PS Now 12-month subscription is no longer available on the PSN Store as Sony prepares expanded PS Plus

Sony announced the all-new PlayStation Plus last week with new tiers that combine the perks currently offered on both PS Plus and PS Now. In preparation for its launch, the company appeared to have removed the option to purchase the latter’s annual plan.

If PlayStation fans search for PS Now on the PSN Store, they would only find the monthly option for the subscription service. The change, first spotted by Eurogamer on Monday, happened without any announcement from Sony. But the move was hardly surprising.

The company announced the expanded PS Plus last week and it is set to go live sometime in June. That means keeping the annual subscription of PS Now ($59.99) up for purchase does not make much sense now, at least for Sony. But buying 12-month membership -- despite the imminent launch of the new PS Plus -- may have been a smart move for players that would have saved them as much as $60.

The perks for the highest-priced tier PS Plus Premium, include exclusive discounts, cloud storage, online multiplayer access, a library with up to 700 downloadable games, cloud gaming, and time-limited game demos. This tier will cost $17.99 per month or $119.99 for an annual subscription.

Sony also confirmed last week that existing PS Now subscriptions will be converted into PS Plus Premium once it launches. “PlayStation Now will transition into the new PlayStation Plus offering and will no longer be available as a standalone service,” the company said in the announcement post. “PlayStation Now customers will migrate over to PlayStation Plus Premium with no increase to their current subscription fees at launch.”

Fans who managed to purchase a 12-month PS Now membership would have saved a good amount while also getting a slew of new services and a wide range of downloadable and streamable classic titles. The discreet removal of the 12-month PS Now subscription also comes after several fans found a special URL to allow them to purchase stacks of the annual membership. Wario64 was one of the first to share the special link, and several PlayStation fans confirmed they were able to purchase PS Now subscriptions that would last several years.

What made the link special was that it appeared to have allowed customers to purchase PS Now annual subscriptions for more than three years. That would translate to a considerable amount saved once their plan is converted to PS Plus Premium in June. But for those who are just hearing about this, unfortunately, IGN reported on Monday afternoon that the special link was no longer working.

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