Sony announced Monday that its PlayStation Plus subscription, which is required to play games online on the PlayStation 4 and includes six free games each month, will see a price hike on Sept. 22.
The price increase will apply to the yearly and three-month options of PlayStation Plus subscription. The annual cost will jump from $49.99 to $59.99, and the three-month membership cost will move from $17.99 to $24.99. The monthly subscription will remain at $9.99.
Those increases bring the price of PlayStation Plus in line with Microsoft’s competing Xbox Live Gold subscription, which has come in at those prices for several years. Xbox Live Gold also comes in a six-month variety for $39.99.
Although the new PlayStation Plus prices take effect on Sept. 22, users can “delay” the price increase by stacking memberships, which means purchasing subscription codes at the current price point to add time to their current membership.
Sony launched PlayStation Plus in 2010, at a time when its only current platform was that PlayStation 3. Then, Plus was sold entirely as an “instant game collection,” as the included games and additional discounts were the only perks of the service. Online multiplayer was and still is free on the PlayStation 3.
The PlayStation Vita handheld gaming system, which has been met with lackluster sales since it launched in early 2012, is also supported by PlayStation Plus with free games. The Plus membership evolved with the release of the PlayStation 4 in November 2013, when Sony announced its online gaming services would require the subscription.
This new price increase is the first that PlayStation Plus has received since it was launched in 2010.