Pinned for their business practices, Sony and Nintendo will make a major change to their respective subscriptions, PS Plus and Switch Online.
Have you ever been a victim of the automatic renewal of PS Plus and Nintendo Switch Online? Good news ! Pressure from the British competition authority will get the better of certain practices that have plagued more than one player.
Towards healthier business practices
It was time. The Competition and Markets Authority of the United Kingdom (CMA) had recently started an investigation into these practices on subscriptions to online games such as Xbox Game Pass, Nintendo Switch Online and PS Plus. These services are automatically renewed by default until the user terminates the contract, often too late. Indeed, most of the time subscribers are put on the fait accompli once their bank account has been relieved of several tens of euros.
In fact, there is an option to deactivate this feature, but it happens that users do not know of its existence, or that it reactivates itself without their knowledge, as was already the case with the PS Plus. Nevertheless, the British organization brings good news this April 13, 2022. In its press release published to congratulate the three major players in the industry, the CMA obtained a commitment to change from the side of Sony and Nintendo.
Change for PS Plus and Nintendo Switch Online
More concretely, PlayStation will put new measures in place to protect some of its PS Plus subscribers. Sony will directly contact those who haven’t used their subscription for a long time but who continue to pay the full price for the service. A message will remind them that they can stop their payments at any time and explain how to do so. Without action on their part, or activity on their subscription, the company will stop debiting them.
For its part, Nintendo has agreed to modify its current practices. Auto-renewing Switch Online will no longer be the default option. Good student, Microsoft had already agreed to make similar changes for Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold. She started by clearly indicating when a subscription was going to renew. And just like Sony, the Redmond company is committed to contacting those who continue to pay for a subscription they no longer use.
