A reader is dismayed that the August update for PS Plus Premium didn’t add a single new game and accuses Sony of being asleep at the wheel.
You may have read about the first update for , which only added two classic games, neither of them anything anyone would care about. You may be wondering then, why you haven’t heard about the August update. There’s a simple reason for that: there wasn’t one.
Although PS Plus Extra did get some extra games Premium got absolutely nothing in terms of any new retro games. It did get a demo of though, which lasted a grand total of 35 minutes. Not launching with many retro titles is one thing but to make absolutely no effort, literally zero effort this month, to increase that number is truly pathetic.
This can’t be blamed on semiconductor shortages or the pandemic. Sony chose when to start the new PS Plus and the things that are missing are games that are multiple decades old and have been re-released on other formats before. I don’t want to call it laziness, because I don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors, but it is certainly incompetence and a lack of respect for their customers.
To get everyone on the same page, there are now three tiers of PS Plus: Essential (the same as before), Extra (free PlayStation 4 and 5 games), and Premium (retro games and demos). Extra is actually working out pretty well. There were plenty of games added to it in July and August and while it doesn’t have day one first party games it’s otherwise pretty comparable to Game Pass.
Premium though is just an afterthought, a rebranded PS Now that’s somehow more expensive and seems to be cynically set-up to attract superfans who want the best PS Plus version, even though it’s absolutely not worth it.
All this is made worse by the absolutely deafening lack of information from Sony. There’s no proper announcements, no interviews, nothing to indicate what’s happening and when we can expect change. Heck, there’s barely any evidence that everyone at Sony didn’t disappear on holiday in June and still aren’t back yet.
At the moment, I can’t help but wonder what a Sony marketing exec is actually being paid for? What is their daily routine? Go into the office (if they even do that) decide not to talk about any of their upcoming new games, decide not to explain what’s going on with PS Plus, decide not to bother having a proper State of Play, decide they might as well just chill out until November when they might possibly, maybe, say something about God Of War Ragnarök. It must be the easiest job in the world!
Unfortunately, what they’re really doing is making Microsoft’s job easier. hasn’t got a single first party game out this year and yet nobody’s angry with them because Game Pass continues to be great and gets regular, predictable updates. Maybe Premium will change in the future but Sony hasn’t said or done anything to suggest it will, so all we can do is judge them by their actions – or rather lack of them.
These are still strange days for gaming but as far as I’m concerned Sony is asleep at the wheel and is just blundering into unforced error after unforced error. If the developers are too busy to do previews or demos then fine, that’s understandable, but the people in charge of communicating with fans and keeping them informed of what’s going on. They should all be sacked, unless they already have been… it’s hard to tell.
By reader Arthurum
The reader’s feature does not necessary represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at [email protected] or use our and you won’t need to send an email.
Follow Metro Gaming on and email us at [email protected]
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our .
For more stories like this, .
