Sony’s revamped PS Plus service has a release date

By Cristina Alexander Published April 22, 2022

The arrival of the new PlayStation Plus is right around the corner, and it’s coming a little sooner in some places than others. Sony has revealed the target release dates for the new version of its PlayStation subscription service.

Sony previously set the launch window of the new PS Plus for this June, but President and CEO Jim Ryan said in a blog post that the new service will launch a month sooner in some regions. Here’s where it will be released and the dates in which the following regions will receive it.

Asia (except Japan): May 23
Japan: June 1
Americas: June 13
Europe: June 22

Recommended Videos

Sony also announced that PlayStation will be expanding cloud streaming access to 11 additional European countries for a total of 30 markets. They are Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Republic of Cyprus, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Those countries will also offer the Premium Tier of the new PS Plus at launch.

The new PS Plus will consolidate over 700 games from both PS Now and PS Plus into a three-tiered subscription service, effectively rendering the former cloud-streaming service completely obsolete. The Essential Tier will offer the catalog of PS Plus as it currently stands for $10 per month, $25 per quarter, or $60 per year.

The Extra Tier gives everything from the previous tier, plus 400 downloadable PS4 and PS5 games for $15 a month, $40 a quarter, or $100 a year. The last and most expensive tier, the Premium Tier, contains everything from the previous two tiers, plus about 340 retro games from PS1, PS2, PS3 and PSP, as well as limited-time game demos, for $18 a month, $50 a quarter, and $120 a year.

Cristina Alexander

Former Gaming/Mobile Writer

Cristina Alexander is a gaming and mobile writer at Digital Trends. She blends fair coverage of games industry topics that…

Topics

Gaming

How Astro Bot charmed its way to becoming our Game of the Year

Game of the Year: Astro Bot

The process of picking one “game of the year” is a journey marked by second-guessing. Not a December goes by at Digital Trends where we aren’t agonizing over our annual top 10 list. Do we actually love Baldur’s Gate 3 as much as we think or are we giving in to the pressures of critical consensus? Is Elden Ring a lame year-end pick when we could be celebrating something like Immortality that still sticks with us years later? Are we weighing independent games enough in our deliberations? These are the kind of questions that keep us up at night as winter begins.

This year, we were faced with a similar mental puzzle. After 12 months of obsessively tracking our GOTY front-runners in detailed spreadsheets, one game was left standing: Astro Bot. The delightful platformer had won our hearts thanks to its precise platforming, good-natured attitude, and toylike design. It seemed like a no-brainer, but it was still hard to combat that lingering doubt as one question still haunted us.

Gaming

Why I kept coming back to Final Fantasy XIV in 2024

A character sits on a "fatter cat" mount

The MMO genre is overflowing with titles vying for the attention of anyone willing to invest significant portions of their time in a single game. There are no doubt plenty of killer choices you can make based on what type of combat, endgame, and payment model you prefer, ensuring that you'll almost certainly find one that fits you just right. I've been investing off and on in the genre for over two decades, with thousands of hours poured into everything from old, niche titles like Silkroad Online (which I just learned somehow still exists) to worldwide successes like World of Warcraft and Guild Wars.

In recent years, though, I find myself disappointed in various aspects of many popular MMOs, whether it's an overwhelming focus on endgame raiding, too much PVP-centric content, or unfriendly communities that make me cringe when I even glance at the chat. None of that is a problem when I return to Final Fantasy XIV. I somehow feel at peace each time I load up Square Enix's long-running MMO, and it's becoming harder and harder for me to want to venture elsewhere.

Gaming

Sly Cooper, Jak and Daxter added to PS Plus as part of 30th anniversary

Jak and Daxter smirk at one another.

PlayStation Plus Premium is getting some new games for its Classics catalog for December, and as it's nearly time for the official PlayStation 30th anniversary, it's set to be big.

PlayStation announced the special additions to PlayStation Plus for December on Wednesday that includes three classic games: Sly 2: Band of Thieves, Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, and Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. The company also stated in the announcement blog post that they'll have "more news on the full PlayStation Plus Game Catalog and Premium lineups later," which seems to indicate there will be even more games coming to the service.