Sony's PlayStation Plus service is getting a much-needed and long-overdue overhaul. For a start, the unloved child PS Now service is finally being folded in to the mix, with the new PS Plus offering three tiers, with the top tier add streaming classics including PS1, PS2 and PSP, but no Vita games.
The updated tiers, launching in June, include:
PlayStation Plus Essential (£6.99 monthly / £19.99 quarterly / £49.99 yearly) same as the current offering.
PlayStation Plus Extra (£10.99 monthly / £31.99 quarterly / £83.99 yearly) adding a hefty catalogue of around 400 recent (but not brand new) PS4 and PS5 games to download. These will include "blockbuster hits (like Returnal and Death Stranding) from our PlayStation Studios catalogue and third-party partners."
PlayStation Plus Premium (£13.49 monthly / £39.99 quarterly / £99.99 yearly) goes further, with around 340 more titles, streaming using the PS Now system if they are PS3 games, while PS1, PS2 and PSP classics can be downloaded or streamed.
Given the shrug-and-never-bother nature of recent months' PS+ updates, here's hoping the key monthly titles also get a kick up the arse.
There's also the rather feeble offering of time-limited game trials. No word on how this changes any existing PS Plus entitlements, likely it won't, but it wouldn't be Sony if they didn't mess something up. In price terms, I'd wait until a PSN Black Friday or New Year sale, when I think the annual subscription will be the best deal.
From the PSP stable, expect the usual suspects like the best Ridge Racer ever, plus God of War and Killzone titles, while The 3rd Birthday, Persona 3 Portable GTA and Monster Hunter from third parties would be great. But I guess most of us play those on our PSPs and Vitas, so this isn't massive news.
As another small plus, by downloading PS2 games to the PS4, hopefully we can remote play them on the Vita.
The lack of Vita games is likely down to compatibility issues with the touchscreens, but there has to be some DualShock/DualSense workaround, and 100s of games that don't use either screen. Or is Sony really going to condemn all those titles to history?
