I feel like I’m incredibly late to the party.
Of course I’ve known of the existence of the PlayStation Plus program, but I never really knew just how awesome it would become. I suppose I wrote it off back when it first came out because it wasn’t a required service like Xbox Live, and I must have figured they would never offer anything worthwhile. Of course I was wrong, which obviously doesn’t happen that often.
I’ve probably mentioned a few times by now that I have a new Vita. The PlayStation brand hasn’t been getting as much of my attention as it deserves over the past few years so I wasn’t really aware of any of the Plus offerings until I found out about their whole “Instant Game Collection” thingy. It’s actually pretty awesome that I can play games like Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Gravity Rush, and Disgaea 3 just by being a subscriber and it’s what initially caused me to sign up for a year of the service. Not only that but just recently Sleeping Dogs appeared among the PS3 offerings so I feel pretty jazzed about that. They also cycle these games every month so you are constantly getting new and interesting things to play as long as you are subscribed. I’d say it’s worth it for the ability to play these games alone, but you also get great discounts and exclusive deals on stuff.
It actually makes me wonder what exactly it is I’m getting with my Xbox Live subscription. I believe I’ve been a member for 8 or 9 years, at least according to that big number next to my gamertag, but I’m not really sure I have anything to show for it other than some truly horrific customer service experiences. Sure it grants you the ability to play games online and do some other minor things, but those seem to be free on every other console… I’m actually scratching my head on this one.
No doubt PS3 is the better offering. PS3 online gaming is free i cant understand how Xbox gets away with their live crap. Anyhow, i only have a ps3 and play occasionally on it but i much prefer the store and the plus model as a real add on of value…
not too mention everything you said but also exclusive beta access to games as well.
Not only that, Rombie, but you have to pay for online and then you get ads plastered on the dashboard.
The good things came lately, just before the release of playstation 4..I wish the will extend the playstation plus on PS4 from the start and they will not wait 5 years for it 🙂
The playstation plus offer in my country is decent, but not great.
When I read what Americans are getting I feel like I’m treated differently here in Europe.
I would have subbed instantly if the offer where the same.
I’ll take the playstation plus into consideration, when I will decide what console to buy in a year or more from now.
Perhaps xbox will get a similar subscription deal with free games every month?
Time will tell… 2 days to go will the xbox event.
Playstation Plus only exists because of Xbox Live. Sony wanted to get in on the monthly fee action but they already ingrained an “entitled to free online” attitude into their player-base. Going forward into the PS4 expect to see more features locked behind a paywall.
Everyone complains about Xbox Live but at the end of the day it’s been the best console online experience by far for gaming and playing with friends. Is it too expensive? You can get deals to pay around 30 a year if you shop around so I’d say no. Would I like to see something more in line with PS+? Definitely.
I learned to appreciate XBox Live during a one month experiment me and my friends ran when we were thinking of dropping live and moving over to our PS3s. Between the poorly implemented party system and the constant drops in the games we played (no issue Xbox side) I was at the point were I would have paid over 100 a year for Live.
Free stuff is nice but when you want to play with friends online I’d rather have the better online experience. Whoever offers that gets my money.
My customer service experience with Xbox Live was so horrific I’ll never own an xbox or use their service again. It sucks sometimes due to exclusive titles and such but I felt if they were willing to treat me so poorly and tell me that it was my fault their sign-up software allowed me to violate their ToS without me even realizing it. Because they said “we like to allow our customers freedom to make their own choices”.
So I made my own choice not to ever use their service. I realize that a majority of people will always and continue to use their service and that works for them. I took my business to Sony and they have treated me very well since making the change.
Granted I am not a console guy in the least, I did buy a PS3 long ago. (It is arguably a glorified Netflix machine atm).
But having said that, I was never certain why anyone would buy a machine designed with a large light on the front that will tell you WHEN it breaks (not if). Not to mention paying a second monthly fee to access your internet through said console. You do pay your ISP for that, right? What do you give Microsoft that money for? “”Allowing” you to connect with friends over the internet? Hmmm.
@Rawblin
The PS3 has the YLOD (Yellow Light of Death) where the light on the front tells you when it’s dead. The early PS3s are pretty much guaranteed to die. Fortunately my 60 gig fully backward compatible one is still running but that’s the exception.
I pay for Live to have a great online experience when playing with friends. That’s something I didn’t have on the PS3 at any point over the years.
I hate to come off as a MS Fanboy because I’m not. In fact unless MS does something to knock my socks off tomorrow I’m pretty dead set on being a one console guy going forward with the PS4. Even if MS has a good show that’ll just get them in the house with the PS4 because Sony did a great job selling me on the fact they learned from the PS3 mistakes they made.
So I have both systems. I live in Singapore but I am a US citizen with US credit card. Xbox Live offers me easy access to the US store with US prices and US game releases. This is huge compared to prices in Singapore and the DL content available on the Singapore store. However, Xbox live does not give me much value outside of that. On the flip side Playstation 3 has made it hell for me to access their US store with Playstation Plus. It took me a couple days to find a back door that I luckily stumbled on in order to access the US store from Singapore. However, I have now DLed for free both Battlefield 3 and Uncharted 3. Awesome. worth the $50 just for those titles. Now if only I could have the best of both worlds on each system. Easy access to US store and great free games.