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.
AnNoYiN__sPo0n
Its worth the money if you just download everything thats there for free + discounts.
But in comparison to The US PS Store; HELL NO!
Were being Pimp Slapped by KB himself every month.
AnNoYiN__sPo0n
*We’re*
damn spelling.
Tuffcub
Each region has different licensing issues, always have, always will until the end of time.
AnNoYiN__sPo0n
Thats quite unfortunate.
Well atleast I have an explanation for it.
Thanks.
beeje13
Mine paid for itself a few months after it came out, so It’s a big thumbs up from me.
Please don’t add any services to PS+, like cross game chat, etc, I bought PS+, knowing it to be different to Live Gold (mostly services), for the content you can get (Beta’s are good to).
Origami Killer
great article, plus has been fantastic for me, for only £40 for a year im getting so much value for money back in return, its great :) and i dont understand why poeple hate it
elpablo79
I can only say good things about Playstation Plus. I went into it accepting that I may already have some of the free stuff that would be provided (most notably Wipeout for me), but I’ve still benefitted greatly from it. I do use Minis on my PSP, I got all the Fallout Dlc and I’m enjoying Sam and Max too. Also, it’s just the extra little discount which helps seal some purchases for me too, i’m looking at Dead Nation here!
monkeyspoon
Plus cost less than £4 a month. The stuff you get is worth that easily.
moshi
I was thinking about this last night too and was wondering whether I would renew.I love my subscription, being on a budget the last few months the free treats every month make me happy and ease the pain somewhat. It paid for itself within the first 2 months so when August comes around I may just do it all again
baska
Now I’m not much of a moaner, but i do think I have the right to moan about this one. See the thing is, I‘ve spent a bit of money on the PSN store over the years, roughly around £90 – £100+ on a yearly basis. Now I signed up for the Plus account hoping that there would be access to newer content, instead the only things I seem to be offered is the stuff I’ve already purchased, anything else seems to be rubbish content, the kind of stuff no one really wants in the first place. Now I know that we have a choice to cancel the Plus upgrade, however you never know when they might start putting up decent content. It feels like I’m a gambling addict hoping that maybe next month it will be better. to conclude I feel the Plus account only really serves the people who where to stingy to purchase any content of the PSN store before hand and that the people who have contributed their hard earned cash which throughout the years has helps the PSN Store and gaming developers grow seems to be getting a bit of a rough deal. Maybe I’m wrong? Hopefully some changes soon.
DeathByNumbers
Playstation Plus is very good value for money, I’ve had a lot of the content and I still couldn’t complain. I bought cut-price PSN cards and got my subscription for around £30. I thought as well that the items stayed in your download list and could be re-downloaded if the subscription lapsed and was then resumed? So long as you clicked to download it before the end of that promotional period? Just wanted to check that, but I remember one of the staff on the EU blog mentioning it.
Klart
I think it works like that as well. Reason why I make sure clicking some things I might need in the future, so they appear in my DL-list.
skibadee
will be renewing my subscription when the year ends 100%.
Lambo_1989
I don’t understand why no one has said that all that fallout 3 dlc we got free from + paid for a full year so everything else is extra on top. Will def be renewing come july when they hopefully have “evolved” the service.
flatspikes
When GOTY can be picked up for less than £20 the argument doesn’t stand up… Not to say I didn’t enjoy it seeing as though I bought the original for £8 and grabbed three DLC to save a little bit more:-)