Having now confirmed that it isn’t allowing existing PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now subscribers to stack their subscriptions to get the new PS Plus at a cheaper price, Sony has outlined just how existing vouchers will convert to the new version of the service. You may want some Dramamine on hand before diving in.
In short, if you’re an existing Plus/Now subscriber, you can’t extend your membership at the current prices in order to obtain a discount on the new PS Plus. If you buy vouchers at a store right now, existing subscribers will have to wait until the new Plus launches before being able to redeem them. Once the ability to redeem those vouchers becomes available, they will be prorated based on the version of the service you’re subscribing to. You’ll get a 1:1 subscription if your new tier matches the old one–for instance, if you’re sticking with the basic PlayStation Plus Essential, a one-year PS Plus voucher will still get you one year. But if you’re jumping up to PS Plus Extra, a 12-month Plus subscription will only get you 219 days of subscription time, while moving to Premium will get you just 183 days.
While it’s not surprising to see Sony take this approach, it is sure to lead to confusion. Sony’s website is home to a rather complex series of tables–outlined below–to lay out just what a voucher will entitle you to. The complexity stems from the fact that there are two different subscription vouchers you could be buying–PS Plus or Now–and three different durations for those vouchers to last, as well as three different tiers of the new PS Plus you could opt to subscribe to.
The end result is that you basically need to consult these charts in order to know what you’re getting, because the conversion rate isn’t the sort of math you’re likely to have memorized. While this is similar to what happens with Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass when upgrading to Game Pass Ultimate, before that service’s launch, Microsoft did allow for 1:1 conversions–you could buy a year of Xbox Live Gold and lock yourself into a year of Game Pass Ultimate, despite Gold costing less. That was arguably a smart approach by Microsoft, ensuring it locked numerous people into years of Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions while allowing those subscribers to feel like they were pulling a fast one.
The new PS Plus is slated to launch over the next few months, depending on where in the world you’re located. For those in the Americas, it’s expected to debut on June 13. In addition to PS Plus Essential, which functions just like the existing version of Plus, there will also be PS Plus Extra (which provides access to hundreds of PS4 and PS5 games) and PS Plus Premium (which adds in a back catalog of PS1, PS2, PS3, and PSP games, as well as Now’s cloud streaming functionality).
PS Plus/Now voucher conversion rates
PS Plus
1 month PS Plus voucher
- Non-Subscriber: Converted to 31 Days of PlayStation Plus Essential
- Essential: Converted to 31 Days of PlayStation Plus Essential
- Extra: Converted to 20 Days of PlayStation Plus Extra
- Premium: Converted to 17 Days of PlayStation Plus Premium
3 month PS Plus voucher
- Non-Subscriber: Converted to 92 Days of PlayStation Plus Essential
- Essential: Converted to 92 Days of PlayStation Plus Essential
- Extra: Converted to 58 Days of PlayStation Plus Extra
- Premium: Converted to 46 Days of PlayStation Plus Premium
12 month PS Plus voucher
- Non-Subscriber: Converted to 365 Days of PlayStation Plus Essential
- Essential: Converted to 365 Days of PlayStation Plus Essential
- Extra: Converted to 219 Days of PlayStation Plus Extra
- Premium: Converted to 183 Days of PlayStation Plus Premium
PS Now
1 month PS Now voucher
- Non-Subscriber: Converted to 21 Days of PlayStation Plus Premium
- Essential: Converted to 40 Days of PlayStation Plus Essential
- Extra: Converted to 25 Days of PlayStation Plus Extra
- Premium: Converted to 21 Days of PlayStation Plus Premium
3 month PS Now voucher
- Non-Subscriber: Converted to 53 Days of PlayStation Plus Premium
- Essential: Converted to 105 Days of PlayStation Plus Essential
- Extra: Converted to 66 Days of PlayStation Plus Extra
- Premium: Converted to 53 Days of PlayStation Plus Premium
12 month PS Now voucher
- Non-Subscriber: Converted to 183 Days of PlayStation Plus Premium
- Essential: Converted to 365 Days of PlayStation Plus Essential
- Extra: Converted to 219 Days of PlayStation Plus Extra
- Premium: Converted to 183 Days of PlayStation Plus Premium
