Talk me through it. I don't have a lot of cash to work with. What I want to know is after upgrading, was it worth it, would you recomend it, and how does the free stuff work?
I have been a loyal LIVE Gold member for what 7 or 8 years now? I have kids at home, so family Gold is the best value for that. But been giving some serious thought about jumping systems for online play.
Is PSN+ worth the cash? Or am I better off just freeloading on PSN?
You've said previously you like the market place games over the AAA titles lately & PSN+ will give you plenty of discounts, a fair few free games & trial periods of the rest.
Here's a list:
http://community.us.playstation.com/thread/2456867?start=0&tstart=0
I got Plants vs. Zombies a few weeks ago for free.
/thread
Personally I've found it great value, works out less than £3 a month with the current discount in the UK. Something new to try every month, last couple have had some great releases. One caveat on the value you will get. If you have already bought most of the good stuff you wanted on PSN / XBLA over the last couple of year then you will get months where you've already bout and played the main release. When I started I decided to stop buying all but the essential stuff and it's paying dividends for me now. Plants vs. Zombies last month, Costume Quest this month.
You also need to understand that once you stop subbing you can no longer play the free stuff. You keep the stuff you just got discounts for, and some of the other bits, but you lose the full titles. For me this isn't a big issue. I like to flit around games and if I really want to play I'll get the most outa particular title in a couple months anyway. That and the fact I'm happy to keep subbing for the foreseeable.
Other benefits. The cloud based saves are useful, not just as a backup but say you go round a friends place or use two PS3s, just sign in and download the save to continue from where you left off. Discounts are ok, though sometimes they just bring PSN prices down to XBLA prices in Europe at least. Dynamic themes are nice to switch about too. Oh and access to Betas is another good point.
You get this yellow "+" sign next to your name.
What? Still not convinced?
You'll get a fuck-load torrent of pointless fucking useless avatars, pointless fucking useless themes and pointless fucking useless Minis you'll never ever fucking use and never ever fucking play, then every now and then you'll get a good game or some DLC for free.
But to be fair, cloud saves, early-access betas, and discounts are cool. I'm just not sure you get enough to justify the price.
I'm probably not renewing.
Nope, I don't think you would benefit from it. Unless you are going to get a vita and or psp. The benefits kinda fade to strictly console users, I love the free ps one classics and even played a ton of the minis. OMG-Z is strangely awesome. It's like playing dominoes(the stack and fall kind) with zombies. The early betas are great and the psn games are too but like I said unless you have the portable devices as well a lot of the things you will download will just sit on you harddrive. Paying for a discount only just doesn't seem right.
You want to be sold on PSN+? That's a little extreme.
Although I guess it's a lot less trouble than getting on XBLA.
I actually forgot about the totally pimp looking yellow cross next to your name!! Well worth It :)
Some good thoughts here, thnx folks.
One of my biggest concerns this gen is that MS will do what they did last gen. And that just decide to pull the plug on its xb360 LIVE. And owning so many Arcade style games that could be disasterous. And if games can't online verify that I own DLC, then what? I can see me having a lot of digital content that I can't use, DLC and games.
Unlike many I am not one to just move onwards to newer games. I still play on my Neo Geo, SNES, and Turbo Duo. This gen I bought digital content on Steam, XBL, PSN, and Wii. I like the digital stuff, its fresh and costs less then big box stuff. But I am worried what happens to my ability to play it next gen?
I use MS as an example because that is exactly what happened. I had games that I bought on Arcade and had DLC that I couldn't use anymore.
I guess it is just a downside of digital ownership. You don't really have anything to own. Your buying the short term usage rights of content, not an actual disc. But before someone flames on about that most CDs/DVDs/game discs have a shelf life anyways, even if not used they will wear out. The surface coating fades. I have several games that won't run across PSone, Saturn, Dreamcast, etc.
Just can't win I guess.
It sounds to me that if I had the extra cash laying around, and was a mostly exclusive PS3 player then PSN+ would be worth the price. I don't play on my PSP too much(played the buttons off of it with both Phantasy Star Poratble one and two), and the minis mostly don't interest me.
What I need to decide most is if MS is going to get more of my money for gold at the turn of the new year. I am fine with Silver. I can Netflix on PS3, PC, and even Wii. I am canceling Cable TV, so ESPN3 is a none issue. the trouble is that I still have one teen ager at home, he plays xbox, and all of his friends own Gold, none of his friends own a PS3. thats been a thorn in my side for ages now. I don't know anyone outside of this website that games on a PS3, neither does my son. So droping Gold will feel to him as if I am shutting his games down, like he is being punished.
Its a tough call. But the world econmey has finaly caught up with my house. Things are so expensive month to month, my game budget is in the dumps. I will prolly not pay for any online service right now, if things improve I may jump on PSN+. I like free games, then again, if I keep my 50usd instead of picking up Plus, I can buy a few of those games myself and be able to keep em so long as PSN is offering acsess to 'em.
Now I am just rambling, but thnx for the feedback on PSN+.
OG, that's just as likely to happen with Sony as it would with Microsoft.
You don't need to "online verify" your 360 games though. I'm not sure where you got that idea from.
I would be very, very surprised if the next 360 console isn't completely backward compatible with all Live content anyway. And again, there's nothing saying the same problem wouldn't happen with Sony.
Don't be surprised if you end up finding PSN a much "lonier" place to game. My inability to party chat or mass invite on the PS3 are just two amongst many reasons that I don't play any multi format multiplayer games on the format.
In my experiences, you have to transfer liscences from one system to the next, even when using the orig account that was made to purchase the game on. I took the kids to my moms house once, took my system, and all we had were trials - my mom doesn't have internet. There was this once a year option you can use to transfer the liscences and that allows you to play the games offline w/o online verifying.
If MS still uses that system, and I don't honestly know as I have not replaced a xbox360 in a long time, then my concern is valid. What happens if/when a system dies and i need to replace it, what happens to the games I "bought"?
And your 100% correct, nothing says PSN would have same type of problem going forward. I am worried about investing in games that I wouln't be able to play down the road. This type of thing is no big deal for most games, most people will play the newest copy of football, CoD, BF, whatever and not be very concered about an older version. But for me, I'd still like to enjoy a game like HydroThunder, Pinball FX, Gaurdian Hereos, Dungeon Defenders, and more. Those type of games are often one offs and don't keep coming at you with countless sequels.
thats a major concern down the road. Prolly means Steam is my best choice for most games going forward.
In the short term my intrest was in what PSN+ offered, and if it was worth it or not? I don't think it is for me, not right now anyways. So long as free online play is avalible on PSN, i should be good.
Of course the license transfer system is still around. And it takes about five minutes to do. So you really shouldn't have any problems, unless you're going through Xboxes every 6 months.
"What happens if/when a system dies and i need to replace it, what happens to the games I "bought"?"
Uuuuh... you just transfer the licenses to the new system? I really don't see what the problem is here.
If you choose to carry on with Gold, maybe you should shop around a bit to save on the cost. Buying it yearly around November could be good because they usually have some offer to drag the CoD players in for another year, or let it run out and get an offer from the dashboard. Sometimes you can save nearly 40-50% on the cost.
Being a long time user you probably already know this :P.
"Uuuuh... you just transfer the licenses to the new system? I really don't see what the problem is here."
Just worried if a system breaks after they shutdown their 360 version of live I am screwed, because even if I buy a new system and slap the HDD into it, because of their liscening sync thing I wouldn't be able to use the stored games because it wouldn't(pressumably) be able to transfer new liscences if it isn't still an active service.
My hope is that going forward all services keep your account and allow you to download and redownload your purchased content for use on their new systems. I think this will be the one biggest issue in terms of BC next gen. Will my PSN games that I bought on PS3 work on my PS4? My gut tells me that Sony and MS will likly have something worked out, maybe with a small liscence transfer fee(think rockband song import). But I bet Nintendo hasn't even thought about planning anything like that. Maybe I am wrong.
And yep I have done that trick once or twice Crab, but now that we have family gold, i doubt I will be able to take advantage of anything lik ethat anymore.
Things I've been able to do using PSN+: early Uncharted 3 multiplayer beta.
Sure, there's been Assassin's Creed Revelations and Resistance 3 beta as well, but didn't really care for AC and only played a few hours of Resistance.
I may renew if something comes on I really, really can't wait to play.
Gotta add my tuppence worth here OG.
I have said on many occasions that I fail to see how 60 euro or dollars could make much difference over a year.
I mean its like 1 dollar a week ffs.
Not trying to be clever but cmon man is this going to break the bank?
I have been spending much more time with PS3 this year but the sub never crossed my mind.
I tried plus but it wasn't for me as I don't like the freebies on offer for the most part but live gives you fuck all anyway so plus is a bonus compared to it.
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