Sony rivals Xbox with PlayStation Plus Premium + Amazon PS5 restock alert
If you have the PlayStation 5, I'll tell you how PlayStation Plus is changing and save you $20. If you don't have PS5, check out the Amazon link below.
The Shortcut: Amazon will have PS5 Digital in stock today. Walmart restocks Xbox Series X is among today’s Walmart deals, but no Walmart PS5 restock… yet.
If you got your console, enjoy this PlayStation Plus Premium explainer and $20 off.
Sony’s new Playstation Plus Premium service launches in June – alongside a mid-tier PlayStation Plus Extra and basic PlayStation Plus Essentials – in a bid to reshape how you play old games on your PS5 and try out new games via time-limited trials. Of course, Sony is asking for a higher price for PlayStation Premium and Extra as it tries to rival Microsoft’s popular Xbox Game Pass Ultimate aka the ‘Netflix of video games.’
In this issue of The Shortcut
🚨 Amazon PS5 restock alert (and other PS5 restock dates this week)
🤔 Xbox Series X is often readily available among Walmart daily deals
💰 How to save $20 on PlayStation Plus (never pay $60)
🙌 PlayStation Premium explainer (banner-ad-free)
🛍️ Deal of the day: the new Samsung Frame TV 2022 is out, which means the 2021 Samsung Frame TVs are on sale 🔥
This is part of the Samsung Spring 2022 deals list
The Amazon PS5 restock today
Amazon PS5 Digital Edition will restock at 11am ET/8am PT today, the first time that the elusive $399 PS5 Digital will be in stock at the online retailer. It may appear higher in price ahead of 11am ET from resellers until Amazon itself restocks the console.
Tips on how to get it: the Amazon PS5 restock guide has the full guide, but here’s the skinny: Right at 11am ET/8am PT, when I send my Twitter alert, add the PS5 Digital to your Wish List (aka ‘Add to list’), tap ‘View List’ to go to the wish list and try to add-to-cart from there. This works better than any other method.
🚨 Click for the Amazon PS5 restock alert and link just before 11am ET
🌟 Walmart PS5 Disc restock and PS5 Digital: likely at normal price within the next two weeks
I’ll run an Amazon PS5 restock YouTube live stream video complete with a chat so you can ask me questions. You can join right now.
The Xbox Series X restock events became a non-issue in March 2022, with Walmart often selling the Microsoft console for $499 (at times it does sell out – and is sold for a higher price for resellers – but often comes back in stock at MSRP hours later).
What are PlayStation Premium and Extra?
This is Sony’s bid to compete with Microsoft’s popular Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which has been dubbed ‘the Netflix of video games’ by emphasizing an all-you-can-stream option for a monthly fee. However, the basic PlayStation Plus tier for $9.99 a month, now called PlayStation Essentials, won’t be going away and the PlayStation Plus discount code remains active for $20 off. There’s also going to be a middle PlayStation Extra tier to soften the increase in price.
Here’s The Shortcut skinny on what’s to come starting in June 2022:
PlayStation Essentials
$9.99 monthly / $24.99 quarterly / $59.99 yearly, and that means the PlayStation Plus discount will still work for about $20 off
PlayStation Plus is now called PlayStation Essentials
Comes with the same PlayStation Plus benefits:
Online multiplayer
PlayStation Plus free games every month you can download
Cloud storage
Discounts and fast, free shipping at Sony Direct
PlayStation Plus Extra
$14.99 monthly / $39.99 quarterly / $99.99 yearly
Benefits
400 PS5 and PS4 games downloadable for play
Everything in the PlayStation Essentials tier
PlayStation Plus Premium
$17.99 monthly / $49.99 quarterly / $119.99 yearly
An additional 340 games (so 740 PlayStation games total)
PS3 games via cloud streaming
A bit controversial if you have slower internet speeds
PS1, PS2 and PSP games via streaming AND downloadable
Time-limited game trials to try out select games before purchase
No day-one games like Xbox Game Pass offers
PlayStation Premium and PlayStation Extra are big changes and fold PlayStation Now into the two higher tiers with simplified pricing. The most money you’ll be paying is $120 a year for PS Plus Premium if you pay for 12 months upfront. However, you’ll be able to get the $20 off with the discount code, meaning it should only cost $100. It’s no Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, but it’s a step in the right direction for PS Plus.
Is PlayStation Plus Premium worth it?
PlayStation Plus is worth the money if you own a PS5 and plan to play games – either online or by downloading the three to four free games monthly.
But it remains to be seen how PlayStation Plus Premium and Plus Extra resonate with gamers beyond what PlayStation Now offered. It’s for you if you want to play old games, though the half-baked PS3 backward compatibility via cloud streaming has already drawn complaints from people in rural areas who can’t achieve optimal download speeds to stream games.
But can it rival Xbox Game Pass Ultimate?
PS Plus is a step in the right direction, but it’s missing some features offered by Microsoft. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate delivers first-party games on day one of their release date, while Sony has simply teased time-limited game trials of select titles, which definitely doesn’t sound the same. You’ll still need to pony up $70 for God of War, while Xbox gamers get Halo Infinite with their Game Pass subscription.
Sony won’t have the day-one first-party games that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is known for. Halo Infinite, for example, was playable as soon as it launched if you were an Xbox Game Pass subscriber – no need to pay $60 for the game. You won’t get the same treatment from any tier of PlayStation Plus.
PlayStation Plus Premium games list
What it will really come down to is seeing the PlayStation Plus Premium full games list. That’s the information we’re all waiting to see, and when that full list is revealed, we’ll know if the extra money for PlayStation Plus Premium is worth it or not. Stay tuned for that news, as the June launch of PlayStation Plus Premium is about two months away (and maybe we’ll see PSVR 2 pre-order date info then too. One can hope).
So far, these are the games Sony has mentioned during its announcement of PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium:
Marvel's Spider-Man
Spider-Man: Miles Morales
God of War
Returnal
Mortal Kombat 11
Death Stranding
All are first-party games published by Sony except for Mortal Kombat 11, so I’ll wait for the full list of 740 games that can be downloaded or streamed before passing judgment.
Stay tuned to The Shortcut for that news and enjoy that $20 off PS Plus.