PlayStation Plus 2022, a year of transformations

PlayStation Plus 2022 it was a year of changes and transformations: aware that the numbers of the PlayStation Now streaming platform persisted in not taking off and caught up in the desire to compete on the same ground as Xbox Game Pass with a catalog full of content for PS5 and PS4 owners, Sony has decided to merge all the services and create three different subscription levels.

Of course, it wasn’t so much the commercial strategies that told the story of the last twelve months, but rather the games: from those available every month for basic users to those that have filled the line-up of new levels, giving life to an all-you-can-play platform of unquestionable value thanks to the extraordinary mix of PlayStation exclusives and third-party products.

The three levels of subscription

The new PlayStation Plus made its debut in Italy last June, introducing as mentioned three different subscription levels: Essential (€8.99 per month), which corresponds to the traditional PS Plus; Extra (€13.99 per month), which adds a rich catalog of PS5 and PS4 games to those advantages; and finally Premium (€16.99 per month), which in addition to including the contents of the first two levels, can also count on the classic PlayStations, extended demos and the possibility of streaming games.

Coinciding with the launch, we tried out the new PlayStation Plus subscriptions, and found exactly what we expected: an extremely content-rich platformof extraordinary value especially for new users, who can access an enormous amount of Sony exclusives and a host of quality third-party titles.

Twelve months of Essential

The announcement of the new PlayStation Plus came at the end of March and the Extra and Premium levels made their debut in June, but the first six months of 2022 for the Sony service weren’t just waiting, far from it. Also in this case the Japanese house let the games do the talking: In January we had titles like DIRT 5 and Persona 5 Strikers, in March Ghostrunner and the Legends expansion of Ghost of Tsushima, in May FIFA 22 and in June God of War.

After the introduction of the three subscription levels, the Essential plan has continued to offer valuable monthly content for the rest of the year: from Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time to Yakuza: Like a Dragon, from Need for Speed ​​Heat to Hot Wheels Unleashed, from Nioh 2 to Mass Effect Legendary Edition. There have been better months than others, it is clear, but those who thought that Sony would pull the oars in the boat in an attempt to push users towards the Extra and Premium tiers have been proven wrong.

The novelties of the Extra and Premium catalogue

At their debut, PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium obviously tried to steal the show, offering a list of games extremely rich and interestingwhich includes names like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Bloodborne, Concrete Genie, Control, Days Gone, Death Stranding, Demon’s Souls, Detroit: Become Human, DOOM, For Honor, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, Hollow Knight and Horizon Zero Dawn.

And then again inFAMOUS: Second Son, Killzone: Shadow Fall, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Nioh, Prey, Returnal, Shadow of the Colossus, Shenmue 3, The Last Guardian, The Division, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Vampyr, Watch Dogs, Wolfenstein: The New Order and Zombie Army 4: Dead War. In short, an impressive amount of titles for PS5 and PS4capable of guaranteeing thousands of hours of entertainment on its own.

However, by adopting the classic system with entries and exits, Sony was not satisfied with this initial set-up, introducing new content every month and excluding others, so as to guarantee the catalog the necessary dynamism to always appear different and thus attract as many new subscribers as possible. Following this approach, the last six months have been truly remarkable.

In fact, Stray, Marvel’s Avengers, various episodes of Assassin’s Creed and Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade arrived in July, while in August we witnessed the debut of some chapters of Yakuza, Metro Exodus and Ghost Recon Wildlands. Deathloop, Watch Dogs 2 and Assassin’s Creed Origins arrived in September, then in October it was the turn of The Medium and other episodes of Assassin’s Creed and Dragon Quest.

2022 was therefore closed in a big way with the arrival of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition, various episodes of Kingdom Hearts, The Division 2 and Ghost Recon Breakpoint in November, WWW 2K22, various episodes of Far Cry, Judgment, Yakuza : Like a Dragon, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, the two chapters of Middle-earth and Mortal Shell in December.

Meanwhile, the catalog of PlayStation classics continued to grow, although always remaining a little below initial expectations: the promise of being able to immediately have a large toy library of titles belonging to the era of the first Sony consoles was disregarded, but there is definitely time to recover.

PlayStation Plus in numbers

The idea of ​​merging PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now into a single service, adding to the whole a huge catalog of PS5 and PS4 games, as well as a decent endowment of PlayStation classics, obviously aimed at a growth in the number of subscribers to the platform, which to date has not yet managed to break through the threshold of 50 million users.

Surprisingly, the revolution wanted by Sony has not produced the desired results so far: PlayStation Plus reached its peak in December 2021, scoring 48 million subscribers, but this number then gradually decreased: 47.4 million in March 2022, 47.3 million in June, 45.4 million in September. Waiting to know the December numbers, it is clear and evident that for the moment the service failed to attract new users.

Future prospects

How will things change in 2023 and beyond? The feeling is that to break through the 50 million subscriber mark, Sony would have to reconsider its beliefs regarding the launch of PlayStation exclusives on day one in the PlayStation Plus Extra catalog, but it would be an extremely risky strategy given that first party games continue to sell very well and contribute significantly to the company’s revenues.

“Giving them” to subscribers, even perhaps a few months after their debut, would mean fully embracing Microsoft’s philosophy but could in many ways represent a road of no return. It is still early, however, to make this kind of consideration: we will see how the situation will evolve and what choices will be made to make the PlayStation Plus subscription even more interesting.