suggestions). The company is reportedly hosting a State of Play in September.
