Minecraft is still one of the most popular games in the world. This sandbox game is the best-selling game of all time, and it only grows bigger and bigger every day. Since its release to the public in 2009, Minecraft became available on multiple gaming platforms, like Xbox, PlayStation, Windows, Mobile phones, Nintendo, IOS, and many more. Some platforms demand that players need to buy or acquire certain vouchers or passes to play certain games, and, in this article, we will discuss if you need PS Plus to be able to play Minecraft on PlayStation.
To be able to play Minecraft on the PlayStation, you will need to buy and acquire PS Plus. Some free-to-play games are separated from the dependency of PS Plus, however, Minecraft is not one of them. Even if you pay the game $30 or buy a CD for PlayStation 4, you will still need to acquire PS Plus. If you want to play on LAN with your friends, once more, you need to buy PS Plus.
We will discuss why is this the case, and if the other gaming platforms are having this acquirement. Also, we will provide you with other ways of playing Minecraft, and if you are interested in this topic, stay with us until the end of the article.
Editor’s Note: This guide has been updated to reflect the current state of the game. To play Minecraft multiplayer mode, you still need an access to PS+
Do You Need PS Plus For Minecraft?
Minecraft has become the most popular game in the last twenty years, and its popularity is not letting up in the near future. Being the best-selling sandbox game of all time, it is not surprising that the Swedish gaming company, Mojang Studios, decided to expand the game’s availability and cash in.
Throughout the years, Minecraft expanded to all available gaming platforms and became a cross-platform game, that stem from PlayStation, and Windows to mobile phones and even Fire OS, an Amazon version of the gaming platform.
New gaming platforms ensured more popularity, which demanded more innovations to the game and ultimately prompted the Minecraft developers to release more updates that are periodically downloaded and applied to the game at least once a month. At first, Minecraft was a free game where predominantly PC gamers were trying to build the most impressive world and immerse themselves in an alternate Minecraft reality.
However, the moment the game became super popular, it got monetized. Moreover, before the Minecraft game required a special voucher or game pass to be able to play with other players or single-player and co-op, Minecraft did not acquire any gamepass at all. If you had PlayStation 3 and bought the CD for it, you could play the game online and local games without any requirements for an extra payment of game passes and more.
With PlayStation 4 release, came the digitalization of the games library and the option for players to buy or preorder their games in the PlayStation Store. This was a great addition and other gaming platforms followed the suit, however, Sony added another perk (or payment) for PlayStation gamers – PS Plus or PlayStation Now.
Do not get us wrong, a subscription to the PlayStation Store is not bad at all, and PS Plus brought more options for the console gamers, including for them to be able to have access to monthly free games, and discounts that others without it did not have access to it.
However, it also required the gamers to buy the subscription since, without it, you cannot play your acquired games in your PlayStation Library at all. The same goes for Minecraft, which did not have that policy. Unfortunately, for some players, it demanded them to now buy the PS Plus to play the game that they played previously for free on the older generation of the gaming platforms.
Some players got discouraged and some welcomed it – the innovative additions to the games fueled fans’ desire to play Minecraft even more. To be able to play Minecraft Online, one needs to subscribe and buy PS Plus, to have an access to the PlayStation Servers. Moreover, what did shock the older and more seasoned players of this notable game, was the fact that they needed to buy PS Plus to play single-player Minecraft, which included co-op, and LAN gaming.
The PlayStation is not alone in this, and other platforms decided to include this feature as well. For example, because PC and Xbox gaming platforms fall under the same jurisdiction as Microsoft, the two can share their passes over Xbox Game Pass. This is a cool feature, however, PC gamers still hated that they needed to buy a special pass to be able to play one free game.
This was included recently, however, the promise of the available Minecraft versions, both Java and Bedrock Editions, calmed people down. All in all, Minecraft has acquired a game pass of sorts on almost every gaming platform, including PlayStation.
Some players are still arguing that Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone not needing PS Plus for playing online, is still something Minecraft should’ve followed, but in the end, Minecraft is still the most popular game in the world, and anyone who wants to play it and immerse themselves fully, will buy the PS Plus or any other game pass available.
