The new PS Plus, a monthly subscription service with more nostalgia than news

27 Aug. (EDIZIONES/Portaltic) – –

The renewed monthly subscription service of Sony for your consoles, playstation plusdebuted in Spain on June 23 with three new levels: Essential, Extra and Premium, and two months later we have a verdict for the most advanced subscription.

The most advanced subscription modality is PlayStation Plus Premium (PS Plus Premium), it includes all the advantages of Essential and Extra, as well as access to demonstrations of new games and 340 additional titles of the Original PlayStation, PlayStation 2 (PS2) PlayStation 3 (PS3) and PSP.

At PortalTIC we have had the opportunity to test PS Plus Premium for several weeks. The first impression of this renewed service is that Sony has responded to its direct competitor in the home console market, microsoftwith a model that has appealed to the legacy of the Japanese company.

Sony’s reply has taken place after the current CEO of PlayStation, Jim Ryanrecognized at the end of March that it is unable to compete in playable novelties with Xbox Game Pass in an interview with the portal Games Industry.

This explains the prominence of the classic titles of his first consoles, including PSP, his first approach to portables. On paper, PS Plus Premium is presented as an alternative for those who especially enjoy retro games that they appeal to the imprint of the Japanese in the industrylike the PS5 tech demo, Astro’s Playroom.

Nostalgia comes with an asterisk in the case of PS3. The titles of this console are the only ones of PS Plus Premium that must be played entirely in ‘streaming’. Cloud gaming requires a good internet connection. In addition, this process involves the compression of the titles, which can lose quality along the way, and tends to increase latency, which hampers the player’s reaction time.

As they are not current titles especially oriented to competitive ‘online’, this toll is not too high a price to pay. heavy rain is one of the best examples as it is one of the most popular PS3 games, which is precisely purely narrative in nature.

The experience of enjoying this and other titles has remained intact, encapsulated and safe from the passage of time. The ‘streaming’ has not weighed down, in our case, any aspect: from graphics to loading times. We have not perceived at any time the difference between this modality and the local game.

GAME DEMONSTRATIONS ARE USEFUL, BUT INSUFFICIENT

Access to demos of new games is another exclusive benefit of PS Plus Premium. This function allows the user to enjoy a title for a certain time, which can be one or two hours, depending on the case.

Sony offers us here one of the few concessions in terms of playable news. The user appreciates exclusive temporary access to certain titles to decide whether to buy them or not.

This functionality is useful to enrich the user experience and the purchase process. However, it is insufficient as it includes only 13 titles at the moment, which also vary depending on the region.

STRAY, THE ONLY GAME AVAILABLE FROM THE START

Stray, the title developed by BlueTwelve Studio and published by annapurna Interactivehas so far been the only game available on PS Plus Premium and Extra since launch day.

It is not yet known if Sony plans to do the same with other titles. In any case, the company has made it clear that it does not plan to follow in the footsteps of Game Pass, so its weight does not aim to be especially significant.

OTHER ADVANTAGES OF THE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE

Beyond these exclusive benefits, PS Plus Premium offers, like the Essential and Extra subscriptions, other advantages, some of which were already present in the previous service.

One of them is the ‘online’ multiplayer, whose performance depends on the quality of the user’s connection. Another is the possibility of storing up to 100 GB of data in the cloud, which favors ‘cross play’ and continue a game started at a friend’s house.

The so-called game help is also still present in this renewed service, although it remains exclusive to PS5. This functionality is useful for those who don’t have much patience or are overwhelmed by a challenge, especially in puzzle and platform games.

To do this, Sony puts at our disposal a series of cards that contain clues, both written and visual, on how to advance in a level. They are a useful support, but it is still only available in some games, like Marvel’s Spiderman, Sackboy and Stray.

The PS Plus Collection is also exclusive to PS5 and is present in all three subscription modalities. It is a compilation of 20 PS4 games such as Days Gone, Detroit: Become Human and the God of War of 2018 that especially resonated in the previous generation.

This initiative can be especially useful for those who did not have a PS4 and did have a PS5. In addition, at the time it was a relief for the catalog of the new console in its first months of life due to the lack of new titles. This is no longer a problem, so the PS Plus Collection has lost some strength as a proposal.

Premium and Extra also include the catalog of Ubisoft+ Classicswith titles from the French developer and distributor such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Watchdogs and Far Cry 4among others.

The three levels of the renewed PS Plus also maintain the monthly games that Sony ‘gives away’. The user can always access them by downloading them, although you must have an active subscription to the service.

A SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE WITH MORE NOSTALGIA THAN NEW

Sony’s new PS Plus maintains features of the previous service, such as the games of the month, but improves its catalog with the inclusion of more playable titles in the Extra and Premium levels.

Sony has been smart with the renewal of a service that looks more to the past than to the present because its legacy allows it to do so. However, it is still not a solid proposal for the user who wants to access the latest news.

The inclusion of initiatives such as game demos in PS Plus Premium is appreciated, but its application remains insufficient, as are other proposals such as Game Aids.

In short, the renewed PS Plus is a subscription service with more nostalgia than news. A proposal designed more to build loyalty than to attract to new subscribers without compromising the viability of Sony’s business model.