PS+
(I didn't type this at the beginning. But I've realised I never update LiveJournal, unless I need to talk to myself).
To subscribe or not to subscribe?
Firstly, it's REALLY tempting to call this service PSN+, I've seen everyone doing it, but SCEE announced it as PlayStation Plus. So techically even PS+ is wrong.
What's the deal? Well, PlayStation have been running a service practically since launch of the PS3, called PSN (PlayStation Network). It's often considered better than Microsoft's 'Xbox Live', because you don't have to pay for it, and because even without subscription you can play online games. (You need to paid Xbox Live to play online for the Xbox). Conversely, Xbox people will rain the pain on PSN, because they have in-game voice chat, etc, etc.
Both systems are used to track players progress in games through 'achievements' or 'trophies', and pretty much anyone online with one of these consoles will belong to the appropriate service. They also both use their online services to sell you software.
Personally I dislike being forced to buy games online, unless their things I really want (like Half-Life/CounterStrike/Portal, etc). I dislike the fact that I don't own the disc, and hence have no resale rights for the thing. Obviously, software companies prefer online distribution. The copies cost them nothing to make, they can charge practically full price for the games, and if you're caught trying to sell your login to someone as a way to recoup the costs, they cancel the copy remotely.
Let face it, my side rant, is that software download is going to kill the second hand games market, and completely destroys any competition that could've been had. All the content distributors are the only people who can sell you the content, it's a monopoly. They set their own prices, and the normal market forces that would see game prices fall over a 6-12 month period simply don't have to apply if they don't want them to.
Anyway all that aside. What's PS+?
Well, Sony have finally produced a paid for version of the PSN. (And don't all gasp, you knew they'd do it eventually).
They charge £40 / year for this, and what they'd like you to know about it, is that for that price you get 4 full games a month (48 total). And not only this, but they'll give you exclusive themes/avatars (pretty pictures for either your profile or desktop that they normally charge a few quid for). As well as free DLC for games, exclusive demos, and new features, blah.
However, this is marketing hype, and there's a bunch of if's and but's.
Firstly, they choose the content you get. So the 4 games a month are picked in advance, and if you already own them, that's your problem.
Secondly, argueably, their games no-one would want. That is to say, they've promised to begin with, that you'll get one 'PSN' game, one 'PSone Classic' game, and two 'minis', every month.
The PSone Classic, is a game from their PS 1 backcatalog. They've all been out for years, and don't really tax the PS3 that much. The Minis, are designed from the start to be 'miniture' games, their headline is 'under 100MB'. Now that's not to say they're not fun, but they are generally intended to be 'inferior'. The PSN games, are full PS3 games, generally much smaller than games you'd buy on Blu-ray, but much more 'up-there' usually in terms of content. There's a good selection of these games that are practically considered 'must buys', but we don't know if Sony will include them in the subscription yet.
Of course, everyones concern, is that Sony will just pick rubbish that no-one wants. The first month they've tried pretty hard, giving away Wipeout HD, which pretty much everyone wants to own, but is old, so many will already have it. In fact, more so that the quality of the games given away, the fact that most of them are likely to be 'older' titles, is more the problem. Your 'hardcore' gamers, who probably want to jump at the 'subscription' bandwagon, are also the most likely to have all the half-decent older games.
There's also a couple of major catches that I've not mentioned. These relate to how you qualify for the content. Obviously you need to be a subscriber, and then each month, a 'plus' section of the online store will contain your prized free content. However if you fail to download it during that month, you forfit the right to own it. Even if you're a paid up member. If you do download it, then you must remain a member in order to access it. Yes, although you jumped through the hoop and downloaded it in the correct month, if you stop subscribing, then you stop playing. Although at least if you re-subscribe and any point, we're promised you'll get access to your content back (although this is not guarenteed in the terms&conditions).
On the plus side, there's so much content, that although you lose access to your 48 games (and who is going to play those 48 games forever anyway). That should you really care?
Every month you seem to get 2 'dynamic themes' (which are Sonys most expensive theme offering), and 2 'premium avatars'. Generally these would cost you at least a quid each, so there's around £4 right there, and we're also promised that as much as possible, the dynamic themes and avatars will be PS+ exclusive.
Every month you get selected game demos pushed to your console, so you don't have to wait to download them. Obviously it's just good marketing, but if they pick the right games, this'll save you time and frustration. Plus again, we're promised that were possible, PS+ will get early access to demos, and hopeful, early Beta access to new games too.
Every month you can perform a 'full game trial' on 2 selected games. These seems just to be PSN titles at the minute, but we're promised bluray offerings will be there. In full game trial, you can download the whole game, and play upto an hour without restrictions, with the option to buy the game and unlock it at the end of your trial. Again, it's more good marketing, but it boils down to better demos of more games.
What else? Well, we know that our PS3 will now be able to switch on overnight to do downloads of game patches, etc. This should mean, no more annoying waiting to play a game just because it's update day. Firmware for the PS3 downloads as well, but you do have to install manually (so that you can accept the T&Cs).
Have I missed anything out? Well yes, because I know that PS+ also includes extra discounts on stuff from the PS Store. And, each month we get a piece of DLC for a game free.
The catches? Well they only apply to the 4 games. Everything else you see before you can keep if you unsubscribe (except the auto downloads).
So, let's try to break this down, and figure out what we're getting. Sony promise that (at time of writing) you'll get around £200 worth of value out of your £40, but let's be more practical.
£40 (or £39.99 as it actually is), costs you just under £3.34 per month. Now, you'd be insane not to buy your subscription using discounted PSN cards, which normally save you around £3 in every £20, so you can buy your £39.99 subscription for the budget price of £34.
£34 works out around £2.84 / mth. And now we get down to business.
Let's ignore the fact that in the EU, you get a free copy of Little Big Planet (around £10 these days) free to keep with your subscription.
And again being practical, let's concentrate on just things you get to keep outside your subscription. Each month, that equates to 2 themes, 2 avatars and at least one piece of DLC. Obviously the prices of these things vary, so we'll be over-cautious. Themes are usually priced at £1.59, and avatars around 20p. Your DLC price varys depending on what it is, but for a decent expansion, it's above £5, the lowest without discounts is in the £2.99 bracket. So our rather scaled back view says that you're getting £6.57 of content each week. Even if you waited for the occasional 50% price drop, this would come in at £3.29.
So £6.57 worth of stuff to keep. And then 4 games of varying caliburs on top, lets say £10 worth of 'rental' content, when in reality it's more like £15-20, depending on what they pick.
On top of this, you get your auto-downloads, and anything else they add over the year.
There are downsides of course, particularly if they regularly give you content you don't want. But personally, I'd be quite happy to hand over £2.84 a month, for just the £6.57 return, add to that a reasonable package of 'rented' games, extra discounts on stuff from the store anyway, and all the neat timesaving things like auto-downloads, and this just sounds incredible.
Then again, I'm always likely to win, as due to my originally stated view of not liking to buy online content, I own almost nothing from the store, and hence probably haven't got anything they're likely to throw at me.
Furthermore, I know I don't replay games that often, so only having them while I'm subscribed isn't going to kill me.
Net result? I'm never normally away from my house for a full month. So having to download everything from the store each time is a hoop I'm willing to jump through. I have a unlimited net connection, so I'm not so bothered about the probably 3-5GB I reckon this service will force on me each month. I don't own anything much from the store, and two of the titles they've announced as being included I've been itching to try out, so I'm practically getting my moneys worth to begin with. I love to test games before I actually buy them, because I like to spend as little as possible. Therefore more demos and huge discounts is a massive plus point. I know that due to the monopoloy they hold over most of the content their offering, I simply cannot get this cheaper anywhere else. The extra features sound useful, and add extra value to something I'm already mostly sold on, and finally, I know that this is just the first version of the service.
Therefore, personally, I'm willing to risk it for a year.
To subscribe or not to subscribe?
Firstly, it's REALLY tempting to call this service PSN+, I've seen everyone doing it, but SCEE announced it as PlayStation Plus. So techically even PS+ is wrong.
What's the deal? Well, PlayStation have been running a service practically since launch of the PS3, called PSN (PlayStation Network). It's often considered better than Microsoft's 'Xbox Live', because you don't have to pay for it, and because even without subscription you can play online games. (You need to paid Xbox Live to play online for the Xbox). Conversely, Xbox people will rain the pain on PSN, because they have in-game voice chat, etc, etc.
Both systems are used to track players progress in games through 'achievements' or 'trophies', and pretty much anyone online with one of these consoles will belong to the appropriate service. They also both use their online services to sell you software.
Personally I dislike being forced to buy games online, unless their things I really want (like Half-Life/CounterStrike/Portal, etc). I dislike the fact that I don't own the disc, and hence have no resale rights for the thing. Obviously, software companies prefer online distribution. The copies cost them nothing to make, they can charge practically full price for the games, and if you're caught trying to sell your login to someone as a way to recoup the costs, they cancel the copy remotely.
Let face it, my side rant, is that software download is going to kill the second hand games market, and completely destroys any competition that could've been had. All the content distributors are the only people who can sell you the content, it's a monopoly. They set their own prices, and the normal market forces that would see game prices fall over a 6-12 month period simply don't have to apply if they don't want them to.
Anyway all that aside. What's PS+?
Well, Sony have finally produced a paid for version of the PSN. (And don't all gasp, you knew they'd do it eventually).
They charge £40 / year for this, and what they'd like you to know about it, is that for that price you get 4 full games a month (48 total). And not only this, but they'll give you exclusive themes/avatars (pretty pictures for either your profile or desktop that they normally charge a few quid for). As well as free DLC for games, exclusive demos, and new features, blah.
However, this is marketing hype, and there's a bunch of if's and but's.
Firstly, they choose the content you get. So the 4 games a month are picked in advance, and if you already own them, that's your problem.
Secondly, argueably, their games no-one would want. That is to say, they've promised to begin with, that you'll get one 'PSN' game, one 'PSone Classic' game, and two 'minis', every month.
The PSone Classic, is a game from their PS 1 backcatalog. They've all been out for years, and don't really tax the PS3 that much. The Minis, are designed from the start to be 'miniture' games, their headline is 'under 100MB'. Now that's not to say they're not fun, but they are generally intended to be 'inferior'. The PSN games, are full PS3 games, generally much smaller than games you'd buy on Blu-ray, but much more 'up-there' usually in terms of content. There's a good selection of these games that are practically considered 'must buys', but we don't know if Sony will include them in the subscription yet.
Of course, everyones concern, is that Sony will just pick rubbish that no-one wants. The first month they've tried pretty hard, giving away Wipeout HD, which pretty much everyone wants to own, but is old, so many will already have it. In fact, more so that the quality of the games given away, the fact that most of them are likely to be 'older' titles, is more the problem. Your 'hardcore' gamers, who probably want to jump at the 'subscription' bandwagon, are also the most likely to have all the half-decent older games.
There's also a couple of major catches that I've not mentioned. These relate to how you qualify for the content. Obviously you need to be a subscriber, and then each month, a 'plus' section of the online store will contain your prized free content. However if you fail to download it during that month, you forfit the right to own it. Even if you're a paid up member. If you do download it, then you must remain a member in order to access it. Yes, although you jumped through the hoop and downloaded it in the correct month, if you stop subscribing, then you stop playing. Although at least if you re-subscribe and any point, we're promised you'll get access to your content back (although this is not guarenteed in the terms&conditions).
On the plus side, there's so much content, that although you lose access to your 48 games (and who is going to play those 48 games forever anyway). That should you really care?
Every month you seem to get 2 'dynamic themes' (which are Sonys most expensive theme offering), and 2 'premium avatars'. Generally these would cost you at least a quid each, so there's around £4 right there, and we're also promised that as much as possible, the dynamic themes and avatars will be PS+ exclusive.
Every month you get selected game demos pushed to your console, so you don't have to wait to download them. Obviously it's just good marketing, but if they pick the right games, this'll save you time and frustration. Plus again, we're promised that were possible, PS+ will get early access to demos, and hopeful, early Beta access to new games too.
Every month you can perform a 'full game trial' on 2 selected games. These seems just to be PSN titles at the minute, but we're promised bluray offerings will be there. In full game trial, you can download the whole game, and play upto an hour without restrictions, with the option to buy the game and unlock it at the end of your trial. Again, it's more good marketing, but it boils down to better demos of more games.
What else? Well, we know that our PS3 will now be able to switch on overnight to do downloads of game patches, etc. This should mean, no more annoying waiting to play a game just because it's update day. Firmware for the PS3 downloads as well, but you do have to install manually (so that you can accept the T&Cs).
Have I missed anything out? Well yes, because I know that PS+ also includes extra discounts on stuff from the PS Store. And, each month we get a piece of DLC for a game free.
The catches? Well they only apply to the 4 games. Everything else you see before you can keep if you unsubscribe (except the auto downloads).
So, let's try to break this down, and figure out what we're getting. Sony promise that (at time of writing) you'll get around £200 worth of value out of your £40, but let's be more practical.
£40 (or £39.99 as it actually is), costs you just under £3.34 per month. Now, you'd be insane not to buy your subscription using discounted PSN cards, which normally save you around £3 in every £20, so you can buy your £39.99 subscription for the budget price of £34.
£34 works out around £2.84 / mth. And now we get down to business.
Let's ignore the fact that in the EU, you get a free copy of Little Big Planet (around £10 these days) free to keep with your subscription.
And again being practical, let's concentrate on just things you get to keep outside your subscription. Each month, that equates to 2 themes, 2 avatars and at least one piece of DLC. Obviously the prices of these things vary, so we'll be over-cautious. Themes are usually priced at £1.59, and avatars around 20p. Your DLC price varys depending on what it is, but for a decent expansion, it's above £5, the lowest without discounts is in the £2.99 bracket. So our rather scaled back view says that you're getting £6.57 of content each week. Even if you waited for the occasional 50% price drop, this would come in at £3.29.
So £6.57 worth of stuff to keep. And then 4 games of varying caliburs on top, lets say £10 worth of 'rental' content, when in reality it's more like £15-20, depending on what they pick.
On top of this, you get your auto-downloads, and anything else they add over the year.
There are downsides of course, particularly if they regularly give you content you don't want. But personally, I'd be quite happy to hand over £2.84 a month, for just the £6.57 return, add to that a reasonable package of 'rented' games, extra discounts on stuff from the store anyway, and all the neat timesaving things like auto-downloads, and this just sounds incredible.
Then again, I'm always likely to win, as due to my originally stated view of not liking to buy online content, I own almost nothing from the store, and hence probably haven't got anything they're likely to throw at me.
Furthermore, I know I don't replay games that often, so only having them while I'm subscribed isn't going to kill me.
Net result? I'm never normally away from my house for a full month. So having to download everything from the store each time is a hoop I'm willing to jump through. I have a unlimited net connection, so I'm not so bothered about the probably 3-5GB I reckon this service will force on me each month. I don't own anything much from the store, and two of the titles they've announced as being included I've been itching to try out, so I'm practically getting my moneys worth to begin with. I love to test games before I actually buy them, because I like to spend as little as possible. Therefore more demos and huge discounts is a massive plus point. I know that due to the monopoloy they hold over most of the content their offering, I simply cannot get this cheaper anywhere else. The extra features sound useful, and add extra value to something I'm already mostly sold on, and finally, I know that this is just the first version of the service.
Therefore, personally, I'm willing to risk it for a year.