Jim Sterling says PS+ humiliates the game industry

[Darren Carrigan]

As someone who owned both a PS3 and an Xbox I used both for internet play until around 2009.
Then I moved and didn't have enough room in my smaller room for both consoles and had to pick one to sell.
Picked the PS3 due to the fact I felt Xbox Live was better, if pressed today I am 89% sure I'd make the same choice.

Captcha:
Love you

- I love you too Captcha

 

[el_kabong]

I am a proud subscriber to Playstation Plus. The price for what I get is awesome. Free games are always good and, after having my GEN1 PS3 brick, I love that all my saves were stored offline.

Jim hit the nail on the head with the article. This comes from not only a satisfied PS+ customer, but from someone who deals extensively with customer/account services within a corporation that's always at the top of customer satisfactions (I'll leave you to speculate to avoid any conflict of interest).

 

[Eddie the head]

Ugh 4 $ a month isn't much , people spend more than that in coffee in a day . Plus i find XbL has a better internet connection than PS3, so if i'm paying 4$ a month to have a better connection with online games , i'll gladly pay.

Since when has that been the case? I have owned both in the past, and they each had equal internet connections.

I have both currently, and the Xbox is simply the better console for online play.

How? I have played online with both my consoles and I haven't had any noticeable difference.

I never used PS+ but it sounds great so good job Sony.

I am going to hazard a guess and say it's just confirmation bias. I have used both and don't find much of a difference. Although I might be biased in some way.

Anyway yeah, PlayStation plus is a good a deal.

 

[SonOfMethuselah]

Well, I game mainly on PS3. That's what my friends own, online being free is great, and we don't have any real connection issues, save for when our actual internet goes down. Connectivity isn't a problem. Got PS+ back in September, and, based on all the offers I've taken advantage of, I've probably hit nearly a grand in free content/discounts by now, so it's well worth the money, in my opinion. It's a surprisingly excellent service. Hopefully they get it going equally well on the Vita before long. Right now, it's just a bit too scant.

About a week ago, I bought a 360 to catch up on old titles that I'd always had an interest in. Now, I use Netflix on my PC and PS3 really often. I hooked my Xbox up to another TV in my house, booted it up, created a Live account for myself, and... I can't use Netflix, because I'm not a Gold member. Seriously, Microsoft? I'm already paying Netflix for the use of their service, I'm not going to pay you, too. It's just silliness. Personally, I don't see what's being offered by the service that justifies paying for it, (I don't care if a yearly subscription only amounts to $4 a month, what you're getting matters just as much as how little you're paying. If you're not getting anything, it's not worth the money, full stop), but since I don't use it, maybe I'm just biased.

I think Jim was totally right. PS+ is a great service, and Microsoft should be taking a long, hard look at it moving into the next console cycle. If they want to keep charging that fee, great, but give your users something to show for it. I also think he had a point in saying that it's kind of a sad reflection on the industry that the success of PS+ is newsworthy. Being rewarded for being a loyal consumer should be the rule, not the exception.

 

[Orange12345]

Yea PS+ is pretty sweet, I've had it for less then 2 months and I've already seen a whole bunch of games that were worth it like

bioshock 2
megaman 9
megaman 10
ratchet and clank all for one
Darksiders
Infamous 2 (I think it was on there)
Little big planet 2
Street fighter 4
final fantasy tactics
a whole bunch of ps vita games (so many that you probabbly wouldn't need to buy any with the system to start)

 

[Stainlesssteele4]

I just don't like the idea that PS+ removes the idea of ownership, in place of a psuedo-rental system. To me it feels like putting too much power in the hands of the software distributor.
I guess Digital Distribution isn't much different, but to have physical expiration dates attached to games, with the threat of their cancellation just perturbs me.
I guess if I could get passed that notion, the idea is fairly cool.

Although... Steam doesn't charge me a monthly fee to get discounts on games.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I'm seeing a trend here. Online passes, unfinished games being released prematurely, microtransactions in addition to an initial price, online service getting worse but more expensive?

THEY'RE TRYING TO SELL LESS FOR MORE?!

Did anyone NOT expect this to happen?

Captcha: hold your tongue. I shall, Captcha, but my hand remains rebellious!

 

[Epona]

I just don't like the idea that PS+ removes the idea of ownership, in place of a psuedo-rental system. To me it feels like putting too much power in the hands of the software distributor.
I guess Digital Distribution isn't much different, but to have physical expiration dates attached to games, with the threat of their cancellation just perturbs me.
I guess if I could get passed that notion, the idea is fairly cool.

Although... Steam doesn't charge me a monthly fee to get discounts on games.

The FREE game are the only ones that expire if you drop PS+. Any games you buy with a PS+ discount are yours permanently. Steam may not charge to get discounts but Steam also doesn't give away as many games as PS+.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

Ugh 4 $ a month isn't much , people spend more than that in coffee in a day . Plus i find XbL has a better internet connection than PS3, so if i'm paying 4$ a month to have a better connection with online games , i'll gladly pay.

Since when has that been the case? I have owned both in the past, and they each had equal internet connections.

I have both currently, and the Xbox is simply the better console for online play.

How? I have played online with both my consoles and I haven't had any noticeable difference.

I never used PS+ but it sounds great so good job Sony.

The unified online and party chat system is what makes it better. Although PS+ is the better deal overall.

 

[Stainlesssteele4]

I just don't like the idea that PS+ removes the idea of ownership, in place of a psuedo-rental system. To me it feels like putting too much power in the hands of the software distributor.
I guess Digital Distribution isn't much different, but to have physical expiration dates attached to games, with the threat of their cancellation just perturbs me.
I guess if I could get passed that notion, the idea is fairly cool.

Although... Steam doesn't charge me a monthly fee to get discounts on games.

The FREE game are the only ones that expire if you drop PS+. Any games you buy with a PS+ discount are yours permanently. Steam may not charge to get discounts but Steam also doesn't give away as many games as PS+.

I'm fully aware. The core reason most pick up PS+ is for the free games. The discounts certainly couldn't justify the monthly cost alone.
The Steam bit is a separate thought.

 

[Odbarc]

Ugh 4 $ a month isn't much , people spend more than that in coffee in a day . Plus i find XbL has a better internet connection than PS3, so if i'm paying 4$ a month to have a better connection with online games , i'll gladly pay.

"better" how? I've never had problems with it. No lag. The only problem comes from old or less popular games having no one online to play with. Which is no way is the problem of the connectivity or the service

 

[Glasgow]

Just you wait for the steam-pocalype, where Valve starts demanding a subscription fee to use all of the games you "bought" on their service completely legally. It will be the end of PC gaming as we know it.

The Steam-pocalypse, soon at a computer near you.

 

[Zetona]

The Xbox 360 owner has systematically worked to hold its content to ransom in an increasingly futile bid to make Xbox Live Gold look worth its fee.

I'm not always the biggest fan of Jim Sterling, but this couldn't have been better put. It is so damn true that Microsoft has essentially rolled back a lot of what used to incentivize paying for the damn service to begin with, and fervent Xbox fans do a tap-dance to justify an increasingly ridiculous business practice. I can't play original Xbox games on XBL anymore, the exclusivity of a bulk of the content Xbox Live once offered is becoming increasingly sparse, the interface has gotten progressively worse over the past couple of years, and Microsoft has the gaul to ask for more money for an increasingly worse service. No thanks, Microsoft.

It's absolutely true. I still pay for Xbox Live, but I really shouldn't. I'll almost certainly stop after this year. Whether I play for PS+ remains to be seen, and will likely depend on how the PS4 and X720 pan out. Xbox Live Gold offers what.. $10 a year from XBL Rewards (if that), a select few discounts at the end of the year of which only a few might be worthwhile (I saved $25 combined between Joe Danger 2 and The Walking Dead this year, and I don't know how much of that was Gold exclusive), and it costs $60 a year. I should have cancelled my subscription a year or two ago. I feel increasingly dumb for not doing so.

 

[Solo-Wing]

If Microsoft wants to survive next generation they will absolutely have to do away with the Xbox Live gold, or at least remove the fact that a person cannot play games online and use the free online apps without it. If it des limit online access well that will be the last time I ever touch a Microsoft console again.

 

[Signa]

I liked the article, but PS+ still sounds like a scam compared to what I'm used to getting with Steam. But Jim is right, compared to Microsoft and Nintendo's "Look, we have internet on our console too" offerings, a service that doesn't treat its customers with contempt is the default winner.

 

[Eddie the head]

I liked the article, but PS+ still sounds like a scam compared to what I'm used to getting with Steam.

50 bucks a year on Steam gives you a bunch of free games(ok rented.)? Where is this option? I use steam as well but PS+ is a service, not a program that I can buy stuff with. Don't try and compare them because as a service PS+ is much better. You could argue that Steam is a better program compared to PSN, but as a service no PS+ is so much better.

Edit. Forgot about the Seam Workshop, but still that is not enough to call it a better service.

 

[Something Amyss]

Ugh 4 $ a month isn't much , people spend more than that in coffee in a day . Plus i find XbL has a better internet connection than PS3, so if i'm paying 4$ a month to have a better connection with online games , i'll gladly pay.

4 bucks a month isn't much, but there's the question of value. And if you get value out of paying for live, godspeed. I have gold because my friends are almost all on XBL. Still, paying 50 dollars a year for "free" games, beat access, etc vs 60 to play online....

I think I prefer the former, really. I got a free year of PS+, and it's the only reason I tried it, but hot damn. Now, the PS3 is far from perfect: it's got interface problems, and I really dislike its inability to do a simply background download/install automatically, etc. But still. PS+ is a carrot. XBLGold is a stick.

 

[Treaos Serrare]

PS+ is FAR superior to XBLG, free games and weighty discounts, cloud storage that looks to be increasing in size if i remember correctly. PlayStation is superior to Xbox period in my opinion, all the content and apps that are free on the PS3 (PS+ or not) you have to pay gold membership for on the 360. the only thing the 360 has on the PS3 is that XBox360 has a slightly better UI that allows for cross chat, that's it