So it was announced that PlayStation Plus is coming to the Vita. This will include cloud saves, auto updating, and free games. What do you expect from the free games. What are we gonna see for the first month, and how many games are gonna be available.

For those who don't know, on the PS3 they have a rotating catalog of titles. If you "buy" the game while its free you can play it during the life of your subscription (if it expires, so does the games). So as old games are rotated out and new ones rotated in you still have access to previous games while also gaining access to the new ones. Right now its a mix of retail releases (games that came out in stores that also have PSN versions) and PSN exclusives.

If I had to guess, I think they will do 2 to 4 games at first. We will see ModNation Racers free. I have no doubt. Its a game that Sony kinda farted out and is a franchise they are effectively abandoning in favor of Little Big Planet Kart Racing. I also think they will make Super Stardust Delta free (although I can see them making the base game free and charging a discount on the expansion DLC).

If anything cool I will finally sign up for the service finally . Since I will be getting my Vita this week I'll be interested in how they support it.

Wake Up Club for free every month.

Disappointment and sadness?

The free games on the PS3 still don't have me convinced. I mean sure, Red Dead Redemption is available for free this month (or was, not sure how that works), but really, how many people are there in this world that want that game and at this point still haven't bough it?

I guess there are some pretty cool options every now and then, but I think that this month, if I had Playstation Plus, I wouldn't download a single free game. Maybe I would have made use of a discount or two that save me a cumulative total of 5€, but that's not so appealing as to justify an annual subscription. Especially since I can probably buy many of the games on sale at an even cheaper price on Steam. That said, I think the cloud save feature would be the deal-maker for me if I had more than one PS3 console.

However, right now, I do not.

So let's see what it brings for the Vita. Who knows, maybe it'll make me really want to get a Vita (to be fair I think I'm already seeing a quantity of games large enough for me to start thinking about wanting one).

@Snail: Just turned on my PS3 to get the free games this month and I really disagree with your assessment. "Purchased" Borderlands, Double Dragon Neon and Scott Pilgrim, the free games for this month. That's only this month and I've had so many other games that I've gotten from the service from the previous months that I haven't gotten to yet. I guess if you own most of the games they're offering it isn't worth it, but since I don't it's been really great for me.

Don't know what to expect out of Vita's PS+, though. Have they actually said they'll be giving free Vita games? If so, I really wonder what they'll be offering. Maybe Sound Shapes.

One really, really good game at the start along the lines of Mortal Kombat or Gravity Rush to entice people to get a vita and get that small boost in hardware sales.

From then on it'll be "regular" downloadable titles in the scope of Super Stardust HD or Mutant Blobs Attack. The updates would probably be limited to one per month because there's not a lot of Vita content to go through in the grand scope of things. Maybe they'll fall back on PS1 classics like they previously did with Playstation Plus as filler content.

I expect it will be more along the lines of PS+ when it first launched for the PS3. A free PSN game, PS1 classic and a mini every month until the they get enough content to get an IGC together.

I don't expect much until the vita actually gets more than 4 games.

@FluxWaveZ: You got Borderlands? That just goes to emphasize my argument: you realize the second one has just been released right? Most people who would like to play Borderlands have in all likelihood either already purchased the second game, or looking forward to doing so (I, myself, at this moment, fit in the latter of the two groups), while you are playing the first one. The other thing about the selection of games they make available is that it kind of gives the illusion that they are giving out full-priced games for free, when in actuality the free games are old to the point of costing at the most 40€ on retail, and, unless they are exclusive to the home consoles, available at a much lower price on Steam.

You're probably going to have fun with Borderlands, and it's a deal to get it for free, obviously. I still feel that if I had a PS+ subscription, whenever I were to check what new free games were made available each month, I would basically be hoping to find old PS3/home console exclusives that I wanted to play but ended up not buying. I even haven't noticed a whole lot of those as free PS+ downloads, so my statement stands.

Actually I have a question. Do the free games stay free permanently - as in, are they developing a catalogue - or are those games made free for only a month and you get to keep the download if you snatch them?

Also no way Sound Shapes is going to be offered for PS+ owners, on either of the two consoles. Even if they want to get new people into their subscription feature, and this move would probably work to an extent on that front, it would most likely make a lot of people that bought the game recently (including PS+ subscribers) feel pretty screwed over. From what I've seen games this new (especially with the amount of anticipation this one had) aren't just immediately offered up on PS+ like that. Yet all Vita games are relatively new, so I wonder if they are even going to offer free games on that console. Maybe those "mini" shenanigans?

@FluxWaveZ said:

Just turned on my PS3 to get the free games this month and I really disagree with your assessment. "Purchased" Borderlands, Double Dragon Neon and Scott Pilgrim, the free games for this month. That's only this month and I've had so many other games that I've gotten from the service from the previous months that I haven't gotten to yet. I guess if you own most of the games they're offering it isn't worth it, but since I don't it's been really great for me.

It's great for me to. I got a 3 month card back in the end of July and besides inFAMOUS 2 and Saints Row 2, I've downloaded every game and played most of them. Still haven't got to play some of them. For people like me that don't the have money to buy $65 games, it's a fantastic deal because I play a buttload of games for $18. If I didn't subscribe to PS+, the only games I would have played these past 3 months would have been Mass Effect 3, Uncharted 3, Ninja Shitgaiden 3, and Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions. Plus, I didn't even beat NG3. My PS+ ends this Tuesday and I'm resubbing because it's a fantastic deal for me.

Does one subscription fee give you ps+ for both the ps3 and the vita? Might actually give me a reason to buy a vita.

@Snail: Borderlands isn't really a deal here since I've already played it and disliked it, but the two others are games I'll definitely be playing later on.

Yeah, the games stay free permanently when you go in the store to get them while they're available. They remain accessible until your PS+ sub runs out.

The sub's already paid for itself. I've gotten: LittleBigPlanet 2, BloodRayne: Betrayal, Warhammer 40k, Saints Row 2, Pac-Man CE DX, Virtua Fighter 5, Renegade Ops, Just Cause 2, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Rock of Ages, Trine 2, and those are just the games I wanted to play but didn't own, so it isn't counting other games like inFamous 2, Borderlands, Outland, Awesomenauts... All of that from the $60 sub, so I'm pretty into PS+.

@Hunkulese said:

Does one subscription fee give you ps+ for both the ps3 and the vita? Might actually give me a reason to buy a vita.

Yeah, it does.

@awesomeusername: Being an avid Steam user and often a purchaser, "18$ deals" aren't that impressive. They are common in that subscription-free service. However, I understand that a desktop fit for playing video games with the framerate of a home console isn't exactly the cheapest thing in the world. Although with the money I've saved (i.e. spent) on Steam sales, it might actually break even. I would never have the same amount of games for my PS3 because it would be ridiculously expensive. If you build your PC cleverly, and make a economic but efficient build, it's most likely the financially smarter way to go.

I'm kind of digressing here. What are some of the games you've gotten from PS+? Like, what are the ones you're most surprised seeing there for free/with a great sale, and/or what are some of your favorites that you've gotten for free from PlayStation Plus?

@Snail: As long as you download the games, you're able to re-download them whenever you want because they go right into your download history. Unless you don't get on for a month, you won't miss the games they give out. Also, last month, August, they gave out the first 2 Walking Dead episodes for free. I never was really interested in Borderlands or The Walking Dead until I got them on PS+ for free and I found them to be great games. That's why I'm buying the rest of the Walking Dead episodes when they come out and Borderlands 2 (one day). Same thing happened to me with Warhammer 40K: Space Marine. I never even glanced at the game and when I played it, I loved it. Lot's of people on this site had the same feeling about it. Got it on PS+ for free and were surprised by how much they enjoyed it.

And about the cloud saves, I only have one PS3 but it's extremely useful because I'm able to keep my save files on it just in case my PS3 messes up on me. Happened in July, I had to restart my entire PS3 because something went wrong and having had bought PS+ like a week or 2 earlier saved my ass. I would've lost so much save files had I not subscribed.

@FluxWaveZ said:

@Snail: Borderlands isn't really a deal here since I've already played it and disliked it, but the two others are games I'll definitely be playing later on.

Yeah, the games stay free permanently when you go in the store to get them while they're available. They remain accessible until your PS+ sub runs out.

That's the thing. So if I don't snatch a deal this month because I was traveling or something, it's gone for good right? Moreover, if I forget to renew my hypothetical subscription, I lose access to all the games I downloaded for free, and can no longer get them for free because they were only available as free downloads for that one month? If both of these are corrects that seems harsh, to say the least.

@awesomeusername: I guess you do have a point, but that isn't enough to get me to subscribe to PS+. The Walking Dead will probably be crazy cheap on Steam this Christmas, and I'll probably save up more money than you did by getting those two episodes for free. It's pretty cool that you can test-drive some games though, that's a really appealing feature. If you add it all up, maybe it justifies the subscription. I'm pretty certain that having another PS3 would be the tipping point for me. Let's see how this Vita business goes.

It sounds like a neat change. I'm on-board with getting a Vita as soon as it takes SD cards or otherwise gets me to less than 80cents/gigabyte for storage.

@Snail said:

That's the thing. So if I don't snatch a deal this month because I was traveling or something, it's gone for good right? Moreover, if I forget to renew my hypothetical subscription, I lose access to all the games I downloaded for free, and can no longer get them for free because they were only available as free downloads for that one month? If both of these are corrects that seems harsh, to say the least.

If you miss a deal, it's gone. They're available for a full month and all you need to do is go into the PSN store and "purchase" them, adding them to your download list. You do not have to actually download them.

And I'm not sure you fully understand the process. When those games are free, they're free for a month, but once you acquire them while they are free they're yours forever as long as your sub lasts. If you forget to renew your subscription, access to those games will be disabled until you renew the subscription once more. If the sub lapses, they don't disappear, they're just made temporarily unavailable until you decide to become a PS+ member again.

@FluxWaveZ said:

@Snail said:

That's the thing. So if I don't snatch a deal this month because I was traveling or something, it's gone for good right? Moreover, if I forget to renew my hypothetical subscription, I lose access to all the games I downloaded for free, and can no longer get them for free because they were only available as free downloads for that one month? If both of these are corrects that seems harsh, to say the least.

If you miss a deal, it's gone. They're available for a full month and all you need to do is go into the PSN store and "purchase" them, adding them to your download list. You do not have to actually download them.

And I'm not sure you fully understand the process. When those games are free, they're free for a month, but once you acquire them while they are free they're yours forever as long as your sub lasts. If you forget to renew your subscription, access to those games will be disabled until you renew the subscription once more. If the sub lapses, they don't disappear, they're just made temporarily unavailable until you decide to become a PS+ member again.

Oh I see, I thought that might be the case as well. Yeah that sounds better. A bit tempting. I'll consider this.

Like I told the other user: having two PS3 systems would be the tipping point. I'm also curious about this Vita stuff. Free games on the Vita, if they really are straight-up Vita games, would be pretty cool, since we haven't seen a whole lot of significant price drops there that I know of.

@Snail: I know Steam gives out much better deals but for a console gamer like me, it's a great deal. I wish I had the money to build a PC but I don't. Sometime in the future I'll get one, but for now, I'm stuck with consoles. The only things I've got from being a subscriber is the free stuff really, because I'm jobless (but at least I'm in college). So I'm used to saving the $20 I'm sometimes given to buy games. So I just download free themes, free avatars, and the free games they give out. Besides The Walking Dead, nothing really ever made me think "Wow! That's free???", so I'm just like "Hey, that's free." But then I'm surprised with how great the game is. Warhammer, Walking Dead, Borderlands, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, LittleBigPlanet 2, Scott Pilgrim, Lara Croft & The Guardian of Light, Outland, Renegade Ops, Just Cause 2, Gotham City Imposters and Pac-Man: Championship Edition DX are all games that I thought would be okay but turned out fantastic and I still have 2 more games that I haven't played. Only about 4 of the games that I played since July have sucked.

They also have a ton of games that you can play for an hour like Counter Strike and Crysis 2. It's a bunch of retail and downloadable games that you get to play an hour of, so basically giving it a test run. I did it with Counter Strike and I enjoyed it (now I just need the money to buy it). What's good to is that all demos now save the game you're playing so if you did this and decided to buy the game, you'll pick up where you left off in the trial and if you get trophies while playing the trial, it'll lock the trophies up until you buy the game. The latter isn't all that great but I'm a trophy fan myself so it's good if I played the trial and got some hard trophies because when I get the actual game, I won't have to re-do those trophies.

@awesomeusername: I see how that makes sense. If you don't have a budget to buy a ton of games when they're new, then PS+ seems to be a heck of a great deal. Good on you.

@Snail said:

@awesomeusername: I see how that makes sense. If you don't have a budget to buy a ton of games when they're new, then PS+ seems to be a heck of a great deal. Good on you.

Especially for me, it is. I've played 52 retail games this gen and 29 of those games were borrowed. Out of 23 games that I own, I've only paid full price for 4 games. The rest of my games were either given to me by friends or family or I purchased them for 20-30 bucks.

My money is on older, compatible PSP games hitting the service before anything else, aside from, perhaps, a game or two that might have sold especially well and has since fallen off completely. If they do start adding Vita games to the Vita-side of things, you'd think a year would elapse before they start that. With the holidays coming up, getting people in on Plus vs. getting more gamers to buy retail or digital copies to outright own seems like a difficult paradigm to parse out.

At this point if you haven't got Playstation Plus for your PS3 then you are an idiot. Its a great service and I will be picking it up for my Vita as well.

Since they're promising the Instant Game Collection concept, same as PS3, I would expect a similar set set up - a bunch of launch retail titles on 6 to 12 month rotation (Unit 13, WipEout, Lumines, etc.), while there will be PSP, downloadable Vita and the occasional retail title on 3 to 1 month rotation. Maybe some exceptional Minis or PSOne titles. Some of them will be day one releases, same as Awesomenauts or Hell Yeah on PS3, since for smaller titles the added exposure is more tempting than risking a complete bomb. Also discounts, 10%-20% first week discounts on many new titles, and 50% discounts on DLC for the free titles.

(This is from an EU perspective though, I guess US Plus hasn't been quite as aggressive).

It's never going to be worth it without a PS3, but the way SCEA has been neglecting to update the PSOne Classics makes me especially suspicious. Maybe they're holding them back to make a big fuss about getting a bunch of them with the subscription.

@ervonymous: Are talking about more PSOne titles for the Vita? There's 40+ titles coming tomorrow according to the PlayStation Blogcast.

@BlackLagoon: I.. Wow, well, I take that back. I hope they have FFIX and some Crash in store.

Revision: I posted this without looking to see this thread had a second page. I'll leave it, but I don't mean to be so accusatory.

@FluxWaveZ: I was under the impression that you just lost all the free games when the subscription expired. I was in a panic getting $50 together to renew my PS+ sub back in August. Anyone test this out?

@Snail: You keep referring to the cloud saves being a value if you have multiple PS3s. I want to address this in two parts. One is the value is in backing up your saves. I am currently on my forth PS3. They keep going out on me. So not losing my saves the next time is a value to me. The other part is multiple systems don't work well if you are constantly switching between systems. While you can upload a save as many times as you want, pulling them off the cloud server is limited (I'm not sure if its a Sony thing or a publisher thing. For example, some EA games use to not let you even copy saves off a system onto external media, and I've only tried this with my Battlefield save).

But if its not worth it to you, its not worth it. I use to buy a couple new games a month. Now I might buy a total of 4 games a year, and by using one of those purchases on PS+ I get access to a number of other games that I couldn't afford or had decided wasn't worth the money.

However this thread wasn't about the value of PS+, but what to expect. They did say the Instant Game Collection was coming over to the Vita, and I agree that the catalog is so limited that at first we will see two games. As we get closer I feel even more comfortable to say that the two games we will see will be ModNation Racers and Stardust. Then they will probably replace one game a month.

I'm excited. I only have two games I've actually bought on the system. The rest have been the free games.

@Shakezula84 said:

@FluxWaveZ: I was under the impression that you just lost all the free games when the subscription expired. I was in a panic getting $50 together to renew my PS+ sub back in August. Anyone test this out?

There's nothing to test out since this has been officially stated by Sony for a while now, probably since they started giving out games via PS+.

That said, because of this knowledge, I wasn't as worried as you when my PS+ sub was about to expire a couple of months ago and, when it did, I just bought one year of PS+ and access to all of the games I had obtained for free over the previous 3 months was restored. Only thing that was reset was some PS+ settings like the automatic updates while it's turned off, so I just needed to go back to the settings and switch that back on.

@FluxWaveZ: I made multiple attempts back during the summer for a statement like that and never found anything. At least I know for next year. Although it doesn't matter too much since unless I'm fired from my job, I now make $5000 more a year with my new job, and my wife just got a really good job and both of us now make a combined $50k a year. Still, we have a son, and he is not cheap.

@Shakezula84 said:

I was under the impression that you just lost all the free games when the subscription expired. I was in a panic getting $50 together to renew my PS+ sub back in August. Anyone test this out?

There were some cases of this happening during Plus' first year, however these were just bugs in the system and have since been fixed. It was always Sony's intention that people regain access to everything they had when they resubscribe, so there's no need to worry.

@Shakezula84 said:

@Snail: ...if its not worth it to you, its not worth it.

You sure wrote a lot to make this point.

That's basically it, yes. I don't see a lot of value in getting a subscription service that makes a ton of awesome available years after release if I've already bought 90% of those titles sometime near their release date, and therefore might very well not be getting my money's worth from the subscription. This month's American listing pretty much sold me though, because it includes some downloadable games I've wishlisted. Downloadable games are more easily thrown into a longtime wishlist than AAA titles, one of the many reasons probably being the fact that the former doesn't really "get old" as much (or as fast) as the latter does - and also probably because of the hype AAA titles get. Even though I live in Europe I'm seriously considering getting a sub with my American alt-account and take advantage of this month's "Instant Game Collection" and the October promotion that gives you 20$ back from a 100$ purchase.