Opinion: PlayStation Plus Extra is the sweet spot for PS5 owners

Gaming and chill

Netflix for video games, that’s the best way to describe any online subscription that offers you a library of videogames for a monthly subscription fee. The only successful (at least for the consumer) subscription model at work is the Xbox Game Pass. It’s a force to be reckoned with and now Sony has finally caved in and thrown its cards on the table. The PlayStation Plus subscription comes in three tiers at different price points that offer a list of games depending on how much monthly cash you shell out.

Luckily for you, Khumail Thakur, the resident gamer at Stuff HQ has gone through all the tiers and pondered on their price-to-gaming ratio and deems the PlayStation Plus Extra to be the best possible tier to spend your money on. Why? Read on to find out.

The third tier is non-existent

You would assume that you have a ‘choice’ to opt for the second tier here in India but that’s simply not the case. That so-called choice that I assumed is divided equally between the three tiers doesn’t actually exist. Let me explain. The first tier has the same old PlayStation subscription model which gives you access to exclusive discounts, two monthly downloadable games, cloud storage for saved games and online multiplayer access. The second tier gives the catalogue of 400 games (PS4 and PS5) to download and play along with everything from the first tier. So essentially, if you want Netflix for games, you have to start with tier two.

Now that brings me to the title of this section. The third tier is non-existent and by that, I mean that PlayStation’s actual plan for the third tier involves access to games through cloud streaming but India doesn’t get the privilege because it’s not available in our country. And therefore most of the ‘extra 340 games’ that were promised in the third tier are not there on the list. In fact, the list of retro games that are in Deluxe (third tier) subscription is not worth the extra cash. You can scroll through the PlayStation website here and find the list of Deluxe games, the ones with the asterisks on their name are not available in India. And those are all the fun ones!

The only choice

So tier one is the same old same old, and tier three costs ₹750 more yearly for games that barely made an impression back in the day. You do get time-limited game trials in this tier, but that list is about 13 games.

So now all you’re left with is the ₹4,999/year subscription of PlayStation Plus Extra, and it is worth it. If you opt for a monthly payment of ₹749 then the yearly total cost creeps up to ₹8,988 which is a polite way of saying ‘shut up and take the yearly subscription’. Although, if you want a full lowdown on the cost information, you can head over to our story on Everything you need to know about the new PlayStation Plus subscriptions.

Coming back to that catalogue of 400 games (PS4 and PS5) on the PlayStation Plus Extra. It’s really something that can rival the Xbox Game Pass, although, XGP also has first-party game titles launching on the subscription on day one, which PlayStation doesn’t have yet. PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan, in an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, said that putting PlayStation Studio games on the day of launch on these subscription models is not something PlayStation has done before and might not want to do so for some time. His reasoning is that they will not be able to make the heavy investments in their first-party titles as they do now and that may affect the quality of the games.

That said, there are first-party titles here on the Extra subscription along with some heavy hitters too. Our list of top games to play from the subscription is listed below. Take a gander, I’ve put all of the best games I played and loved and some even recommended by the Stuff team.

Games like Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Mafia III: Definitive Edition, Marvel’s Spider-Man (both games), Prey, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Returnal more than makeup for the cash you’re putting down. If by any chance you’ve played all these games, there are still some smashing indie titles in the list of games worth your cash and like any subscription model, some games will leave and more will be added every now and then. To keep the library fresh and tempting for you.

For those of you who are hard stuck on FIFA games or simply enjoy free online co-op games, the subscription model will not tempt you to empty your pockets. For anyone else who is a console gamer, the PlayStation Plus Extra subscription is where you should put your money.

List of games I recommend

- Spider-Man: Miles Morales

- Assassin's Creed Valhalla

- Demon's Souls

- Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut

- Red Dead Redemption 2

- Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy

- Marvel's Spider-Man

- Returnal

- God of War

- Bloodborne

- Control Ultimate Edition

- Injustice 2

- Overcooked 2

- Batman Arkham Knight

- Little Nightmares

- Hollow Knight

- Assetto Corsa Competizione

- Doom

- Blasphemous

- Mafia 3 Definitive Edition

- Far Cry 3

- Ghostrunner

- South Park: The Stick of Truth

- Dead Cells

- Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

- Prey

- Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

- Celeste

- My Friend Pedro

- XCOM 2