Reminder: PS3 firmware 3.40, PlayStation Plus now available [Update]

I updated and subscribed for 1 year + 3 months free
No PSN game .. just a mini ( Zombie age )and a PS1 classic ( Rally game ), 2 Avatars , 1 Theme ( not dynamic :S ) , Infamous 1 hour Trial ( z full game is also available for 30$ ) , Fallen star pack for Warhawk for free and some discounts :S
Ah I forgot the best part .. they put a golden + mark on your profile so that at least people will know

I was pretty stoked about getting Littlebig Planet along with the subscription, but now I’ve learned that that deal was only for European subscribers. Yeah, I don’t think I’m signing up anymore.

@1
they put a golden + mark on your profile so that at least people will know your silly.

I bought a year’s sub. I feel good, and don’t feel guilty in the slightest.

Nope. Not in the slightest.

I would but it just dosnt seem like its worth the asking price. If only the free game wasnt LBP.

…That said, i already own every first party game thats worth having…

@4

Yet.

Other than free LBP (which I already own) I see absolutely no reason to subscribe. I despise “mini’s” and the subs price isn’t worth it for exclusives etc. HAD it provided further functionality (party chat etc) I would have been interested.

So does PlayStation Plus actually do anything other than give you “free” content that you can *only* use as long as you’re subscribed?

It makes your wallet lighter. So that it’s easier to carry around. And stuff.

If I didn’t already buy so much from the PSN store, this could be interesting, but witht he main pull being free trials and discounts on games I already own, I can’t justify it.

Golden + = Cone of Shame.

I’m sitting here wondering whether to subscribe or not. looking at the first 2 months content, the big stuff is things I had anyway. So the question for me is: does the content equate to just over £3 a month? It’s leaning toward no. If only the demos were new demos. Is there any way to turn off the push demo if you already have it? If only it wasn’t LBP and Wipeout. I’d expect most PSN users will already have those and there’s a new LBP coming out anyway, so it seems a bit poor of them to offer it.

Will probably sub for the year. I have LBP but having it on the HDD available at all times is a bonus, though with LBP2 coming soon I’m not sure whether I will get that much use. At least I can pass on my boxed copy. It’s only the price of a pint per month.

Other interesting feature in the update is the video editor/uploader. Hopefully means we’ll see more games supporting video output like Just Cause 2.

Subbed.

Actually, DrDamn, you make a good point, which resolves a second. It’s the price of a pint and when you’ve drunk that, you can’t use it again, so now I’m not worried about losing the content if I don’t subscribe again…

Also, the amount of poor PSN games I’ve bought, the free trial thing will save me money ! So it could well pay for itself.

Subbed.

@15 that’s a good point. The trials are pretty useful. The rating system is a nice touch too, which might help me give some of the stinkers a wide birth.

Decent update actually this time.

It’s all “selected content”, and who really wants to 1 hour trial Infamous? You could have rented the FULL game by now, if you were interested. Your friends would have already shared their thoughts.
As far as full, free games go, you get Wipeout HD, and LBP! Bare in mind that this service is intended to appeal to the very most dedicated, often-playing PS3 owner.

It’s not as if you can 1 hour try games of your choice, or this give you a constantly enhanced demo to other users – you can pay to be able to try an hour of the game of Sony’s choice that they’re trying to flog you, anyway…But, they give away Zombie Age mini, and some static themes and a couple gamerpics!
Raise your hand, if you do not currently own a twin stick shooter.

For a launch offering, it’s shit. The US had the right idea: give everyone a free trial, but a copy of LBP does not in any way serve as ample substitute. Europe just wasn’t ready. The launch deal is a joke, and there’s no way of seeing what your own usage would be, for whether it’s worth ponying up the forty. Welcome to the lab, furry test subjects, the experiment has now commenced, your payment has been processed – participation confirmed. Hey, you even got a little badge! xD

ill subscribe wen they bring out more and better stuff, which we all know they will.

Subbed. I bet you they start out rolling out features to Plus only subscribers in time too. Then everyone will able able to moan about that!

@19 Which is what I think will happen, and the only way they are going to be able to push the service.

Think I’ll sign up when there’s a game available that I don’t already have.

@21 Me too. I’ll pay only for free deals and games that are worth the money.

@ 11 …SQUIRREL!!!

Cross game chat and cloud storage then I’d be interested.
Automatic updates should have been implemented into this firmware for free and shouldn’t be a subcribers privilege

@21 and 22

That’s pretty much why I ain’t rushing for a subscription
There should be a choice of games you can have for free

Just remember you DON”T OWN ANYTHING…Your Fee allows you to “SUBSCRIBE” to items…NEVER OWN THEM…So the day you stop forking over the cash, it all goes back to Sony…Now if your the Type who enjoys Leasing a Car and Paying 3 times what it is worth, then SUB to Plus. If your the type to either just outright buy the Car at a really good deal, then your the type to outright buy games on PSN or at least wait till they go on sale for 50% off, and at least you own them!

If you resubscribe the games you’ve managed to ascertain whilst being a subscriber…they’ll come back.

But like many have already said..It’s just the lacklustre offers on show at this moment in time that’s putting me off

There shoud be more choice in what you can have

@1: Wipeout HD is free for you, go download it.

Yeah, I signed up for the U.S. version. I got 15 months subscription for $49.99. I see some people saying that they won’t get it but I think they’re gonna lose out.

I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT I WILL GET WAY MORE THAN $49.99 WORTH OF FREE STUFF OVER 15 MONTHS.

It’s not really ‘free’ if you have to pay for it, of course.

@4: Agreed

@21: if you wait too long you won’t get the 3 extra months free.

@24 Strictly speaking you don’t ‘own’ any game you pay money for anyway. You buy a licence to access the software under very specific terms.

@29..Tis Very true..But I can be disconnected from the Internet to play my games, with no checking subscription as of right now, though I am sure the day is coming that not only must the disc be in the drive but you must be signed into the internet to play..

The only problem for me, is I own Everything they are offering, so if I plop down $50 dollars, I get nothing day One that I don’t already have…So day one is a bust for me, and it would be gambling for me that they are going to offer something in the future that I don’t have, or something that I would want.

In Fact my Copy of Parasite Eve on the the PS1 Still plays just fine with no worries of it expiring as of yet, and I think that came out in 1998?

Nothing about Plus is ‘free’, the content it inclusive. Like all the French toast you swiped every morning at the hotel buffet.

Good grief. It’s true. You really can sell yellow snow to people.

I dare *anyone* to try and defend downloading that Rally Cross game. Even back in the day it sold like dogshit-flavoured muffins.

As for subscribing to something that has nothing you want now, just in case it gets better later on, that’s just astonishing. Keep it up you goons, you are actually doing the rest of us sane people a favour by keeping the games industry afloat

Frostquake is right. You might as well subscribe to Onlive. SONY I’m very disappointed in you. Stop this bullshit and give the gamers what they really want. You have to take your losses to gain it back later with the PS4.

…

!

/dies

Presumably the Rally Cross thing is US only as the Euro PSOne game is Destruction Derby – which holds some fond memories for me – ones which will likely be shattered should I play it. It had great handling for the open areas.

Yeah I doubt they’d have the cheek to try and foist the Rally Cross game on Euro subscribers. Americans don’t know what Rally is so they’ll probably quite like it.

Destruction Derby 1 is rather ace but not 40 quid ace. You can probably still pick it up for pence in your local fleapit preowned or from Ebay / Amazon

Yeah but you aren’t paying forty quid for just that. You are paying £40 for lots of stuff. Sure there may well be a lot of gash, but it is £3.77 a month. Cost of a pint. It’s not a big leap to see that would represent good value to a reasonable amount of people.

I’d be interested to see if they bad a couple of the bigger betas. It would sure as hell beat hitting f5 on a collapsing Eurogamer website for an evening to find out at some point you didn’t get in.

Didn’t we used to get betas for free?

And given that we’re effectively doing testing for companies for free that they would otherwise have to pay through the nose for… shouldn’t they remain free? They ought to be paying us to take part, tbh.

Yes, but you still had to get into them.

Well certain betas aren’t really betas. Some are marketing tools. They are free true – but crucially only to those lucky enough to get on them, that’s the point. The last couple of Halo Betas were sold quite successfully with Crackdown and Halo ODST too.

Blerk said: Didn’t we used to get betas for free?

(Purchase Crackdown to get a Halo3 beta key comes to mind)

You’re still doing their testing for them, regardless of how they spin it. It might be a scramble to get in, but at the end of the day you’re saving them money – they don’t do it out of the goodness of their hearts.

Charging for the privilege would be flat out robbery. And yet they’ll probably do it anyway, and people will happily pay.

/taps side of head

Public Betas aren’t real Betas. At best they’re load testing: the vast majority of people taking part will have neither the inclination or technical nous to flag bugs.

Im all for Ps Plus if makes it a better service in the long term, at the moment though im not really intrested.

Blerk said: It might be a scramble to get in, but at the end of the day you’re saving them money – they don’t do it out of the goodness of their hearts.

Charging for the privilege would be flat out robbery. And yet they’ll probably do it anyway, and people will happily pay.

(fastfood,clothing,and tv show ads comes to mind as I think hey why do we have to pay for XBOX LIVE again just to play online)

People don’t need to ‘report’ bugs, Aimless – the servers themselves can track issues. And it’s not only load testing, there are game-balance issues and a variety of information relating to how people actually play the game which may or may not affect the final product.

Betas are asking you to help the developers do their jobs just like demos are adverts to sell you a full product. They’re both all well and good and I like them as much as the next guy, but we should all draw the line at paying for them.

Ok guys I have an idea. Lets all buy PLUS to show M$ that people are willing to waste their money even though free online play is still available to everyone.

If M$ sees that SONY can be success and still keep online play free then LIVE will become free for everyone YAY! and I can own G1GA and his clan in MW2 all day long YAY!

Do it for the people who can’t afford $50 a year
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgtWIx2zLtk
lets change gaming history by forcing M$ to make LIVE online game play free for everyone!

YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN!

More likely that Microsoft would just add another tier and charge even more.

“Xbox Live Platinum, now with added tat that we know you can’t resist paying for, mwah ha ha!”

You’re probably right Blerk. I never understood why using Crapbook and Shitter cost $50 a year to use on LIVE. If they are such great value then why didn’t the price of LIVE go up to something like $55 or $60 a year?….oh that’s because LIVE is a scam that’s right.

£3.77 for a pint Dr D ? Beer’s got expensive round your way since I lived there…

Anyway, isn’t it 40 quid ? /12 = 3:33 which I’m more willing to believe