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[Plantoid]

Who the fuck stacks subs until 2032, jesus h. christ.

Apparently everyone with GP according to this forum

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Someone got into their maths



I am checking out the dumb way to do this.

Okay, so if this person is right, it looks like they bought a 4-year membership last year, well before the news of this service revamp got out. Sony DID advertise the upgrade path as "making up the difference" if you had PS+ and PS Now. So if you had PS Now for some amount of months or years (most likely AT THE TIME) of the revamp news being officially announced, you were guaranteed that you'd be auto-converted to Premium/Deluxe for the amount of time remaining on the PS Now subscription.

See, while I'm willing to believe this poster had PS Now, they don't actually mention if they purchased PS Now, just just mention the four-year PS+ subscription purchase, which would only be converted to Essential tier once the new service rolls out. Since they don't explicitly mention having PS Now in that post, I can't see anything where their argument is in the right. Do they mention having a PS Now subscription later in the comments?

Again I'm not trying to defend Sony here, and there may be some particulars they mentioned in this whole upgrade path I'm blanking out on (if so someone please point me to that information), but from what I know they've mentioned, conversions up to Premium and Deluxe tiers required having an active PS Now sub as well. I know they cut off activation of PS Now cards after a couple of weeks and said those would activate once the service rolled out but converted down some to an "equivalent" for access to the higher tiers, but that might be separate to what the person in the Reddit post is speaking about.

 

[ElCasual]

Another of Jim "Don Mattrick" Ryan. KUDOS for him

 

[TLZ]

If they did an end of year 33% off PS+ sale and you bought 4 years of PS+, they now want 33% x4 + the cost to upgrade to Essential / Premium, and you have to pay all of it at once for the entire duration of whatever you stacked.

 

[Banjo64]

Okay, so if this person is right, it looks like they bought a 4-year membership last year, well before the news of this service revamp got out. Sony DID advertise the upgrade path as "making up the difference" if you had PS+ and PS Now. So if you had PS Now for some amount of months or years (most likely AT THE TIME) of the revamp news being officially announced, you were guaranteed that you'd be auto-converted to Premium/Deluxe for the amount of time remaining on the PS Now subscription.

See, while I'm willing to believe this poster had PS Now, they don't actually mention if they purchased PS Now, just just mention the four-year PS+ subscription purchase, which would only be converted to Essential tier once the new service rolls out. Since they don't explicitly mention having PS Now in that post, I can't see anything where their argument is in the right. Do they mention having a PS Now subscription later in the comments?

Again I'm not trying to defend Sony here, and there may be some particulars they mentioned in this whole upgrade path I'm blanking out on (if so someone please point me to that information), but from what I know they've mentioned, conversions up to Premium and Deluxe tiers required having an active PS Now sub as well. I know they cut off activation of PS Now cards after a couple of weeks and said those would activate once the service rolled out but converted down some to an "equivalent" for access to the higher tiers, but that might be separate to what the person in the Reddit post is speaking about.

I’m not reading the Reddit comments but good point - just says he has a 4 year sub but doesn’t say if it’s Plus or Now. Only Now got the free upgrade or people who had both Plus and Now.

 

[cormack12]

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Playing devil's advocate here, what I imagine actually happened is likely much less sinister and this is probably the result of an uncaught code error. So in the backend, what I imagine they do is to pro-rata your existing subscription by taking value / total_days * days_left and subtract that from the upgrade fee. What probably happened there is that whoever wrote the code used some piece of data attached to the membership to get the price paid for the sub, rather than using the live store price. I could be totally wrong, but this decision seems so bizarrely bad that I'd feel it's more likely the result of an edge case in the backend handling of upgrades than an intentional decision.

I hope they fix it soon or if it does turn out to be intentional, they should get off their crack pipe and reverse it.

Oh, so Sony were going by their own set prices for PS+ subs when they spoke of the upgrade and conversion path, not prices people may've purchased subs off of, say, CD Keys or something like that? In that case it could make sense that what's played out is as you describe; they should be aware that lots of people buy cards and such off of 3P websites that offer them at discounts, but I'm assuming companies like Sony still got their money one way or another in providing those card codes to such websites so it doesn't make much sense to simply go by the pricing rate in your own store for PS+ sub validation (in determining the cost for users in upgrading to higher tiers with the difference made up) when you know a sizable chunk of users buy those codes from such websites.

Yeah, that's potentially a fuk-up on Sony's end. "Potentially" because the Reddit poster in question did not say if they had PS Now beforehand, and the conversion upgrade is dependent on pre-existing PS Now subscriptions. But IF they did in fact have PS Now, in addition to PS+, the cost they paid for those four years of PS+ should not be paid by them via being "matched" to Sony's own price for PS+ if the user bought the sub from a 3P website. That's just going a step too far.

I’m not reading the Reddit comments but good point - just says he has a 4 year sub but doesn’t say if it’s Plus or Now. Only Now got the free upgrade or people who had both Plus and Now.

Yeah, exactly. Simply having PS+ doesn't ensure you get upgraded to PS Premium or Deluxe; that was never once stated. You always needed a PS Now subscription and an active one in particular.

But assuming they did pay for PS Now and had it active as well at this time, the issue would then be that Sony are making the user pay the difference of the PS+ sub from a 3P storefront in comparison to the price you'd pay buying that same equivalent PS+ sub from Sony directly. THAT's a bit scummy on Sony's end but it could also 100% be a coding mistake to look into, and easily fix.

People should save the pitchforks until we get more direct communication on this.

 

[SLB1904]

Apparently everyone with GP according to this forum

Not really. Gp has a 3 year cap

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

I feel sorry for the people that rushed to stack their PS Now subs in advance assuming it would work the same as GP...

 

[reksveks]

I feel sorry for the people that rushed to stack their PS Now subs in advance assuming it would work the same as GP...

PS Now users (aka ones with active subs) seem to be fine as far as i know.

 

[Aion002]

I hope they can "flip the switch".

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

I feel sorry for the people that rushed to stack their PS Now subs in advance assuming it would work the same as GP...

They were taking a risk and they knew it. It's like gambling at the casino, you know the house ALWAYS holds the advantage.

I was almost tempted to try gaming it too but ultimately decided hey, if it's quality enough, I'll pay what they're asking for. Thankfully they have year-round options too which means more upfront costs saved anyway.

 

[dcmk7]

I'd rather a company save me money because I'd then feel like buying more on their platform. When I see things like paid upgrades for crossgen titles, cloud saves paywalled, and sole source digital software stores it's clear the company isn't interested in saving me money. This whole thing will be ignored in the grand scheme of things. You'll pay and like it.

Ironically you have defended the Xbox Live Gold price hike not long ago

 

[reksveks]

Okay, so if this person is right, it looks like they bought a 4-year membership last year, well before the news of this service revamp got out. Sony DID advertise the upgrade path as "making up the difference" if you had PS+ and PS Now. So if you had PS Now for some amount of months or years (most likely AT THE TIME) of the revamp news being officially announced, you were guaranteed that you'd be auto-converted to Premium/Deluxe for the amount of time remaining on the PS Now subscription.

See, while I'm willing to believe this poster had PS Now, they don't actually mention if they purchased PS Now, just just mention the four-year PS+ subscription purchase, which would only be converted to Essential tier once the new service rolls out. Since they don't explicitly mention having PS Now in that post, I can't see anything where their argument is in the right. Do they mention having a PS Now subscription later in the comments?

Again I'm not trying to defend Sony here, and there may be some particulars they mentioned in this whole upgrade path I'm blanking out on (if so someone please point me to that information), but from what I know they've mentioned, conversions up to Premium and Deluxe tiers required having an active PS Now sub as well. I know they cut off activation of PS Now cards after a couple of weeks and said those would activate once the service rolled out but converted down some to an "equivalent" for access to the higher tiers, but that might be separate to what the person in the Reddit post is speaking about.

The issue that people are complaining. isn't about having PS Now or not having PS Now. its about the fact that the price that you paid for your ps+ time is also impacts the cost of the upgrade. People 'assumed' rightly or wrongly that the cost from upgrading from a discounted 1 year of ps+ would be the same as upgrading from a normal 1 year of ps+.

 

[jshackles]

Well if this holds true for the US then I'm definitely sticking with Essential, basically out of necessity.

I have PS+ stacked through 2025. If I have to pay $180+ dollars to upgrade to the next tier (because it can't be separated and has to be paid in full for the full time I have left) then they can fuck off with that noise.

EDIT: come to think of it, I would be one of the double-screwed people. Since I only ever buy my PS+ subs on Black Friday's 50% off deal. So I guess it sounds like I would need to pay the difference of those discounts ($30 * 3 = $90) plus the cost of three years upgrade ($60 * 3 = $180). So... $270. Nope.

 

[reksveks]

Well if this holds true for the US then I'm definitely sticking with Essential, basically out of necessity.

I have PS+ stacked through 2025. If I have to pay $180+ dollars to upgrade to the next tier (because it can't be separated and has to be paid in full for the full time I have left) then they can fuck off with that noise.

yeah, thats the second issue.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

The issue that people are complaining. isn't about having PS Now or not having PS Now. its about the fact that the price that you paid for your ps+ time is also impacts the cost of the upgrade. People 'assumed' rightly or wrongly that the cost from upgrading from a discounted 1 year of ps+ would be the same as upgrading from a normal 1 year of ps+.

Yeah I've had to look around the other pages but it seems that's the actual issue here. People who bough PS+ from 3P websites like CD Keys (or whatever the equivalents are in Asian countries) shouldn't be punished for that considering Sony should be well aware that lots of people buy through those portals rather than them directly, same with Microsoft and stuff like XBL Gold. I'm sure it's even the case with Nintendo and NSO.

I mean, even if someone purchased via a 3P portal, that is still a paying customer, and at the time of announcement they did not specify you had to buy your PS+ subs at the full price to be eligible. So they may legally be in the right to use the purchase price to determine the upgrade cost, but in terms of transparency it's a shitty thing to do when you know chances are a sizable portion of interested people purchase PS+ subs via 3P portals.

So I agree that they should not do that, knowing now what's actually going on.

 

[Gamerguy84]

Confused.

Is this the pro-rated thing about conversion and stacking they've had on their website for a while or some new issue?

I'm at work and don't have time to dive into it yet.

 

[ManaByte]

This sounds like a potential lawsuit somewhere in there right?

Another OtherOS check?

 

[Swift_Star]

I don't think the reddit post is even factually accurate.

If you go read what the article source is about it's some guy saying "yeah I read that somewhere" with that having 3 upvotes. The original reddit poster is not even very active except maybe complaining about PS every now and then. Same with Godot the thread creator here to be honest.

The way the system works from my understanding is that there is a conversion based on months that R reksveks has posted in the past. Nothing happens to your discounts. It's based on month to month conversions. Somebody mentions this in the reddit thread and it has the upvotes. It also has the official Hong Kong twitter account confirming it. They don't just wipe out discounts they have a conversion and people who are irate are those who cannot go in and out of the sub while keeping their essential stacked.

So people are twisting reality, spreading misinformation and have bad reading comprehension? Shocking.

 

[Thief1987]

I feel sorry for the people that rushed to stack their PS Now subs in advance assuming it would work the same as GP...

Why? People with ps now will be converted to a premium tier with zero cost.

 

[reksveks]

Yeah I've had to look around the other pages but it seems that's the actual issue here. People who bough PS+ from 3P websites like CD Keys (or whatever the equivalents are in Asian countries) shouldn't be punished for that considering Sony should be well aware that lots of people buy through those portals rather than them directly, same with Microsoft and stuff like XBL Gold. I'm sure it's even the case with Nintendo and NSO.

I mean, even if someone purchased via a 3P portal, that is still a paying customer, and at the time of announcement they did not specify you had to buy your PS+ subs at the full price to be eligible. So they may legally be in the right to use the purchase price to determine the upgrade cost, but in terms of transparency it's a shitty thing to do when you know chances are a sizable portion of interested people purchase PS+ subs via 3P portals.

So I agree that they should not do that, knowing now what's actually going on.

yeah, its the lack of transparency.

Did the maths for that user and using the essential price as the same RRP as PS+ of old. They are currently having to pay 1201 HKD (153 USD) instead of 888 HKD (113 USD) to upgrade if they had bought at RRP or Sony had treated the remaining months as bought at RRP.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Quality exclusive content from Sony as always.

Never seen this elsewhere.

 

[Warnen]

Need to make every dime count, this is the current Sony.

 

[ManaByte]

Not really. Gp has a 3 year cap

Reminds me that I need to top mine off next week.

 

[AtomicStarving]

So that's why you were so quiet huh?

I've noticed a kind of pattern with Sony lately. They announce something, everyone gets excited, then the "buts" begin to arrive. Angry people everywhere

 

[Kilau]

This supposed 'issue' affects the ones who only had PS Plus active so they get migrated to PS+ Essential when the new service got released in their region. Sony allows them to migrate to a higher tier the remaining PS+ Essential days by paying their proportional difference of what they paid vs the price of the higher tier they want to migrate instead of asking them to pay the full fee.

According to them (their math maybe is wrong to calculate the difference depending on how days and months are calculated, if using monthly/3monts/one year to count isolated days) Sony is charging them the difference of what they paid vs the price of the tier where they want to migrate. Which for their case, who got PS+ discounted probably on a cd key store, is more money than calculating the difference of current Essential tier pricing vs the tier they want to migrate to.

The issue isn’t paying to migrate tiers. It’s about being retroactively charged full price for Plus when you bought it on sale when you go to migrate tiers.

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

Why? People with ps now will be converted to a premium tier with zero cost.

I've obviously mis read the thread title -

Demands Upfront Fee for Stacked Subs​

 

[Elios83]

Lol this is a bit extreme Jim, you can't even say you're doing it on purpose to anger Bryank75

Thankfully I've never stacked subscriptions.

 

[Bo_Hazem]

I can only see this being rolled back because this is the prettiest...

Stop there, that sounds good.

 

[Guntherlibby]

This is 100% a bug.

No way Sony is this stupid.

 

[Thief1987]

I've obviously mis read the thread title -

Demands Upfront Fee for Stacked Subs​

With ps plus. Ps plus and ps now are different services, you know

 

[jshackles]

Confused.

Is this the pro-rated thing about conversion and stacking they've had on their website for a while or some new issue?

I'm at work and don't have time to dive into it yet.

Well - the biggest "issue" I think is that PS+ (now Essential) and PS Now (now Premium) can no longer be purchased separately. So if you're like me, and you've topped up PS+ for several years, and you want to upgrade from Essential to Premium you have to pay full price all up front. (rather than, say, being able to upgrade from Essential to Premium for a month then automatically going back down to Essential when that month is done).

Some people are also claiming that if you purchased your subscription on a discount (like I do when I stock up a few years every Black Friday) then you ALSO have to pay the difference between that discounted amount and full price when you upgrade. So if you paid $40/year for your PS Essential subscription on Black Friday and then want to upgrade it to Premium: you're now charged and extra $20 on top of the $60 it costs to upgrade your subscription. It's like the system says "OK you want to upgrade and the cost of both services together is $120, and you've already paid us $40, so please give us $80 to proceed." This last bit is likely a bug or a really bad business practice that will be walked back quickly.

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

With ps plus. Ps plus and ps now are different services, you know

I've definitely read the thread title wrong!! It clearly says PS Plus... Fuck my life.

 

[Metnut]

Do you still get the legacy PSPlus stuff at the discount price and are only charged the full upgrade fee for higher tiers?

 

[Thief1987]

Do you still get the legacy PSPlus stuff at the discount price and are only charged the full upgrade fee for higher tiers?

Yes, you will be converted to Essential tier automatically, it's about if you want to upgrade to a higher plan.

 

[AdjudicatorHead]

Understandable they'd make that kind of mistake being the small indie company that Sony is.

And Xbox recently went down for half a day and went down again a day or two later... point is, technical issues and oversights happen all the time, even in big companies. In fact, it's less likely to happen in an indie company as the tech stack is orders of magnitude simpler than in big IT operations. Don't be obtuse.

 

[jaysius]

Sony next….. We are removing the following previously claimed xyz games from your PS Plus account as you are subscribed to Ps+ Essentials. These games now sit in the Ps+ Premium tier. Please upgrade to Ps+ Premium to play these games. PlayStation, for the gamers!

It's even easier brand wise for Sony to neuter the lowest tier of quality content.

Fanbois will take care of the dissidents, the service's quality decreases and Sony makes more money.

 

[Wohc]

Can you please stop complaining and being concerned until this is official? Sounds more like a bug to me.

 

[jaysius]

Can you please stop complaining and being concerned until this is official? Sounds more like a bug to me.

 

[reinking]

Thank god I did not stack...

I didn't for this reason. There was no info indicating that I could upgrade and downgrade a current sub for only a month at a time. I figured it was safer to wait it out.

 

[Plantoid]

Can you please stop complaining and being concerned until this is official? Sounds more like a bug to me.

This is 100% a bug.

No way Sony is this stupid.

Not a bug, already confirmed with support by multiple people on Reddit

 

[jshackles]

Yes, you will be converted to Essential tier automatically, it's about if you want to upgrade to a higher plan.

It's like they're trying to convince their most loyal customers that they shouldn't upgrade...

I know Microsoft's $1 Game Pass conversion deal got a lot of flack here, but this is the exact problem / backlash they were trying to avoid when they came up with that marketing strategy.

 

[Crispy Gamer]

I feel sorry for the people that rushed to stack their PS Now subs in advance assuming it would work the same as GP...

Nah we good I received my email about being converted to PS Premium early this month, now for the people who never got the email I would be shaking in mah boots

 

[Wohc]

Not a bug, already confirmed with support by multiple people on Reddit

Yeah, but i don't think someone saying something on Reddit is offical.

 

[Brofist]

And Xbox recently went down for half a day and went down again a day or two later... point is, technical issues and oversights happen all the time, even in big companies. In fact, it's less likely to happen in an indie company as the tech stack is orders of magnitude simpler than in big IT operations. Don't be obtuse.

Well I didn’t make a mention of Xbox did I, so we can see the angle you are coming from now with the defensive fanboy reaction.

Second while outages on services are a part of life unfortunately no matter which company faces them, and it happens to everyone, the scenario you’ve described sounds like ineptitude on a serious level for a company like Sony. If you want to be an apologist go ahead.

Make no mistake they knew exactly what they were doing and if they have to rollback due to backlash they will. Maybe they can use your excuse too!

 

[AdjudicatorHead]

Not a bug, already confirmed with support by multiple people on Reddit

Support agents generally know absolutely nothing beyond the info available to the public. If there was a tech fuck up in the backend there's no way that gets relayed to support before a plan to fix it has been put in place and a message has gone out.

 

[Thief1987]

Not a bug, already confirmed with support by multiple people on Reddit

Support is not an evidence, they are don't know shit.

 

[kirby007]

I just unsubbed from PSN+

 

[Plantoid]

Support is not an evidence, they are don't know shit.

Support agents generally know absolutely nothing beyond the info available to the public. If there was a tech fuck up in the backend there's no way that gets relayed to support before a plan to fix it has been put in place and a message has gone out.

Let's hope you guys are right