The tiered PlayStation Plus service still struggles to establish itself as a credible Xbox Game Pass alternative, and the recent effort to add value with video content for PS Plus Premium subscribers has somehow made the service worse for many. In late 2021, Sony launched the Bravia Core streaming service, a niche product offered only with Sony’s Bravia TVs. Though it promised superior fidelity in movie playback, the service did not offer a fully stocked streaming library akin to Netflix or a vast storefront like Amazon’s Prime Video. Now rebranded Sony Pictures Core, PS Plus Premium subscribers have been promised a library of free films, but the app is riddled with bugs.

Many PlayStation fans are still irritated at the recent PS Plus price increase, which made annual subscriptions, formerly the most cost-effective model, much more expensive. The price hike came across as especially anti-consumer since it was not paired with any benefits for subscribers. This unfortunately lined up with Sony’s price increases for PS5 consoles in many regions, as the company was charging more for an unchanged product. The PlayStation blog announcement that Sony Pictures Core was to become available on PS4 and PS5 consoles, and include free movies for PS Plus Premium subscribers, was the first word of any new benefit since the service’s price hike.

Related: New Game Pass Tiers Show Everything Wrong With PS Plus Changes

Game Pass Handled Movies As A Perk Better Than PS Plus Premium

The PlayStation blog states: “If you’re a PlayStation Plus Premium/Deluxe member, you’ll get access to a curated catalog of up to 100 movies.” Many subscribers report that they have only reaped annoyance and wasted time. As noted by Redditor CommentIll2883, there have been a variety of issues preventing subscribers from logging in to Sony Pictures Core, even a week out from the app’s launch on PlayStation consoles. In the Reddit thread, some subscribers report the Core app blocked them, saying they were in an invalid region, despite being in a supported region. Others reach a white screen that will not proceed, or an unending loading screen after entering their credentials.

Adding to the vexing nature of Sony Pictures Core, attempting to log into the app bizarrely logs the user out of the PlayStation Network. This means subscribers attempting to access the new perk for the PS Plus Premium subscription first waste time trying to log into Core, then lose more time as they need to log back into PSN to use any other PS Plus content. The Game Pass advantages over PS Plus already go beyond Day One releases, since Game Pass allows players to easily switch formats from an Xbox console, to PC, to mobile, and carry over their save data. Game Pass also excels in handling movie access.

While Game Pass has never advertised itself as a video streaming service, the “Perks” section of Game Pass Ultimate has rotated out a variety of movie-related bonuses. This month Game Pass subscribers can claim a free copy of the movie Texas Chainsaw as a Halloween-themed Perk. Prior Perks have included one-to-three-month subscriptions to streaming services like Peacock, Apple TV+, and even the Sony-owned anime streamer Crunchyroll, among others. These are clearly extras, since the primary focus of Game Pass is its games, but redeeming the Perks has been consistently simple and straightforward. The fact that Sony’s own movie streaming app did not receive more QA before its launch is baffling.

Crunchyroll Would Have Been A Better PS Plus Perk, Since It Already Works

On the video game library front, the PS Plus service fares better, as the October PlayStation Plus game additions include big name games like The Callisto Protocol and Gotham Knights, along with high-quality cult hits like Weird West and Disco Elysium. Adding exciting new titles each month is the bare minimum expectation for a game subscription service that hopes to compete with Game Pass, however. Raising PS Plus pricing without a tangible benefit paired with the increase was a bad idea, but offering a perk that is difficult to log into and wastes players’ time is worse. Sony likely should have offered Crunchyroll to PS Plus Premium instead of Sony Pictures Core.

Crunchyroll is already a working app on PlayStation consoles, and leveraging the Sony-owned anime streamer to add value to PS Plus would have been a more elegant solution. The film library of Sony Pictures Core could have wider appeal than the anime centered app, if the login bugs are addressed, but as it stands, PlayStation Plus is worse than ever.

Source: PlayStation Blog, CommentIll2883/Reddit