PlayStation Plus Forced To Cancel Offers After Massive Exploit
the new PlayStation Plus service will have a three-tier structure, Essential, Extra, and Premium — the latter of which will cost $120 per year.
Following the announcement of its newest subscription service, Sony also announced that all the remaining PlayStation Now subscriptions would be converted and added to its revised Playstation Plus Premium plan — whose top-tier annual cost will be approximately $120. Following Sony’s announcement, the company pulled all PS Now offers from digital stores, offering only a one-month free trial for the service. Yet, fans have found a way to purchase and stockpile on annual PS Now from Sony, at only $60/annually, getting Premium memberships at half the price once Sony’s new service goes live.
However, as reported by IGN, Sony soon discovered the loophole and pulled the plug on the internal anomaly after thousands of users bought 12-months-worth of PS Now subscriptions en-masse and in bulk. This loophole, initially spotted by @Waroi64 on Twitter, allowed gamers to purchase several PlayStation Now yearly subscriptions for only $60 through Sony’s official Store — apparently, there was a working link the company was unaware of — allowing gamers to stack up several years of subscription time that will be converted into a premium, once Sony’s new service PlayStation Plus Premium goes live this June.
Sony had previously believed that they had blocked all purchasing options for PS Now, apart from the one-month free trial for the service, in light of its merger with the upcoming PlayStation Plus Premium plan. Apparently, Sony “scrapped” everything regarding the PS Now internally, bar the aforementioned link that they apparently missed, considering that some users managed to stack up to nine years of PS Now subscription — which originally had a three-year limit. This allowed them to stack up on subscription time and wait for the 1:1 conversion to Premium in June.
As per Sony’s previous announcement, the new PlayStation Plus service will have a three-tier structure, Essential, Extra, and Premium — the latter of which will cost $120 per year. Premium tier will also include 700 games, and Sony stated that some of its greatest titles, like Death Stranding, God of War, Mortal Kombat 11, etc., should be expected at launch. PS Now functionality will be integrated into the Premium plan, allowing console owners to play original PS, PS2 and PS3 games on their consoles either through streaming, or direct download, depending on the title.
The new PlayStation Plus subscription service is meant to rival Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass, which is currently regarded as the best gaming subscription service in terms of value for money. However, unlike Sony’s new plan, which includes older titles with a pricier subscription tier, Xbox Game Pass offers older titles with its base subscription. There’s also a matter of price; Sony’s offering Premium at $18 a month, while Xbox Game Pass Ultimate costs only $15. So, there wasn’t much rivalry before; there won’t be much in the future.
As for those that managed to stack up on the PlayStation Plus subscription time, Sony has found the loophole and removed the glitch, preventing anyone else from exploiting it. The company still hasn’t made any official comments on what happened, but it stands to lose a lot of money in the 1:1 conversion — which is something Sony isn’t likely to do. We still expect to see the official reaction to this loophole and what interesting ways Sony may come up with to prevent users from converting all those stacked-up years of subscription time into Premium.
