PlayStation Plus Just Hit a New Low — playstation plus update

PlayStation Plus used to be the best deal in gaming. Twenty bucks a quarter, a stack of free games every month, and online play that just worked. This week, Sony quietly raised prices again, and the internet responded the way you'd expect: with fire and pitchforks. Here's the part that stings. The price went up. The games didn't get better. Let's do the math, because someone has to. In 2020, a year of PlayStation Plus Essential cost $59.99. In 2023, Sony bumped it to $79.99. As of this month, it's $99.99. That's a 67% increase in five years. Meanwhile, the monthly "free" games have shrunk from six or seven titles down to two or three, and lately they've leaned hard on indies you've never heard of and older AAA games that already live in the bargain bin at GameStop. Now compare that to your paycheck. Average wages have grown roughly 4% a year over that stretch. PlayStation Plus has grown more than four times as fast. If your rent had climbed at the same pace as this subscription, a $1,500 apartment would now run you $2,500. You'd notice. You'd riot. But a $20 annual bump slides under the radar because it auto-renews at 3 a.m. while you're asleep. That's the trick. Subscription creep is designed to be invisible. And Sony isn't alone. Netflix, Spotify, Disney+, Amazon Prime—every one of them has jacked prices since 2020 while telling you it's for "better content." Sometimes that's true. Often it isn't. The difference with PlayStation Plus is that you can't just cancel and keep playing. If you drop the subscription, you lose access to the hundreds of games you "claimed" over the years. They were never yours. You were renting them the whole time. That's the part nobody says out loud. The free games weren't free. They were collateral. Reddit and X lit up within hours. Players posted screenshots of cancellation pages, joked about switching to PC, and dug up old forum posts from 2013 where people called $50 a year "the best value in gaming." Those posts aged like milk. One viral tweet summed it up: "PlayStation Plus is now more expensive than my car insurance was in high school." Sony's official line is that the price reflects "continued investment in quality services." Translation: they know you'll pay. And here's the uncomfortable truth—most of us will. Because if you want to play the new Call of Duty or FIFA online with your friends, there's no way around it. Microsoft tried to raise Game Pass prices too, and the same thing happened. The industry has figured out that gamers will grumble, post memes, and then hand over the card number anyway. So what do you actually do? A few things. Turn off auto-renew right now, even if you plan to keep the subscription—it forces you to make a conscious choice every year instead of sleepwalking into a charge. Downgrade from Premium to Essential if you're not using the classics catalog. Split a family plan with people you trust. And honestly? Start treating your backlog like a real backlog. Most of us have thirty unplayed games sitting on the shelf. You don't need Sony's scraps this month. The closing thought: PlayStation Plus didn't get worse overnight. It got worse slowly, one quiet price hike at a time, while we were all busy playing. That's how every subscription gets you. The only real defense is paying attention—and being willing to walk away when the math stops working.