Sony Said to Be Planning Big PS Plus Change with PlayStation 5 Release Date

Recent reports suggest that the PS5 will be announced this year by Sony and that the tech giant is also planning a new premium version of the PS Plus subscription service.

This would allegedly launch before the PS5 but would also play a role in boosting revenue for the PlayStation Network ecosystem, the Express reported.

The new report, via Segment Next, comes from an “EU based game developer” who claims to know about the next-gen device.

From what has been shared so far, PS Plus Premium would include guaranteed early access to games, as well as provide a private server for the user.

However, it’s unclear just what kind of features this would unlock for an average gamer, and what it would be compatible with.

There is also the question of price, which is a major piece of information not shared by the insider.

This new service would run parallel with the existing PlayStation Plus service, meaning fans wouldn’t need to upgrade.

And this is important as a “Premium” service will no doubt cost more to use.

There's no mention of added use when it comes to Sony’s other services, meaning no big bundling with PS Vue or PlayStation Now.

It is also reported that Sony PlayStation will announce their new console in 2019, likely before E3 2019.

There have been various rumors that such a thing might happen, without any solid news from Sony themselves.

The PS5 release date would be set for 2020, although it’s unclear if this would happen in March or November, as the date has yet to be finalized.

Specs and stats for the new console have also been listed, and they appear to be a laundry list of hoped for fan features.

Things like Backwards Compatibility and a new upgraded PSVR headset are also mentioned, which would no doubt prove popular.

However, like everything we have been reading about the PS5 of late, this needs to be taken with a big pinch of salt.

There is no way to verify this new information, which has been shared online, anonymously.

So fans will have to wait and see if a PlayStation 5 announcement does materialize in the coming months.

The highly detailed post runs against some of the recent information shared by trusted media sources, like Kotaku’s Jason Schreier.

In a recent post, he revealed that knowledge of the next-gen console was still very limited and that the console would be hitting shelves in 2020.

“Look, as I've been saying since roughly March 2018 (in this very thread), next-gen is coming in 2020,” Schreier shared on Reset Era.

“That Semiaccurate article saying 2018 (lol) got people's hopes up for 2019, but by now I hope it's clear that the PS5 ain't coming out this fall.

“And, despite all the rumors about devkits being out (usually from rumormongers who are wrong more often than not), the number of people briefed on next-gen is still very limited. Even within companies like, say, DICE, there'll be a small team of engineers who now have a rough idea of specs, and everyone else will know when they need to know. Not a lot of devs are disclosed on next-gen right now.

“In other words, don't expect much in the way of substantial leakage just yet.

“The only thing to know for sure is that both Sony and Microsoft are aiming higher than that "10.7 teraflops" number that Google threw out last week.”