Whilst lazing around in bed having some multiplayer fun (split screen Blur is our game of choice) my beloved asked an interesting question, “Is PlayStation Plus good value for money?”
When Sony release details of an upcoming month’s PlayStation Plus games the complaints are immediate; “Very disappointing update (again),” “You’re giving us lame arcade puzzle games like Critter Crunch,” and “I’m so fed up with the content so far,” are just some of the comments on the EU PlayStation Blog. Are the complaints justified?
Below is a list of the gaming content from the first six months worth of PlayStation Plus. I have not counted avatars, special offers or themes. Any price in italic is an estimate (from my admittedly sketchy memory) as the games are no longer available on the PS Store. If you can confirm any of these prices then please mention it the comments section and I will update the table accordingly.
- July 2010
- LittleBigPlanet – £15.99
- WipeOut HD – £19.99
- Fieldrunners – £2.49
- Age Of Zombies – £0.99
- Destruction Derby – £3.99
- Killzone 2 DLC – £4.79
- August 2010
- Zen Pinball – £7.99
- Alien Zombie Death – £2.49
- Blast Off – £2.49
- Destruction Derby – £3.99
- Motorstorm: Pacific Rift DLC – £4.79
- September 2010
- Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playground – £19.99
- VectorTD – £2.49
- Echoes – £0.99
- Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssey – £3.99
- UFC Undisputed 2010 DLC – £3.19
- October 2010
- Streetfighter 2 HD Remix – £11.99
- Aeroracer – £2.49
- Yeti Sports – £2.49
- Kula World – £3.99
- Fallout 3 DLC – £39.95
- November 2010
- Critter Crunch – £7.99
- Bloons – £3.49
- Vempire – £1.49
- Syphon Filter – £3.99
- December 2010
- Cuboid – £7.99
- Bubble Trouble – £3.99
- Dracula: Undead Awakening – £3.99
- Oddworld: Abe’s Exodus – £3.99
- Sackboy’s Prehistoric Moves £4.99
If my beloved had subscribed to PlayStation Plus back in July, after the initial outlay of £20 (six months worth of PS+ subscription) he would have received £191.02 worth of content. I have calculated how much money I have personally saved and even though I already have some of the more pricey items such as the Fallout DLC I have saved £105.02. In terms of ‘value for money’ PlayStation Plus is a no-brainer, in just six months a single pound of gaming investment has an interest rate of 930%.
This leaves the question of quality, paying £20 for £180 worth of horse manure is not a good idea unless you have a very large garden. Let’s take a look at the Metacritic scores for each month’s main game.
- WipeOut HD – 87%
- LittleBigPlanet – 95%
- Zen Pinball – 80%
- Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playground – 81%
- Streetfighter 2 HD Remix – 87%
- Critter Crunch – 87%
- Cuboid – 79%
PlayStation Plus has provided exclusive beta to access to blockbuster titles such as Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood and Killzone 3, full game trials, automatic downloads, DLC, seven top Playstation titles with an average Metacritic rating of 85%, DLC, minis, themes, avatars, money-off offers and bonus items such as Sackboy’s Prehistoric Moves, all for the price of less than a Big Mac meal a month.
Is PlayStation Plus good value for money? Absolutely.
Note: As many of you have pointed out if you cancel your PS+ subscription then you can no longer access any content you many have downloaded. My apologies for not mentioning this, I did assume this was common knowledge. I still think that for the cost of a pint a month PS+ is excellent value.
tom_lord
BOOM! Perfect post, for me (even though I’m addicted to spending on the PS Store) it has been much the same, love it! I don’t understand the hate.
The auto-download has even been useful of late too, fancy that!
shields_t
I’m right there with you, as I mentioned on a thread yesterday I would probably pay the subscription just for the free minis, I’ve eased the pain of hundreds of hourse spent on the central line with the PS+ freebies on my PSP.
bajere
Auto-download is the only thing i want from the PSN. Booting up a game you haven’t played on for a month for a quick game, and be greeted by a download screen!?!?!?!?! The words that come out my mouth shall not be repeated here.lol
As for the pricing, swings and round-abouts. If the content is things you want, then bargain. If not, waste of cash IMO. Killzone 2 DLC – £4.79 would be the only thing on that list i would get…and i never would, as i dont believe in map packs
kevatron400
They do exist, I’ve seen one.
Pete_UK
Don’t approach, it’s a trap
anonymus212
Yes I completely agree. Why do people moan ? I loved a lot of the games given, some of the discounts were great, loved ALL the themes and avatars which haven’t even been taken into account
(the year of the rabbit theme is lovely, so are the eat them avatars… well, not lovely looking but still :) )
I will definitely be re-subbing when my year runs out.
anonymus212
Oh, and I even got into the LBP2 beta which was amazing !
anonymus212
I would love if they gave more special features.. it would just add to the great service.
anonymus212
James also said on the blog we will get Colony Wars and Astro Tripper ASAP.
It has been great for me, this month is the first time I got something I already owned and that was only the mini, Kahoots !
TRiLoGY
I think this depends on the person. For me personally.. no
I know a lot of people think its good value, which it probably is for them, but not for me.
I think its good, but I either have most of the free content already or i’m not interested in it. I probably will not renew my subscription and will just continue to buy the content that I want.
Caemgen
Well, all I really wanted from PlayStation Plus is cross-game Voice Chat. And so far, Sony didn’t deliver.
The funny thing is, they even advertised with it on the official European PlayStation-sites. Check out this screenshot I took back when PS+ was announced: http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/2718/crossgamevoicechat.jpg
Only to be removed from all the websites shortly after the announcement. So, that pretty much tells us they are (or at least were) planning to include that feature. And it STILL isn’t there.
Bilbo_bobbins
oh dear, I’m not fussed by cross game chat personally, but it shows they can do it, there is just something stopping them.
colmshan1990
A mistake quickly fixed which never reappeared or was officially acknowledged by Sony is not advertising.
Kitch
Sorry for being thick but why is half the advert in Dutch? Then the only bit in English about cross game? Why would you pay £40 for cross game chat?
spudmcgraw
It’s good for people who have just brought a ps3 but for everyone else you run the risk of being stiffed as you would have already brought half the games
Bilbo_bobbins
agreed, it also carries on too. Because most of the content they put out has already been out at least a month, and most people wont put off buying it, just in case it MIGHT come to P+.
dizappear
that will serve you right for trying beat me on trophies! evil laugh!
Erroneus
I agree, it’s very good value. I even had WipeOut, Zen Pinball, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playground, Cuboid and Critter Crunch already, but the other stuff was so good, it’ still good value. Also the many discounts are great.
Though the plus-service has slowed down my 1-day purchase, because the big amounts of games I have to play, but also the chance of an upcoming rebate :)
I do miss some more DLC deals though and added features… like say… cloud storage for save games!
Erroneus
And acutally I’m thinking about buying plus for my US account, as they get lots of good stuff also.
tom_lord
What’s a nice trend is now on the major PSN releases there is a week one Plus only discount so I still buy day one and get value from +
Erroneus
True, there has been day one discount one some new titles, which I have also used.
DrNate86
This is what I am most pleased about, it means you can buy the new titles without worrying whether or not they will be cheaper on ps+ later. I’ve not had many free games I wanted, but I have got a lot of discounts off stuff I did, and include the 3 free months I got from signing up recently and I think ps+ will easily pay for itself.
Bilbo_bobbins
Still not for me, those games mention I either already had, or I don’t want. So its swings and roundabouts.
I’m glad it’s good for those who like to download these type of games, or haven’t already bought them, it’s well worth the money.
If I was to purchase it, I would want exclusive access to betas and other stuff alot more than just one that has so far been worth it, and thats KZ3.
Caemgen
So, in shory: What I’d like to see is MORE FEATURES for PS+.
Not only for PS+ by the way. Just more social features for PSN in general. Things like:
• Extended profile-information
• Trophy Leaderboard (among friends, country, international etc)
• Voice-messages
• Mandatory use of status updates in ALL games (you know, the short text-description you see under the name of your friends when they play games)
• Etc.
CircleOfFire
But none of the things you’ve mentioned make any sense to make them PS+ only, there’s either no cost or minimal cost associated with them or they make no sense at all (mandatory use of status updates).
cc_star
To the contrary, all of those things use network infrastructure
quinkill
I utterly agree, even though I never even bothered with some of the games (like Sam and Max), I’ve still made more than my money back and only half way through my annual subscription.
I think the only problem is that Playstation Plus is focused a little too much on the gaming content and not enough (if at all) on improving the console’s software and social networking. When are we gona get cross-game chat??
Rocket_345
For me Plus has been has been Brilliant value for money as I have bought very little off the store and haven’t had one thing that I bought myself.
Vicheous
I got + on both my EU and US account! Gotta love PSN :D
MadJunkBoy
on both accounts??!! do u get enough content to cover the costs for both subscribtions??