A reader is not happy about Sony’s attempts to block stacking of PS Now subscriptions, as he accuses Sony of taking advantage of fans.
For months we’ve had rumours of Sony preparing their answer to Game Pass and by the time they actually announced it all the basic information had already L***ed. In fact, the has not provided any new information except the launch date. But then the whole reveal was weirdly low key, like the sort of thing you’d expect for a minor indie game and not what could be Sony’s most important new product in several generations.
It could be that, Game Pass certainly was for Microsoft, but so far the whole thing is shrouded in confusion, anger, and the sense that Sony is gearing up to once again take its fans to the cleaners. The first real evidence that the PS Plus revamp was real was when from shops, a clear indication that PS Now was going to be discontinued and that something else was going to take its place.
What we didn’t realise at the time was that it was more sinister than that. The other reason Sony was getting rid of the PS Now vouchers was because they were going to offer a deal so that anyone with a current subscription got an auto upgrade to PS Plus Premium, the top tier of the new service. At first this seemed pretty generous as it means you can get a year’s worth of Premium for less than half the price, but that was before we knew the lengths that Sony would go to in order to stop people taking advantage of it…
Once everything was announced everyone quickly realised that you could ‘stack’ several PS Now subscriptions on top of each other, so that you had multiple years’ worth of subscriptions already paid up and on your account. These in turn would then be converted into Premium subscriptions, thereby saving you a great deal of money.
Sony realised this too though and so . It didn’t tell anyone this at first though. No, it waited a few days while everyone got confused and angry, then it quietly added the admission to its FAQ, without drawing anyone’s attention.
Once again, we see Sony treating its fans like idiots, trying to second guess and trick them, rather than being honest and simply stating the rules that they have created. They say one thing (they believe in generations and PlayStation 5 exclusives) and then do another (suddenly announce almost all their games are cross-gen). They refuse to communicate anything for months and do nothing to address issues – like the obscene cost of their games – that they know are the number one concern of fans.
And now, rather than let the 1% who know about the PS Now trick have a bit of a bargain they block them without ever talking about the issue in public. Oh, and all those hundreds of games that are coming to the service? They won’t tell you about any of them. They just say there are hundreds and expect you to believe it, even though the only firm evidence is of !
The worst thing is that not only is Microsoft a lot more up front about this sort of thing but they had a similar loophole for Game Pass. It was actually even more severe as people were able to get Game Pass for as little as £1 and stack that with others to basically get it for pennies for years to come – I know that’s definitely what I did.
And did Microsoft try to block these people? Did they quietly change the rules when they realised they’d be making slightly less money all of sudden? No, they embrace the whole thing and realised it was good free advertising… which obviously worked given how popular Game Pass is now.
Sony just doesn’t think like that though. Their only concern is squeezing every possible cent out of their fans and, ideally, having to talk to them as little as possible. We’re a commodity to be ripped off, not a customer to be served. Microsoft gaining ground on PlayStation is no surprise to me and it’s not because of the games or even the value for money, it’s because of the way they treat their fans with respect and not borderline contempt.
By reader Korbie
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