PS Plus Premium service launches in UK & Europe

PlayStation has rolled out PS Plus Essential, PS Plus Premium and PS Plus Extra in the UK and Europe as of today, furthering their ambitions to compete with game distribution services like Xbox Game Pass, Google Stadia and GeForce Now globally.

The service, which replaces older subscription initiatives like PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now, allows players to borrow and play games from a back catalogue of PlayStation titles from every era of their consoles. PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 games can be downloaded and played natively on current console hardware, while PlayStation 3 games use cloud streaming technology, presumably due to problems emulating the unique architecture of the console.

A small library of original PlayStation games can also be purchased from the PlayStation store as of today, and gamers that have previously purchased the titles on PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable or PlayStation Vita will find compatible titles sitting in their libraries and available to play. These releases have already caused some controversy though, as more than half of them are the PAL versions that cap at 50 frames per second. 

In the UK a PlayStation Plus Premium subscription will cost £13.49 a month, £39.99 for three months, or £99.99 for a whole year. This makes it slightly more expensive on a month-to-month basis than it’s biggest competitor Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (which costs £10.99 a month) despite the subscription provider not committing to matching it’s rival in providing day one access to first party game releases through the new service.

If you’d like to find out more about the the new PlayStation Plus, you can do that here at the PlayStation Blog.