A Website Loophole Allows for a Discounted PS+ Premium

PlayStation users have discovered a loophole that effectively lets them buy a 1-year PS Plus Premium subscription for half price—once the plan goes live this summer.

As pointed out by Twitter user @Wario64, it's possible to purchase a 12-month subscription to PlayStation Now (Sony's game streaming service) for $59.99. While that may not sound significant, it's actually a pretty big deal as a PS Now subscription will convert to the new $120 PlayStation Plus Premium plan in June, which nets you a $60 savings for the top tier.

To clarify, in its initial announcement, Sony said, "When the new PlayStation Plus service launches, PlayStation Now will transition into the new PlayStation Plus offering and will no longer be available as a standalone service. PlayStation Now customers will migrate over to PlayStation Plus Premium with no increase to their current subscription fees at launch."

Basically, this means you can preemptively buy a year (or purchase several years at this lower rate, according to IGN) of PS Now before the new tiers roll out, then have it convert automatically. Whether Premium's online play, timed game trials, roughly 700 downloadable games, and game streaming is worth $120 per year is up to you, of course, but getting all of that for half the price has to be tempting for many.

These PS Now subscriptions can also be purchased multiple times, so you can effectively "bank" several years in advance at the reduced cost. In theory. It remains to be seen if Sony will consider subscriptions made beyond the one used for Premium conversion as eligible. So buying several years in advance could save hundreds of dollars, but it could also fall apart during a renewal period after Premium has launched.

If you're interested in grabbing a 12-month (or several) PS Now subscription in preparation for the changeover this June, the page is still up as of this writing. But be aware that you'll have to use a computer (users have reported issues when using phones and tablets) and be logged into your PlayStation Network account to use it.