It’s been a while since the PlayStation 3 required you to re-read and agree to a new set of Terms of Service, but that’s what you’ll get when you next switch on your PS3 and go online. In preparation for PlayStation Plus, which goes live next week, the detailed set of conditions you agree to has been updated, and you’ll need to read them carefully before playing online.
The salient points, highlighted and paraphrased by TheSixthAxis reader Teflon, are:
Some Subscriber content may be made available for download for limited periods only. As mentioned in our PlayStation Plus FAQ, you’ll need to ensure that you grab the subscriber stuff as it appears. It’s also true that you won’t be able to retrospectively get any such content, so if you want everything that PlayStation Plus has to offer you’ll need to subscribe from the word go.
There are two types of Subscriber based downloadable content, split neatly into those that you can re-download after your subscription ends and those that you can’t, as we’ve said in the past.
- Type 1: Premium Avatars and Themes, which, so long as you download when originally available you can re-download after you end your subscription.
- Type 2: PSN games, PS1 games, Minis and “Premium Game Elements” which we assume is a fancy word for DLC. This, as you’d expect, will no longer be accessible for use after your subscription period expires, even if you downloaded it before expiry.
Again, the new terms point out that if you do not renew your subscription immediately at the end of each Subscription Period, but later renew your subscription, you may lose your rights to access any Type 2 content. So, either you keep the subscription going, or you’ll lose all Type 2 content.
Automatic downloads have finally been detailed: they will only be usable by a single PS3 per subscriber account at any time, and will happen every 48 hours at a time you select. The PS3 will turn on automatically every 2 days to check for system software, game patches and game demos. Firmware updates won’t be applied until you’ve accepted the terms.
It appears there’s a limit to the number of game demos to be kept, and if you’ve turned their auto download on, then the least recently used demos will be deleted to make room.
Finally, it doesn’t appear that there’ll be a blanket PSN Store discount, as was suggested – it’ll be case by case. To see the new terms and conditions for yourself, sign into the PSN on your PlayStation 3 or PSP (either will do) and the PlayStation Plus stuff starts about half way down the rather massive list of conditions. This is definitely the situation in the UK, other territories may be slightly behind with the new terms pop-up.
Thanks, Teflon.
yogdog
Missed playing bad company 2 with tef because of this, he owes me a game or two!
Yes, I have no idea why I’m up at 4 in the morning either…
STILLCANTTHINKOFAGOODPSNNAME
yeay me to, looks like the suns up soon though ah well back to the coffin i guess oh and what no cross game chat
p.s. Shut up birdie im going to sleep now X(
Armonster9000
Lol its only 9:05 pm where I’m at!
Danza Di Fuoco
lol 8.09am
Cadabena
In that case Danza I think you’d better check your clock, seems it’s at least 4 minutes fast.
PriceKitty
This PlayStation Plus is such a rip-off.
Danza Di Fuoco
It is not….
Bilbo_bobbins
personally, I think it is. I wont be signing up to this.
Tzares
for the price its actually pretty decent..
for 3,3£ a month u get 4 games, pluss the ability to try out whole games (not just demos..) + the special discount.. in my book this is a good deal 8) ill be sure to get it.
Bilbo_bobbins
only certain demos though, you can’t pick and chose. They chose it for you, and it’s only 2 a month or whatever it was.
BioEye
I was planning on it being on my Christmas wish-list. :)
roddy281
it wont be ull see
gybrocker
just asking but can you gameshare playstationplus ????(sorry for using the G word here)
nofi
The new ToS, which you might want to read, says no.
PhilipJWitow
Come on, stop being cheap. >.>
Danza Di Fuoco
Of course not its locked to one account. Besides once you get a PSN card you could afford it if interested
Sambuque
The “you may lose” part is quite unclear.
Sambuque
The new ToS in french says “vous pouvez perdre” which also connotes a possibility rather than a certainty.
teflon
I agree. It’s not clear. It could just be to say that if you delete the stuff once your subscription ends, and then re-start one, you won’t get that stuff back, or it could also mean that if you don’t renew within the catchment time (you can set it to auto-renew each year or do it manually), then all your old content becomes invalid.
Kevling
The official response to this question on the EU Blog (http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2010/06/15/playstation-plus-check-out-what-its-all-about/comment-page-7/#comment-80653) says this:-
“Hi, just wanted to clarify that you won’t loose any of your downloaded content if your membership ends and then you re-subscribe. All the content you downloaded will be accessable again once you become a member.”
I wonder if the new PSN terms supercede this, or the use of the word “may” is just to cover themselves if they change their minds in the future?
iAvernus
Anyone think it’ll be worth the money? I would like to try it, but is it REALLY something that’s going to pay off in the year’s subscription?
iAvernus
Forgot to say, thanks for the heads up nofi.
woodsy321
depends if you buy enough psn games etc
bajere
it will pay for its self as you get ‘free’ games each month, but i cant imagen those games being in the same class as the games we would want. Id guess you would be receiving more games like Diner Dash, rather than Wipeout or Joe Danger. So IMO, no its not worth it. Paying money to recive crap PSN games and demos O_o demos!?!? the whole point of a demo is to generate interest in the full game. sales will drop if the non-paying PSN users cant get hold of a demo to see if they want a game.
But all the above may be dis-proven once the service is live, i’m going to wait a few months before signing up to see the quality of the free games, then see if its worth the cash.
Origami Killer
Isnt wipeout the first free psn game?? 4 x 12 = yes im struggling = 48 free games + lbp, thats a gd deal
Foxhound_Solid
Really looking forward to this….
Origami Killer
I would like to get this
but i cba reading terms and conditions , too long
Hoopiness
I don’t see the value in this at the moment. The auto-download is quite nice, but not essential if you have a reasonable connection anyway. The rest of it just seems like fluff.
It’s entirely possible that you won’t like the free games they offer at any given point so that’s not necessarily worthwhile, then even if you do like the games, you only have access as long as you subscribe.
Not for me just now.
BrendanCalls
Agreed Hoopiness, these are my sentiments exactly.
BadBoyBoogie
Agree entirely!! I’d rather spend my pennies on titles that I really want and not hope that Sony happen to choose something that I’d like. Not for me at the moment, although I will of course be keeping a close eye on the content included in the service.
bunimomike
“It appears there’s a limit to the number of game demos to be kept”
Do we know more on this? I love the demos part of the whole offering and I don’t want it hampering things with “you’re only allowed three demos at any one time” nonsense.
teflon
Nothing yet, the ToS just says that after it’d downloaded a certain number of demos it’ll start deleted the least recently used demos to make room.
I’d imagine that you might be able to set a limit to either the number or the size in GBs.
But whatever the case, so long as you play the demos you’re keeping every once in a while, they’ll stick around.
bunimomike
Ah, fair point. That sounds much fairer with a degree of control. Cheers, matey.
Charmed_Fanatic
You even lose DLC … thats sucks!
Bilbo_bobbins
I can’t get my head around this. So much uncertainty with the whole thing, it’s pointless doing it now. If I can’t subscribe at a later date then I wont be too bothered.