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Sony has reportedly blocked PlayStation Plus and PS Now subscription stacking (Update: stacking will resume when service launches, codes still valid)

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
I smell another class action and OtherOS checks. Get ready!
Chris Pine Money GIF

Aww yiss.

Get ready for the $8.20 stimulus check.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
By the sounds of the bullet point I listed above, you could activate the cards when the new service launches.

Sony says you have to wait until the new service launches. So if your PS+ expires before then you can obviously use the voucher. Otherwise you have to wait until after. It is absurd.

All good then, just hold onto the cards for 2 months. No biggie.
 
You know I've been loyal to Playstation for a very long time. My PS+ is good through 2024...and I don't give a damn. If they don't make this right I'm done. I'm so sick of Sony. Not the Playstation, but Sony. They deceive and they show contempt toward their biggest fans and I'm not going to keep putting up with it. I'm out. And you know what? This doesn't even effect me personally at all. It's just that time and time and time again Sony shows this type of behavior and I'm just all done with it. They can either revert this bullshit and communicate better in the future or i'm done and moving to Xbox.

Sony needs to be humbled. Arrogant greedy pricks. Maybe get some decent leadership and try earning some good will for a change. Right now they only see short term and are not looking ahead to what will come if they don't straighten up. It's very clear but somehow they don't see that? That's poor leadership.

Their store is shit. The customer service is shit. Their policies are shit. The leadership, the deception/outright lies, the terrible communication...all shit. Do better.
 
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DeepEnigma

Gold Member
I smell another class action and OtherOS checks. Get ready!
Chris Pine Money GIF
"If you currently have a PlayStation Plus or PlayStation Now membership, due to changes we are making to the service prior to launch, you won’t be able to redeem a voucher code for that service until your existing membership expires and deactivates, or after the new PlayStation Plus service launches in your area, whichever happens first. Rest assured that your voucher code is still valid. See next question for further information. "
Stacking will work in a month or month and a half's time.

Crisis averted.
 
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Hilarious that it takes you to a 404 page that says "looks like you're lost". Amazing that a company that has such kickass studios seemingly has such shitty customer oriented systems in place. Between that and the fact that we as customers have to search for FAQs and reddit posts to find out what the hell is going on with the vouchers people purchased just highlights the fact that SIE is poorly managed.

I think is more to do with incompetence than money.
That's the thing...Sony is saved by the games. The gaming side of PlayStation is a well oiled machine and ultimately this is what people buy consoles for...but everything else surrounding the company right now is a fucking mess.

Remember how the web store released back in 2020? it was tragic. i have no idea how they turned it around cause right now it's fast as hell, lots of filters, no bugs on its responsive versions i tested.

But it's like we are the beta testers for most of what they do and then they take a month or 2 to get things right when it's something online-related. Like the upgrade paths.

And i would blame Jim Ryan but it's issues that affect most of the company and not PlayStation alone.

The way they comunicate (Sony in general) is tragic.
 
cooperate greed is something that I tend to have a problem with. So it does affect me. Especially as a ps5 owner.

Well take it as a lesson learned. Corporations ain't your friends and never have been. Even when they seem more consumer friendly, it's only to make more money out of you in disguise. They're all greedy.
 
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Topher

Gold Member
The prices (USA) for PS+ and PS Now are the same at: 1M/3M/12M as $10/$25/$60.

So why would the conversion days be different?

Because there is not 1 to 1 as far as PS Now is concerned. To get the equivalent of PS Now you must get PS+ Premium. So they are converting a $60 service into a $120 service.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Because there is not 1 to 1 as far as PS Now is concerned. To get the equivalent of PS Now you must get PS+ Premium. So they are converting a $60 service into a $120 service.
I guess so if they are trying to factor in features and doing their own adjustments. I was just going purely on costs, and both PS+ and Now have the exact same price structure.

If one person has a 3M card of PS+ at $25, and one person has a 3M card of PS Now at $25, the PS+ guy gets 58 days of Extra converted, with the PS Now guy gets 66 days.
 

Topher

Gold Member
I guess so if they are trying to factor in features and doing their own adjustments. I was just going purely on costs, and both PS+ and Now have the exact same price structure.

If one person has a 3M card of PS+ at $25, and one person has a 3M card of PS Now at $25, the PS+ guy gets 58 days of Extra converted, with the PS Now guy gets 66 days.

Correct. Sony is basically mapping the features of each service. PS Now does not map to PS+ Essential or Extra. It only maps to Premium. The problem with that is Sony is forcing the PS Now voucher to first pay for PS+ Essential and Extra. What Sony should have done is convert all PS+ and PS Now vouchers to PSN gift cards and say "spend it however the fuck you want".

But that would be too simple. Thus....fucked up chart.

Social Media Marketing GIF by Giflytics
 
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yurinka

Member
Yeah the only thing I think sucks is if say you had 2 years of ps plus like myself and you purchased a card that was on sale or something to extend and it seems you would need to wait two years for your subscription to lapse to be able to claim it. According to shopto the codes only last one year I believe.

That would be dodgy and shit from Sonys side if that turns out to be true and you can't redeem them sooner.
In this case you'll be able to redeem the code to extend it once the new PS+ releases.

They disabled to redeem codes to extend during the transition, but are still enabled use them to subscribe for new users. This is why they said you'll be able to use the codes when the new PS+ releases or when your subscription expires, whatever happen first.

This is the bullet point people are grumbling about - stacking or no stacking. The other scenarios allow you to activate codes. So looking at the below, why doesn't Sony just let someone stack cards if they want and just convert it all when June happens?

So if a new member wants to apply 2 years of PS+ cards now, it converts to 2 years of Essential. But an existing member isnt allowed and has to wait till June. Weird

  • If you currently have a PlayStation Plus or PlayStation Now membership, due to changes we are making to the service prior to launch, you won’t be able to redeem a voucher code for that service until your existing membership expires and deactivates, or after the new PlayStation Plus service launches in your area, whichever happens first. Rest assured that your voucher code is still valid. See next question for further information.
Until the new service releases, to redeem codes to subscribe will be enabled, but to redeem codes to stack will be disabled. So let's say you have a couple of PS+ 12 months codes:

If you have let's say 5 months left you won't be able to redeem them until the new PS+ releases.
If you don't have months left and aren't subscribed as of now you'll be able to use a code to subscribe, but will have to wait until the new PS+ release to expand it.
If you have let's say a week left and it expires before the PS+ release, you'll have to wait it to expire to use a code to resubscribe, and wait until the PS+ to use the other one to expand it.
 
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THE:MILKMAN

Member
Yep! This next quote describes me.



I saved 50% on my PS+ Premium. I was shocked that Sony didn't close that loophole earlier lol

As I understand this it seems it was all by design and very deliberate by Sony. Bait those wise and hardcore (you know those that spend by far the most per head BTW) that stack years of PSN into buying even more codes/cards and then block the redemption of those codes and post a conversion chart that will now mean getting 50% of what you thought you were getting. The right thing to do would've been to announce this in the first place but isn't it obvious now why they didn't?

Ever since Sony announced they were stopping attending E3 and stated the following:

"As the industry evolves, Sony Interactive Entertainment continues to look for inventive opportunities to engage the community," Sony said in a statement. "PlayStation fans mean the world to us and we always want to innovate, think differently and experiment with new ways to delight gamers. As a result, we have decided not to participate in E3 in 2019. We are exploring new and familiar ways to engage our community in 2019 and can’t wait to share our plans with you.”

They have gone down the route of a faceless non-consumer friendly company like Nintendo. Remember their exec teams that would regularly do interviews and do gaming discussion round tables at Giant Bomb etc? That was engaging and delighting gamers....The only "innovation" I've been seeing is in what new way can they piss off fans!

All (IMO) made even worse by Jim Ryan after the sudden/unexpected departure of John Kodera.
 

Topher

Gold Member
I have PS Plus until later this year and PS Now until december 2023 so...i'll have the top tier until almost 2024. I'm good. By then no one is talking about this, lmao.

Honestly, at this point, Sony is going to have to sell me pretty hard on the Extra tier or I'm not resubbing at all. I don't play online and the free games are getting worse. Only thing of value I'm getting out of PS+ is cloud saves.

So yeah....Jimbo, if you are reading this.

Jimmy Fallon Motivation GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Correct. Sony is basically mapping the features of each service. PS Now does not map to PS+ Essential or Extra. It only maps to Premium. The problem with that is Sony is forcing the PS Now voucher to first pay for PS+ Essential and Extra. What Sony should have done is convert all PS+ and PS Now vouchers to PSN gift cards and say "spend it however the fuck you want".

But that would be too simple. Thus....fucked up chart.

Social Media Marketing GIF by Giflytics
The problem with giving people credit or PS gift cards is they might spend that money on something totally unrelated like games. Therefore, they might lose a subber.

They want to ensure all sub cards convert to the new sub plan to keep them as a member.

Xbox does the same. I have 12 month cards I bought in prep for when my GPU plan is over. The conversion is 4 months. Take it or leave it. I'll wait and convert to full 12 month Gold later then assume the GPU trick is still active.
 

shoplifter

Member
I was just able to order a 3m PS Now card via Sony Rewards, FYI. I don't have PS Now, but I have PS+ stacked for 3 years. I was able to redeem the code without issue.
 
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Wonder if this is a permanent change or just something temporary as they get the revamp sorted out.


edit:









jim GIF
It's likely this. The process over merging all the subs together is probably getting confusing, and let be honest... Sony ain't the best at this kind of shit. We'll see what happens when the dust settles.
 
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Topher

Gold Member
The problem with giving people credit or PS gift cards is they might spend that money on something totally unrelated like games. Therefore, they might lose a subber.

They want to ensure all sub cards convert to the new sub plan to keep them as a member.

Xbox does the same. I have 12 month cards I bought in prep for when my GPU plan is over. The conversion is 4 months. Take it or leave it. I'll wait and convert to full 12 month Gold later then assume the GPU trick is still active.

Right, but xbox didn't have two different services offered side by side which were then stacked one on top of the other. So yeah, I get the point that Sony wants that money allocated to subscriptions to stay there, but they turned it into a confusing mess at the same time.
 

yurinka

Member
Mmmmm more complicated than dumb delivery. Harder Sony Harder nasty nasty corpo.

The length of unclaimed older codes that will be used to stack after the PS+ release will be adapted proportionally to the new pricing.

Most people already stacked them, or after the PS+ release won't use old codes so won't need to make these adaptations. This only should affect a few users.

Honestly, at this point, Sony is going to have to sell me pretty hard on the Extra tier or I'm not resubbing at all. I don't play online and the free games are getting worse. Only thing of value I'm getting out of PS+ is cloud saves.

So yeah....Jimbo, if you are reading this.
Over 700 full PS1/2/3/4/5/PSP games for download/cloud gaming + PS Plus Collection + monthly games + online mp + shareplay + cloud gaming + discounts + at least 2h hour long game trials for at least all 1st and 3rd party future AAA games.

No value at all? Sure, Jan.

Wow, glad I didn't buy all those psnow vouchers now to try and stack my sub. What a shitshow.
The ones that have not been available in any retail or digital store for many months? PS Now only has been available on PS Store for many months and they don't give you codes.
 
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Honestly, at this point, Sony is going to have to sell me pretty hard on the Extra tier or I'm not resubbing at all. I don't play online and the free games are getting worse. Only thing of value I'm getting out of PS+ is cloud saves.

So yeah....Jimbo, if you are reading this.

Jimmy Fallon Motivation GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
Wanna see if you keep that energy if Sony starts to have games like Legend of Dragoon, actual trials that are worth it and some older titles with trophy support. 👀

Also, pretty sure most PS4 games will be in there as well, along with PS5 games (like Returnal). If they play their cards right the service can be a winner.
 
Wanna see if you keep that energy if Sony starts to have games like Legend of Dragoon, actual trials that are worth it and some older titles with trophy support. 👀

Also, pretty sure most PS4 games will be in there as well, along with PS5 games (like Returnal). If they play their cards right the service can be a winner.

They're on their way there with the trials.

There's nothing they could do with old ass titles that could sell me on premium. Absolutely nothing. Not even PS3 emulation
 
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They're on their way there with the trials.

There's nothing they could do with old ass titles that could sell me on premium. Absolutely nothing. Not even PS3 emulation

Premium could be good if they A. Add Trophy support for older titles B. Include upscaling technique to older titles C. Just have a really good selection of stuff i actually want to play


I don’t really see any of that stuff happening. Like am I gonna get trophy support for FF Tactics and Xenogears with improved resolution? I kind of doubt it. Square Enix isn’t gonna give their lazy porting money away to sony like that
 
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Topher

Gold Member
Wanna see if you keep that energy if Sony starts to have games like Legend of Dragoon, actual trials that are worth it and some older titles with trophy support. 👀

Also, pretty sure most PS4 games will be in there as well, along with PS5 games (like Returnal). If they play their cards right the service can be a winner.

My "energy" will reflect the value I find in the games Sony will be offering. I'm not saying the service won't be a "winner" and I'm not saying others will not find value in the service even if I don't. I'm saying I've just about had it with what PS+ currently offers and Extra will need to be very enticing for me to continue subscribing.
 

yurinka

Member
Are you seriously attempting to tell me what is of value.....to me?

gtfo GIF
Yes, Extra and Premium will have a lot of value and to claim they don't have value is nonsensical fake concern.

To say you see them too expensive, that you don't like the games they include (we still don't know which games are they going to include) or that you don't/won't use its features would make sense. To say they don't have value -as it would be to say it for GP or GPU- doesn't make sense.

Even for Essential, only with its discounts you can cover the 45-60 bucks it costs of a yearly sub, or cover that price with 3 or 4 games of the monthly games you may like out of the 3 dozen of monthly games or so they give during a year.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Even though Sony's chart is trying to mess around with services offered where Sony is trying to do their own PS+ vs PS Now conversion values, what they should had done is this.

- You can still activate cards now no matter if you are existing or new customer
- PS+ and PS Now have the exact same $$$ value at $10/$25/$60 depending on what duration you buy

If you are a PS+ Only gamer
- PS+ cards are cashed in for Essentials 1 for 1

If you are a PS Now Only gamer
- They do some kind of conversion. So if the service is the closest to PS Premium, then do some kind of ratio like 50% since I think Prem is double the price of Now

If you have both (and the memberships have staggered ending dates)
- You get Premium in full for overlapping service dates. Whatever days are leftover (ie. you got 20 days of + or Now) that amount gets converted as above

Sony is trying to be complete covering every single combination, which is actually good. But to simplify it they could do the above and let gamers top up to different tiers on their own. My main question mark is them converting PS+ and PS Now at different prices when both services now are the same price. They could literally cut that chart in half if they just said both services get converted to the same days best as possible instead of different tiers converting at +/- 3 days.
 

Topher

Gold Member
Yes, Extra and Premium will have a lot of value and to claim they don't have value is nonsensical fake concern.

To say you see them too expensive, that you don't like the games they include (which we still don't know) or that you don't/won't use its features would make sense. To say they don't have value doesn't make sense.

You seriously need to read my post again because you are way off base.

I never made the claim that these service do not "have value". Not once. I said, very clearly, that I'm looking for Sony to sell me on the Extra tier. Does that mean I am saying these service have no value in a general sense? Of course not. Never even implied that.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
You seriously need to read my post again because you are way off base.

I never made the claim that these service do not "have value". Not once. I said, very clearly, that I'm looking for Sony to sell me on the Extra tier. Does that mean I am saying these service have no value in a general sense? Of course not. Never even implied that.
Too bad, you're now a green rat. Deal with it.
dancing GIF
 
I do not condone this behavior. BUT, you are in for about 100 hours of awesome if you decide to go for plats. Maybe more.
Never played a Souls game in my life.

I'm already stressed by nature. Don't need my hobbie to be like that as well. But if i can handle cars while it's pouring rain in GT7 doing Nurburgring without crashing every 2 seconds maybe Demon's Souls can be played without me throwing the controller.
 

Gamerguy84

Member
I always bought two different subs. Psplus and psnow. Those are combining into one.

PSPLUS ESSENTIAL is same price and benefits. Play online and get your "free" games.

PSPLUS EXTRA is the equivalent of what ive always had. I always bought plus off of cdkeys for $40 and psnow for $60 a year. The new service is going to cost me exactly the same amount ($100) except better value because they are adding PS5 games and upping the PS4 games. So it's a better deal and I'll get more use out of it.


PLUS PREMIUM is just ESSENTIAL AND EXTRA with access to older titles. I might get curious and try it for a month but I have hardware to play every gen so it's not something I would sub to. Definitely for the BC junkies. Hopefully PS1 and PS2 titles play natively but PS3 won't. This part doesn't matter with low latency internet.

I've already stacked but they should have left this open for people to get.
 

FrankWza

Member
Never played a Souls game in my life.

I'm already stressed by nature. Don't need my hobbie to be like that as well. But if i can handle cars while it's pouring rain in GT7 doing Nurburgring without crashing every 2 seconds maybe Demon's Souls can be played without me throwing the controller.
Returnal is harder than DeS:)
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
You seriously need to read my post again because you are way off base.

I never made the claim that these service do not "have value". Not once. I said, very clearly, that I'm looking for Sony to sell me on the Extra tier. Does that mean I am saying these service have no value in a general sense? Of course not. Never even implied that.
I'm same as you. I want Sony to show me that the Extra tier is worth the $100 per year. It really depends on when they add new games and how good they are. I'm not opposed to $100 per year if it keeps me in games I haven't played yet.
 
I'm sure this has already been said but for those that have 500 or more Sony Rewards points, you can still buy a 3 month PS Now code through them and it's still currently working to redeem now as long as you are not currently an active PS Now member. Check here: https://www.rewards.sony.com

If you have at least 500 points but not enough points to buy the 3 month code, you can pay the difference via credit card. You could also buy a 1 month code and redeem it later but before the launch of their dumb tiers and that should also work...but personally I would not try that.

So, if you have a bunch of Playstation Plus time left over and you go and buy a 3 month Now code you should get the code emailed to you about an hour or so after purchase. Then redeem it to your account which hopefully has PS+ for a long time still, and you are supposed to then get Playstation Premium for the full duration of your PS+ membership when Premium launches. If you do get a 1 month code do not redeem it now you'll need to hang onto it for about a month and redeem it then just before the tiers launch.

Edit: If you go there and log in and you do happen to have 500+ points, you'll want to hover over 'Redeem' and then click to shop the catalog. Then type in "playstation now" in the search bar and they should pop up to purchase.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Sony did say at the beginning, gamers subbing to both PS+ and PS Now would convert to Premium for a length of time as the longest sub you got.

So cant fault gamers for loading up. It wasnt a loophole. It was stated. And Sony didnt give a time limit or anything (like lets say it's only good up to April 25th and thats when Sony converts to that plan).

They left it open, gamers tried loading up, and then Sony deactivated that method out of the blue. It look like it took message boards and Reddit users to find out and post denials. They prevented people topping up and now people have to go by that giant chart for conversion.

All they had to do is convert people at a clearly defined days rate from the get go (none of this "the longest sub you got gets you Prem") where it makes no difference if you buy now or in June. That would had prevented this whole issue of people topping up as long as possible.

Think of it like a downloadable coupon. Every manufacturer has a time limit. And an exact value. And for defined products. That is to prevent misinterpretation and infinite expiry dates. And Sony was clear what they offered so it wasnt a typo or like Gamestop accidentally selling a console for $19.99 when it's really $199.99.

You dont see a manufacturer have a legit $10 coupon offer with no date and prevent usage. They can yank it off the website, but If someone already downloaded it and wants to use it, you cant deny them using it the next day because the marketing department realizes it's a worse deal than thought.
 
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Topher

Gold Member
I'm same as you. I want Sony to show me that the Extra tier is worth the $100 per year. It really depends on when they add new games and how good they are. I'm not opposed to $100 per year if it keeps me in games I haven't played yet.

Yeah, I'll definitely give it a go if the initial offering the show is worth it. I'm not going to pay for Premium regardless since I have a perfectly good PS3. Like I said, PS+ free games are not worth it for me anymore so it is either Extra or nothing.
 
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