How to claim 12-month Sony PlayStation Plus Premium subscription worth $ 159.99 for free?

PlayStation Plus is Sony's must-have subscription service for online multiplayer and access to high-quality games every month. With three membership tiers, it offers an option for every type of gamer. However, the top-tier Premium membership at $159.99 per year is out of many player's budget.

But in 2024, Sony partnered with a major bank on a new co-branded PlayStation credit card that offered newly approved cardholders an incredible sign-up bonus - a full 12-month PS Plus Premium subscription for absolutely free!

While too good to be true, there was indeed a catch. To qualify for this $160 value, applicants had to meet a steep minimum spending requirement within 2 months of approval. In this blog post, here are all the specifics of this amazing promotion including eligibility, terms and conditions, and how savvy gamers could realistically claim this free year of premium PlayStation access.

Claim a 12-month Sony PlayStation Plus Premium subscription for free

In 2024, Sony partnered with a bank on a new PlayStation-branded credit card. As an intro bonus, they offered new cardholders a FREE year of PS Plus Premium, which is usually $120! To get this deal, you had to sign up between March and September 2024. All you had to do was open the card.

But there was a catch - you had to spend $600 minimum on the new card within the first 2 months. Clearly, this was to stop people from just opening for the free year of PS Plus and then cancelling.

For a lot of gamers, dropping $600 in a couple of months would be tough or too risky. Even if you could manage it through normal bills, that's still a big commitment financially.

While the free Premium year sounded amazing, the high minimum spend was a hurdle. It worked well as a promo to get people using and invested in the credit card long-term.

So the opportunity was there if your spending worked out, but the fine print made it beyond many people's means realistically. Still, it's a cool bonus idea to hook new PlayStation fans. For more details about the card, you can visit the official website of Sony.

What is PlayStation Plus?

So PlayStation Plus is basically Sony's monthly subscription service. It opens up online multiplayer on PS4 and PS5, since most games require it to play against friends or randoms. Some free-to-play games like Fortnite and Apex don't need it though.

In addition to unlocking online play, PS Plus gives you other cool perks too. Like cloud saves for your game data, just in case something happens to your console. Members also get exclusive sales on games, DLC and more plus access to game demos to try out new releases early.

But one of the best benefits is the free monthly games. Every month you get 2-3 free PS4/PS5 titles that are yours to keep as long as your subscription is active. It's a sweet deal to try new stuff every 30 days.

Originally it was also on PS3 and PS Vita but those systems got discontinued so now PS Plus is only for the newer PlayStation consoles. For the price it adds a lot of value if you play online with friends regularly or want to expand your game library each month.

How many PS Plus tiers are available?

Sony revamped PS Plus last June into three different membership levels - basically adding extra perks depending on which one you choose.

1. The basic one is still called PS Plus Essential. It's pretty much identical to the old PS Plus with online multiplayer and a couple free games each month.

2. Then there's Extra. On top of Essential benefits, Extra gets you a library of hundreds of PS4 and PS5 games to download and play as long as you're subscribed.

3. And lastly is Premium - the top dog membership. Premium comes with everything from Extra plus it throws in a bunch of classic games from PS1, PS2, PSP and PS3 generations that you can stream through the cloud. You also get limited time game trials to check out new releases.

1. PS Plus Essential

 

The Essential tier is basically the original PS Plus membership that we all knew before they changed it up. It's the base level subscription that gives you the core perks Sony always offered.

This means it enables online multiplayer so you can game online with friends. It also gives you cloud saves so your data is backed up safely online just in case.

2. PS Plus Extra

 

The Extra membership level takes your PS Plus experience up a notch. On top of all the Essential tier stuff like online play and those monthly games, Extra also opens the game vault.

We're talking a huge library of hundreds of games for PS4 and PS5 that you can directly download whenever you want. There's so many top titles in there from both Sony's own studios and other big developers.

3. PS Plus Premium

 

Premium is the Cadillac of PS Plus tiers - it packs in everything from Essential and Extra but then layers on even more goodness. First off, you obviously get those awesome Essential online perks and monthly games. Plus the mammoth Extra game library too.

But Premium also lets you stream select titles straight from the cloud at up to 720p quality. As long as your WiFi can handle it, this allows playing classic games that you can't download otherwise. Speaking of classics, Premium opens the vault even wider by including a boatload of PS3, PS2 and original PlayStation games too.

Which games do Premium and Extra offer?

Those new Extra and Premium memberships come with a sick collection of hits to download and play:

• Assassin's Creed Valhalla (PS4, PS5)

• Returnal (PS5)

• Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut (PS4, PS5)

• Death Stranding Director's Cut (PS5)

• NBA 2K22 (PS4, PS5)

• Guardians of the Galaxy (PS4, PS5)

• Dragon Quest XI S (PS4)

• Demon's Souls (PS5)

• Disco Elysium (PS5)

• Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4)

Premium subscribers can also check out vintage gems like:

• Ape Escape (PS1)

• Bully (PS2)

• Hotshots Golf (PS3)

• Syphon Filter (PS1)

• Wild Arms 3 (PS2)

• Xeno Crisis (PS1)

There's no shortage of genres either, with something for everyone - shooters, sports, racers, action adventures, you name it. It's all from Sony's top studios as well as powerhouse third parties.

Plus they regularly add and remove titles each month, so there's always a rotating selection of hundreds of hits from across the generations. Seriously an awesome value no matter which membership you pick.

How much does PlayStation Plus cost?

Sony gives you options on how long you can sign up for each PS Plus membership tier. And the longer you commit, the better the overall deal is:

 

No matter which PS Plus tier or timeframe you choose, Sony aims to make the subscription reasonable and flexible for all budgets.

 

In conclusion, while Sony's PlayStation credit card promotion offered gamers the enticing opportunity to obtain a full-year subscription to the top-tier PS Plus Premium service worth $159.99 completely free of charge, the large minimum spending hurdle of $600 within the first 60 days made actually qualifying for the bonus unrealistic for many potential applicants.

 Still, as a marketing tactic to attract new cardholders and drive spending on the co-branded product through lucrative signup incentives, it was certainly an eye-catching promotion strategy by Sony.

For gamers who could reasonably meet the spending minimums through normal expenses, it presented a unique chance to enjoy everything PS Plus Premium has to offer without having to pay a cent.

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