If you bought and racked up a ton of PS Now subscriptions to get 50% off the next PS Plus release, it sounds like you've beaten the system. Happiness!
Following the announcement of the renewal, dealmaster @Wario64 spotted a loophole that essentially allowed players to get an annual subscription to PS Plus Premium for half price.
The revamped PS Plus service will migrate existing PS Now subscribers to the upgraded PS Plus Premium subscription. There's a huge price difference between the two, so savvy buyers swooped in to take advantage of the situation before Sony shut it down. But it seems that whoever participated will pose as a bandit.
A screenshot of an email purportedly sent to PlayStation Plus subscribers has been posted on ResetEra. It seems to confirm that members will "keep any stacked subscription periods" they have already paid for (highlighted in red).
As a member, I also received a PS Plus email update, although mine didn't say the same thing as the previous one. Sony hasn't stepped in to say it won't honor accrued paid subscriptions, so there's no reason to doubt the validity of the email. But it is strange that it is not the same as it is at all levels.
How did the PS Plus loophole work?
Sony has confirmed that existing PS Plus members will be transferred to the basic PS Plus Essential plan. In the meantime, PS Now members will be upgraded to the premium service PS Plus Premium.
PS Now costs €59.99 / €49.99 per year, while PS Plus Premium is priced at €119.99 / €99.99 per year. You can see where this leads.
Shortly after it was announced that the revamped plan would roll out this summer, people scrambled to rack up and rack up as many yearly PS Now subscriptions as possible. Some managed to muster up to 10 years of membership before Sony found out what was going on and shut down the deal.
That means they've gotten multiple yearly subscriptions to the most expensive, full tier of PS Plus at half price.
We've reached out to Sony again to find out if they'll honor the roll-over subscriptions, but it sounds like that's probably going to be the case for now. So if you went fast, you potentially saved hundreds of dollars for the foreseeable future. Let's hope you don't have the sudden urge to ditch your PS5 for an Xbox Series X five years into the console cycle.