It has been confirmed that Sony has lost nearly two million PlayStation Plus subscribers since the launch of its revamped service. Earlier this year, Sony announced that it was bringing extra tiers to the PlayStation Plus subscription service. By paying an increased cost to either be a part of the Premium or Extra tiers, a user would gain access to a library full of classic PlayStation titles and new AAA games. Initially, fans were glad to see Sony step up the value of its subscription service by making these additions.Many assumed this was so that PlayStation Plus would be able to better compete with Xbox Game Pass, which had offered consumers a whole host of titles on Xbox and PC for years. While the launch of the PlayStation Plus Premium and Extra tiers has seen plenty of high-profile games come to the service, including a couple of day one releases such as Stray, it seems that Sony has a lot of work to do still before all its users see the value in the revamped system.Despite the new tiers and library of games added to PlayStation Plus, recent financial figures from Sony have shown that nearly two million subscribers have left the service since the launch of PS Plus Premium and Extra. This marks the third quarter of decline for the service in a row, as back in March the number of total users sat at 47.3 million, and it is now down to 45.4 million. PlayStation Network monthly active users were also down by a million from the previous quarter.
When asked about the decline in an earnings call, Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki blamed the lack of subscriber growth on a shortage of third party releases and people "going outdoors" more regularly. While it is tough to account for the latter, other companies have also blamed a lack of financial growth on a shortage of big game releases. Capcom recently shared its financial figures, reporting that despite slowed sales it was expecting its tenth year of growth due to major titles coming out towards the end of this financial year.
Totoki expects that numbers will recover next quarter, when the effects of the releases of God of War Ragnarok and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 can be seen. Despite there being a lack of subscriber growth, PlayStation Plus is still creating a good amount of income for Sony due to users paying more for their Premium and Extra tiers. Totoki remains confident then, as he also discusses potential "promotions" that could get PS Plus subscriber numbers growing again.
Source: VGC