Brotaku

UPDATE: Several Asian users have now reported that the upgrade pricing for those that purchased a PlayStation Plus subscription at a discounted price to the standard pricing method, meaning that Sony Interactive Entertainment is no longer offsetting the cost. Sony Interactive Entertainment has not yet released a statement about the situation.

UPDATE 2: Sony Interactive Entertainment has confirmed that it will be reversing the extra charges for those that purchased PlayStation Plus during a promotion and then upgraded from Essential to Extra or Deluxe. Sony Interactive Entertainment claims that this was due to a “technical error”.

Original:

Asian users have reported that if you purchased a PlayStation Plus sub during a promotion the upgrade charge from the Essential Tier to Extra or Deluxe will be increased to offset the cost. This means that if you purchased or renewed your PlayStation Plus subscription during a sale like Days of Play, Easter or Black Friday you will have to pay extra to upgrade from the Essential tier to offset the discount.

Users have also reported that you cannot upgrade for a specific period of time, this means that if you have PlayStation Plus stacked for 3 years you will have to upgrade to PlayStation Plus Extra or Premium / Deluxe for 3 years. You also have to pay for the entire upgrade period upfront, meaning that upgrading to another tier could potentially hundreds or thousands of dollars.

This is a pretty scummy move from Sony Interactive Entertainment, especially when you consider that those that stack subs are generally the biggest PlayStation fans and that when you launch a sub you want to entice as many people as you can not drive them away. Sadly this move is par for the course with where Jim Ryan seems to be taking the PlayStation brand.