price, subscription, games offered, multiplayer, here’s how it works

The PlayStation Plus is the almost indispensable companion for PlayStation gamers, on PS4 or PS5. To play online, to get games, and to enjoy other benefits, it pays for itself quite quickly to subscribers. But if at first glance, the subscription service seems easy to understand, there are some subtleties that should not be overlooked in order to optimize the PlayStation Plus as much as possible.

The PlayStation Plus membership is at the heart of the PlayStation ecosystem and strategy. It unlocks the full potential of the PS4 and PS5 with features and benefits that have become essential for many gamers. If you are not very familiar with the world of PlayStation, surely you have questions about how this service works, we are here to answer them.

What is PlayStation Plus?

By launching the Playstation 3, Sony understood that this new generation of console would be the one that would give pride of place to online gaming. The publisher has therefore launched a paid service allowing multiplayer play via the internet in order to be remunerated. PS Plus also offers a few additional benefits in addition to online gaming access to convince players to invest in a subscription. We will come back to this in more detail later. This is the equivalent of Xbox Live Gold at Microsoft.

How much does the PlayStation Plus subscription cost?

The official price of the PS + is 8.99 euros for a month, 24.99 euros for three months and of 59.99 euros for twelve months. Sony is clearly pushing players to commit for a whole year with this latest offer which amounts to 5 euros per month, seeking above all to retain its community.

These are the recommended prices, but it is sometimes possible to benefit from promotions from resellers, and even on the Playstation store.

What’s in the PlayStation Plus?

The PlayStation Plus therefore gives the possibility of online and multiplayer play to its PS4 and PS5 players, but that’s not all. One of the most popular features of the subscription is the ability to get free games each month. At least two PS4 titles are made available monthly, necessarily backward compatible PS5. In addition, PS5 games can sometimes be invited to the selection of the month. From time to time, Sony may also offer VR games to PlayStation Plus subscribers. PS Plus “free” titles must be claimed within a certain period of time and do not really belong to the player, who needs an active PS + subscription to enjoy them.

The PlayStation Plus can also give the right to exclusive discounts, early access to demos, beta trials, and pre-orders as well as specific rewards (skins, cosmetic items, etc.) on certain games, in particular free-to-play like Fortnite or Apex Legends. The subscription also grants 100 GB of online storage for cloud saves, as well as the Share Play feature, which allows you to play multiplayer or co-op games with a friend even if they don’t own the game. A friend can also access content solo of a title he does not own.

Can we play online without PlayStation Plus?

Most games require a PS Plus subscription to play online multiplayer. But some popular titles do not require this service, and this is especially the case of games available for free, such as Rocket League, Fortnite, Apex Legends, Warframe… On the other hand, paid games like FIFA need PS + to play online, with some exceptions. Final Fantasy XIV can be played without the PlayStation Plus for example, but you have to pay a parallel subscription to connect to Square Enix’s MMORPG.

If you have a PS Now subscriber, you can also play games in the catalog online without needing to subscribe to PS Plus.

What games are in the PlayStation Plus Collection?

With the release of the PS5, Sony introduced the PlayStation Plus Collection, available at no additional cost to PS5 owners. They thus have access to a selection of games that have marked the PS4, with many productions from house studios such as Ratchet and Clank, God of War, Uncharted 4 or The Last of Us Remastered, but also exclusive third-party titles including Persona 5 and other great games of the generation (Monster Hunter: World, Resident Evil 7 Biohazard…). Here’s the full list of games included in the PlayStation Plus Collection:

• Bloodborne
• Days gone
• Detroit: Become Human
• God of war
• Infamous Second Son
• Ratchet and Clank
• The Last Guardian
• The Last of Us Remastered
• Until Dawn
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
• Batman: Arkham Knight
• Battlefield 1
• Call of Duty: Black Ops III – Zombies Chronicles Edition
• Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
• Fallout 4
• Final Fantasy XV, Royal Edition
• Monster Hunter: World
• Mortal Kombat X
• Persona 5
• Resident Evil 7 Biohazard

The PlayStation Plus Collection is for PS5 gamers only, allowing them inexpensively to familiarize themselves with the previous-generation PlayStation gaming ecosystem to get off to a good start with their new console and while waiting for PS5-branded games to come out. Sony is banning PS4 players who unlock games from the PlayStation Plus Collection, so don’t try to use techniques and other tricks to access them with a PlayStation 4 rather than a PlayStation 5.

Towards a PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now merger?

PlayStation is preparing its competitor for Xbox Game Pass. Despite the relative failure of the Xbox One generation, the gaming branch of Microsoft has managed to raise its head from the water by refocusing its strategy on a new subscription bringing together a catalog rich in games, with Xbox Game Studios titles available from day one. their release, and cloud gaming. A success that gave ideas to Sony: the Japanese group also wants to achieve a more profitable subscription service and would consider merging the PlayStation Plus and the Playstation Now, the latter disappearing in favor of the first, which would be revamped.

The project, codenamed Spartacus, is unofficial. It was the journalist Jason Schreier, renowned for the reliability of his information, who revealed it. According to him, Sony would decline the future PlayStation Plus in three formulas, with additional features at each additional level.

• Level 1 : The PlayStation Plus as it stands today, with the options described earlier in this article.
• Level 2 : Access to a catalog of PS4 or even PS5 games.
• Level 3: Access to a catalog of games focusing on backward compatibility with PS1, PS2, PS3, Ps4 and PS5 titles, as well as extensive demos of recent titles. It is also this offer that would allow playing in cloud gaming on PS4, PS5 or Windows PC, like the PS Now currently.

It is not known when this new PlayStation Plus is expected, but it is to be expected that the subscription service as we know it today will evolve in the coming months.

Free PlayStation Plus games

The quality and value of the games offered with PlayStation Plus can vary greatly from month to month. Sony sometimes offers nuggets, sometimes more forgettable titles. But if we smooth over the year, the PlayStation Plus remains a fairly interesting subscription in terms of “free” games. Find below the titles offered to subscribers in recent months.