Implications of the New PlayStation Plus for the PS Vita

We’re less than two months away from the arrival of the “new” PlayStation Plus. 22nd June will mark the introduction of a dramatic change to Sony’s subscription service. Essentially, as had been predicted last year by many, gamers are now being offered a tiered service which merges the current PlayStation Plus, with the streaming platform PlayStation Now, adding additional elements to tempt players into taking out the top level packages.

PlayStation Plus – Current PS Vita Benefits

Truthfully, if you only have a PS Vita (or PS3 for that matter), there’s not much you get with an active PlayStation Plus subscription. Online gaming has always been free (not that there are many servers still active). Cloud Save for game data might seem like a luxury, but is great for those of you upgrading your digital games to physical (as long as you stick to the same region). However, we’ve had no new games added to the Instant Games Collection for a long time now. There haven’t even been any PS4 titles supporting Cross Buy added.

But even so, it’s still vital if we want to keep access to the games we’ve downloaded over the years from the service. And for those of us who have had PS+ since the Vita was launched, that’s potentially hundreds of titles.

Continuity

Fortunately, Sony have confirmed that PS Vita and PS3 owners will be able to continue to receive these benefits from 22nd June onwards. The only difference initially is that we won’t be able to purchase or extend our memberships using the consoles and instead we are being asked to do so using a PS4, PS5 or PC. This is no major issue though, as we’ve had to adjust to the way we top up funds in our PSN accounts for some time now.

More Legacy Gaming?

The big surprise with the new PlayStation Plus came with the revelations about the top tier of the new structure, PlayStation Plus Premium. As well as the benefits currently on offer and a healthy library of PS4 and PS5 games, this tier merges in PlayStation Now adding streaming of PS3 games. Of greater importance, however, is that games have been promised from Sony’s legacy platforms. As yet unnamed games from the PSOne, PSP and PS2 are ging to be made available both through streaming and to download.

It’s the latter option that has us curious right now. Whether these downloads will require the instalation of a new emulation front end for the PS4 and PS5 to run these games, or if they are being released in some other way is unknown. But what if these games are using the same format as the PSOne Classics already available for the PS Vita, or the PSP games already on the store?

Wishful Thinking

While it may be too much to ask that these legacy titles will run on the Vita, we doubt that it will be too long before someone tries to get the first of these titles up and running on our favourite handheld. And if they do work, it may well see a growth in interest in PlayStation Plus Premium from some of us die-hard Vita owners…

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About Simon Plumbe 1050 Articles
Husband, father and lifelong geek. Originally from the West Midlands, now spending my days in South Wales with my family and a house full of animals. Passionate about video games, especially retro gaming, the Commodore 64 and PlayStation Vita. Love pro wrestling, sci-fi and I'm an animal lover and vegetarian. Enjoyed this and my other articles? Why not buy me a coffee: http://ko-fi.com/simonplumbe