PlayStation Plus Is Making a Long-Awaited Change
Sony will be making a change to PlayStation Plus following an investigation by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority. According to reporting from GamesIndustry.biz, Sony will now get in touch with PlayStation Plus subscribers that have not been actively using their account, to remind them how to cancel, should they so desire. The company will also stop taking payments from users that don't cancel the service but haven't been actively using it. The CMA's now-concluded investigation was related to auto-renewal policies of the video game industry, and has also resulted in changes to Nintendo Switch Online and Xbox Game Pass.
In a statement, Michael Grenfell, CMA's executive director of enforcement, praised the moves by the video game industry.
"As a result of our investigations, a number of changes have been made across this sector to protect customers and help tackle concerns about auto-renewing subscriptions," said Grenfell. "Today's announcement therefore concludes our investigations into the online video gaming sector."
In an era where just about everyone has more subscriptions than they can even recall having, this shift in policy from Sony is a welcome one. While the company has not outlined exactly how long it will wait before contacting users with accounts that have been inactive, it seems like a safe bet that this policy won't have any impact on PlayStation Plus subscribers that regularly take advantage of the service; PlayStation fans that are using it daily or weekly probably won't have to worry about being contacted.
Hopefully, this change will encourage similar decisions from companies outside the gaming industry! More transparency is a good thing, and it could prove beneficial to a lot of consumers. These types of policies could lead to some cancelling their unused subscriptions, or being more diligent about using them. It remains to be seen whether other companies might follow suit, but Grenfell seems optimistic about that possibility.
"Companies in other sectors which offer subscriptions that auto-renew should review their practices to ensure they comply with consumer protection law," said Grenfell.
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