PlayStation Plus a game changer, but PS5 consoles still hard to get

The PlayStation 5 (PS5), Sony’s latest gaming console and a significant upgrade from the PlayStation 4 (PS4) has new features good enough to make any gamer excited, but some student gamers have been frustrated by a shortage of available consoles.

The PS5 was released late in 2020, a new generation for Sony’s gaming consoles that has better components, like its upgraded central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU) and solid state drive (SSD). It can load games within seconds compared to the PlayStation 4 (PS4) that has longer load times.

According to the gaming review website Kotaku, since its release the PS5 has been a difficult console to get due to inventory limitations caused by the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. Hiroki Totoki, Sony’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), said in an article posted on the technology news site VentureBeat that, “the demand is still high due to global chip production shortage”.

Saabir Khan (27), a third-year BA psychology student at the North-West University (NWU), confirmed that because of very high demand it is difficult to get a PS5 console. “I have been waiting to buy the PS5 since last year, but they sell out so fast,” Khan said.

Those who have already purchased the PS5 have the choice to subscribe to PlayStation Plus. This is a service that allows PlayStation users to play online multiplayer games, have access to cloud saving, exclusive discounts, and enables players to add multiple games to their library every month to which they will have access as long as they are a subscriber to the service.

PlayStation Plus vouchers can be purchased from multiple stores in South Africa, the most notable of these stores being BT Games. There are three different subscription options. They can either pay a monthly amount of R119, choose to make payments of R319 every three months, or pay a yearly amount of R749.

As of 23 March 2022, however, Sony has revamped the subscription and included new tiers that will be replacing the current PlayStation Plus system. This new PlayStation Plus (PS+) subscription will include the PlayStation Now Subscription. PlayStation Now allows its subscribers to stream both PS4 and PS5 games without owning them for a limited time. However, the new tiers are not available in South Africa yet.

The New PlayStation Plus subscription is divided into four different tiers, PS+ Essential, PS+ Extra, and PS+ Premium. Each of these tiers come with different benefits and prices, but for avid gamers, PS+ Premium would be regarded as the best option regardless of its price.  The new prices for the different subscription tiers have not been released in South Africa yet, but globally prices vary in different gaming regions. According to Gamespot the prices per tier in the United States (US) are as follows:

With these new prices, deciding what tier to purchase will come down to what you as an individual would want out of your subscription. PlayStation Plus Essential, will not add new benefits to the existing subscription. PlayStation Plus Extra will include all the benefits from the essential tier as well as allow subscribers access to 400 to 500 PS4 and PS5 games that they can either download or stream. PlayStation Plus Premium includes everything from the other two tiers with the added content of 340 more games from the PS1, PS2 and PS3 libraries.

Jacques Bouwer (25), a third-year BA psychology student at NWU said, “although I love gaming and would really like to play previous generation games, the premium tier will be too much for my student budget.”