Splitting Hairs: The Main Problem With Sony's Playstation Plus Service

GP: "I can describe my relationship with Playstation Plus in a single word: sporadic. It is certainly a good service if the monthly freebies are things you don't already have, and the special discounts are nothing to scoff at. While all of these perks are certainly worth the price of admission, I'll usually find myself taking periodic breaks from the service.

It isn't the fault of Playstation Plus, I'm just sporadic in my gaming habits. One month I could burn through multiple games, the next month I won't play many games at all. Throughout my time with the Playstation Plus service though, one thing has constantly nagged at me - the price. It seems to fluctuate depending on what advertisement you're looking at."

[GribbleGrunger]

Well we are having an interesting few days. Did Sony murder someone this week? lol

If you don't want 12 free games and then 3 new ones every month then don't get it and play for free

[dboyc310]

To people here n4g Sony service is AMAZING .!!!!! YOU get a ton of
free stuff(RENTED). In my case most of the stuff they give out i would NEVER bother buying them in the first place so its obvious the service isn't for me. I will jump on board if they implement gaiki or enhance my online experience.

[Wintersun616]

So let me get this straight, you would NEVER bother buying games like LBP2, inFamous 2, Dead Space 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Motorstorm: Apocalypse, Just Cause 2, Warhammer 40 000: Space Marine, Darksiders, Saints Row 2..??

Try harder troll.

[dboyc310]

Have most of the games already dont believe check my profile. Some of the games you mentioned are simply game trials which you only have for an hr. Why am I a troll? Just because I dont give in to everything Sony offers? Right add me ill gladly add you ThatGuy310-_- . Don't care for the disagress. Service sucks hence why a lot of people don't have it. Guess there trolls too huh btw i have psn+ right now but only have it because i simply thought gaiki was going to be announced at e3. in fact i dont even know why i still have it since it should have expired last month

[Wintersun616]

Maybe I was wrong and you do own a PS3, but the way you said it made it sound like you wouldn't get PS+ no matter what games you get.

[volcane]

"Have most of the games already dont believe check my profile. Some of the games you mentioned are simply game trials which you only have for an hr."

No they are the full games to play, for as long as you have your ps+ subscription. There some differences in the games for different regions i.e. we don't have Just Cause 2 in SCEE region.

[xursz]

"Some of the games you mentioned are simply game trials which you only have for an hr."
No. Actually, every game he mentioned is a full complete game that comes with the service.

[dboyc310]

dead space 2,Deus Ex: Human Revolution, motorstorm apocalypse aren't free ! don't know if theyre free else where but in the US they aren't

[Wintersun616]

They're free in SCEE areas.

[Morgue]

Did you just copy and paste like 5 comments into one?

[BlaqMagiq24]

@ dboyc310

So you subscribed to PS+ knowing you disliked it and knowing the Gaikai annoucement was still a rumor before E3? Wow you're dumb.

[novcze]

The Main Problem With Sony's Playstation Plus Service is that I'm waiting for the PS4 to subscribe.

[LAZL0-Panaflex]

Problem is: its not 12 free games a month....its more like same 12 games since e3.
Same xmb bar,no cross game chat, same average games, next time I'll buy infamous 2 for $20, beat it and then sell for $15.

I'm never doing plus again unless they do a gaikai version of game fly. Like unlimited games and maps $10/ month.

[andibandit]

@GribbleGrunger

This site is like a bee hive. Want hits, poke the bee hive.

[Lovable]

"It isn't the fault of Playstation Plus, I'm just sporadic in my gaming habits. "

Exactly! I'm in the same situation..

[Wizziokid]

I can't fault PS plus simply because you don't even need to have it. if you don't like the look of the offers simply don't get plus. easy.

I love Plus, it's let me play a lot of games I normally wouldn't of even looked at so for me it's been well worth cash.

[TBM]

same here i downloaded plenty of games i wouldnt have spent my money on. so for me that fact that i can still play online for free, and use this service to get/play games i probably wouldnt even bother with is a major plus.

and like strongman said up above you cant play online with LIVE without paying for it so you are basically renting the online portions of these games. plus you're paying to use apps that are free everywhere else. who in their right mind would do that?

[born2live]

Someone who thinks the Microsoft servers are better than PS's and are worth the 50 bucks a year?

On the other hand, I'd rather spend that 50 bucks on free games (even if they're rentals) - so far Xbox hasn't been very generous with their fans, while PS and Nintendo have great incentives through the PS Plus program and the Club Nintendo program. Greedy greedy americans...

[TBM]

@born

well servers are not worth $60 year when im already paying my cable subscriber to use my own online.

as long as i can connect with friends, family, and random people online and still have a great time playing online for free the way it should be is more than enough.

[Hellsvacancy]

More Sony hate, guess thats what happens when theres no proper gaming news, i cant find nothing worthy to post

Might go write my own article "5 reasons why the XMB sucks"

1080* in ten minutes

[th3_d3an]

spoken like a true xbox liver NEXT!!! smdh its a great service period look at what they gave away this summer and this year alone!!! CMON MAN!!!! cmon

[lorianguy]

Xbox liver - that made me laugh! I have no idea why. I know what you meant though :P

But indeed, a worthwhile investment for the most part and in my honest opinion I would recommend it to any avid PS3 owner.

[Xperia_ion]

People who disagree explain, do you have it ? Let's talk about it, we are all friends :)

[cpayne93]

I just don't have the time to play the + games. Its too much. Not exactly a bad thing tho.

[xursz]

I respect your opinion even though I disagree. I personally love what PS+ offers as a service. I'm always excited to see what's coming up next for us. I like Cloud Saving also, I think it's a great feature especially in my case that I manage two PS3's. Add to that tons of free trials and automatic updates and I'm a proud subscriber. :)

[cpayne93]

Oh don't get me wrong, its an excellent service, I just have trouble finding time to play all the games it offers that I'm interested in. Especially the psone classics. I'm still glad I have the service, its been well worth it, but I just personally can't get as much out of it as I would like.

[NeoTribe]

Ps plus is fantastic. I'm the type of person who beats a game and never plays it again so getting tons of free games every month is awesome regardless if one day I say screw plus and get rid of it. Its a fantastic service. Beats live hands down.

[OldSnakePS3]

^im the exact way, i burn through games pretty quick
ps plus is awesome and well worth it imo

[wages of sin]

Plus is cool if you have a PS3 and not that many games. I had a three month deal back when it first started but I sold my PS3 well before they added this new incentive.

Most of the games they offer for renting (I refuse to call them free because they're not) are games I had already purchased-some of which I liked, others not so much-but if you haven't played them it's a good deal. I just prefer my 360 and XBL so I really don't think about it that much. If I decide to buy another PS3 then I'd probably get it but I don't see that happening, especially with blu-ray players being so cheap now.

[Slysi]

Same here neotribe, I complete a game and never play it again. At the moment this is so much better then xboxlive.

[Strakken]

This is a random opinion piece that really doesn't talk about news or anything, and is more on one guys gaming habits. I don't think this belongs on N4G Hottest.

[smashcrashbash]

Never understand the jump to say you are RENTING the free games on PlayStation Plus. In most services don't you lose everything you get if you don't pay the fee? Isn't that the point. If I gave you tons of free stuff then you could just take as much stuff you want for the amount of time you have and maybe never pay for Plus again. Just imagine you pay seventeen dollars for maybe hundreds of dollars in games not to mention the sales and things you get to keep.So in short I, the company, gives you a ton of stuff PLUS discounts PLUS free backgrounds and avatars to EVERYONE that you get to keep for peanuts? You know I have said this before but I am glad that many of the people on N4G don't own businesses. It would be the fastest and greatest number of bankruptcies on record.

[iceman06]

I like to think of Playstation Plus as a discount service with great bonuses. It's like going to Sam's Club or Costco and every month you get to take a couple of items for free. Sure, you had to pay to be a member. But, that charge is more than made up for by all of the savings that you receive. It's really good for anybody that has a fixed gaming budget because you can catch up on some games later in their lives.

[TheController]

I personally love the PS+ service and think that Sony has done a great job of delivering a new and interesting service to their loyal customers. However, I think that in order to broaden their customer base they need to add a few services that people will want to pay for on a monthly or annual basis, like X-game chat / messages / party. I know these aren't possible with the ps3 architecture as it is, but these are things they should add in next gen. Again, these aren't necesarry for me to subscribe to the service as it stands but in order to grab more people and be as successful as it can, it could really use these few things or things like it.

[Kiddcarter]

Not on the topic, but a response to the people who say plus is only a rental service, you are right and wrong, full ps3 games like lbp 2, infamous 2 and so on, have expiration dates, where once you are no longer a plus you can't play them until you renew, ok thats a rental, however psn games like lara croft, stacking, sideways, etc have no expiration date (hit triangle, then go to game information to check), with these games your plus sub can end and the game will still play, not a rental....so there is legit value to be had with plus, you do get some rentals, however you get get freebies in there to.

[R_aVe_N]

It is really all about personal taste. I personally have had PS+ since it launched and have enjoyed many many games I normally would not have played. You also get discounts on PSN games that are yours forever not just until you membership is no longer active. When you couple that with the free games every month it more than pays for itself over the year.

[Jiminip]

Isn't the ability to have it sporadically one of the plus points?

If you drop your sub there are no real drawbacks to that. Other than not being able to play the games you DL'ed, which you probably played to death before your sub ended.

[MrBeatdown]

"Obviously this isn't an actual problem"

If you have to write that line in your article, you probably shouldn't be writing the article in the first place.