PlayStation Plus Price Increase Isn’t in the Offing for North America

Sony’s privileges and rewards PlayStation Plus online club for its PlayStation 3 and 4 game consoles won’t see a price hike in North America anytime soon, but its price tag is going up by a significant amount in other regions of the world.

“We slightly increased prices for PlayStation Plus in South Africa, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and India regions due to various market conditions,” said a Sony representative in an email to Joystiq. “Currently, price adjustments are not being planned for PS Plus in the SCEA [Sony Computer Entertainment America] region.”

South African news portal iAfrica wrote yesterday that South African PS Plus members would see a “rather large price increase,” citing emails from Sony that indicated the price of a three-month subscription would rise from R145 (about $13) to R219 (about $20), whereas a 12-month subscription would rise from R489 (about $44) to R749 (about $67). According to iAfrica, Sony calls the increase “slight,” says it was “due to various market conditions,” and gave less than 24 hours notice of the change.

In the U.S., a three-month PS Plus subscription currently runs $18, while a 12-month subscription runs $50. The subscription, which unlocks a variety of discounts and access to free games, is also necessary on PlayStation 4 to play online games, though online play remains free on the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita.

Price increases can feel a bit like tax hikes: nebulously justified and almost impossible to vett, since no one’s allowed behind the scenes or liable to get more than vagaries (like the one above) out of spokespersons. The best you can do is look at comparable services, say Microsoft’s Xbox Live, which started at $50 a year in the U.S. and rose slightly to $60 in November 2010.

But in South Africa, a 12-month Xbox Live subscription currently runs in the vicinity of R600, or about $54. So from that vantage, assuming South Africans are getting nothing new in the bargain and considering the prior prices, Sony’s new fees look as stiff as iAfrica says.