How Sony Finally Fixed Playstation Plus' Most Nagging Problem (For Now)

GP writer Jared discusses what Sony did recently that made Playstation Plus a much better service nowadays than it used to be, and why it's important.

[iGAM3R-VIII]

That was your most nagging problem, lool there are bigger problems in the world than wanting to know what the free game is coming next. I really couldn't care any less about that problem

[LOGICWINS]

There are bigger problems in the world that don't involve gaming(war, disease, political corruption, natural disasters etc.). Does that stop you from taking part in verbal battles over consoles on N4G?

Theres ALWAYS going to be bigger problems..that doesn't mean you have to minimize the less meaningful ones. If everyone on the planet only focused on the biggest problems, then gaming/media entertainment wouldn't exist as everyone would be busy tackling global warming issues, cures for HIV/AIDS, and solutions to wealth inequality.

[NeXXXuS]

first world problems

[iGAM3R-VIII]

what are you talking about obviously I am exagerrating about it. And why are you bringning stuff about the global warming, and diseases, this is a gaming website not NBC or Fox News or the NY Times

[LOGICWINS]

NeXXXus, this is your previous comment.

"The thing I hate about FW: Almost everything he does NEEDS guns in it..."

You have these "first world problems". According to iGAMER-VIII, there are bigger things to worry about, so your comment doesn't matter...along with the hundreds of other comments that N4Gers will post today. Why? Because there are bigger problems in the world.

/facepalm

iGAM3R-VIII, do you see the issue with your comment? If there are bigger problems in the world, then why are you here "wasting" time on N4G? Shouldn't you be joining a mission in Africa and try to help out?

[iGAM3R-VIII]

This is a gaming website can we stick to gaming instead of talking about countries and problems

EDIT:

@Donnieboi "First of all, why did u have to post the most juiciest, important part of the articles main point? It takes potential hits away from the article. Kinda not cool imo."

To help people, and who really cares tbh

EDIT 2:

@logicwins Yea I may of said it but I did not put it in that sense, can we just end this right here

EDIT 3:

"iGAM3R-VIII, do you see the issue with your comment? If there are bigger problems in the world, then why are you here "wasting" time on N4G? Shouldn't you be joining a mission in Africa and try to help out?"

You implied I was talking about world problems I was saying it in the sense of gaming such as the 720 rumours, other PS4 news, and other stuff, I didn't say anything about diseases. YOU IMPLIED IT.

[LOGICWINS]

????

But your the one who started this

"lool there are bigger problems in the world"

EDIT: LOL, whatever man stay classy.

[GribbleGrunger]

This is NOT in any frigin' way a 'nagging problem'. If you buy a game that then appears on PS+ the following week then 'DEAL WITH IT' and stop being such a greedy arsed little child.

Please, Sony, provide these fools with a list of games that are eventually going to be released on PS+ so they never ever need to BUY a game again.

I just want to slap this journalist ... I seriously do.

[MaxXAttaxX]

It's cool to know a month in advance now, but it was far from a big issue.

[HammadTheBeast]

Logicwon.

[Ducky]

"If you buy a game that then appears on PS+ the following week then 'DEAL WITH IT' and stop being such a greedy arsed little child."

Didn't realize that wanting the most out of my subscription meant I was being greedy.

[Hicken]

Utterly ridiculous.

We all know damn well there wasn't even a need to leave the gaming world to find more important issues than this. As usual, LOGICWINS shifts things out of focus by being an idiot, and other people are so wowed by his bubble count- or something- they just agree right along with him.

Anybody here supporting LOGIC's view can name a half dozen problems IN THE GAMING INDUSTRY ALONE that are more pressing than not knowing what game will be free next week on PSN.

OP's post still stands: this is one of the least significant problems a person could come up with, and yet someone saw fit to write an article painting it as a "most nagging problem."

[Ducky]

^ The author called it the most nagging problem for PS+... not the most nagging problem in gaming.

That's where Gam3r's argument falls dead. Intentionally or unintentionally, he ignored the article's context.

You can see him down below complaining about how people imply anything they see, when he's the one who made the original blunder from the get go.

[Ritsujun]

PS+ subscription:
65+ PS3/PSVITA/PSN games for FREE every single year.

[bangshi]

SCEE has always told us via the blog weeks in advance since the start of IGC.

Deal with it.

[Donnieboi]

Dude:

First of all, why did u have to post the most juiciest, important part of the article's main point? It takes potential hits away from the article. Kinda not cool imo.

2nd: I have literally purchased a game about a month before it was free on ps plus, DOZENS of times. Hell, I bought Demon's Souls just 3 weeks before it was free on PS plus. And the foulest part is when games are slightly discounted only one month before it's free on ps plus, so u kinda feel like a sucker being convinced into buying it when Sony knew it would become free in a week or two. So I like that Sony AT LEAST is giving us hints a little bit before the games are made free, so we can kinda decipher whether or not if it is gonna be a game I was about to pay money for.

Finally: If u wanna rant about 3rd world problems, then may I direct u to cnn.com? This is n4g, meaning news for gamers, NOT News for Hipsters, so when on n4G do as they say, "When in Rome"...

[iGAM3R-VIII]

I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT 3RD WORLD COUNTRIES YOU PEOPLE JUST IMPLY ANYTHING YOU SEE

[Simon_Brezhnev]

I'm glad PS Blog lets us know a month in advance what games are going to be free.

[admiralvic]

100% agree. Regardless of the debates of there being bigger issues, this issue isn't really fixed... just delayed. By this I mean the doubt goes from a weekly issue to a monthly one. Needless to say, the actual odds of any game being free with plus is so incredibly unlikely that it's not worth thinking about.

[Moncole]

If its a game you want than you would buy it and not wait to see if it goes free.

[miyamoto]

LMAO! Snikt!

[NBT91]

I sold DOA5 for £38 (special edition, bought for £42 on release) when it was free on PS+ this month.
To say it is an "issue" is a bit silly yes, because if that does happen, you can sell the one you bought and not lose the game(it's like free money! =0)
To say is not an issue in comparison to World issues is also silly, though.

[kreate]

Useless ppl instigating useless arguements on a useless comment.

Obviously u guys are over re-acting on
Igamer's comment.

Its always logicwins who likes to take matters to another level.

Anyways about the issue on hand, I guess one could argue and complain to sony about free games.

But on a realistic sense, I dont even think sony knows for sure which game will be given out in what order.

If u announce a game will be free, the developers/publishers wont get their initial sale.

Unless the company tells sony 'hey u can tell everyone this game will be free' which I doubt. Im sure there are certain contracts in place between developers and sony.

[RyuCloudStrife]

DUDE, Leave Politics off N4G, We all know there are bigger issues in the world.

/facepalm...

[dantesparda]

What i dont like is how all of the sudden now, everytime i wanna download anything, including the demos, it asks me for my password. This is so annoying, and didnt used to be like this.

[dantesparda]

Update:

oops it was a setting that somehow got turned on (maybe by the last update?). So its back to normal now, all is good in Playstation land again

[SPAM-FRITTER-123]

Have Sony said if the games you have from PS+ will be transferable to PS4 through Gakai or summet?

I hope this is the case.

When i had an Xbox i had about £500 of Arcade and DLC and if i decide to buy a 720 in the future will i still have my 360 DLC. Probably won't get a 720 but it would be nice if the option there.

[yewles1]

You DO REALIZE that all this whining is only going to cause Sony to backtrack and only make crappy games free onward, don't you?

[admiralvic]

This has always been a complaint about Plus and will always be a complaint. The issue is that people need to not think in terms of it being free with plus and in terms of whither or not it's worth the money. Every week Sony offers a game you can purchase, someone gets "screwed", so why dwell on that and just have fun. I've had 50% of my collection go free and I just shrug it off.

[HmongAmerican]

I know. Let SONY do their business and give us games. I don't want to know what the up coming free games. Some people might like that but I care not.

[RespectedDesperado]

Happened twice to me so far, vanquish and spec ops were two games I thought about buying then didn't and got em free on ps+ so I know this feeling.

[ZoyosJD]

Look at sales, game size (GB), if it's available on PSN, age, and PS+ in both US and UK. You'll get a good idea of whats coming.

[NBT91]

But if you DID buy them, you would have sold them when they were made free, right?
I men if they were not made free and you wanted them, you would have bought them anyway. If just after that they were free on Plus, you could sell them and probably get yet another game with the money. Meaning Plus has by virtue given you even more stuff to play...

Guess it depends on perspective of the matter.

[Krew_92]

Unless you bought it digitally, then you're screwed.

This has happened to me many times. I bought Megaman X on PSP, it was made available for free. I bought Plants Vs. Zombies that too was made available in time.

I didn't care either, this is a service that is much more than just free weekly games to me.

The only time I got ticked off was when I bought Rag Doll Kung Fu, I think a week later there was a promotion for a free Rag Doll Kung Fu download sponsored by Scion I think. I think this predated PS+ I forget.

[admiralvic]

I never really got how this was a problem... If you have to sit down and worry about it being free with plus at some point (typically months upon months upon months after release), then you probably didn't really want the game in the first place. I know when I want a game on the PSN, I just buy it and accept that I might get it for free at some point in the future. With this being said, what happened to supporting developers? People are quick to look down on the used / rental people (to a far lesser degree pirates), yet I see many of the same people crippled by the fact the game might be free with plus in the future. I mean sure they make money off it being free with plus, but you should support the games you like over worrying about $10 bucks.

Anyway, this article doesn't really have a point. Sony ORIGINALLY did monthly updates, but stopped due to inaccuracies. People complained a lot, so they're doing monthly updates again, which are getting less complaints overall. Needless to say, they're going to continue regardless of whither or not we support it, since it results in an overall better outlook on the PS blog.

[JW1080]

I appreciate knowing whats ahead for the month of plus. Hopefully they keep it that way. It's still a surprise. Just a surprise once a month as opposed to once a week.

[vigilante_man]

Do you really want to know what PS+ most nagging problem is?

As a subscriber I'll tell you. The following problem occurs often for me as I tend to buy 3 months at a time:

Unless you are connected online (new XBox 720) any older game you downloaded before your new subscription will not start. This only happens once each time. When you play the game again it updates on the PS3 how many new days your PS+ has left.

But to update it has to connect to PSN to verify your current PS+ status. This happens for every game you got from PS+. It becomes frustrating when you have to do this for 20 games or so.

I know, I know. We are always connected to the Internet (XBox 720 always online). But if your network goes down or you take your PS3 to a mates or somewhere else it is a pain.

I wish that every time I re-new my subscription it automatically updated all my PS+ titles with the new Days Left value. It does not. Only when you play that specific game again.

This is the most nagging PS+ problem. In fact I would say the only problem.

PS+ has got to be the BEST bargain ever on any console. The value is amazing. I even get free PS Vita games which is the reason I have just bought one a few weeks ago.

Uncharted Golden Abyss, Wipeout 2048, Gravity Rush, MSG HD Collection all at no extra cost.

[dc1]

I like your suggestion (pushing out the expiration date automatically at renewal).
It only happens when you let games set for a year without playing them (which is pretty easy to do with PS+...really, to many games to play and not enough time).

I got a 15 minute expiration message when recently playing Darksiders. However, the extension was promptly updated without any issue.

While I don't think its nagging, again, your suggestion is spot on.

[Williamson]

I remember a week after I bought gravity rush it was announced as a free title for PS plus. Obviously I wasn't pleased about spending 35.99 since I was without a job at the time, but then I realized how much I love gravity rush and supporting the developers of that game is a small price to pay compared to the great experience I was given by them.

[NBT91]

But Sony are supporting them even when it is made free... I don't reckon DOA5 devs said "Yes give our game that only released a few months ago out for free, we don't mind." You would think they paid them for it and cover costs with the subscription fees?

[Williamson]

The main point I was trying to make was how I too purchased a game that was made free a short while later on ps plus. Never did I imply that sony doesnt support the developers on board ps plus.

[Salooh]

Wew

[KingKevo]

They've been doing this for months, if not (almost) forever here in Europe. But well, we're only getting one main update at the start of the month and some in between, but still.

[WitWolfy]

This never bothered me... EVER! What a stupid complaint.

[NeoTribe]

Where does logicwins buy his bubbles?

[FRAKISTAN]

This was a MAJOR issue for me, EU used to announce their entire monthly schedule but the US PS plus releases were a mystery.

Thanks for addressing this problem

EDIT: ohh some people also buy games that were going to be free on PS plus next week,so they also get a break from this

this also gives the advantage that if our membership has expired we can be sure whether we want to renew it this month or skip the month and move over to the EU Plus

[Robotronfiend]

Oh, good for them. I thought it was the lack of cross game chat.

[creHEARTive]

I for one agree with this article and I think it was very well written. Being a PS Plus subscriber, I also had this problem. Great job.

[CaptainYesterday]

I never found that a big issue, but it is nice to know whats coming so you can decide to renew your PS+ especially for me I have a drawer full of free trials that I keep just incase :)