PlayStation Plus 'buyouts' for devs confirmed by Sony

For gamers, PlayStation Plus' Instant Game Collection has been a tremendous deal, offering numerous "free" games as part of a subscription. But why do developers offer their games for free? Well, because some of them are getting paid for it, of course.

[Eonjay]

Obviously... nobody doubted this.

[Feocart]

There's bound to be a few people that don't know this.
There are a few reasons as to why this happens. Futurlab, developer of the upcoming Velocity 2X, told GI.biz that putting their game on PS+ was "less about money and more about exposure, especially with a sequel coming."
Publicity is huge for a game to do well on the market, and PS+ does a fair job at promoting games with news updates and deals.

[SilentNegotiator]

Wait, wait, wait....you guys mean that the developers didn't give away their games out of the kindness of their hearts?

....I have to sit down.

[Hitman0769]

@SilentNegotiator

lmao, it's a damn shame right? How dare them always expect payment for their hundreds of thousands of collective manhours. totally capatalist. russia should've won the cold war.

[Army_of_Darkness]

After getting several free games like hitman absolution and anomaly( which was never on my radar), I'm really exited for anomaly 2 when it hits consoles! Really good reverse tower defense game.

Free games is definitely good publicity for indie dev. And i don't mean the free to play nickle and dime microtransaction crap either.

[Rayansaki]

@SilentNegotiator

Some do. Not necessarily out of kindness, but if theres a sequel coming out in a month, giving it away for free now is a great marketing tool. It's pretty obvious the majority is paid by Sony tho. Like Far Cry 3 or Dragon's Dogma, nothing to gain from giving it for free right now

[malokevi]

I don't wanna stir the pot and incur the wrath of the dreaded SDF... but should a company that is in dire financial straights be shoveling free games at it's customers at its own expense?

Do they expect to see some sort of ROI for this kind of investment? I mean, sure, more people might be buying the console... more people might be subscribing to their service... but all that money is going out the back door and into the developers pockets anyways.

I guess it could logically balance itself out, but I'm not so sure.

[Omegasyde]

@malokev

I am absolutely sure "some" money from PSN subscriptions is reinvested into the service the same way Xbox live works.

Here's the difference though, I would "imagine" that most XBL fees go to securing "timed-exclusive" DLC or perhaps servers; where Sony focuses more on offering free games.

[miyamoto]

Oh, at least these small indie games really gets VIP center stage treatment and more exposure on PSN instead of getting buried and lost due to bigger publishers and tons of ads on other platforms.

[FamilyGuy]

@ malokevi

PS+ is extremely profitable, the money spent on getting games to give away pales in comparison to the money gained from paid subscribers. XBLG is extremely profitable too (waaay more so) and MS spends some of that profit towards things like timed DLC or game exclusivity.

Here's a quick example:
Let's say Sony has 700,000 subscribers one year that paid $50 that year for PS+, that's already $35 MILLION. The money they pay devs could be anything from $20k for those smaller PSN titles to $500k for those big retail titles. Even if they spent $1 million a month on getting PS+ games they would still be profiting $23 million that year in this example.

PS+ is just like any other subscription, it's designed to make money and you've got to spend money to make money. The more enticing the offer sounds, the more subscribers they get, the more money they make and the more they can add to the benefits of the service.
That said, I expect PS+ to be huge now that PS4 requires it for online play.

[SilentNegotiator]

"@SilentNegotiator
Some do. Not necessarily out of kindness"

Promotion isn't kindness, so that's included in my point/joke.

[badboy776]

OLD!

[My_precious]

but this is the first time sony make this public, IIRC

[ALLWRONG]

Oh the irony.

Amazing how other companies get hammered for doing the same thing here. Where are all the "check writing" comments now?

I love it when karma bites hypocrites.

[Rhaigun]

I'll tell you why you don't see it. Because this check clearly affects the gamers wallet. If Microsoft was securing exclusive DLC and giving it away for free, no one would say anything.

[DOMination-]

MS pay for exclusive content = outrage!!!

Sony pays for content to be free on their service = amazing!!

[Soldierone]

Free content benefits the users, and its obviously not cutting into exclusive title budgets. Sony still had what 7 exclusive games this year?

Meanwhile MS announces millions in a budget for making games, then turns around and announces a bunch of timed exclusive crap. During the PS2 era Sony had third party exclusives too, look how that turned out. MS should be paying for their own stuff, not timed deals with third parties..... THATS what makes me angry as a gamer. They rather pay to basically yell "FIRST!!!" like those annoying comments on Youtube than to actually gamble on a game of their own.

[HugoDrax]

@soldierone

You're kidding me right? I'm laughing that people are still trying to justify why it's ok for Sony to do this, but not for MS. Oh N4G fanboys, please will you stop with the hatred. I thought this was NETWORK 4 GAMERS? All I see is NETWORK 4 FANBOYS.

November 15th and 22nd, can't come any faster because then maybe, just maybe fanboys will be occupied playing their new consoles instead of trolling online gaming sites.

[hankmoody]

And God forbid you come on N4G saying anything of the sort. The disagrees say it all.

[Soldierone]

@auric, then how about defend against my argument instead? Defend MS' decision to waste money on timed deals. What does that do? It just hurts the other gamers. What does Sony offering free games do to harm gamers? NOTHING. What exclusive did we lose because sony paid for a few free games? NONE.

How is being tired of MS wasting money on timed exclusives instead of advancing the industry with exclusives being a fanboy? If Sony did it, I'd be mad too, but they dont. Fans ask for a new Uncharted, Sony gives them it, plus green lights The Last of Us, Plus a free game on PS Plus. What does MS do? "Here is some COD content FIRST! Remember, we were first! Not exclusive, just first! It was coming with or without our check, but its first here! " This benefits gamers how exactly? Why should I kiss MS' arse because they get crap first? I simply said (and keep saying) I rather get an exclusive title instead of a timed deal.

[Omegasyde]

Wait a second, are the games that are free only playable on PS3?

Oh wait, their not.

What if this exclusive content is going towards a core title which I don't like?

Sorry Dom, you brought up a horrible example.

[Rhaigun]

I already answered this in the above reply.

[jairusmonillas]

You still need to buy those exclusive contents.

Why does Xbox fans think like an empty box?

[ALLWRONG]

@jairusmonillas you have to pay for PSN+

Now what?

[xxxsiegezzz]

It's free not exclusive.
I think no-one had problems that MS would offer all dlc free for their customers, but they just cut it off from others

[ziggurcat]

well, duh...

[wsoutlaw87]

ya this is completely obvious. If they wanted to just give it away the game would be free and not on plus.

[nick309]

Thats why not all games stay free at plus.

[AbortMission]

I thought we knew this already..

[AceBlazer13]

Did this need stating?

[ooquis]

yes

[warczar]

no

[sackboyhappy]

maybe

[Catreal]

they should get part of the money.....honestly the way I feel....they're saving me....39 to $49....each game the offer for free each month....I'm not gonna lie...I'm not into all the games they give away free....and most of them I played.....for me is just knowing I get a different game to play each month....for cost 59 dollars a year....you can sign me up for the next 10 years.....Haha...! Psn Catreal

[LetoAtreides82]

It's $49.99 here in the United States.

[saint_seya]

i paid 97 dollars for 2 years of plus. So its something like 48,50 a year xD

[insomnium2]

Now that's what you call a DEAL! LOL!

Happy plus member here too.

[Silly Mammo]

Just got it for $39.99 through Buy.com (or whatever they're called now).

[TechMech2]

Not trying to be a troll, but I'm just saying. There is a large amount of people on this site that would rip on Microsoft for this. Sony and Microsoft both just want a profit. While Sony treats their consumers more respectfully than Microsoft, both are simply in it for the profit.

[kratos17]

Well said man.

[Xsilver]

i dont get it we all knew this u really think people thought that devs just said hey Sony u wanna put up our games for free smh dont know why you brought up MS even their fans knew this. and of course its for profit why do u think we pay for PS+ every company needs profit to operate so why are u pointing out the obvious.

[TechMech2]

I was just pointing out the hypocrisy of fanboys. It goes both ways. All fanboys plague the comments and leave developers and manufactures room to be lazy. Take Xbox One for example. I'm sure if a large number of fanboys blindly followed Microsoft,and no one complained, then the system would be much worse, and nearly everybody would be buying a PS4.

[Xsilver]

smfh are you serious this has nothing to do with MS but u bring it up to what point again oh fanboys dufaq bro just stop your not making any sense by saying that you're gonna start a fanboy fueled argument so you're definitely not helping. i understand where your coming from but we both know its gonna start something.

[N4Flamers]

There is no hypocrisy. You are fabricating a fictional scenario and then claiming that people are being hypocritical. If ms were to pay for free games and then people complained you would be correct but as it stands that has not happened.

[TechMech2]

It's obvious your a ps fanboy. Enjoy your ps4

[MrBeatdown]

Except, nobody is ripping on MS for offering Games with Gold.

[admiralvic]

Clearly you don't read those topics, since people do. A lot of people talk about how old / lame the games are and a lot of Sony fanboys feel a need to state things like "really makes you thankful for PlayStation Plus".

[T2]

@ admiral - yes exactly people complain about the lack ofquality on xbl , NOT whether they paid the developer

[MrBeatdown]

@admiralvic

Complaining about the quality is completely different from knocking MS for "buying out" devs so their games can be given away.

[lodossrage]

lol I was beaten to it

But they're right admiralvic. It was ALWAYS the quality (age) of the free games that Microsoft gave people questioned. NEVER the fact that they were actually paying to get those free games to the customer.

[ALLWRONG]

"Except, nobody is ripping on MS for offering Games with Gold."

That's the biggest load of BS ever typed on this site.

[Omegasyde]

@mrbeatdown

How are they buying out devs by offering free games?

They said, here's (X ammount of money), we will offer your game for free with PSN+ for X(ammount of time).

[MrBeatdown]

@ALLWRONG

I guess you don't read your own comments.

That actually explains a lot. Thanks.

[Hicken]

No, don't think so.

[iamnsuperman]

People complain about Microsoft buying exclusive DLC and bigging it up at the conferences not this. Same with Games with Gold no one cares how they get the game on the service as long as it is there. Games with gold has received flak for quality issues (which I am still shocked about as Microsoft spends a fortune on exclusive dlc) but we are not going to complain at Sony or Microsoft if they pay to get a free game for a month for their service. Different thing entirely

[nosferatuzodd]

Sony treat their costumers better thats why people don't care microshaft on the other hand is a different story.
TechMech sounds like you're ass hurt over something i don't know what

[Dorestant]

Well theres a difference...

-Paying for your fanbase to have access to tons of games they might never have played otherwise

-Paying for the other consoles fanbase to get dlc later

Instant Game Collection benefits the consumer, you could argue, for both fanbases. I say that because Games With Gold would've never came about without the success of the IGC

All that timed exclusive bs... Benefits nobody (Not to say MS is the only one doing it)

[Omegasyde]

I agree. I hate any DLC that is either timed exclusive or not.

If the game is on more than 1 console, then all versions of that game should have the same amount of content and released in the same amount of time.

[Gamer666]

That is lame...

A subsidy to do something is a subsidy no matter what.

I'm sure there is a clause in the buyout contracts that this would only be available on the PS network for free. So that is just as exclusionary as not making content available on another console or delaying its availability.

To me, they are both trying to making money and in order to do that they are enticing devts, making great content, and competing hard with each other. That benefits consumers. And it has to stay that way.

[SirBradders]

Well they don't work for free like the rest of us they have people and taxes to pay. Thats why they are called businesses.

[ALLWRONG]

Sony fans complain and blame MS for "writing checks" in any news related to the topics below.

Good reviews "MS paid em"
Bad reviews "MS didn't pay em"
DLC "MS paid"
When games go multiplat "MS paid"

And any other website that has posted anything positive about MS.

IGN
Kotaku
Games Radar
Gametrailers
Edge
Joystiq
Destructoid
Game Informer
Polygon
Gamespot
reddit

And Sony fanboys like MrBeatdown and Hicken denying what they have seen and done themselves is pathetic. OJ Simpson still denies it, but it doesn't make him any less guilty.

[Omegasyde]

2 things about MS:

1 - They have been accused of hiring marketing companies to post on random sites for positive spin. (i.e a Schill)

2 - They game money to polygon.com, ironically this site scores PS3 exclusives way less than the average consensus and knock games for no good reason.

[XboxFun]

Exactly,

We get sony fanboys all the time complaining about how MS pays third parties for exclusives or game content.

I remember some of the SDF even going as far as saying that Sony never cuts a check to devs. Obviously false but for some reason it's all gold and heart shaped unicorns whenever Sony is involved. But when the truth comes out, blind eyes and a pass is given.

I don't know why this is news, you think Sony would just give away third party games for free and not compensate the developer? That would be damn near piracy.

[Hicken]

Hoo, boy. Wonder when I said anything about Microsoft paying somebody...? Well, with the exception of Polygon, who was funded by them, at least in part.

Funny, though, that you claim Sony fans say anything positive is because Microsoft paid, but you and other MS fanboys are forever claiming bias on every site that seems to prefer the PS4 these days. As if the whole internet is now one big Sony fanboy.

Go figure, eh?

Edit: XboxFun, I've NEVER seen anybody say Sony didn't pay devs.

Plus, there's a HUGE difference between buying out an indie for a period of time, or even a AAA game on Plus. When a game is free on Plus- say, Far cry- it's still available on 360. As for the indie games, if they're not already on 360 and available to play, when do they EVER go to Xbox? Even long after their free period is done with Plus, how many games have gone from PS3 to 360?

How many games have gone from PS3 to 360, PERIOD?

Yeah, I thought so.

And exclusive DLC? What is the actual point of it? Hell, it's not even actually exclusive; it's TIMED, meaning Microsoft paid money to have it for a month or two early. They're not even making it something that can never be found on the competition.

And, overall, it might not be such a problem if they kept up with their in-house exclusive stuff. If they were making more than Halo and Forza every year or two, it wouldn't even be an issue.

MOST people are upset that Microsoft would rather spend money on brief periods of exclusivity than on ACTUAL exclusive content, games or otherwise.

Well, except you Microsoft fanboys, since it's all "gold and heart shaped unicorns" whenever Microsoft is involved. I mean, being FOR the DRM mess that was the original XB1 vision?

Really?

[MrBeatdown]

Boy, something I said must have struck a nerve if you're desperate enough to start throwing out accusations without even bothering to back them up.

For all your crusading, people like you and XboxFun couldn't bother to produce one example where ANYONE criticized MS for paying developers for the right to give away games.

Instead you have to resort to unrelated subjects like paying for timed exclusivity or review conspiracy theories, as if the mere act of paying for something is the issue, and throwing out my name, attempting to paint me as fanboy, over comments that I don't even make. But hey, that's what the "personal attack" button is for.

I guess I should just accept that people like you aren't smart enough to, or just don't want to understand the finer points of any intelligent discussion, and that all conversation involving you will devolve into a hypocritical crusade against fanboyism where deluded trolls like you pat eachother on the back and further reinforce the ignorance you all gleefully blind yourselves with.

[kratos17]

So did people really think that publishers would offer their game for free without some kind of collateral.

[DragonKnight]

No.

[iamnsuperman]

Actually I think some might. Obviously they will get the money as well (might as well) but sometimes the main goal is to sell the sequel. A reason why a month or two before a sequel comes out the game pops up for free. DLC is also a reason. It is a very cheap and clever marketing tactic

[I_am_Batman]

Especially when you consider that a game sells most in the first couple of months. After a year or so it probably makes more sense to give the game away for free on PS+ and get the money from Sony plus the potential DLC profit.

[Fluke_Skywalker]

@Iamnsuperman spot on, did no one else notice that almost all the games that we get free on PS+ either have a sequel in the making or have a crap load of DLC available. It's a massive piece of marketing for the publishers and devs.

[nirwanda]

It's not often that everyone wins and if they sell more dlc because of it or a sequel then good on them for giving away the game cheep

[buynit]

I don't care how they make it happen im just happy and content that they do. I just can see the value in live compared to this and ps+ has actually kept my vita a Live!

[Foolsjoker]

Old news, was already confirmed months ago:
http://www.playstationlifes...

[DigitalRaptor]

Was about to post that link, kudos!

[Pancit_Canton]

No S***.

It's a win win situation for developers, Sony and the consumers. Sony are helping the indies to get more exposure, money and other resources. Compared to xbox live where the indies died off in the corner collecting dust. One of the many differences between the PSN and Xbox live. PSN are clearly a better choice for indies,consumers and true gamers.

[T2]

I wouldnt quite call square , rockstar , and others Indies there are some real AAA games on there but good point

[5eriously]

Nobody but buthurt fools can argue the fact that the PS+ value component are much better and of higher quality than Live. If anyone do argue that fact they are ether a moronic fan or juvenile American.

[CEOSteveBallmer]

Wow a fellow filipino gamer and is also a Pro Playstation gamer. nice choice. :)

[xXtremeHDGamerXx]

PlayStation Plus is the best value in gaming.

[oof46]

Console gaming. Those Steam sales are wicked.

[Nuckles]

Getting Saints Row 3 for free lead me to buy Saints Row 4.

[dragon82]

And that is the reason why developers are on board with the service. They get some cash and future sales from gamers who might have never purchased one of their games without trying the previous game for free.

[nunley33]

and to sell DLC too for those plus games,which is reasonable. i have bought dlc for plus games and i was happy to do it if i enjoyed the game,some of those games i wouldn't have bought most likely too. and for the promotion that comes along with being a plus game. people who aren't plus members are made aware of the game where they maybe didnt know of it before.

[TheSaint]

Lol, I'm just going to wait until 4 is free on Plus!

[dragongod64]

IF you want to stop buying games just because you are getting free games don't, here is why: One person stops buying 2 3 4 5 then sony sees sales start to drop then they will have no choice but to lower the the count of great games they put on ps plus.

Keep buying, Keep playing, Keep the great deals coming.
It is up to every one to do your part.

If you like what I have to say can you tell me how to get more bubbles Thank's You

[Schizoid]

Yeah me too. Would have never played either without plus.

[Soldierone]

Saints Row 2 being free is what made me a fan of the series lol

The odd turn around for Saints Row 3 was just a bonus and kept me entertained. One of the few open world game I beat 100 percent!

[SKYVVLKR]

Obviously everyone thought the devs were just feeling generous.

[coolasj]

This is fishing at it's finest!
Buyouts is a nice word. It has negative connotations, after all. The article doesn't provide a source. And it's information we knew already.

Good Job Shacknews writer responsible for this article!

[s8anicslayer]

Brian Silva told indie devs at indiecade that they offer buyouts for on one month free on PS plus...obviously you did not read the story.

[coolasj]

Yeah Yeah I found the link in the story. N4G doesn't allow edits. Still regurgitating obvious and old information. Using a loaded title.

[WeAreLegion]

If I were a developer and sales of my game had slowed to a crawl...I'd just give it to Sony for the PS Plus program. It's a great way to get your name out there.

[meday354]

Everyone wins.

[mohuzas]

when Microsoft does it, they're moneyhatting. when Nintendo does it, they're desperate. when Sony does it, it's best for the industry. smh.

[SilentNegotiator]

1) Nintendo doesn't have an equivalent to PS+ or GwG.

2) Microsoft is never criticized FOR giving away games. They're criticized for their choices of extremely out of date games, but not for giving away the games.

[joeorc]

@mohuzas

"when Microsoft does it, they're moneyhatting. when Nintendo does it, they're desperate. when Sony does it, it's best for the industry. smh."

example:

Move sucks, Sony should force developer's to use Move if they want it to be better, just like Nintendo and Microsoft? you cannot have it both ways.

Sony is giving Developer's a choice to go with them as a publisher, even though they have a "self publishing" alt. on Playstation. Having a Indie DEV. PUB fund is there to help indie developer's if they want it.

you do not expect Sony to get something out of it?
that's not the same thing as going to a developer over their game and says you have to use this, or that in the development game studio because we paid for this as an exclusive. As a matter of fact some of these games are only exclusive for a short time, instead of completely Exclusive. So saying its a Buyout is just trying to manipulate more Hits for people to start talking about this subject, and you can guess here but its working right?

[SoulSercher620]

No one ever said that. You gotta be kidding me.

[MasterCornholio]

I don't have a problem with this because we are paying Sony to bring good games to PlayStation plus. I wouldn't be playing FarCRY 3 if it wasn't for this.

Nexus 7 2013

[Schizoid]

man I love that game. Played some MP last night. Needed a break from GT. can't wait for far cry 4.

[SpitFireAce85]

I got a platinum trophy for FarCry 3 that's
how much i loved it.

[paul-p1988]

There was an interview with a developer on here about 2 months ago that stated this... so why is OLD news on the front page again...

[Underworld]

Call me stupid, but I always wondered. Why does the article only say "some of them are getting paid"?

[Volkama]

Well let's hope it's a prelude to a full "all you can game" subscription model. I'd buy that.

[Harpers_Ferry]

I love how people "point this out" at least once a month and try to act like it's some shocking thing.

Hopefully they recorded Weekend Confirmed before Yoon made this amazing discovery, so they don't go on some pretentious rant about how this is anything other than obvious business as usual.

[Idba]

People seem to be forgetting that alot of these free games arent "buy-outs" BF3, SR3, AC3 so on and so forth have been on the PS+ only a couple of months before the new game comes out.

Ive never played AC and when i tried AC3 i loved it, so im getting ACIV for ps4

[FanOfRootBeer]

Translation: Breaking news! Sony is a high-profile business!

[Rhythmattic]

There really is a point where you question every dollar spent on first world problems...

Internet Caps, Cost and speed... Petrol prices... Pre Packaged Vegetables......
That chilled case of Victoria Bitter, or maybe the imported Corona @ $50 a Cartoon.. (Carton)

Or maybe , just maybe a hard drive full of games where there really is no necessity nor time to spend one more cent for the here and now ?

Im BLOWN away by Plus.... As for people that just "dont get it" , well your a Minus.

[jackanderson1985]

this is news? i figured everyone knew this

[tweet75]

It always seems sony puts 3 kinds of free games on psplus. 1.games sony knows fans already own. 2. Games that have run there course and no longer selling. 3. Obscure games that have sold very little.

[NBT91]

It's probably more about exposure and publicity than the money, but it was still obvious they would get some money from it yeah.

[Kidmyst]

Getting free games has exposed me to games I may otherwise have skipped due to time. Like Sleeping Dogs. Really enjoyed that one and will buy the next one if there is one.

[Orionsangel]

My only problem with Plus is that we don't actually own the free games. We have to keep paying for plus if we wanna keep owning them. Almost like a rent a service. Where on XBL, we get to keep the free games. Granted, it's rarely free games as good as Sony is offering.

[joinsideke]

This is... How did this get to #1 on hottest news?

If it makes you feel better about it, think of it as Sony investing in PS+ attractiveness to consumers and developers alike. Both parties win. Devs get guaranteed revenue and exposure. Consumers (plus members) get guaranteed games they don't need to shell out more money for.

I... Fail to see any negative side to this transaction.

[CrowbaitBob]

In other news, it has been revealed that Sony Santa Monica recently paid an electric company to keep the lights on.

[wolf239]

I don't like it when people call them "free" games. If you have to pay to play them, they're hardly free.

[jmc8888]

Yeah wasn't this obvious?

[Chrono]

shack news? more like whack news.