Sony angers PlayStation Plus subscribers by charging steep upgrade fees for new subscription tiers ^↺

While the launch of Sony's long-awaited competitor to Microsoft's extremely popular Xbox Game Pass is right around the corner in Europe and North America, the Japanese gaming behemoth has already introduced its new PlayStation Plus subscription tiers in several Asian countries. However, gamers with an existing PlayStation Plus membership should reportedly brace themselves for a very unpleasant surprise.

According to a report by PushSquare, Sony unfortunately demands incredibly steep upgrade fees for existing Asian customers who would like to upgrade to the higher PS Plus Extra and PlayStation Plus Premium or Deluxe tiers. More precisely, gamers who plan to upgrade their base PS Plus Essential membership to one of the higher tiers have to pay an additional up-front charge which is being calculated for the entire length of their remaining subscription. This is particularly disheartening for loyal customers who previously stacked PS Plus subscriptions and now have an active membership for more than just a year.

In this case, some long-term subscribers are purportedly quoted hundreds of dollars for their upgrade to PlayStation Plus Extra or Premium, since it is not possible to try one of the higher tiers for a few months and then revert back to the base PS Plus Essential tier. Furthermore, Sony appears to punish active PlayStation Plus members who have bought their subscription at a discount in the PlayStation Store, as the company purportedly increases the upgrade fee to effectively eliminate these previous savings.

In conclusion, Sony's introduction of its new PS Plus membership tiers appears to be much less consumer-friendly than Microsoft's course of action, which still allows active Xbox Live Gold members to upgrade to Game Pass Ultimate by paying for just a single month of the top-tier subscription. Nevertheless, it should be noted that Sony could possibly change this procedure before the all-new PlayStation Plus will launch in North America and Europe next month.

Update May 26

Sony has since confirmed on Twitter that the additional charges for people who have previously bought their PS Plus membership at a discount were in fact caused by an error. The affected users will apparently get a credit for the additional money they paid for their upgrade to one of the higher PlayStation Plus tiers.

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