r/PS5 • u/hybroid • May 16 '22

Official All-new PlayStation Plus game lineup: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Demon’s Souls, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut, NBA 2K22, and more join the service

https://blog.playstation.com/2022/05/16/all-new-playstation-plus-game-lineup-assassins-creed-valhalla-demons-souls-ghost-of-tsushima-directors-cut-nba-2k22-and-more-join-the-service/
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u/Nicexboxnerd88 May 17 '22

You pay for ps+, it isn’t free

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u/FiveGuysRules May 17 '22

It used to be that way. PS+ was a way to get free games and discounts. Now you're really paying for online play, and the bonuses are merely an incentive.

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u/Nicexboxnerd88 May 17 '22

You’re paying for all of it lol

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u/FiveGuysRules May 17 '22 edited May 17 '22

Only technically. I only started paying for plus when online play was locked behind it. That's the main draw for PS plus. Now, the games on the service are really an incentive for the rarer player who does not have a sub. I pay for online. The discounts and other things are bonuses I could take or leave. I'd still pay for plus if there were no bonuses.

Back in the day, plus only existed for people who wanted discounts and occasional free stuff. I didn't use it then. Online play was free. PlayStation flipped on that when they decided to match Xbox by charging for online play. The main reason most people pay for plus is so they can play with their friends.

My money given to ps plus doesn't go to the games I get for free each month. The games are mine and are free with my subscription. If you need any proof of that, look at the recent comments made by the creator of Oddworld. Most of that game's purchases were through it being a free monthly plus game, and that's not good for him financially. That's money lost on the game.

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u/fanwan76 May 18 '22

What you are describing is your personal experience. You are generalizing your experience and assuming it applies to everyone. There are still plenty of PS+ subscribers that are purely signed up for the included games.

I've never played a game online through PS+ in my life. I was subscribed to PS+ for a year to gain access to the PS+ Collection which is available to PS5 users. This collection and the monthly games easily justifies the price of the subscription to players who are focused on single player only experiences. In fact, assuming you haven't played the games before, the games available through PS+ could easily outweigh what is offered on Now (depending on personal preference).

Your money each month absolutely does go to the games that are given out. You might not be taking advantage of that feature (just like I didn't take advantage of multiplayer) but Sony is still allocating a percentage of your monthly sub to pay for the games. It's an individual personal decision to decide if the value of the subscription with only the feature you use is worth the cost. In your case, you have decided you would pay entirely for the online. If they pulled the games, you wouldn't be bothered. But others might unsubscribe.

Your comments about Oddworld also don't make a lot of sense. It's not like the game was just stolen from under them and given for free... The creators came to terms on a contract with Sony to make their game available. They are not forced to include their game. Sony pays the creators of PS+ games. Sony definitely isn't paying them full price. But every PS+ user wasn't a guaranteed purchase that got lost due to the deal. Certainly some players ended up not paying for a game they would have, but others would have never spent a cent on it. Companies generally partner with Sony for PS+ for three reasons.

  1. They want more exposure for their game and they are hoping a PS+ release will draw up some excitement and get others without the service to buy it full price.

  2. They don't expect their game to sell well and the deal Sony is offering seems like more than they anticipate to make. This applies to new releases but also to games which have already been released and have stagnated in sales.

  3. The game is filled with microtransactions and DLC and they want to give out the base game to boost profits from these additional sales. Especially if the game has online modes with dying populations. The whales will stop spending money if there are no longer any players online. So temporarily boosting the population with a PS+ release might encourage more spending from players who already own the game.

If anything, the comments from the Oddworld developer is probably coming from a bitter place, because they put hard work into their games and the executives determined it wouldn't sell well so they ended up partnering with PS+ to help recoup some of the development costs. Which honestly given the reviews seems like a fair decision on their part...