At this rate, the priciest PS Plus subscription tier is a tough sell if you’re not into cloud gaming
PlayStation Plus recently branched out into three subscription tiers — Essential, Extra, and Premium — and after the first month, the middle option feels like the best value. As someone who treasures retro games, especially the ability to easily play them on modern hardware, I thought I’d be drawn to Premium above all. But the initial wave of PS Plus Premium classics was sparse, and so far, the rollout is as incremental as folks had feared.
For July, Sony announced two new classic catalog additions — No Heroes Allowed! and LocoRoco Midnight Carnival — and that’s it for the month. Just two PSP games. Never mind the dozens upon dozens of great potential PS1 games that should still be within reach.
Curiously, Dino Crisis, Ridge Racer 2, and Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny were briefly mentioned for Italy before Sony struck them from the list. A sign of things to come, I hope.
Here we go again with another slow retro rollout
If my expectations weren’t in check before, they are now. It’s early, and things could change for the better, but right now, it seems like most of the value for Premium is tied to the streaming-only PS3 classics and cloud gaming in general. Unfortunately for players like me who never got into the PlayStation Now service, that’s not a great deal — but it could be so much more enticing if the PS1, PS2, and PSP library did more heavy lifting.
For all of the backlash, I’ve slowly but surely come around on Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack thanks to the N64, Sega Genesis, and DLC inclusions. I hope PS Plus Premium can step it up too; otherwise, I’ll swap to the Extra tier when my sub runs out.
As more games join the service, I’ll update this list — including notes about any PS1 classics with trophies, or games that are exclusively playable with PS Plus Premium.
Classics included with PS Plus Premium
PS1 classics
PS2 classics
PSP classics
- Echochrome ($9.99 standalone)
- LocoRoco Midnight Carnival (coming July 19, 2022)
- No Heroes Allowed! (coming July 19, 2022)
- Super Stardust Portable (exclusive to PlayStation Plus Premium)
It’s worth noting that some beloved games are included in the separate Remasters list on PlayStation Plus Premium. Notable examples include Patapon, Patapon 2, LocoRoco, LocoRoco 2, Toukiden: Kiwami, and Gravity Rush. So while it’s a lot of various newer remasters, there are gems that fit the “classic” vibe of the PSP and Vita era.
As for PS3 games, again, they’re streaming only on PS4 and PS5. There’s way too many for me to list out and link — sorry! But Tokyo Jungle and PixelJunk Monsters sure do rule.
Jordan Devore
Jordan is a founding member of Destructoid and poster of seemingly random pictures. They are anything but random.
