According to a report from Gamesindustry.biz, Sony and Nintendo will be altering their subscription service guidelines. Specifically, the alterations, which have been agreed to independently by both companies, call for changes to how each handles the automatic renewal of subscriptions to online services.
Sony and Nintendo’s changes are being spurred on following an investigation into auto-renewal practices by the U.K’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). “As a result of our investigations,” said CMA executive director of enforcement, Michael Grenfell, “a number of changes have been made across the sector to protect customers and help tackle concerns about auto-renewing subscriptions.”
To comply with the CMA, Sony will contact long-term service subscribers who haven’t been active with reminders on canceling their subscriptions. If that message goes ignored, Sony will even stop taking payments from inactive, paying users. Nintendo on the other hand will no longer offer auto-renewal as the default option when signing up for its Nintendo Switch Online plan. Instead, users will have to sign up for the service and then decide to turn on auto-renewal.
The changes for both companies arrive as they continue to offer users more — and in most cases more expensive — online subscription options. Nintendo’s Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service launched this past September, giving users the option to pay more money in return for access to a library of Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis games along with all of the service’s original benefits.
Sony’s expansion of its online services for PlayStation is more of an overhaul. Starting this June, users will be able to subscribe to three different tiers of PlayStation Plus, each of which come with its own benefits. Subscribers to the service’s highest tier, PlayStation Plus Premium, will get access to a library of PS1, PS2, PS3, and PSP games for a yearly cost of $120.
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