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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)

Banjo64

cumsessed
Faux outrage is people being upset about puddles in a video games. Expecting clear communication from a company with some of the most loyal people isn’t faux outrage. No matter how you slice it it’s messed up to block the use of legally purchased goods without clear and consideration communication. Sadly with gaming anything against the company one roots for is deemed as console warring.
You’ve lost me.
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
There’s nothing ridiculous about it. They have stopped allowing people to stack. They pulled 12 month cards from their website and retail 3 months ago in the UK. When the new service launches, you’ll probably be able to stack again.

Yes it’s a gaming forum, one which heavily trends against subscription services in general. I’d expect more than the typical faux outrage to be honest but I can see that’s a big ask.
They pulled PSNow cards months ago.

Not PS+ cards.

PS+ cards can be bought right now at stores all over the place, including the UK, and they aren't redeemable for current customers until June 15th.

It's just hilariously sloppy and classic Sony really to announce in a blog post how something will work and then scramble to stop people from stacking PS+ cards lol
 
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I think it'd be more like buying an EB Games gift card this morning and then being told you can't use it until June 15th.

It's not 10+ year old cards, it's cards still being sold right now, that you can't use if you have a PS+ account.
then they pre sold you a code that wasn't active if they didnt tell people upfront then yea i see the problem.
 
These are the facts:
  • If you don't currently have a subscription you can redeem a key perfectly fine.
  • If you have an existing subscription you will have to wait before redeeming the key (once Sony allow them to be redeemed again or as soon as your existing subscription expires - whichever comes first)
  • If you are a current subscriber who is waiting your current subscription continues to work as it should
Thank you for explaining it clearly. It’s still a terrible move to make because once the unexpired cards are sold legally on the market barring someone from using it imo is messed up. Which is why the word loop hole doesn’t sit right with me because it makes it seem like they are cracking down on wrong doing when most companies sell bulk subscriptions for less than it cost to buy month to month…but now it’s being barred to penny pinch the few who do it before your new service drops? I’m sorry but that’s not something I as a consumer would be like “it is what it is” especially when said company has a history of poor communication and penny punching already.

Tis all.
 

Elios83

Member
As long as the arpu covers the losses then the profits doesn't change. They then need to find a way to increase the user base and they look like they will do that with an avod model in emerging markets.

I am not saying that all investors are crazy but when a user drop whilst you post your second highest operating income causes your stockprice to drop 50% then there is some question markets about the wisdom of investors.

Very similarly Meta had a reasonable growth in MAU/DAU and a massive drop in OI (due to them spending an additional 2.5bn in R&D) but they saw a 18% rise in stock price which was a minor correction from the previous quarters resuly.

The issue is not current profits.
The issue is around future growth.
The perception is that video on demand streaming services have peaked during the pandemic since it's unlikely that in the future we'll ever see an other situation where all the mainstream population is forced to stay at home with not much to do beside binging on TV series.
The fact that Netflix first stopped growing and now it's declining is just proving the point to those people.
If you are an investor and see not many chances to go up from where you are atm it's only logic you sell and that's what's happening right now.
There is also the perception that the general quality of the productions is going down and that will be hard to fix if users are going down instead of growing.
 
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Banjo64

cumsessed
Refer to all the people assuming those who are “outraged” don’t have said console.
Are you talking gibberish or am I misreading?

When have I said that the outrage crew don’t have a PS?

Your yourself having to ask if this affects you because you can’t simultaneously dislike the policies of a company you support.

I don’t understand. Are you are saying I can’t dislike Sony because I’m a Sony fanboy? If so, to quote Andrew Neil; ‘if you only knew how ridiculous that statement is, you wouldn’t have said it’. I’m probably classed as an Xbox fanboy by 99% of this forum.
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
They pulled PSNow cards months ago.

Not PS+ cards.

PS+ cards can be bought right now at stores all over the place, including the UK, and they aren't redeemable for current customers until June 15th.

It's just hilariously sloppy and classic Sony really to announce in a blog post how something will work and then scramble to stop people from stacking PS+ cards lol
But if I’m reading it correctly you can redeem it if your sub lapses, you just can’t stack presumably until the 15th or after.

I’m old enough, smelly enough and riddled with chlamydia enough to know that whatever happens the people with these cards will either be able to redeem them or will be compensated by Sony. It’s all hot air.
 
I don’t understand. Are you are saying I can’t dislike Sony because I’m a Sony fanboy? If so, to quote Andrew Neil; ‘if you only knew how ridiculous that statement is, you wouldn’t have said it’. I’m probably classed as an Xbox fanboy by 99% of this forum.
No king. Just that questioning someone’s connection to a company doesn’t discredit their argument be it good or bad. That’s all. And you don’t have to be a Ps5/4 owner to have valid criticisms of this move. A bad move is a bad move.
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
But if I’m reading it correctly you can redeem it if your sub lapses, you just can’t stack presumably until the 15th or after.

I’m old enough, smelly enough and riddled with chlamydia enough to know that whatever happens the people with these cards will either be able to redeem them or will be compensated by Sony. It’s all hot air.

Yes, and you get PS+ Essential, when people clearly are buying the cards to get PS+ Premium. Why are they doing that? Because Sony made it really clear in a blog post how this all was supposed to work.. was it the intention of the blog post to get people to get a ton of PS+ cards? No.. but.. again, these are Sony's products.. they know they are for sale.. they know what their blog post said.. there's no way they didn't realize how that would all work.

So now people are stuck with cards they really may not have wanted, cards worth quite a bit less (roughly half) what they thought they'd get for them.. again, because of Sony's rather clear blog post. Cards that are almost certainly going to not be refundable, as retailers in general do not refund activated gift cards.

Sony is just really incompetent here.

It's all rather hilarious to me.
 
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FrankWza

Member
This is so desperate and embarrassing.

Meanwhile MS has left their loophole open for years.
Kate Mckinnon Snl GIF by Saturday Night Live
 

FrankWza

Member
These are the facts:
  • If you don't currently have a subscription you can redeem a key perfectly fine.
  • If you have an existing subscription you will have to wait before redeeming the key (once Sony allow them to be redeemed again or as soon as your existing subscription expires - whichever comes first)
  • If you are a current subscriber who is waiting your current subscription continues to work as it should
This should be stickied.
 

GHG

Gold Member
Well I checked the PS5 thread about this and I could see about 3 comments of people saying they can’t redeem a code. Ok? Next time redeem your code when you get it. Play stupid games win stupid prizes.

I’m not defending shit, I’m attacking the fake people who pretend to care about something that’s effecting less than 0.1% of PS users who will, with near certainty, be compensated my Sony.

The only way I have sympathy is if someone purchased a PS+ subscription from a grey market site in the last couple of days and you're now left sweating as to whether that code is legit or not. But even still... Grey market sites are a gamble regardless.

This should be stickied.

But then we have no drama.

giphy.gif
 
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IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
The only way I have sympathy is if someone purchased a PS+ subscription from a grey market site in the last couple of days and you're now left sweating as to whether that code is legit or not. But even still... Grey market sites are a gamble regardless.

But then we have no drama.

- Sony releases a blog post, that made their PS+ cards more valuable, cards still on the market, you can still buy today
- People read that blog post and said "hey, I'ma go buy this thing for $60 that Sony just made worth $120 as long as I have one month of PSNow"
- Sony changes their stacking policy, that is in the fine print of everything you buy, to stop this

Why in the world would you not have sympathy for people? What is so wrong about people taking advantage of a deal a company creates?

You see nothing wrong with creating a situation whereby one of your products is increased in value, and then quietly making that not true, which you'd only know if you contacted support since they never announced the blocking of stacking?

And to top it off that product you effectively doubled the value of w/ a blog post, is generally non refundable.

Come on dude.. you really can't be such a company apologist.. this shit is messy, it's not the fault of consumers for Sony releasing a blog post that made PS+ cards more valuable.. it's Sony's fault.. and Sony should honor the deal they created.
 
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GHG

Gold Member
- Sony releases a blog post, that made their PS+ cards more valuable, cards still on the market, you can still buy today
- People read that blog post and said "hey, I'ma go buy this thing for $60 that Sony just made worth $120 as long as I have one month of PSNow"
- Sony changes their stacking policy, that is in the fine print of everything you buy, to stop this

Why in the world would you not have sympathy for people? What is so wrong about people taking advantage of a deal a company creates?

You see nothing wrong with creating a situation whereby one of your products is increased in value, and then quietly making that not true, which you'd only know if you contacted support since they never announced the blocking of stacking?

And to top it off that product you effectively doubled the value of w/ a blog post, is generally non refundable.

Come on dude.. you really can't be such a company apologist.. this shit is messy, it's not the fault of consumers for Sony releasing a blog post that made PS+ cards more valuable.. it's Sony's fault.. and Sony should honor the deal they created.

Nowhere have they said they won't honour the PS+ subscription cards. I've already clearly outlined why I don't have sympathy for people who have purchased from legitimate sources when all they need to do is wait. And you told me to "give it a rest"?

You're literally begging people to be upset/outraged about this.
 
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Dlacy13g

Member
Obviously, this is not a consumer-friendly move, and honestly, I feel like Sony is smart enough to know that this would come to light, and it would get talked about openly. It's certainly not a good look for Sony so why do it? I can only think Sony actually didn't think "stacking" would be reacted upon like it was / it was a major oversight and ultimately, they are unwilling to take the hit to their revenue. The further cherry to this conspiracy sundae thought is Sony doesn't care about the PR hit. They are counting on it to be a small blip in the big scheme and like other bad looks of late they will ride this out and be just fine. Sony knows / is counting on a very loyal fanbase that will probably in some cases defend this vs call them out for it. Just my two cents..
 

Gamer79

Predicts the worst decade for Sony starting 2022
Sony has a long list of anti consumer activity lately, just look at the latest gran turismo for example. They better be careful or people may jump ship for game pass. I think Sony makes some of the best exclusives in the business but corporate greed and a lack of respect for loyalist may come back and bite them in the ass.

Look at some mod put under my name and it's starting to begin. BTW, I mainly play on my ps5.
 
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RafterXL

Member
Well I checked the PS5 thread about this and I could see about 3 comments of people saying they can’t redeem a code. Ok? Next time redeem your code when you get it. Play stupid games win stupid prizes.

I’m not defending shit, I’m attacking the fake people who pretend to care about something that’s effecting less than 0.1% of PS users who will, with near certainty, be compensated my Sony.
First off you don't know how many people this effects and secondly there's literally nothing in the history of Sony as a company that should lead anyone to believe, especially not with "near certainty", that these people will be compensated.

And, exactly, what did you expect to find in the PS5 thread on this site, of all places? Literally every single bad decision Sony has made this generation has been embraced and defended here like Sony was doing these people favors. They will literally defend anything Sony does.
 

Three

Member
Edit: don’t have ps+. Had it for a year when it came with the PS5. May renew it depending on what the service offers.
Then this doesn't affect you and you can use your PSN card, which you don't even own it appears. So why are you outraged for those who can still stack cards after the Premium conversion or get a refund now?

For the record, I'm not outraged, and I'm set on both services, but it's still a garbage move by Sony and I have no problem calling them out on it. The bigger question is why so many of you are so quick to defend an obvious dick move?
Says the guy who thumbs ups pro MS comments about them "not being a charity" when they make dick moves with storage and is unsurprisingly outraged by GT7, Horizon Forbidden West, the Dualsense controller and VRR. Also magically chose not to appear "to call them out" in the thread this January when xbox tried to double xbox live gold prices having pulled annual retail cards in July last year, how surprising.
- Sony releases a blog post, that made their PS+ cards more valuable, cards still on the market, you can still buy today
- People read that blog post and said "hey, I'ma go buy this thing for $60 that Sony just made worth $120 as long as I have one month of PSNow"
- Sony changes their stacking policy, that is in the fine print of everything you buy, to stop this

Why in the world would you not have sympathy for people? What is so wrong about people taking advantage of a deal a company creates?

You see nothing wrong with creating a situation whereby one of your products is increased in value, and then quietly making that not true, which you'd only know if you contacted support since they never announced the blocking of stacking?

And to top it off that product you effectively doubled the value of w/ a blog post, is generally non refundable.

Come on dude.. you really can't be such a company apologist.. this shit is messy, it's not the fault of consumers for Sony releasing a blog post that made PS+ cards more valuable.. it's Sony's fault.. and Sony should honor the deal they created.
It's messy and there absolutely should be compensation for those affected but it appears that move was actually to honour those who had previously stacked more PS+ than PS Now from being given the shorter straw. If these people who already have running subscriptions to PS+ are purely trying to buy cards now to stack years to exploit this because of the blog post it means they can easily get a refund because it's been less than 14 days, or wait until the tiers are brought in then stack it as regular PS Essential as normal. There is no outrage to be had except from those salty for not being able to loophole PS Premium at 50% off. Something they could have done earlier a month ago if they cared. A lot of people here didn't care, they were never subscribed. They care more about stirring up the outrage.
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
It's messy and there absolutely should be compensation for those affected but it appears that move was actually to honour those who had previously stacked more PS+ than PS Now from being given the shorter straw.

I mean, not really. The blog post was pretty clear, unless Sony forgot it was mid April... any months owned as of June 15th would follow conversions. They then "moved" to try to stop that and make it based on months already stacked as of.. I guess yesterday, since this all worked up until around then.

And who is easily going to get a refund? Certainly not most in the US.. gift cards are final sale at the vast majority of retailers.
 
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IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Nowhere have they said they won't honour the PS+ subscription cards. I've already clearly outlined why I don't have sympathy for people who have purchased from legitimate sources when all they need to do is wait. And you told me to "give it a rest"?

You're literally begging people to be upset/outraged about this.
Nowhere did I say they won't honor PS+ sub cards.

Nowhere in that reply did you actually respond to what I said.

I couldn't care less who is outraged or not lol.. just mostly laughing at the absurdity of Sony and their cock gobbling fans. I'm a Sony fan, but I do not gobble Sony cock. Try not to choke to death.
 
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FalsettoVibe

Gold Member
Nowhere did I say they won't honor PS+ sub cards.

Nowhere in that reply did you actually respond to what I said.

I couldn't care less who is outraged or not lol.. just mostly laughing at the absurdity of Sony and their cock gobbling fans. I'm a Sony fan, but I do not gobble Sony cock. Try not to choke to death.

waka flocka GIF


Wow...maybe go outside and get some fresh air..
 
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ReBurn

Gold Member
I thought MS has it capped to only 3 years?
They do. When I did the 3 years of ultimate trick in February I tried to also add the 3 months GameStop gave me for free in December and they were nice enough to tell me to wait until May to add my other 3 months because I had all I could have until February 2025.
 
They do. When I did the 3 years of ultimate trick in February I tried to also add the 3 months GameStop gave me for free in December and they were nice enough to tell me to wait until May to add my other 3 months because I had all I could have until February 2025.
Not to mention ultimate can essential be free in usa if you do the bign search and quest daily
 
Then this doesn't affect you and you can use your PSN card, which you don't even own it appears. So why are you outraged for those who can still stack cards after the Premium conversion or get a refund now?
cooperate greed is something that I tend to have a problem with. So it does affect me. Especially as a ps5 owner.
 

Godot25

Banned
Honestly it's pathetic
Sony is fighting every dollar as if their balance sheet was broken and company on verge of bankruptcy.

Ffs, let it slide and be somehow proconsumer. It's enough that you are charging for next-gen upgrades of your 1st party games. It's enough that you raised price for your games for 20€. You made 11 billion in profits last fiscal year. You can afford not being a dicks for a few seconds really.
 

Three

Member
I mean, not really. The blog post was pretty clear, unless Sony forgot it was mid April... any months owned as of June 15th would follow conversions. They then "moved" to try to stop that and make it based on months already stacked as of.. I guess yesterday, since this all worked up until around then.

And who is easily going to get a refund? Certainly not most in the US.. gift cards are final sale at the vast majority of retailers.

You clearly haven't been following this then. More than a month ago they confirmed that PS Now subscribers would be converted to PS Premium for free for their PS Now duration.
I stacked up PS Now see below:
Screenshot-20220404-151434-Chrome.jpg


Did it have one before? I stacked up until 2025

People were asking what about those who have PS+ stacked but PS Now finishes sooner see below:

I honestly don't get how they are going to justify saying if you have PS+ you go straight onto essentials, but if you don't have PS+ and you have a PSNow subsription you go straight into our top tier offering worth three times the ammount you are currently paying, that just doesnt make any sense

I could understand it if they said if you have both PS+ and PSNow then you go straight into the top tier, but not just PSNow, thats shitting on PS+ subscribers big time from a value perspective

I'd do this myself but I just don't understand how they are going to just give people with a £40 a year subscription a £80 upgrade free of charge, there has to be some catch to this

Then a couple of days ago Sony did the right thing and announced that it will convert for whichever is longer PS+ or PSNow. People who had PS Now then saw that as an exploit to stack up 3+ years of PS+ ( because they couldn't buy PS Now cards anymore) but little did they know Sony had added a temporary stacking cap. Now you're outraged for those people.
 
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Of course all is well with the Xbox brand. But it's also okay to admit that GamePass losing them money. Both things can be true.
There aren't really an signs that Gamepass is losing them money though. They don't have to print those games on disc, they don't have to ship them, people can't steal them, they don't have to pay for shelf space at retailers, you have consistent RMR coming in, people end up buying some of the games that are on it. At best they sit on a server waiting for people to download them. Getting consistent money out of gamers isn't always easy and with a constant flow of money instead of people being picky choosy with their $60, I feel like there's no way they'd be losing money in that space. At $15 / month Microsoft is looking to make $180 / year on people that typically wouldn't spend $120 on 2 games in that same year. Very rarely do I pay full price for a game, but Gamepass allows me to play games I typically wouldn't try, some games I've purchased as a result. If Sony had a replica of Gamepass, I'd be all over it and own a PS5 today.

Let's also assume that Microsoft's 1st party games will continue to grow, while 3rd party games will shuffle around a bit.
 
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The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
Why the fuck are people upset about a loophole being closed?
People in here have been upset over you can stack gwg and get game pass, because Microsoft loses money.

Now the same people are upset over Sony did what they wanted Microsoft to do with the stacking.
 

Topher

Gold Member
Seems kinda bad optics and overcomplicated but I have already done my stacking up so ehh.


zVGWEqI.jpg

"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. "

So this is clunky as hell, but voucher codes will work after the new service launches. As a software developer, this just sounds like they did a pisspoor job of designing their systems in the first place. Reminds me of the horrible way of they engineered PSN user names that made it impossible to change until years later.

So the complaint should be about their rigid system that has been in place, but at least this is an issue that will go away after it launches.
 

Wohc

Banned
Honestly it's pathetic
Sony is fighting every dollar as if their balance sheet was broken and company on verge of bankruptcy.
They don't have as much money as Microsoft and hey already wasted only god knows how many millions for timed exclusives and will never see that money again, because you just can't get a PS5.
 

Topher

Gold Member
What is this mess. Conversion pages that lead to a 404 error. Sounds fitting.

This is going to blow on their faces until June lol

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.

They don't have as much money as Microsoft and hey already wasted only god knows how many millions for timed exclusives and will never see that money again, because you just can't get a PS5.

I think is more to do with incompetence than money.
 

yurinka

Member
Seems kinda bad optics and overcomplicated but I have already done my stacking up so ehh.


zVGWEqI.jpg
Seems they made some changes to the Q&A page and clarified it. Some things continue as they were:
-As it was before, if at release you only had pending PS+ months, will be migrated to Essential.
-If you only had pending Now months, will be migrated to Premium.
-If you had pending both Plus and Now months, will you'll be migrated to Premium and the expiration date will be the longer one you had out of the two.
-No issues with having stacked years of subscriptions until now

About the recent changes and new info:
-During the transition to the new system voucher codes are temporally disabled to stack (add more months to a sub you are already susbscribed), but not to join the subscription. So you'll be able to use again the codes once the PS+ releases or use them to resubscribe it your sub expires before the release.
-You'll be able to redeem these voucher codes after the release of the new system but will be converted to a length of time on your current PlayStation Plus membership plan equivalent to the monetary value of the voucher you are redeeming. For example, a 1-month PlayStation Plus voucher will provide access to approximately 3 weeks of PlayStation Plus Extra or approximately 2.5 weeks of PlayStation Plus Premium. See conversion chart here for details
-Once the new service is released, if you only had pending PS+ months and no voucher codes to redeem you'll be migrated to essential but there will be an option to migrate to higher tiers paying the difference for the remaining months.

(The conversion chart URL link is broken)

if3ldk2w2j841.jpg


TLDR: Things continue as they were, but if you got codes to stack in the grey market and weren't redeemed until now, to stack will be temporally disabled during the transition, and will be enabled again once the new PS+ releases but the length of these codes will be adapted to the new pricing. For people without grey market codes, after the new PS+ release the PSN store will allow you to upgrade to higher tiers paying the difference for the remaining monts (meaning that if you bought 12 months but want to upgrade when you only have 4 left, you'll be able to pay the price difference of these 4 months in your existing tier vs price of these 4 months in the higher tier, you won't need to buy 12 months of the new tier).
 
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DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
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.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
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.
 

StreetsofBeige

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

Topher

Gold 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.

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.
 
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