What is PS Plus and what are its advantages?
PlayStation Plus is a subscription service that gives you access to hundreds of Sony console games, online multiplayer, exclusive discounts and more. There are currently three plans available on PlayStation Plus with different prices and features: Basic, Extra and Deluxe. However, when the company introduced the new tariffs, it started to work everywhere except Russia. At the same time, the capabilities of the service itself can be used by the Russians, provided that they are purchased for another region.
One of the most popular regions when choosing a subscription in Russia is Turkey, since the cost of the most expensive tariff there is cheaper than, for example, the cheapest tariff in the USA.
The Basic plan includes key PlayStation Plus benefits such as multiple game giveaways per month, access to online multiplayer and more. The basic plan costs 40 lira (about 161 rubles) per month, 100 liras or 250 liras (about 403 or 967 rubles) when choosing a 3- or 12-month subscription.
The Extra plan adds access to the benefits of the Basic plan to an additional collection of games, including the Ubisoft+ bundle. This tariff costs 60, 165 or 400 lira (about 241, 664 and 1612 rubles) when buying for 1.3 or 12 months.
The Deluxe plan offers all the benefits of Basic and Extra, plus dozens of game trials, a catalog of classic and popular PlayStation games. The maximum tariff “Lux” will cost 70, 190 or 460 lira (about 282,765 or 1853 rubles), depending on the duration of the subscription.
In order to have a general understanding of all the advantages that the Turkish Lux subscription offers, it is worth remembering at what price the PS Plus subscription was offered in Russia before. Originally, Sony had only one tariff, identical to the PS Plus “Basic”. It cost about 3.5 thousand rubles. per year, which is almost twice as expensive as the Lux.
By the way, for example, in the USA and the UK there is no subscription to “Lux” – instead there is a Premium version with similar functionality and an additional opportunity in the form of cloud gaming games from the PlayStation 3 generation. such a subscription will cost $120 or £100 (about 9.4 thousand rubles) per year.
The advantage of the subscription lies in the extensive list of games available as “Classic Catalogue” as of March 2023. have There are 316 games and 235 games in the PS4 and PS5 game catalog.
Thus, a total of 551 games are already available in the PS Plus Deluxe subscription. Also, Sony is adding new games every month. It also removes old ones, but 30 days is enough to complete most story projects.
How to connect to Turkish PS Plus and buy games
Before connecting a subscription, you must create a new account and specify Turkey as the location. You can enter any random address – no one checks this data. The important thing is that the address is really Turkish.
The whole difficulty lies in the purchase: to connect the subscription you will need a foreign bank card and a VPN with a Turkish IP address included with every payment.
Many portals claim that to buy in the Turkish PS Store, a Turkish card is required, but this is not so – for example, the socialbites.ca correspondent uses a card from one of the banks in Tajikistan to purchase. The games are on the PS Store for six months.
It is possible that such a scheme will work with maps of other CIS countries, with the exception of Kazakhstan and Belarus.
If you do not have a card, you will need to contact the agents when signing up and each time you purchase a game. You will need to give them access to your account, including a username and password, so you should carefully study the artist’s reviews.
However, in the services of intermediaries there is an unpleasant moment – a high margin.
So, on average, a user pays 30% to 100% more of their original cost to purchase or subscribe to a game.
For example, a game of 300 rubles. Annual subscription can cost 2.5-3.5 thousand rubles, although it costs 500-600 rubles and 1.8 thousand rubles.
Most importantly, when purchasing games from a Turkish account or downloading from the catalog with a subscription, you can continue to play from your main (Russian) account, including online, even if there is no active subscription on this account.
However, it is worth noting that all these games are included in the collection of the Türkiye account. That is, if you lose access to the Turkish account, all games on the main account will be lost.
It is also worth noting that not all games are in the Russian language.
What has changed in Türkiye PS Store in 2023?
If previously the Turkish PS Store was the main way for players to save, then in 2023 the situation has changed a bit. The biggest publishers have probably realized that not only Turkish citizens are buying games in the Turkish region, and therefore they have increased the price of many games. In some cases, “inflation” was above 100%.
In addition, the Turkish lira often “jumps” from 3.6 to 4 rubles. for one lira. It also affects the prices of games.
In addition, the Russian market is oversaturated with offers from foreign bank owners who provide “buyer” services. It is important to approach the purchase responsibly and look for not only the best offer, but also the safest one.
Another subscription
At the same time, fans playing on the console are advised to take a closer look at the EA Play subscription. Access to the Electronic Arts game library offers demos, exclusive rewards, discounts, and the ability to play new games before they’re released.
Unlike PS Plus, this subscription has fewer games. They can also vary by region and time. In EA Play Library as of March 2023 there is 85 games for PlayStation 4 and 5 plus 5 additional games for PS5.
However, among these games there are hit games such as FIFA, NHL, UFC, F1 and others.
The subscription is available for 40 lira per month or 250 lira per year (about 161 and 1,000 rubles), respectively. A 1-month trial version will cost only 12 lira (about 50 rubles). But that’s if you subscribe using your own card again. Agent prices are twice as high.
This isn’t a bad alternative, considering it’s the only way to “save” the life of PlayStation consoles that have “turned into a pumpkin” when Sony exited the Russian market in spring 2022. Especially when it comes to the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition console, which has no drive, no way to play games from discs. Buying physical copies of games is completely expensive if you are not a collector – the average cost of new items imported in Russia through parallel import is 5-7 thousand rubles.