PlayStation Plus Announced, First 3 Months Free, Priced, Tons of Content
In the most expected reveal of Sony’s E3 conference, the company announced the arrival of a premium service for the PSN, appropriately titled PlayStation Plus.
Don’t panic, the new service will not hinder online play for PS3 owners who wish not to pay, and all existing features will remain free.
Members will be able to get at least four games a month at no extra charge. Each month there will be a selection of one PSN game, two minis and one PS one classic available on PlayStation Store for you to download. You also get premium avatars and dynamic themes each month, many of which are exclusive to members.
There will also be discounts available on PlayStation Store content, just for the members, and, you will be giving selected demos and beta trials before they go live to the public. Allegedly, the games, avatars and themes alone are worth at least £200 per year, but that will not be the only benefit of the service.
This premium feature gives you the chance to try PSN and Blu-ray disc titles before you buy them in a revolutionary new way. ‘Full Game Trial’ allows you to download the full game and play it as if you owned it for approximately one hour, depending on the game, before you decide if you want to buy it or not. This includes online modes, and all other features you’d expect in a game. Additionally, your progress and trophies from the trial will all be unlocked if you buy the game so no need to go back and start again.
Another feature exclusive to the Plus service is the ability to set your PS3 to automatically receive the latest game updates for all the games you play, PS3 system software updates and game demos for your PS3, all automatically. After setting the time, your PS3 will automatically wake up and download everything, ready for when you next want to game, thus stopping you from having to wait for patches each time you want to play a game.
The price is $49.99/ €49.99 / £39.99 a year. In addition, you have the option of purchasing three months for $18/ €14.99 / £11.99.
20 Responses to “PlayStation Plus Announced, First 3 Months Free, Priced, Tons of Content”
No cloud storage or token wagering
I think PS dropped the ball with the content being attached to your membership…
hello …
i think they have to drop the part about being limited access, that is you lose everything when you end your membership …
will they accept paypal or PSN cards to pay for these !?
will my country be recognised for once & i’ll be able to spend my money right out of my credit cards!?
PSN+ seem less of what i want, but hey didn’t see much, i’ll wait for a full list & more info.
cheers!
I hope they’re gonna have more than just that, cause I don’t want to pay 50 dollars a year for lags online…
Content is attached to subscription? That’s like losing every one of your magazines once your subscription ends. I’ll pass.
This is why digital-only is a horrible racket. I learned my lesson from the PSP go. Not the content on the store. That was minor compared to how Sony will take you money even if things don’t work (like a broken PSPgo under warranty). I’m through giving money for digits and licenses. Forget it!
By the way, I just want to say that I’m sticking to my guns on this, but I know you guys won’t. You will have it for 3 months and decide you can’t live without it and pay up. Especially when the beta for a game you are waiting for come around.
you get free games every month – that’s 12 games minimum not including everything else and you expect to keep them after cancelling your subscriptions ? seriously people , you aren’t getting a couple hundred dollars of games for $50 . it should be enough that you get to play all these games for a year plus you’ll get whatever they haven’t announced yet because I’m sure the full package will be more than these few items .
even if you cancel after a year you could probably get enough out of it in discounts on games to pay for it and they won’t take those away from you for cancelling .
sounds fair to me . and nobody is going to force you to pay .
@nukea6 – usually you read a magazine and recycle it so after a year subscription ends you have nothing , even if you kept them you’d still have useless old magazines you’ll never read again .
@japanese_politic
don’t blame your laggy connection on Sony.
Yeah, from *my* understanding, anything you actually pay for (discounted items) you KEEP. They’re yours, you bought them. The free things (monthly games, beta access, avatars, whatever) heck yes those are gone. Otherwise, what’s the point in even making you pay and not just give a massive discount to begin with?
Honestly I’m expecting more to be added as it goes, if not more that’s just unannounced(Sure a lot less likely, but still)
I’ll be paying for it, but did you guys add you get Qore to the list? I am too lazy to go check XD
Point is, I’ll be getting it, it may not be loads now but you never know if they’ll give incentives for being the first to adopt it or something EVEN THEN I’ll get a year subscription and see how that goes.
not bad but i’ll be staying with the free stuff for now and I hope if and when it’s announced that cross game chat NOT be apart of this subscription….
Great show but sony missed that one critical feature that should be here by now and after this long wait it had better be part of the free end of things when it arrives…
Hopefully, gamescom n tgs10 will have reveals for a ps2 store and cgc. sigh : (
I don’t see the point to cross game chat. There’s something called a cellphone with a bluetooth headset. As for PSN+, I think I’ll stay free for a while.
Not too bad I guess but I was expecting more.
I like it. Dunno if I’m gonna jump on it right away, but I like it.
@Diana
Well that is the good thing… you can jump into it for free the first three months… yeah, test drive
someone wrote ‘The service will include new features such as a streaming music application, which can play music while playing your favorite titles.’ from the n4g update. Is this still true?
Those prices are shocking – why is the US getting such a great deal while the EU and UK have to pay through the nose?
$50 = £34 = €41
Why do UK owners have to pay $9 more and the rest of Europe $12 more?!
That’s outrageous.
i think this is good, but will have to really try it to see how it runs.
I’ve been a big supporter of the PS3 over the XBox 360 since I got a PS3 right after launch. It’s a great system and I use it constantly for gaming and a/v streaming just to name a few things. Having said that, if Sony starts messing with the existing services on PSN the “encourage” people to sign up for PSN+, I’m out. Give me something worthwhile in PSN+ that I can see as a benefit to paying $50/month, that’s fine, if I feel like it is, I’ll pay for it, but I will seriously move back to the 360 if this goes bad.
Also, me buying a $10 game for $5 if I have a PSN+ account and then losing the game I paid for while I was a PSN+ member? That’s a horrible idea. If you gave something to me for free while I was a PSN+ member and then take it away if I cancel fine, but if I pay anything, even at a discount, that should be mine.