For those of you not familiar with Xbox Live Arcade’s Summer of Arcade promotion, it’s basically a promotion which has run for the last four years over, surprisingly, the summer. In general, it features games which receive heavy promotion at E3, with a decent mix of promising indie titles and games from larger developers. That E3 promotion is obviously a very significant boost for these titles, many of which would be unlikely to get their way onto the show floor without the support of Microsoft.
[drop]On top of that, Microsoft tend to do some sort of promotion for those who splash their points and buy up all the titles. Generally Microsoft will give you some points back – enough to make one of the games free. Although in the first year, 2008, anyone who purchased just one game from the Summer of Arcade was entered into a grand prize draw.Of course, the promotional aspect isn’t really what it’s about. What really matters is the games, and Summer of Arcade really delivers. It hasn’t all been great titles, there does tend to be something a little weak each year, but with titles such as Braid, Shadow Complex, Limbo and Bastion featuring, can you really complain that much? It does seem like Microsoft are making a genuine effort to push new, interesting titles through their biggest Xbox Live Arcade promotion of the year.
Now, I don’t want to say that Sony are particularly bad at managing the PSN Store, or that they lack interesting content. I would, clearly, be lying if I said that. It’s obvious that the PSN has some wonderful gems on it, and that Sony do a very good job of supporting titles like Journey or the PixelJunk games. However, I feel that they were missing out on a lot of publicity, and therefore sales, of games by not running a similar promotion. And then they announced PLAY.
Yes, Sony are building their very own annual promotion, and whilst I’d say it’s not perfect yet, it’s certainly a solid start. In fact, in some ways it’s better than Summer of Arcade, giving PlayStation Plus subscribers a 20 percent discount is a brilliant touch. Giving away free DLC is also pretty nice… except for the fact that in some instances you have to pre-order the game.
I’m not quite sure why this doesn’t sit properly with me. Pre-order bonuses are a pretty common aspect of the modern games retail industry. Irritating as they can be, I accept them as a good way of driving early sales for a game. There’s just something about pre-ordering a digital game that doesn’t feel right to me. I know Steam has been doing it (along with pre-loading your game) for a long time but it just seems strange in a way that pre-ordering a physical game doesn’t. However, that may well just be me so let’s move on.
[drop2]The other issue I have with PLAY is that Sony seem to have picked oddly for their first lot of games. Maybe I’ve missed it but I’ve heard basically no hype for any of these games, no buzz at all. Now that’s not always a bad thing. So many games are so overhyped that they have no hope of living up to the expectation but, for games that are forming the core of a new promotion, it seems a little lacklustre.The only game I’d heard plenty about before PLAY’s announcement was Street Fighter III Third Strike Online Edition (you couldn’t come up with a snappier title, Capcom?), although I know what BloodRayne is in a very vague sense. That knowledge may come largely from Penny Arcade strips mocking the series but I am still aware of it, at least. The Baconing and Renegade Ops? Sorry no idea. And the free game you get if you pick up everything else, PayDay: The Heist? I’ve seen little of that, either.
It seems like I’m being overly harsh on Sony, but I’m really not. I honestly think they’ve done a good job in building a promotion like this and after the PSN woes earlier in the year, they needed something to further encourage people back to the platform and rebuild the brand. It just needs some actual promotion put behind it and some larger titles included in it. Imagine if we’d had Journey in it? How exciting would that be? Of course it’s not possible with Journey but surely there must have been other titles they could have run.
Being included in Xbox Live Arcade is seen as a pretty big deal, with PLAY it just seems like Sony took what they could. However, it is the first year so hopefully when it comes back, next time around, it will be bigger and better.
Sad Panda
For me, Sony have got it spot on. 3 games I already, fully intended to buy and Bloodrayne that I was kind of interested in anyway. Now I get 20% off and a free game and DLC, just for forking out the cash a few weeks before I get the game. Incidentally thats exactly the same as buying a prepayment card, Sony already have your money, you’ve just selected the games earlier.
As for the Summer of Arcade, whilst last year was awesome and I bought the lot, this year I have only got 2 demos, both of which convinced me that 1200 points was far too expensive and 3 games in which I have no interest at all.
So for me, this round goes to Sony by a clear knockout.
The Lone Steven
PLAY is a good start but i felt that it was a bit light on content. I would have preffered if some PS1 classics and a PSN games recieved a discount. I refuse to preorder a digital game as it could be very crap and i would have no way of getting my money back. I hope next year will be a huge improvement as i said this year was a bit light on content. They could have done a discount bundle. For example, the PS1 FF games, for £10 in a bundle but with PS+ you get a 20% discount.
Pajspaj
Personally I’m glad Sony have finally got their act together with a full-blooded PSN promotion, even if they have just carbon-copied Summer of Arcade.
Definitely looking forward to Renegade:Ops and Deathspank, not sure about the others – do we know if they come with trials?
Smallville2106
Nothing in it interests me. The fact that they take the money when you pre-order automatically makes it a no for me.
When you pre-order in a shop they don’t take the money until they ship the game.
TSBonyman
If i knew enough about the games on offer AND were interested enough in those games i might pre-order but as it is the inaugural Play promotion doesn’t appeal to me. If they’d included that Storm game that’s on the horizon they might have hooked me.
wuntunzee
I think everyone should try Renegade Ops, it looks like fun, though the controls will be very weird to get used to.
the bottler
That’s the problem I have with preordering these types of games. I have no hesitation in preordering the likes of GT5 or Battlefield/CoD etc, – games i know will be good, but with some of these games there is a chance they could be shite.
I usually rely on a review for PSN games before i part with my hard earned.
retrozoid
being honest its about time that Sony had this PLAY offer and has more great Arcade style games released and to offer DLC free with the game if you pre order is great :-)
D-Nichol
Summer of Arcade has some decent games but I dont have Kinect so cant get the free game without buying a game I cant play which is dumb. If this wasnt the case I probably would have boght all of them…instead of just Bastion and Insane Shadow Planet thingy (stupid name – great game). Its no SSARPBC
D-Nichol
PLAY has some terrible games…Renegade Ops looks ok but I am interested in Payday
Hur4d
Ah but SSARPBC is a brilliant name (and game too)
D-Nichol
Agreed…I got it on release but getting an online game going was a nightmare. Has that improved since the PS+ release?
tantalus_blank
One of the best on the psn in my opinion
MayContainEvil
Yeah I gotta say I’m jealous of what the Xbox is getting in that promotion, for me at least there’s nothing worth buying in this ‘play’ thing. Hopefully Journey will make up for it all :)
R4U Eldave0
There has definately been some awesome games emerge from these summer promotions in the past (Lara Croft: GoL and Limbo in particular!). Not looking so promising this year but Bloodrayne should be fun and Payday sounds interesting. We shall see I suppose :)
XisTG
Well, I guess I’m the minority here: I’ve bought all the games.
Yes, I had to search for them first to know what they were about (excluding SF3rd), but I liked what i saw so bought them. The PS+ discount is also a great help.
As for the games, Street Fighter will sell like hot buns, Baconing will appeal to anyone who bought the previous two games, BloodRayne (never heard of it) seemed a pretty decent slasher (and I’m missing some slasher action these days, come soon GOW Collection II) and Renegade Ops looks great fun. The last one, The Heist, doesn’t seem to be that amazing, but the again it is free.
That being said, I thought that by pre-ordering it I could download the games and then, at their release, download the “unlock full game” thing. Sadly, this is not the case, all I could download was each of the games theme. But still, if you like the games and on top of it your a plusite, I think this is a good promotion.