PS Plus Subscription Fees Rising In Select Regions

Sony is raising the cost of a PS Plus subscription in select regions including South Africa, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and India.

Multiple IGN readers tipped us off to the move, which Sony has since confirmed, citing "market conditions" while promising "currently, price adjustments are not being planned for PS Plus in the SCEA [North American] region." We've reached out to the company to determine if we should expect similar hikes in the UK or anywhere else in Europe and will update when we know more.

Particularly worrying is the fact that South African subscribers were given just 24 hours notice of the change, after which the cost of a three-month subscription jumped 51 percent from R145 to R219 ($12.88 to $19.46), with a year-long subscription rising 53 percent from R489 to R749 ($43.45 to $66.55). Hopefully more notice will be given should a similar move happen elsewhere.

[buyakabuyaka6199]

If you are increasing fees then please make PSN better sony.

[donthate]

I think it is pretty messed up to raise the subscription fee and only give 24-hour notice. The shocker, the price was raised 51%! 0_o

I guess Sony is for the players, cause you just got played!!!

To think that I spoke for the price hike here:

http://n4g.com/news/1596525...

[XBLSkull]

Gotta raise costs if they have any hope of stabilizing that network.

[Torque_CS_Lewith]

Correction, 53% hike and 5 hours notice.
Also those that were blaming SA online tax (14% mind you) have at this.

[Webbyy]

I completely agree. Increasing prices and giving notice 24 hrs before.?

That's crazy Sony. Very unprofessional.

[ramiuk1]

emd of day they have raised a year to £39.99 which is the same price as europes RRP.

nowhere except sony on psn sells it for full price.
i just paid £23 for a year.

[SniperControl]

Sony are just raising the prices to match the rest of the world.

It's £40 for 12 months here in the UK, R749 converts to £41.20 GBP

Fanboys like to make mountains out of molehills.

[WitWolfy]

I'm sure R250 extra month is nothing to you, but for others it might be an insane amount of money to fork out.

Edit: its extra for that month, I'm not saying im one of those guys. But it is a high price dude. Remember in 3rd world countries R250 is quite a bit of cash to chuckle out.

[SniperControl]

@WitWolfy

But it's not a month, it's R250 extra for a year.

Thats like R21 extra a month, £1.11 a month extra.

Edit: Why should i have to pay £40 a year and some gamer in SA only pays half that amount for the same service, i might as well go and sign to a SA and get the same benefits for half the price.

"Remember in 3rd world countries R250 is quite a bit of cash to chuckle out"

Then why the hell would you spend R5,899 on a PS4?

[lelo2play]

It's for the gamers. /s

Simply put, if you only have a ps4, ps+ is not worth it.

[kayoss]

I hope this increase will also some how involve PSNow. Im willing to pay an extra $20 if i can get unlimited access to PSnow with my PS plus subscription.

[DualWielding]

anyone not in the U.S, please just make a U.S. account, psn cash cards can be bought online at no surcharge, prices on U.S. PSN are significantly cheaper than everywhere else... If you pay European/Asian prices you are being ripped off

[elnacho]

100% agreed, and this is discussed at length with comparative data here:
http://wololo.net/2014/07/1...

[Dudebro90]

People shouldn't have to do that

[DualWielding]

they shouldn't, but as long as Sony wants to keep saving face with local retailers that's the best people can do

[ramiuk1]

i think u find there is 20% tax added on in uk and in europe there is also tax etc thanks to brussels.

[AceBlazer13]

Can't say I didn't see it coming. Makes sense from a business standpoint but still a dick move as far as consumers are concerned Sony.

[Gazondaily]

Why does it make sense from a business standpoint to increase the fees in those regions?

[Torque_CS_Lewith]

They believe they have a near monopoly in those regions.

It is more advisable to test out price hikes in smaller markets than in the bigger and more influential markets.

The rest of the world won't care for too long.

That's all I got but as you can see, makes sense businesswise.
D*** move however, especially the short notice period and the mega hike which they had the gall to refer to as slight

[Gazondaily]

Ah okay. Makes sense actually. Cheers for the answer :)

[HaveSumNuts]

Geeez this is like the 5th article about the same thing. I actually live in SA most of the people commenting or doing the articles about this don't live here and aren't affected by the increase at all. I'll bitch about it sure but it pisses me off when people wana make it a big deal for them when they aren't even the ones affected by this shit.

[RosweeSon]

Not only that but they are actually raising to prices to what every other country is paying, there wasn't this big a fuss when those countries were getting ps+ cheaper than we were.

[jrshankill]

It kind of does effect everyone..

1. Possibility of less people paying more money for the service = Less players online.

2. Who is to say it won't hike up in other regions? While this hike might be to get these regions in-line with costs in other regions, who is to say we won't get a 24 hour notice at any point in our PSN subscription lifespan?

3. People like to follow and comment on business decisions, it's the internet brah.

Really though, this does suck. Only 24 hour notice and a 51% jump in price is pretty abysmal. I understand the price hike somewhat matches all other regions, but it is still a dick move to announce it out of nowhere and expect people to pay.

Lets say I pay £40 for PSN here in the UK. If Sony told me I had to now pay £60 and only give me 24 hours notice, I wouldn't pay for it. Their conduct here is questionable.

[RosweeSon]

But it's never gonna go up to £60 in the UK when xbox live is £40 for a year its all swings and roundabouts but they are a business and do have to compete with the competition but they are only putting the price up to a standard around the world so these countries affected yeah kinda sucks but they were getting a good deal good while it lasted now they have to pay what everyone else is already paying, I'd happily pay another £5/10 a year owning all 3 of their consoles it gives me a lot of free games decent ones to well they used to be but £60 a year no chance and as I said it'll never happen when xbox live are charging £40 a year.

[jrshankill]

@RosweeSon

I was speaking hypothetically, I never said they were going to hike prices up in other regions. I said I wouldn't pay for it though if it ever did, especially with Xbox Live subscriptions being so cheap in the UK with CDKeys.com.

The kicker is the lack of notice which Sony presented to these regions.

[NegativeCreep427]

With how well Sony is doing, there are a lot of bottom-feeding Xbox fanboys out there that just simply take whatever they can get and run a million miles with it.

Example: Sony is DOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED. This sectionized price increase Negates Everything Sony has ever done! I guess they aren't for the players! Lolz lolz. My day has meaning now yay!!!

[Torque_CS_Lewith]

Well as you can see, it's more than just South Africa now. Russia, India, Ukraine and Turkey are also getting hikes.
Also, Does one need to be South African to have an opinion on what is looking to be a very douchebag move? PS, I am from Pretoria South Africa.

[Whitey2k]

i know there is going 2 be a price hike if that that was going 2 be everywhere do u think that price could be included PSNow when it hits?

[NegativeCreep427]

That's a legit question. Everyone already knows Sony would be charging a premium for PS Now, maybe they'll include it with PSPlus.

[phantomxll]

Wow. Not cool. Not cool at all. 51%!!!!!

[BattleReach]

Well, no need to worry about that here in The Netherlands.

I better worry about the online psn prices for retail games, 69,99 or 79,99 EUROS for just one game, which is about $95.

[Bladesfist]

Wow, that is crazy

[vega275]

As I said in the other article. With sony having more consoles in home they feel they can raise the price with this kind of notice (24hrs that is) and ps4 only gamers will pay for it. I mean what's your alternative go to the competition and spend on another console and miss games like uncharted and bloodborne. Yes its a dick move but as many have said in many articles when it come to sony "they know what they are doing"

Edit: yes I can see sony doing this to other regions including UK and US in the future. They have to reduce their loses somehow and at this moment the ps4 and psn is the way to do it

[NegativeCreep427]

even if I did live in the affected regions, I still wouldn't have to pay the price increase anyway; I've already paid for my Playstation Plus subscription for over a year.

[vega275]

So did I. But when that year runs out what then. Its not like the price will go back to what it was. Price hikes rarely ever go down

[feraldrgn]

What is this for?
Are they trying to make it cost the same across all countries or something?
Serious question.

[mysticwolf]

Yes

[feraldrgn]

Thank you. :)

[wodan]

man just look at the comments at IGN really pathetic how the Xbox fanboys are acting.

OT:well here we pay 60$ for the full year maybe they are just making the price the same everywhere? but price hike are always bad for people no matter what the reason.

[DarXyde]

It better be comparable to Xbox Live with less down time and actually giving PlayStation 4 much asked for features starting soon. I'm fine with PS4s features since I only game and Netflix/Hulu on it, but I'm sure there will be others who want solid features (*cough* external HDD support). They need to justify the price increase, but it's pretty messed up South Africa is dealing with it.

[Khronikos]

The value they give here, is exceptional. And of course PSN needs way better coding to match this value and make it worth it. Right now the PS4 is a fucking joke of a UI. These japanese dudes either need to get up with it or get out. This team ico mentality is ridiculous. It should take no one a full year to get folders into the damn mix.

[adis4gr]

i hope prices in europe wont go up, it is already expensive...way to go Sony

[hello12]

You guys give me lots of disagrees when i told you Playstation would also be effected by the losses announced last month.

Hope this wakes you people up?

[GameDev1]

Wait without any proof or evidence from anything, you have come to the conclusion this price hike is for the losses Sony as a whole predicted not actually lost(not playstation division as it is their biggest earner)

Clearly it is nothing to do with the devaluation of currencies at those countries and Sony trying to bring the price back on parity with the UK and NA whose currencies aren't devalued

You should wake up and stop making assumptions without proof

[WitWolfy]

Only time will tell if Sony decides to do the same to other regions. Fair enough, take R20 extra from me a month, but you better make sure the features I want from my console is met and dedicated servers are installed locally as well just like the first world countries got.

We South Africans also got the short end of the stick back with the Xbox 360 when it came to subs. No Hulu, no VEVO, no Crackle and no Sky to name a few. And yet we paid the same sub amount as the rest of the world for services they never gave us the chance to check out.

*slow claps*

NICE!!!

[Spid3r6]

At least your the service was not down for maintenance every week!

[Tesal]

Then give us EA access and let us enjoy Need for speed Rival 'n 10% to pre-orders etc

or Sony still claims it is not of a value ? but increase of PSN prices it is >_< ohh man, what happened to Sony ? who twisted it's arms ?