Sony prohibits PlayStation Now membership stacking in order to protect its future Premium service

Sony has revised its PlayStation Plus FAQ page and is closing loopholes that allowed users to get early access to its planned PlayStation Plus Premium service. It’s also postponing the activation of PlayStation Plus and Now vouchers for current subscribers until after the launch of its new service in June, and there’s even an official conversion chart showing the value of those vouchers for its three upcoming services: PlayStation Plus Essentials, Extra, and Premium.

After Sony revealed its plan to restructure PlayStation Plus into a new three-tiered subscription to compete with Microsoft’s and Nintendo’s offerings, there was some confusion regarding how the transition to the new tiers would take place. Users began stacking prepaid subscriptions to PlayStation Now, Sony’s cloud streaming service available on consoles and PC, in the hopes that the $59.99-per-year service will be converted to the impending $119.99-per-year PlayStation Plus Premium. Sony was fast to discourage many people from taking advantage of the deal, but it couldn’t stop others from purchasing and redeeming the PS Now voucher cards for some form of service – and those surviving PS Now voucher cards will get you at least a partial PlayStation Plus Premium subscription.

At the very least, they will begin in June. Sony is now preventing many consumers from redeeming prepaid vouchers until after the debut of PS Plus. Only individuals who have not previously enrolled can use a one-, three-, or 12-month prepaid card, which is still available at many outlets.

What if you have a prepaid voucher when June arrives? Well, it’ll still be worthwhile to redeem them once you’re able. Sony created this useful chart to demonstrate how much they’re worth when switching to the new service. While a month of PlayStation Now does not entitle you to a month of PlayStation Plus Premium, Sony claims that you will still receive “the amount of time comparable to the monetary value of your original voucher.”

But, just as Sony’s launch of its new PS Plus program was riddled with ambiguity, so has its conversion communication up to this point. Hopefully, the next piece of new information from Sony will be the whole list of games available with PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium, so users can see why these additional levels are worth a membership.