Price Hikes Incoming! Did Sony Just Alienate Their ENTIRE Base?!

Now, I want you to take a look at these prices and determine objectively, between Xbox and Playstation, who the winner is:

Photo Cropped from Business Insider

It’s no shocker to anyone, when it comes to their online subscription service, that Xbox clearly has the advantage over Playstation. Now, many gamers could counter my claim that there is no comparison between the two because the Playstation, as a whole, has a much stronger ecosystem in terms of exclusive titles than Xbox. And, for a time, I would have agreed with that statement.

Playstation has better games. Period. Whether you take Playstation Essential, Extra, or Premium into account, I would have picked them all before I jumped onto the Xbox bandwagon. Just from the Playstation exclusives you receive from Playstation Plus Extra, I would have said that it was better than Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Premium just takes that win and adds a layer of salt to rub in Microsoft’s face.

But NOW, take a look at this:

Photo Cropped from Polygon

These are the new prices for all Playstation Plus subscriptions services and they are live RIGHT NOW! Just to put that into a monthly perspective, Playstation Plus Essential had a 33% increase ($6.66/month), Playstation Plus Extra had a 35% increase ($11.25/month), and Playstation Plus Premium also had a 33% increase ($13.33/month).

Did Playstation add anything to the service? Will players be receiving anything additional for the higher price that they will be paying? The answer: no. Sony just believes that their library of games is superior to everyone’s on the market and, therefore, they believe that their price increase will not affect their revenue in the long run. In fact, I’m sure that the data shows the contrary in that it may have disgruntled many gamers online, but their decision to raise prices may actually boost their profits because they don’t believe that people will pull out of Playstation Plus.

However, my question to everyone in the Playstation ecosystem is: will you stay with Playstation or jump to Xbox Game Pass? I just received my ROG Ally and it comes with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate free for 3 months and, to be honest, it’s an amazing experience with a lot less bugs and glitches than Playstation. So swapping over to a lower Playstation Plus tier has definitely been looming in the back of my mind for the past month.

Finally, how will Playstation’s price increases affect their bottom-line revenue at the end of the year? If you look online, the feedback is taking a turn for the worse, but only time will tell if the decision they made was the right one.

Let me know your thoughts!