Sony Is Killing the PlayStation Plus App on PC, and It Buried the News Under Death Stranding 2

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Sony is pulling the plug on PlayStation Plus streaming for PC players. Starting December 10, the PlayStation Plus app on PC is being retired, and with it goes the only way to cloud stream PlayStation Plus Premium games on a computer without owning a PlayStation.

The news didn’t get its own post. It sat at the very bottom of today’s PlayStation Blog roundup of November’s Game Catalog games, under a short heading titled “An update to the PlayStation Plus app on PC.” Readers scrolling past Death Stranding 2, Atomfall and Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake had to get through the whole lineup, plus Soul Reaver 2 and Freedom Wars Remastered, before they found it. Leaker billbil-kun spotted it and flagged it on X as “Bad news for PC Players,” noting that “Nobody have seen this yet apparently.”

What Sony said

Sony’s explanation is short. “We wanted to let you know that from December 10, we will be retiring the PlayStation Plus app on PC,” the post reads. The company says “a very small number of eligible PlayStation Plus Premium members (less than 0.4%)” used the app, and that cutting it “allows us to focus on enhancing high-quality experiences that more of our members want to use. As a result, the PlayStation Plus cloud streaming app on PC will no longer be available.”

Sony says the change doesn’t touch PlayStation Plus memberships or benefits on PS5 and PS4, and that it “will be notifying affected users directly.” It didn’t announce any replacement for streaming to PC, any refunds, or any changes to Premium pricing for members who signed up partly for PC access.

The 0.4% problem

That 0.4% number is doing a lot of work, so let’s look at it. It isn’t 0.4% of PlayStation Plus subscribers. By Sony’s own wording, it’s 0.4% of eligible Premium members, the subset already paying for the top tier, who then had to go find a separate PC app Sony barely talked about. When a company tucks a feature inside its priciest tier, barely promotes it, and then announces its death at the bottom of a catalog post, low usage starts to look less like a verdict from players and more like the result of how it was run.

This also fits a pattern. Sony keeps pulling back from PC players. Earlier this month we covered Sony’s new “PlayStation Exclusive” badge showing up on PlayStation.com pages for Ghost of Yotei and Until Dawn 2, at a time when PlayStation’s own big first-party sales disclosures haven’t exactly been setting records. Now it’s walking away from the one service that let PC owners stream the PlayStation Plus catalog without buying a console. PC players paying Sony for Premium just got told the PC part of the deal is going away in a month.

Meanwhile, on the Xbox side

The timing could hardly be worse for Sony. The same morning this went up, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced a 10-year strategic partnership with Take-Two, with GTA VI streaming to Xbox One at launch and GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 headed to Xbox Cloud Gaming in the coming months. Xbox Cloud Gaming already runs on PC through the Xbox app and in a web browser, and Xbox is in the middle of rebuilding that PC app to be faster and simpler.

One company is shrinking where you can play. The other keeps adding places. If you’re a PC gamer deciding whose subscription to trust with your money, today made the choice pretty easy.

If you’re a PlayStation Plus Premium member who streamed on PC, mark December 10. After that, the app is gone.

Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Sources

• PlayStation Blog: PlayStation Plus Game Catalog for November, including “An update to the PlayStation Plus app on PC”
• X: billbil-kun flags the PC app shutdown
• OnPoint 4 Gamers: Xbox signs a 10-year partnership with Take-Two
• OnPoint 4 Gamers: Sony’s PlayStation Exclusive badge
• OnPoint 4 Gamers: Xbox PC app redesign

Reader poll

Sony is shutting down PS Plus streaming on PC. Your reaction?

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Sony is shutting down PS Plus streaming on PC. Your reaction?

Never even knew it existedTypical Sony, PC players get the bootXbox Cloud Gaming on PC already wonDoesn't matter, I play on console

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