Are PlayStation gaming subscription services even worth it? Gamers result to alternatives

Paying $160 for a year of PlayStation Plus Premium should be enough to keep you in the house for at least six months. A few seconds of scrolling through the catalog, and you realize… wait, is this it? 

A handful of decent titles, some good retro classics, and a multiplayer mode you’ll never touch because you’d rather not hear a 12-year-old screaming his lungs out of how you “suck at Fortnite.” So, PS Plus, what gives?  

For the first time in 15yrs I am ending my PlayStation Plus subscription. The cost has gotten to be too much and we don’t see anything in return for the increase. I remember making fun of Xbox owners for having to pay to play online. This is overdue. @PlayStation #goodbye pic.twitter.com/38345p6kwQ

— American made (@Glizzy_Guice) February 17, 2025

Your Xbox-owning friend is locked into several day-one releases from Bethesda games on Game Pass, and your PC gamer buddy is cackling over a $5 Steam sale haul. Are PlayStation’s subscription services even worth it, or are gamers better off looking elsewhere?  

I have dabbled in both console and PC worlds, and I could tell you that PS Plus is not bad, but it’s passable. 

What does PS Plus include?

PlayStation Plus, Sony’s flagship subscription service, comes in threes: Essential, Extra, and Premium, with prices ranging from $80 to $160 annually.  

The sub has features like online multiplayer, monthly “free” games, and, for the higher tiers, a catalog of titles to stream or download, including some games from PlayStation 1, 2, 3, and 4. 

On paper, it sounds like a good deal, especially given how new games now cost $69 to $89 a pop. But in all reality, after a few weeks of 8-hour-a-day gaming sessions on the daily, you would get bored. PS Plus doesn’t really offer much when stacked against competitors like Xbox Game Pass or “free-for-all” PC gaming.   

Let’s try out PS Plus (The good)

I’m not completely dismissing Sony’s service. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, no? For certain classes of gamers, like streamers and trophy hunters, PS Plus is a solid deal.

If you’re new to the PlayStation ecosystem, $89 for AAA titles, compared to paying $135–$160 a year for access to hundreds of games, is an absolute no-brainer.  

Then there are the Extra and Premium tiers, which offer a catalog of games to download or stream. For the trophy hunters out there, PS Plus makes it so much easier to stack up the records, regardless of how rage-inducing the experience is on some games (You might want to steer clear of Wolfenstein 2’s Mein Leben if you are always low on patience.)  

In short, PS Plus was made for competitive multiplayer fiends, trophy hunters, indie game die-hards, and newcomers looking to save a buck. What about the rest of us?   

Maybe it’s not that good (The bad)

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the PS Plus game catalog. If you’re paying for the Extra or Premium tiers, you’re expecting Baldur’s Gate 3 or God of War titles, right? Well, you’ll get the 2018 God of War at least. 

The first 45 games on PlayStation Plus $159.99 premium package. An absolute joke. Last year was not this bad, it wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad at all. This has been a SHIT year for PlayStation Plus. Get yourself an Xbox and Game Pass if you’re thinking of going PlayStation pic.twitter.com/JrA714B1Qf

— HonkeyKong (@JalapenoHogz) March 8, 2025

Xbox Game Pass offers hundreds of games, including day-one releases like Starfield, but PS Plus feels like the clearance rack at a thrift store. Sure, you might find a gem or ten, but you’re mostly sifting through titles you might have never thought existed because of how boring they are.  

We could take the Extra tier, which has “up to 400 PS4 and PS5 games,” but a quick scroll reveals a lot of never heard of indie titles, older AAA games you’ve already played umpteen times, and the occasional “discount of the month” that’s on sale for $10 almost everywhere.  

All you are left with is to just replay The Last of Us for the 17th time.   

PC looks like a better alternative (The better?)

I get it. Building a good gaming PC tower is nowhere cheap; $1,500 or more on a rig with an RTX 3090 or better will do, three times more than a PS5 slim. But once it’s on your table, the performance is unreal.  

Steam sales can snag you AAA titles for as little as $5. I’ve lost count of how many times my friends have walked away from a sale with five games for the price of Spiderman 2 on the PlayStation store.  

I fucking HATE capitalism

Even the highest playstation plus subscription doesn't get you alot of critically acclaimed games and the games themselves are expensive as fuck https://t.co/Ace3A3WmKL

— Toranaga-sama (@natakapesa) March 2, 2025

Then there’s the performance factor. With a high-end PC, you’re not playing 1440p video quality upscaled by AMD’s technology to 4K; it’s a clean native 4K at 120 frames per second (FPS), with ray tracing and path tracing. Graphics so realistic you’d swear you could smell the rain on CyberPunk 2077.  

Don’t get me wrong, what the PS5 can do in terms of visuals is impressive, but on most games, it is locked at 60 FPS.  

And let’s not forget the modding community. PC gamers can breathe new life into old titles, make graphical overhauls to entirely new or old campaigns. 

See what modders did in the Grand Theft Auto Vice City Nextgen Edition, building VC on GTA IV’s engine. Looks like a whole new game. PS5 gamers are stuck with whatever Sony deems worthy of the PS Plus catalog.  

PS Plus needs to do better

So, what’s the fix? If Xbox Game Pass can launch Halo Infinite or Starfield on day one, why can’t PS Plus do the same with God of War or Horizon? Second, please beef up the catalog with more titles that we can have fun playing.  

We’re not asking for the moon, just a few more recent AAA titles and fewer obscure indies that feel like padding. Third, make the Premium tier actually worth it; we all know that PS5 can play PS3 titles because it’s arguably backward compatible (YouTubers have done a lot of research on this). 

Please include every PS3 game; some of us will be extremely happy to play Smackdown Vs Raw 2011 once again, the WWE2K era isn’t cutting it for us anymore.

And while we’re at it, how about a loyalty program? If I’ve been subscribed to PS Plus for a decade, throw me a bone, maybe a discount on new releases or exclusive content. 

Here’s a wild idea: why not let PS Plus subscribers vote on which games get added to the catalog each month? It’d give us a sense of being “part of a community” and might prevent the inevitable groans when the latest “free” game is something nobody asked for. 

PS Plus isn’t entirely terrible; it’s just not great. For those of us who game for fun, not for multiplayer glory, it’s just not enough. Time for Sony to step up their game, pun-absolutely intended.