Sony to raise PS Plus subscription price in Europe

Sony has announced that the price of its annual PlayStation Plus subscription will increase to £50 in the UK and €60 in Europe. This sees a £10 and €10 price hike respectively, which works out to a 25 per cent increase.

The PS Plus subscription offers free games every month to subscribers with a mix of triple-A, indie and PS Vita/PS3 games. But it is also required for many of the online games for the console, much like rival Xbox’s Gold subscription.

The price will automatically increase from August 31st although any subscriptions that are purchased between now and then will remain at the current price for the annual duration. The price increase will also affect the Austrailian PS Plus subscribers as well, but American users will see no increase.

Sony hasn’t offered a defined reason for the increase in cost but a spokesman from the company told website Eurogamer that: "We are changing the pricing to reflect various market conditions while enabling us to continue providing exceptional value to our members."

Sony is not the first to raise prices because of market conditions and will probably not be the last. Apple has already increased their standard app price of 79p to 99p following concerns with the market value of the pound after the announcement of Article 50 affected the Pound. League of Legends developer Riot also increased the price of in game currency to reflect the market change following the Brexit vote.

Gamers have long argued about the value of the online subscription services and a rise could stir more discussion on the models percieved value. Sony, however, has often used the PS Plus subscription to trial new and interesting games, as well as offering users free content. The most recent of these is That’s You!, a game that uses the PlayLink social gaming technology developed by XDEV in London. Rocket League was also a PS Plus title at launch and arguably garnered a vastly larger reach because of it.