Sony Blocks PlayStation Plus Exploit That Allowed You To Get It Cheaper

Reports are making the rounds that Sony has blocked PlayStation Plus subscription stacking, and it hasn’t gone down well.

Yesterday, PlayStation support received a flurry of questions from fans asking why they are not able to redeem their PS Plus subscription codes. It seems that codes are being blocked against PS Plus subscriptions that have not expired yet.

The term “stacking” comes from redeeming more than one code to enable a subscription to last more than the customary 12 months. For example, you might see a PS Plus subscription on offer, so you buy two 12 month cards. Meaning that you will not have to worry about your subscription expiring for at least two years.

Stacking is common

This is a method that I’ve done myself, and it’s a quite common and legitimate practice to undertake. However, reports are suggesting that Sony has now blocked gamers from stacking legitimate codes. Players have been receiving error codes such as: “The pre-paid card could not be redeemed. Please try later.” However, wallet top-ups are still being redeemed without issues.

Furthermore, as reported by Push Square, after purchasing a pre-paid card from Amazon, a user discovered that their code could not be redeemed. Upon contacting Sony customer support, it was all but confirmed that stacking is being blocked.

I have checked the voucher and your account and can conclude that as of now there is a temporarily deactivated function for PS Plus/PS Now subscriptions which does not allow for stacking of either membership on already active memberships,” replied Sony in an email.

The email continued: “This is only temporary and as soon as we have more information about, we will let our players know, for more information regarding news for the new launch of our service please check out our blog.

Top-Ups blocked on the PS Store

Furthermore, it seems that at the time of writing, PS Plus cannot also be topped up via the PlayStation Store. When attempting to purchase a PS Plus subscription, I was greeted with the message: “Something went wrong,” with the error code “CE-117773-6”.

playstation plus error
Credit: PS Store via Richard Breslin

Personally, I have also seen multiple complaints by PlayStation gamers across social media reporting issues. Many have recently purchased a PS Plus subscription card, only to find that they cannot redeem the code. Which isn’t great and I can understand their frustration.

Retailers are responding

It also seems that some retailers are also responding to this news and have ceased selling PS Plus subscription codes. One retailer is ShopTo, which has made the following response to a customer: “It appears that with the new integration of PS Plus Premium, Sony has temporarily disabled the stacking of PS Plus subscriptions.

This is due to players trying to exploit the carrying over of subscriptions to this service. What this means is, that any codes which you try to redeem while you already have an ongoing subscription, will not be redeemable until either Mid-June or until your current subscription ends.

Please do not worry though, all codes are valid and redeemable for up to 12 months from generating it. If you have any other questions or queries, please do raise another ticket so we may assist.

It’s not a good look for Sony

At the time of writing, Sony hasn’t addressed this issue officially, so we can only speculate. It’s perhaps safe to assume that codes are being blocked in preparation for the revised three-tier PS Plus subscription service.

That being said, I wouldn’t consider stacking subscriptions as an exploit, especially when legitimate purchases are being made. It’s a viable way for the consumer to save a bit of money. So potentially making a service unnecessarily more expensive, isn’t a great look for Sony.

What are your thoughts on stacking subscription services to save money? Let us know on Twitter.

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Featured Image Credit: Sony