Is there real value in Sony’s PlayStation Plus subscription?

By: Moses Abaortae

  |   December 25th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

It has been a number of months since Sony launched their premium subscription service and we take a look at whether or not there are any Plus points in paying for the service.

Sony’s primary edge over its competitor, Microsoft, in the current generation console war was the fact that the PlayStation Network and access to the online features was free. However, as time wore on, Sony decided to introduce a second-subscription based model.

PlayStation Plus was introduced and after a slow start, it took off once a number of free games were announced. The Instant Game Collection became a major hit with those who had already subscribed and caught the attention of those who had not. Within a few months, Sony was reporting massive increases in subscriptions.

The secret behind it seemed to be the discounts and free games, which were updated on a weekly basis in various regions. However, just because free games are on offer does not necessarily mean that there is value in the deal but after taking a look at some of the games added to the collection in recent weeks and months it paints its own picture.

One of the first games on offer when we signed up for the service was LittleBigPlanet 2, just lying there, with the word free next to it. Seeing how the game is still worth quite a bit in the retail market a free offering of the Media Molecule gem was a welcome surprise.

At the same time other titles such as Just Cause 2, Borderlands, Payday: The Heist and Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition have all been on offer while some of the more surprising titles are Batman: Arkham City and Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which were released earlier on in the year.

At the same time there are a number of discounts on offer as well, with some going up to 50% at times and even more. However, it should be noted that those discounts tend to be on older, more outdated titles with newer games pretty much selling at full price.

So if one is looking for value on new releases then PlayStation Plus isn’t really for them, unless they want early access to demos and betas, but the Instant Game Collection really is quite an attraction.

The best part however, has to be the fact that a single PlayStation Plus subscription is needed for both the Vita and PlayStation 3. The former comes with its own free game collection and discounts. This may prove to be quite a shrewd move by Sony.

Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the editorial policy of News.Wishfree.com in any way.