Thoughts on PlayStation Plus Price Increase

Last week, Sony announced that on September 7th, the subscription for PlayStation Plus was going to increase form $49.99 a year to $59.99 a year. If you live in Canada, the price will go up to $69.99, making the burn a little more painful for our fellow Canadian gamers.

PlayStation Plus has kept it's $50 price tag since 2010 and it wasn't required to play online until the PS4. Most were bummed out to hear about this during E3 2013, but it didn't feel like much of a harsh blow because Microsoft was effin' up left and right.

I didn't really start gaming online until the eighth console generation. As a gamer that has never forked over additional cash to play games online, the very concept seems strange to me. Like, I have some serious reluctance to pay a subscription fee to play another game mode. The Wii U really spoiled me. Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros. Wii U, Splatoon, and Super Mario Maker have all provided me wtih some amazing online experiences and I haven't had to hand over a single extra dime outside of the price I paid for the games to get them. PC gamers are enjoying a copious amount of great online games without some yearly subscription fee hanging over their heads.

Now I know some of you are thinking "It's only a $10 increase and you only have to pay $60 for one year." You do get "free" games with a PlayStaiton Plus subscription. But the lot of those free games are garbage. As big as the indie scene is, they can put out just as much trash as any triple A or third party publisher. So no, I don't think gamers should be thankful, shut up and pay the $60 and take the "free" games that Sony is so generously offering.

Some are accusing Sony of become arrogant again and I can't help but wonder if there is some truth to that accusation. After Sony won the fifth and sixth console generation, their ego was the size of a small planet. Then the PS3 came out, the price was $600, Sony had the arrogance to think we'd want to pick up a second job just to pay for the machine, Sony had an uphill battle and even with its great library of games, came in third place, handing Sony their first loss. The PS4 is selling like hotcakes and has been since launch. Its enough to make Sony's ego swell once more, to make them feel that they are infallible.

Thus far, we have no reason for this $10 PlayStaiton Plus price increase. Is it because Ghost Busters sucked? Because Sony is struggling in so many of their other divisions? Or could it be that Sony's ego is so massive with all the PS4 units sold that they think the majority of gamers that want to game online with their console will pay the extra money, without thinking twice? Who really knows.

What the PlayStation Plus really needs are better games. Users still can't change their gamer tags. The PS4 has no PlayStaiton Classics. And what really baffles me is that the PS4 doesn't have folder support to organize games. Nintendo, the dinosaurs of gaming has folders on the Wii U, for crying out loud!