Sony is announcing a new discount, which they hope will help PS Plus Premium subscribers to accept the recent price increase better…

Sony has announced Sony Pictures Core. It’s a new video streaming service that gives PS Plus Premium subscribers free movies to watch on their PS4 and PS5 consoles.

Until recently, many gamers considered PS Plus to be of similar value to Xbox Game Pass, thanks to cloud-based backups, free monthly games and a constantly updating catalogue of titles available to play via streaming or download.

However, this value proposition has suffered. That’s because Sony has confirmed that from September, the price of all three PS Plus tiers will increase, with the Premium tier going up by $40 a year, which is not insignificant.

However, there seems to be a reason behind the price increase after all. From 5 October, PS4 and PS5 users will notice a new Sony Pictures Core app being promoted on their console. This app allows those with a free account to rent or buy selected Sony Pictures films. In some cases, providing early access to movies before they become available at other digital retailers. But PS Plus Premium subscribers will be even better off, as Sony will offer a rotating catalogue of up to 100 different films for free streaming.

You will be able to watch these films commercial-free. A selection is already available to PS Plus Premium members, including Looper, Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy 15, Elysium and Resident Evil Damnation. The library of films available to rent or buy is even bigger, with up to 2,000 movies available. Examples include the critically acclaimed Spider-Verse films; Spider-Man: No Way Home, Uncharted and The Equalizer.

The currently available early access film is Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story, which has been available digitally in the US for some time but not yet in some other countries such as the UK, France, Germany and Japan.

For a limited time, those who purchase the film through the Sony Pictures Core app will also receive a code for 750,000 credits. This can be used to make in-game purchases for Gran Turismo 7 on PS4 or PS5.

The Sony Pictures Core application is actually a renaming of Bravia Core. This may already be familiar to some users with Bravia and Xperia devices. Bravia Core, and presumably Sony Pictures Core, can stream HDR movies at speeds of up to 80 Mbps, which is “similar to 4K UHD Blu-ray”. By comparison, many other services only offer movie streaming at speeds of up to 25 Mbps. And according to the Bravia Core website, the app provides “the largest collection of IMAX Enhanced movies available”. This addition to the benefits package may make the recent price hike more acceptable for many PS Plus Premium subscribers.

However, there are questions about how much of a kick they can get out of this alongside streaming channels. For example, the Spider-Man movies are all up in 4K on Disney Plus, along with many other Star Wars movies also in 4K. The vast majority of users are probably entirely indifferent to 80Mbps, and the rest will buy the movies on Blu-ray…

Source: PlayStation.Blog, Sony Bravia Core