Sony has stopped disclosing their subscription numbers for PS Plus, and we think it might not be a good sign for their users.
Sony released their financial results for the first half of 2023 at the beginning of August, but something seems to be missing compared to past reports.
The current PlayStation Plus subscriber amount has not been revealed, and it seems like Sony doesn't plan on doing so anymore in the future.
But why did they stop releasing these numbers, and what does this change for us as their customers?
Why Sony Won't Release PS Plus Data Anymore
Well, as always, there are two sides to each good story. As soon as investors noticed that Sony didn't release the PS Plus subscriber count in their newest financial report, they wanted to know why.
Sony replied to their questions, saying that the company wants to focus on expanding the subscription service and thus will not disclose any more numbers regarding subscribers.
Additionally, since PS Plus has multiple subscription tiers since June 2022, Sony wants to focus on improving the quality of the service and its different tiers, in order to raise their average revenue per user.
It makes sense that Sony wants to raise their average revenue per user, since the PS Plus subscriber count hasn't been increasing by much over the last few years.
In fact, if you take a look at the latest numbers that Sony had released, it almost seems as though the amount of people with a PS Plus subscription has stagnated.
Additionally, by not disclosing their PS Plus user numbers, they can't be compared to competitors. Releasing data that reflects negatively on their sales can not only be problematic when it comes to investors, but also when it comes to customers.
Both parties could ask themselves why numbers are better over at a competing subscription gaming company, and possibly decide to leave Sony.
Sony announced that they want to focus on improving the PS Plus subscription for their users, but what does can we expect?
What This Means For PS Plus Users
Well, Sony has already stated that part of their improvement plan is to include "multi-platform offerings" in the future, so we'll probably see a PC version in the near future.
Now, this sounds really cool at first, but we can't help but wonder why Sony are doing this all of a sudden. One thing that we can probably assume will happen soon, is that Sony is going to raise their PS Plus prices.
By improving the subscription, the company can justify the price increase for their subscribers. If Sony does do this, it will obviously increase their revenue, which could make up for the previously stagnating amount of PS Plus users. Not only that, improving the subscription by adding multi-platform offerings would open the door to gamers that don't have PlayStation consoles.
Perhaps Sony is hoping to garner new PS Plus users through this improvement, but don't want to release any data following this move, in case it doesn't show a massive amount of new subscribers.
Sony would not be the only company to raise their subscription prices recently. After Netflix decided to raise their prices, Disney+ seems to be following in their footsteps.
But not only the entertainment world is looking to fill their wallets, Microsoft increased the price for the Xbox Game Pass in June 2023 as well. So from Sony's perspective, they'll probably just do what seems to be working well for everyone else.
Fingers crossed that Sony decides to be the bigger person, uhm, company in this case and keeps prices just the way they are now.