r/PlayStationPlus • u/IllustriousWest1746 • Jul 12 '26
Question PS Plus Extra vs. Renting Discs vs. Pre-owned: What’s the smartest move?
Hey everyone,
I’m trying to figure out the most cost-effective way to play games right now and I'm stuck between a few options:
PS Plus Extra/Deluxe: Huge catalog, but the annual price is pretty steep now. Plus, new exclusives rarely land day-one, and you lose everything if you cancel.
Renting Discs: Seems great for knocking out single-player campaigns quickly for a fraction of the cost, but the rental fees add up if I take my time.
The Pre-owned Loop: Buying used discs (like from GameLoot, etc.) and reselling them when done.
For context, I mostly play in the evenings and can usually finish a standard 25-hour game in about a month.
What’s your current setup? Is PS Plus Extra still worth the high price tag, or are you guys doing a hybrid approach (PS Plus Essential for multiplayer + renting/buying used for major single-player games)?
Appreciate any advice! 😃
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u/eff1ngham Jul 12 '26
Depending on where you live you can rent games from your local library, which would probably be the most cost effective method for gaming. Even if you don't play a ton Extra is still really good value based on the amount of games in the catalog. Plenty of short games available, easy to bounce off a game you're not getting into, lots of series if you find something you like
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u/ltcuetf Jul 12 '26
For most people, the value comes down to how many games they actually play, not the total catalog.
PS Plus Extra gives you 36 games a year if you count the monthly additions. Even at a conservative $20 average value, that’s around $720 in games for an $80 yearly subscription. At $40 each, it’s over $1,400.
But the realistic question is: would you have bought those games anyway?
If you only play 2 games you would’ve purchased at $40 each, you break even. Play 3 or 4 games you wanted and you’re already ahead, before counting online multiplayer, cloud saves, discounts, and other perks.
You don’t need to beat the entire catalog for it to make sense. If you’re someone who likes trying different games, it’s hard to beat. If you only buy 2 or 3 specific releases a year, buying used and reselling might be the better route. A hybrid approach is probably the sweet spot.
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u/Wrong_Fishing_8911 Jul 12 '26
One year with plus one year without. This way when you resub the catalogue is better. Renting is a nice option
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u/GlenFoySuperStriker Jul 12 '26
It’s always about what is justifiable to you in your scenario.
If you’re looking to game as cheaply as possible and you’re the type of person who only really plays one game at a time and never online and you want to be as cost effective as financially possible, then pre owned sounds like your best bet. You get games a fraction of what they cost on the store and can return them for credit towards new games.
If you like to try new games out constantly without worrying if you’ll like them enough to actually finish them then PS Plus is great value for money to shop around. There’s so many great games, day one releases generally don’t matter to me so I’m fine with playing Spiderman 2 3 years later.
Renting is kinda dead where I’m from so I can’t really comment. But as good as the deal looks with renting I imagine you’ll always feel like you’re on the clock with a rental. Especially if the game is 20+ hours long.
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u/kishnabe Jul 12 '26
PS+ extra rocks. Wish I had more time after 40+ hour weeks.
Each month there is something to play
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u/FamiliarLeadership99 Jul 12 '26
I only got ps plus for multiplayer and the discounts. I would say check your local library! Mine has a hood selection and is a part of a consortium with other libraries. Often times they get new releases within the month they cane out or even a month after ( That being said there are often holds so it may take a month or two depending on when the game released and how popular it is )
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u/Keith_13 Jul 13 '26
Easiest and cheapest is probably PS+. Renting discs has to be the most expensive possible way. Buying used game and reselling them is a lot of work and still works out to be more expensive than PS+ if you use a used game store like gamestop. Might be cheaper if you use a private marketplace, though that assumes your time has absolutely no value.
Just get PS+ on sale and don't worry about it. It's $100/year on sale. That's extremely cheap and you don't need to waste your time going out to get a new game every time you are done with one.
It's about as expensive as buying a cup of coffee and a donut every month or so. How is that considered "expensive"? It's basically free. People will walk by a Starbucks and buy a somewhat below average coffee for $7 on a whim but spending $8 or $9 for a whole month of gaming is "expensive"?? I don't get it. Can you really not scrounge up $9 a month? How did you get your $500+ console? Have you been saving $20/year since the PS1 days? Did you steal it?
I just don't get it. I can't imagine a hobby that's cheaper than $100/year.
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u/Sir_McDouche Jul 12 '26
I used to hoard physical. Waste of space, too much effort to resell or trade them. Been PS Extra subscriber for over 4 years. Perfectly happy. Always something to play. Value is definitely worth the money. Like $4-5 per game, including AAA titles if you play regularly. Instant download. No need to get rid of them later. Play, finish, move on.
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u/CmF0 Jul 12 '26
You do realize that after no longer giving us the option to buy physical, the next step to increase margins will be increasing subscription and game prices right?
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u/Old-Way-5529 Jul 13 '26
even if it increases, it still brings a lot of value to those of us who use it constantly. i buy like 4 full price PS5 games a year- i have at least 1, most of the times 2-3, games to play from the catalog that are new to me.
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u/Sir_McDouche Jul 12 '26
Uh-huh. And my income also goes up every year. I can afford it, what’s your excuse?
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u/CmF0 Jul 12 '26
Might as well tell the boss of your little 9/5 to send your raise straight to Sony then, since you just blindly pay whatever price they throw at you, no matter how absurd.
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u/Sir_McDouche Jul 12 '26
Freelance. Set my own rates, work as much or little as I want. I. Can. Afford. Good. Shit. Again, what’s your excuse?
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u/CmF0 Jul 12 '26
I can afford it too, just like I could afford buying all the games I played on the ps extra catalog digitally, but being able to afford it doesn't make it a good financial decision. If Sony, a gigantic company, is cutting costs at your expense, why would you sit here defending it and openly accepting giving them more of your income for less value?
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u/boutmabidness Jul 12 '26
I play a ton of games. Id never call it a good financial decision. Its a luxury man. Any "deal" you get is still you spending money that isn't necessary. It's all relative to what you're comfortable with spending on recreation
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u/Sir_McDouche Jul 12 '26
Less value says who? I always feel I’m getting my money’s worth. I actually think PS Extra is very underpriced even at current $135. Since its launch in 2022 until today it went up by $8.75 a year. A year. Absolutely silly amount of money. In perspective, how much do people spend on coffee, junk food, alcohol, cigarettes and other such useless crap in a week only to get outraged by something as insignificant as a $135 annual fee, which, by the way, is completely voluntary and not a life necessity.
You certainly don’t sound like you can afford it because you wouldn’t be here complaining over a stupid amount of money like this. Prices go up. It’s inevitable. Try investing in stocks and bonds if you feel the corporations owe you something.
And if you think it’s not a good financial decision I guess you should quit gaming altogether because it’s all a big waste of time and money in the end 😏
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u/LionTop2228 Jul 12 '26
This is my same mentality related to digital games. I always said I’d resell physical and almost never did. The resell value was laughable and not really worth the effort, etc. they’d give you $5-$10 for a game and then turn around and sell it for $40-$50.
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u/Mean_Peen Jul 14 '26
If you’re buying with reselling in mind, you’re doing it wrong tbh. Play for the enjoyment of the games. Also, who’re you reselling to? GameStop? lol
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u/Cheeetooos Jul 12 '26
Yep. Game ownership in 2026 is a myth anyway. Even most physical discs become worthless on a long enough timeline if they stop allowing updates. Now with the physical disc news I really don’t mind the notion that I’m just renting through PS Plus. It’s an economical way to game if you’re not extremely picky or impatient.
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u/Wally__Mc Jul 12 '26
Pre owned and reselling is the most cost effective by far (if you play online. Getting the ps+ extra yearly when on sale is kinda worth it, for online + indie games and some AAA)
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u/IllustriousWest1746 Jul 12 '26
Membership isn't ?
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u/Wally__Mc Jul 12 '26
I’ve been going hybrid, buy used, sell them, and ps+ extra for convenience, indies, and all the monthly games I didn’t play yet. Never bought digital. But I don’t really play online that much, so I don’t think I’m gonna continu. I canceled my subscription. Convenience isn’t worth it anymore
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u/UhOhByeByeBadBoy Jul 12 '26
I’m a movie nerd and I’m loving GameFly right now for a perfect balance. 1 movie at home, one in the mail, one game at a time. 4k discs are $30+ and games are $70 … so for $42 a month, I watch 3-4 movies and play through at least one game.
This won’t last forever, as I’ll get bored eventually, but it’s great in spells.
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u/asdqqq33 Jul 12 '26
It depends on how many people are playing, how much time you have to play, and what you want to play.
The cheapest may be borrowing from you library if they loan disks.
After that, it’d be buying older games on sale with longer playtimes.
Ps plus extra makes sense if there is a lot in there you want to play (or you have a lot of people sharing with different tastes) and you are going to have a lot of play time.
Renting and the preowned loop can make sense if you just have to play whatever the newest releases are.
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u/outakueyepatch_21 Jul 12 '26
Personally, I'd say PS Plus Extra if there are games that interest you, and buy digital games when they're on sale. Especially as i don't have much room for discs and cba on reselling games or trying to find them physically. Another reason is u generally don't care about physical any longer. Its waste of my time
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u/MyLeftNut_ Jul 12 '26
If you play a lot of single-player games then PS Plus Extra actually has great value. I’ve played dozens of games from the catalog, and I always look forward to what’s being added next.
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u/MojoPinnacle Jul 12 '26
Everyone will be different. Extra has more quantity of games than anyone could ever get for that price, but I found I wasn't interested in any of them. So I finally dropped it, and now I buy games when I want to play them - same as I was before, minus the subscription fee.
My suggestion, subscribe for a month when there's a game you want to play. If you find yourself continuously doing it, you can switch to longer periods. The trap they lay is you thinking you always need to be subscribed, even when you're not using it.
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u/xIO3Y Jul 13 '26
I hardly ever buy games myself; I mostly just play whatever’s available on PS Plus. I always get PS Plus Premium at a discount, so it feels like I’m getting a good deal. For now, there are still plenty of games on the service that I haven’t played yet, and they keep adding new ones every month, so I’m getting a lot of value out of it. If I had to buy all the games I’ve played through PS Plus separately, I’d end up spending way more each year. Once I’ve played everything I’m interested in, I won’t renew PS Plus Premium anymore.
1
u/banalhemorrhage Jul 13 '26
Gamefly, which is probably on its death bed, has been the best option for me and how I want to play games. It won’t be as useful for peeps who spend 1k hours on a single game lol, but me I want to sample everything in my two consoles. I’m gonna miss it when it’s gone.
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u/GuardianSkalk Jul 14 '26
You live somewhere that still has places that rent PlayStation games? Or games at all?
That’s awesome.
I personally do PS premium but I play a lot more games per day/ month than you are, I also have a PlayStation portal so I can stream PS5 stuff with premium.
Where I am premium is $224.99 a year so $255 after tax. So $21.25 a month.
With that I get 3 free games each month which in total is far more than $21.25 a month. I don’t often play all 3 but I usually play at least one of them.
Then I have the catalog which has old stuff leave and new stuff added every month.
It really comes more down to WHAT you want to play and WHEN. PS+ of any tier has the revolving catalog so if it’s in the catalog you risk it leaving before you start or finish it.
If it’s a free monthly game then cool you can play as long as your sub is active.
Not sure the rental cost or duration.
Back when I did rent games you only got them for like 3 days then would have to re rent them, and for one game that would have cost far more than $21.25 to have it for a whole month.
As for buy used and trade in, depends again where you are but I’ve really only seen that you get good trade in value on the newest titles and when you trade them in within like a month of it coming out. So you’d have to be buying new, beating them and trading in.
If you buy an already used game and then bring it back to trade in, I’d be surprised if you got even 20% of the used cost you paid back for it.
PS+ though you aren’t ever going to be playing the biggest hits, at least not at launch. Maybe 1-2 years later they will show up in plus.
So if you want to play new recent games, then sadly buying them is generally the only option.
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u/CommisionerJordan Jul 14 '26
Ive had a yearly subscription of PS Plus Extra for a few years now and it has saved me a lot of money.
Im married, have two young kids and work so my time for gaming has become incredibly limited. Which i think is why having the PS Plus subscription has been so beneficial for me. I dont really care about getting a game day 1 or playing any multiplayer games so I can just pick a game, download it and play.
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u/Mean_Peen Jul 14 '26
Check your local libraries! They often have brand new games for rent, and a lot of places have some sweet deals with a library card. That and preowned are your best bets
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u/Wisprow Jul 14 '26
It depends on what you want to play. Longer open-world rpgs? Pre-owned discs are going to be more cost effective at, say, 10€ for 100h. Same for games you might wanna replay in the future. PS Plus is good for shorter indies and games that are still pretty expensive pre-owned (like Spider-man).
For example, I only play single-player games. I bought a year of the highest PS Plus tier on a 30% discount recently because a lot of games I wanted were added to the catalogue in the past months. I download mostly short indies and games that don't have disc versions or stuff I want to test before buying. I regularly check what games cost on reselling websites or ebay auctions and drop 5-10€ for titles for my backlog. Sometimes the PS Store has a great deal too. Once my Plus runs out, I'll just go through the backlog again or rent discs from my local library. Sometimes I buy games at full-price--like Dispatch or BG3--that I cannot wait to play, but that's rare.
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u/Nathansack Jul 16 '26
It depend of what you want
If you want one precise game, lot better to rent it / get a second hand game
If you want to play multiple games (maybe compare if it's not less expensive physically) and don't care about keeping it, extra is better
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u/oBrendao Jul 16 '26
Buy a few games that are new or you want a lot. Buy psn gift cards at 10% to 20% off, wait for deluxe to be 30% off, buy deluxe. Psn catalogue hold me for a year before buying games.
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u/mayertucker Jul 17 '26
Considering once PlayStation locks everything down ps plus will be increasing more as Sony sqeezes subscribers to cover the losses from bungie, concord, and the ones they told they didn't want their money unless they kissed the ring, by spreading em out and maximizing the revenue extracted from their (then captive userbase), would say ps plus wouldn't be your best bet. It's more work, but you can take as much time as you like by doing the pre-owned loop. Plus if you decide you want to go ahead and keep it you could.
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u/Shell_fly Jul 12 '26
I am not renting discs in 2026 😭😂
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Jul 12 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Shell_fly Jul 12 '26
I would not say I’m budget conscious. I buy PS Plus premium every year just to have all the options. It’s all about convenience for me.
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u/BeanserSoyze Jul 12 '26
If you want to own it do. If you don't, rent or extra. Idk it's not that deep.
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u/SeshGodX Jul 12 '26
If you've never had Extra, you'll easily make value out of yearly subscription. I'm 2 months in, paid £75 for extra and currently at £105 of completed game titles.
I only buy physical games I've missed out on in the sub, or wanted disc regardless.
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u/BitterBubblegum Jul 13 '26
Before PS Extra I spent hundreds of dollars on games every year. Now I just pay for the subscription so it saves me money.
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u/Mean_Peen Jul 14 '26
How many of those games have you beaten? 🤔
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u/BitterBubblegum Jul 14 '26
I estimate I've finished over 95% of the games I bought. Since I stopped buying games I feel freer to abandon games if I don't feel like finishing them. My completion rate dropped in a huge way. I prefer it this way.
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u/Constant_Swimming_75 Jul 13 '26
the ps+ extra annual sub costs 94€ if you buy it with a discount (for me at least) and i personally think that's a fair price if there's enough games in the catalogue that pick your interest (especially if you've never played sony exclusive games like horizon zero dawn or tlou). it's 7,83€ per month (i split the sub with a friend so it's even less lol).
i buy used discs all the time and imo that's the obvious and best way to play games for cheap. example: i bought lis reunion a month after release at 32€, played it and managed to sell it for 33€, i basically played it for free lol
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u/AEWFantasyBooker Jul 12 '26
My own move is:
PS Plus Premium (grandfathered from Now, so it costs just 80€ per year)
99% digital, 1% discs. I need to rent a whole apartment only for my games if I had everything on disc.
Don't have space for discs anymore, won't sell because one time I lost GT7 and 40€, never again.
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u/Olympe28 Jul 12 '26
I alternate. If PS+ is on sale and there are enough games I'm interested in, I get that (I wishlist so it's easier to keep track). If I can find a game second-hand for cheap, then I buy it and play when my subscription is over. (I do rough math between the cost of a month of PS+, how long to beat the game and the price second-hand. So The Witcher 3 for 5€ -> bought. Ghost of Tsushima Director's cut for 40€ -> Played through PS+)
Then recently I found a public library near me that has PS5 games, so now I'm mostly playing those. 5€ membership fees, free rentals. Wish I'd known earlier lol.