What exactly is Sony doing with its PlayStation Premium tier?
For the payers.
Earlier this year, Sony gave its PlayStation Plus subscription service a makeover, adding three new tiers for users to pick between.
The cheapest of these tiers is Essential and is basically what PlayStation Plus once was. Users get online play, some other smaller perks and free PlayStation titles every month. Then we have Extra. This middle-ground tier includes everything that comes with Essential, but with the bonus of a catalogue of PS4 and PS5 games to have a go at.
Then, finally, we have the most expensive of these tiers, known as Premium. This was marketed as a way for users to replay some of PlayStation's classic games from days gone by. The service covers every PlayStation console - from the original PS1 through to the PS5, as well as the PSP and, thanks to streaming, PS3 support.
However, we are now several months into this new service's tenure, and to be honest, so far I have found it all really underwhelming, and not to mention needlessly confusing.
Personally, I am subscribed to the Premium tier. I felt this was a good choice for me given my job and gameplay preferences in general. But, I am thinking about stopping it soon. We are, after all, experiencing a political climate where every penny counts, and right now PlayStation Premium just does not feel worth the money.
My biggest gripe with it all is its lack of PlayStation 1 and PSP games, and no regular schedule for more to be added. At the time of writing, we have the following PS1 additions:
- Ape Escape
- Hot Shots Golf
- I.Q Intelligent Qube
- Jumping Flash!
- Mr. Driller
- Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
- Resident Evil Director's Cut
- Syphon Filter
- Syphon Filter 2 (added September 20th, 2022)
- Tekken 2
- Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue!
- Wild Arms
- Worms Armageddon
- Worms World Party
Meanwhile, for PSP, we have:
- Echochrome
- Echoshift (PSP, added July 19th, 2022)
- Kingdom of Paradise (added September 20th, 2022)
- LocoRoco Midnight Carnival (PSP, added July 19th, 2022)
- No Heroes Allowed! (PSP, added July 19th, 2022)
- Super Stardust Portable (added June 23rd, 2022, only by searching at launch)
- Toy Story 3 (added September 20th, 2022)
And that's it.
Sony recently announced its new games for November, and once again we have a new month with no PS1 or PSP games joining the service.
Please, Sony, where are games like Metal Gear Solid and the original Gran Turismo? These are some truly iconic PlayStation games I would happily pay that little bit more for, and yet they are mysteriously absent from the Premium line-up.
I really hope that next month Sony will announce something for its Premium tier that finally makes me feel this isn't a waste of my time and money. Then again, I said that last month, and yet here we are once more... Sigh.