Could Sony be planning a bit of a shakeup for PlayStation Plus? The company recently hiked the price of PS Plus in Europe for no particularly well-explained reason, leading some to believe new features or content may be on the way for the premium online service. Digging a bit deeper, various clues point to PlayStation Plus members possibly getting access to Sony’s PlayStation Now game streaming service sometime soon.
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The folks at PlayStation Universe recently noticed that Sony has started posting large PlayStation Now ads in the PlayStation Plus section of their store. Of course, this could just be a bit of cross-promotion, but Sony has never done this before, and it could be a case of them trying to introduce PS Now to PS Plus subscribers before they make them pay for it as part of their subscription.
On its own, a new PS Now ad in the PS Plus section would be pretty thin evidence, but there’s more pointing toward the two potentially being combined…
Sony is also prepping the big PlayStation 4 firmware update 5.0, which is rumored to have some sort of classic gaming component. Update 5.0 is about to enter a closed beta and those chosen for it have been sent a survey, which specifically asks whether the tester is a PlayStation Now subscriber. At first, the survey required you to click “Yes” to the PS Now question to progress, although it’s been changed to allow you to pick “No” as well. Regardless, it seems like some sort of significant PS Now changes are coming with update 5.0.
Finally, industry insider Tidux has specifically said PlayStation Now will be included in PlayStation Plus in the future. Somewhat oddly, he seems to indicate only a limited number of PS Now games will be offered, which kind of defeats the “gaming Netflix” approach of the streaming service.
What I heard it’s gonna be 2 PS4 games, 2 PS Now and 2 Movies is every month
— Tidux (@Tidux) July 28, 2017
It would certainly make sense for Sony to try to wrap up PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now in a single package. A large portion of PS4 owners subscribe to PS Plus, but PS Now hasn’t really taken off in the same way. At this point, PS Now is probably more valuable as an extra PS Plus incentive than it is as a standalone service.
If Sony is planning to make changes to PS Plus and PS Now, expect confirmation sometime next month. The PS4 update 5.0 beta testing begins early next month, and the European PS Plus hike goes into effect on August 31, which would be a good time to announce any new features or content coming to the service.
You can check out WWG’s latest PlayStation 4 coverage here.
[via PlayStation Universe]
