Just a note, I received access to the Premium package for a week or so; this is the early impression I have so far and some details around what you can expect in each tier of membership.
Playstation has revised and updated its Playsation Plus platform into three tiers – Essential, Extra and Deluxe / Premium. Deluxe; is offered in markets where cloud streaming isn’t available and Premium where cloud streaming is available.
Essential includes PS4 and PS5 monthly games, online play, discounts and cloud storage.
Extra includes Essential Plus the addition of the PS4/PS5 game catalogue.
Deluxe includes Essential and Extra with the addition of PS, PS2, PSP Classic, and PS remaster catalogues.
Premium includes Essential, Extra, and Deluxe with the addition of PS, PS2, PSP, PS3, and PS4 game cloud streaming.
First off, the game catalogue covers mainly Playstation (first-party) titles: however, among the 700 odd titles between the three packages, this will cover a mix of Playstation-made titles and third party too.
Like with the old Playstation Plus package, there is a monthly refresh of PS4 and PS5 titles. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Demon’s Souls, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut, and NBA 2K22 are just some of the headline titles you can expect. A more in-depth look at the list of games is available here on the Sony blog.
The new UI for Playstation does categorise game catalogues into distinct sections from an entire game catalogue, monthly games and classic games. I think the sheer amount of games makes it difficult to navigate the huge amount of games, I don’t think any service has managed to get the navigation right, but it’s a hard problem to solve. The buckets do allow you to navigate to the high-level groups quickly.
I used cloud streaming for a PS4, PS3 and PS2 game. For Horizon and online streaming, the transfer of saved games and the ability to resume was slick. I did, however, find some graphical issues at times when playing the game, it wasn’t 100% smooth, but in general, I was pleasantly surprised by the performance. Classic game streaming, Frogger did work but took a few attempts to get it running. Once it was running, it was good, but I did notice some lag at times. I think there are some teething issues around cloud streaming which will improve over time.
Tekken 2 wasn’t streaming enabled but allowed for a download option. It was quick to download and was a throwback to classic 3D fighting games. I can’t fault the game. A huge catalogue of PS games from the original PS to the PS4 is available on the Premium Playstation Plus.
The new PlayStation Plus is currently supported on the following devices:
PlayStation 5 console – streaming and game downloads
PlayStation 4 console – streaming and game downloads
PC – streaming only
Overall, I found the streaming service as something interesting as it allows for games to be played on the cloud as opposed to being downloaded locally. This means that you don’t need to expand your local hard drive to fully install all the games you play. The transfer of saved games was slick, and quick turnaround times when cloud streaming was working.
There is something for everyone in the various tiers, which makes these new updates a huge feature for Playstation owners.
It must be noted I think this will change the gaming and buying habits of many players. The well-priced yearly subscription will give you access to a plethora of AAA games and everything in between too. Titles such as Spider-Man: Miles Morales signal the quality of some of the games. With standalone titles costing upwards of €80, a yearly subscription seems like a great purchase. If you haven’t played some of the classics, you can get them too. I think the quality and depth of games are unsurpassed by any other players on the market.
Enjoys more than the odd game, long time gamer, somewhat a technologist and everything else in between.
Also enjoys a good solid game of FIFA online. Currently PS4, XBOX 360 and STEAM.
