Arrogant Sony is Officially back

So, this isn’t going to be about Tarkov, but instead more about the industry and some of the obnoxiously disgusting decisions being made over at Sony. So, for anyone who isn’t aware, very recently with the release of the free games with PS plus are going to be for September, which by the way, they are all awful. At the very bottom of that post from Sony, they said they will be increasing the price of all versions of the paid memberships you need to subscribe to play online. And across the three tiers, they are making it roughly 35% more expensive to play online with your friends. So, if you are a basic bitch like myself and are only paying for the lowest tier, essential, the price per year is going from $60, to now $80. Fuck Sony.

A lot of people are asking why they would do this? Other than typical greedy corporations trying to squeeze as much money as they can out you, the consumer, this isn’t something you should entirely be surprised about. We are in the next generation of what most people call arrogant Sony. Back in the days of the PS3 and Xbox 360, PlayStation got its shit pushed in. Whether we all want to admit it or not, that generation was extremely rough for Sony. It’s also where they got the genius idea to pull a Microsoft and make people pay for the bare minimum online play when the PS4 began to roll out. Now instead of having free access to online play and services, Sony players were playing just like Xbox. Because Sony realized they could also get free money for doing nothing special. But again, they did not do well during the PS3 generation, so they really had to step up their game for the PS4. And they did; that generation was all Sony. Microsoft and the Xbox One, couldn’t stop struggling. At least it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been with all the DRM that the Xbox One was initially going to launch with. Remember that? And with the immensely successful generation that was the PS4, Sony has once again figured out they can bite off more than they can chew. And the customers are the ones to suffer for it.

A price hike of this magnitude is absurd. Considering that Xbox also had an increase in the price of Game Pass as well, but it only went from 15 to $17 a month. Which, while again, not great considering we want no increase in our subscription services, isn’t as bad as Sony. But once again, they realized they can make more money for doing less and while people will moan and complain about it online, unless it hits their bottom line, they don’t care. It makes sense why Sony hasn’t made public the numbers of how many PS Plus subscribers they have anymore. It’s a damn shame too; for the longest time, it felt like Sony was delivering to the industry what it needed: quality games at a reasonable price. And while the games are still certainly there, the “next-gen tax” as it has been dubbed is just another kick while we were down. And Sony couldn’t care less. Every subscription-based service couldn’t care less. Netflix removed the ability to share accounts outside of households, and everyone online basically said they would cancel their Netflix. And yet, the company showed off record breaking accounts being created for their platform. So not only do I imagine they won’t financially hurt from this, but it also wouldn’t surprise me if the price hike is so high because they know people will drop out, so anyone that sticks around and pays for it might make up the difference.

And really looking at what all the tiers of online for PlayStation bring to the table, it really isn’t that interesting. Xbox clearly has the better pay model for what you get, and as someone who isn’t paying for the more expensive versions of online for PS, backlogs of older games and the other oddities are nice, but at the end of the day, I just want to play online. And it's already kind of gross enough that we have to pay $60 for it, and every month we get some arguably rough game choices that we can download for free. The desire to keep going forward paying it is hard to justify. And the price hikes are kind of the final nail in the coffin. The worst part about potentially not paying for it is losing access to all the PS Plus games I have downloaded over the years that I still mess around with every now and again. But I guess the question we all have to answer is are they worth $80 a year.

I know some people might think I am blowing this out of proportion, because you can just play online for free on a PC and yes, you’re right. But consoles still have immense value, and being able to just sit back relax and mess around online is something I still actively do. I’m glad and lucky that I have both a PS4/5 and a PC to play games on. But the idea of paying for online anymore is questionable at best.

I hope you found this information insightful if you are someone who plays their games online on a PlayStation device. If you didn’t know about this before, I hope it was insightful and you contemplate cancelling or not renewing your subscription if you aren’t happy with this change that will be going into effect, September 6th of this year. And if you aren’t happy, the only way to get Sony to change their mind which honestly won’t ever happen, is to hit them in their wallet. Don’t give them anymore of your money, until they provide services and goods that you think are worth the price. I mean, all their extra PlayStation accessories are insanely overpriced. Not to mention what people want at all. But that’s another conversation for another time. TLDR: Sony is back to their PS3 days of arrogance, and until they get hit in their wallet hard enough, it’s only going to get worse from here. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to watch this video, let me know your thoughts on this price increase down in the comments, and subscribe for more videos about videogame companies sucking massive butt hole. I hope to see you in future ones.