I hate how they rolled PS Now into PS+. To be fair MS does the same thing as Sony by tying xCloud to their highest tier subscription service, GamePass Ultimate but it bugs me there too. I see the Deluxe tier that's available in countries where PS Now game streaming isn't available and wonder why we can't at least have that as an option? A lot of people have interest in game streaming but just as many (maybe even more) don't so because of that I think people should be able to opt out of paying for a thing most likely most have no use for without also having to forgo the rest of that tiers offerings and get some kind of at least minor savings.
Though the tiers beyond Extra really need to be reworked so something that would potentially be even better than just adding the Deluxe tier as an option everywhere would be more radically adjusting the tiers. I say this because it really feels like this thing was born out of them wanting a better answer to GamePass without just doing GamePass but the differences between what is on offer here combined with what's on each tier ultimately stack up to GamePass supper well. So I would say PS Now game streaming should not be a PS+ tier but rather an optional add-on for each tier. So you could subscribe to the Essential tier and for a small upcharge add PS Now streaming to that sub. No matter what tier you subscribe to adding PS Now to your sub would grant you access to their full game streaming library. Though maybe that just results in us who don't want to pay for game stream ultimately paying the same price for one less feature and people who want game streaming paying more than they currently are? So I guess scratch that idea as that's probably what would happen unless the game streaming upcharge is only $1.
Still, sticking timed trials of games behind a paywall is stupid to begin with but then tying it to the highest tier is extra dumb so I would at least move them to the Essential tier. After that adjustment maybe it then actually makes sense to just combine the Extra tier with the Deluxe/Premium tier into one tier so then there's just two PS+ tiers: the lightly revised Essential tier stays at $9.99 and the revised Extra tier stays at $14.99 with the $2.99 option to add PS Now to either tier. That actually is probably the best possible option as it brings their offering closest in line with GamePass in terms of offering+price and there isn't a scenario where people would be paying more than they are currently for less content than what is available in their current offering.
That also just feels like a really solid offering in a way the current offering isn't really. In a scenario where Sony was aggressively adding a lot of PS Classic games to the service even a tier that was just classic games would be worth it but Premium (which offers more than just classic games) as it currently stands feels grossly overpriced for what's offered and even Extra feels a little overpriced. This is really true when you consider that even if you set aside day one first party releases GamePass offers, GamePass Ultimate's $14.99 essentially offers the Xbox equivalent of everything offered in PS+'s Essential and Extra tiers as well as game streaming, PC games and Classic Xbox + Xbox 360 games. As it currently stands when my current PS+ sub runs out I can only see myself renewing said sub if I can find a year of Premium deeply discounted somewhere (assuming PS+ gift cards and codes are even still a thing). Otherwise, I'll just pick up a month of Essential whenever needed as what they're offering just isn't worth it to me.
