Next Wave of PS Plus, Games With Gold Titles Revealed

What I wouldn't give to play Pinata on my One.

Looking forward to some Volgarr, though. Completely missed that when it was new!

Welp, time to just go ahead and buy Transistor now that it's on sale for the price it should have been to begin with.

Man, PS4 lineup has been super weak the last two months. I just bought a PS4 this week and was hoping for PS+ to fill the void with a big game or two until I pick up Bloodborne (Knack, Infamous, Killzone, fucking free version of Driveclub finally... something). Aside from Pix the Cat (which is an okay game, but only for about an hour), it's all been indie games I already own on Steam (aside from BOI, but I already have vanilla on Steam and don't have any interest in a remake).

Super disappointing.

I think this is the month that finally made me decide to cancel PS+. It seems to be moving further and further towards vita and PS4 and as someone without either of those it's not worth it for me anymore.

Thanks Patrick!

It's settled. I'm determined to beat Binding of Isaac now.

Viva Fucking Pinata. RFG ain't bad either, although probably feels pretty dated at this point.

Actually, PS4 and XBox One get solid stuff also. Thanks for competing for my love, corporations.

This is a great heads up. I know this info is out there but it's great to see it on Giantbomb. Pretty soon there will be no reason to leave Giantbomb.

:/

Fuck me! Binding of Isaac Rebirth is almost here! Oh man I am so hyped right now!!!!

@thiago123: oh ! what ever you do, don't miss the last part of volgarr's BB.

GWG games are both games I've always been interested in playing, but never enough to cough up actual money for them. Works for me!

I do really like this lineup, but talking to some friends it's definitely interesting that they're all more "indie" titles. I certainly have no problem with this list - I bought BoI:R the day it came on Steam, and I'll primarily play it there, but I'll definitely give the PS4 version a shot (same as I did with Spelunky).

It would be nice if they could try to get at least one more story-focused title, and/or perhaps a full "big budget" release, just to mix things up for people who prefer that stuff. I realise that's difficult on PS4 as things haven't been out too long, but Playstation 3 has a gigantic back catalogue of titles they could pull from. Doesn't have to be recent, but I think throwing an older "big name" in there would be neat.

Also I remain baffled that a few of my friends don't really take to the smaller, more gameplay-loop-focused titles and always need that grand scale or focused story to keep them interested in a game. But to each their own, and I would love to see them catered to as well rather than feeling left out..

I just recently finished Red Faction Armageddon, and yes, the story was kinda generic, but I had a BLAST!!! the crazy guns + all the effects work + all the destruction and zero dropped frames was something I couldn't fathom how they pulled off in last gen!! We STILL dont have that kind of destruction in any game

@conmulligan: not to mention Knack is not really anywhere near a good game

Steamworld Dig is neat while it lasts. I never got into Binding of Isaac, but am willing to try out the new one.

Well I should stop buying indie games on steam since they all are coming for free a few months later on consoles......

I was just about to pre-order The Binding of Isaac Rebirth on Steam too...

Portable Isaac, hell yeah!

Volgarr is awesome on PC, but now my fiancee hogs the PC so it'll be cool to be able to play it again.

Binding of Isaac is also awesome on PC, but I played the hell out of it. Looking forward to this remake/remix.

Incredible month!

A casual gaming friend of mine just got a PS4 and asked what his first game should be, so I told him that he should just get PS+ for all the games. His immediate reaction was "yeah but aren't those just indie games? I don't want to play those."

You'd think he'd be the perfect candidate for these games since he probably wouldn't check them out otherwise, but if you can't get him in the door with a couple heavy-hitters, he's not going to sign up in the first place. PS+ being an "indie paradise" is not necessarily a good thing. It needs to strike a balance, which it used to.

Plus, for me, a loyal customer who has been having more fun with the indie games than big budget AAA titles this year, PS+ is quickly becoming way less valuable. It's devalued indie games to me because I know if I just hold off for a few months, they'll probably just appear on PS+ for free. I feel burned as someone who buys most of them on day one.

As much as Sony's marketing has tried to fool us into thinking these games are "free," they're not. It's like calling Netflix movies free. I pay for a library. Sony needs to reevaluate its strategy because right now it's not satisfying hardcore or casual players.

Hm... I finished Guerilla back in the day, might download it for the hell of it though since I don't have the physical copy with me anymore. Also, I've always wanted to try a Viva Piñata game.

What better way to welcome the flood of new Xbox One owners that the $50 price cut will bring?

Volgarr the Viking immediately comes to mind.

@patrickklepek you should mention that the PS3 games are cross-buy so you also get them on the vita

I can't believe Rebirth is less than a week away, easily my most anticipated game of the year.

Viva Pinata's barely-mentioned sequel is a fantastic choice for a free game. It's pretty hard to find too. Awesome.

@getz: same. I've logged ~200 hours into Isaac and LOVED it so I was gonna buy the PS4 version anyway. Now that it's ps plus I'm like SWEEEEEEEET.

Spelunky? Pix the Cat? Now this? Ps Plus has been real good to me lately.

another shitty month but i guess ps+ sucks a little less.

Full agreement. I love indie games, replaying Dust was still a great experience, but they really need to start thinking about some older retail titles at this point. The console has been out a year next month, and there have been retail titles on PS3 that went to PS Plus in much less time than a year.

You know I have always wanted to try Viva Pinata but never felt the urge to buy a copy. Now I don't have to! Good shit. Guess I'll give Red Faction a go too.

Also that Viking game looks pretty cool. I'll try it out when I get an Xbox One in a few days.

Good month for GWG, and PS3 is pretty alright too, especially for Vita owners.

The Binding of Isaac is probably one of my most played games of the past four years (the others likely being Skyrim and Black Ops 2) but my laptop started getting way to hot while playing games so I stopped playing Isaac. Super excited to get back to it on PS4 and the lovely price of free doesn't hurt.

Never played a Viva Pinata game, so I'm looking forward to this.

It's amusing to watch how butthurt people are they aren't getting full retail releases every month on a machine like the PS4 with zero back catalogue.

As a newcomer to PS Plus I agree with the sentiment of striking a balance. Just like your friend, I'm not a fan of small indie games. I'll play the occasional smaller title here and there like the excellent Mark of the Ninja but largely I prefer full retail releases. So for me the past few months PS Plus has been very lackluster. I only own a PS4 and it seems like the selection so far has been a Steam stale back catalog. Not quite sure what they COULD offer. Maybe Ground Zeros? All I know is that if you're not a fan of these smaller indie games it has been a couple of very dry months - add to this the fact that generally PSN has been slow and unresponsive for me to the point of utter frustration and I don't really see what I'm paying for. XBLive didn't have stellar games but at least the online experience was solid.

Yay for Volgarr, and I might get back into some Viva Pinata action. SteamWorld Dig seems worth a try as well.

I'd suggest any of the following for December:

Killzone: Shadow Fall - Alternatively, they could give us only multiplayer or only single player, and give a deep discount on a digital version of the other half.

Battlefield 4 - Finally fixed (it is fixed, right?), has an expensive season pass, and a sequel will be out early next year.

Injustice: Gods Among Us - Ultimate Edition - Last gen port, new MK coming soon from the same developer.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - Has DLC, and is getting a sequel soon.

inFAMOUS: Second Son - Alternatively, they could give us only the standalone Fetch DLC, and drop the price of the full game.

Any of those make sense, IMO. And for those who think there is no precedent for something like this:

Tomb Raider - PS3 version released March 5 2013, on PS Plus March 4 2014

Metro Last Light - PS3 version released May 14 2013, on PS Plus February 4 2014

Yeah, but the PS3 was already out for about 7 years by that stage and had a massive library. The PS4 by contrast is just out for a year and has a tiny library.

All the more reason to build that library with significant titles.

@humanity: What if Ubisoft and EA (the people with the actual power to decide if their games are promoted) don't want to do that?

If I'm Ubisoft and I have 4 games on a 1 year old system and another 2 games coming out, why would I put one up for promotion? Sure I could put up Asscreed 4 and hope it generates more sales hype for Unity. Or, since there's nothing to buy on these systems anyway, I don't do that and people will buy Unity anyway because they need something to play on their console and then maybe they go back and buy 4. And then in a years time put 4 up on PS+ when it's AC 6 or 7 or whatever number they're on now is coming out.

It's up to Sony to pressure publishers for these sort of deals in order to make their service appear more appealing to potential PS Plus subscribers. No one want to give anything away for free but you gotta spend money to make money.

@humanity: Sony can only offer them so much. If EA and Ubisoft etc don't want to put their games out on PS+ then they wont. If they think it makes more business sense to just sell their games at $40/50/60+ instead of whatever it is Sony offer them then they're going to do what's best for business.

How are they going to pressure them? What pressure can Sony possibly put on these publishers? "You can't release your new game on our console if you don't put your old games up for PS+"? Sony need the publishers to make games for their console.

Also, here's a comparison for everyone whose comparing late life PS3 offerings with early life PS4 offerings.

First year of PS+ for PS3

1 Wipeout HD
2 Zen Pinball
3 Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse (episodes 1–5)
4 Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
5 Critter Crunch
6 Cuboid
7 Sackboy's Prehistoric Moves
8 Shatte
9 Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West
10 Astro Tripper
11 Sonic the Hedgehog
12 Prince of Persia Classic
13 Red Faction: Battlegrounds
14 Sonic the Hedgehog 2
15 Pain
16 Burnout Paradise 2
17 Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers
18 Streets of Rage 2

That's the EU list. the NA list is pretty much identical. The first "AAA" game was Tomb Raider Underworld which didn't come until December 2011.

@jesus_phish: Hey I ain't no businessman, I don't know how they make these things happen, I only know it's in their interest to in fact make them happen.

@humanity: It's not though. I'm not saying it will happen but now that you have to pay to play online the service doesn't have to be made up of getting big publishers to put their games onto it. I think PS+ is a valuable service and I like it, I like the games they put on there and I believe in time, when it's right for the publishers they'll make deals to put their AAA games onto the service.

But saying it's in Sony's interest to "make it happen" isn't true. Sony now charge people to play MP games on their newest platform. Same as Microsoft. Microsoft charged $50 a year for years for Xbox Live and people paid it just to play their games online. Now MS are actually doing a similar program giving you a "free" game per platform every month, but if you want to play CoD AW online on either platform you're going to pay up for PS+ or Xbox Live regardless of what games you may/may not be offered.

As always, this continues to be a waste of money. Nothing on either list that I:

1. Want to play.
2. Do not own yet.

Resogun is the only game I ever got from PS Plus and that's only because it was the first game I wanted to play that was available on day one. I continue to be amazed why people think this stuff is an amazing value. Are you just playing games you have no interest of playing just because they are free? I guess that's cool, but that really isn't my thing. So if I want to play it, I'll likely own it already as these offers are usually months old (if not years old) games. Coupled with the fact that you essentially rent them, not get to own them as part of the subscription.

I currently subscribe to PS Plus purely because it is mandatory. If they had a B-service for online access that was free, I'd use that instead. PS Plus' connectivity stability is awful and their services aren't any better. I have to wait 25 minutes before I can read the message someone send me. I honestly don't see why I'm suppose to pay for it. At least Xbox Live makes everything work smooth and instantaneous.

@zevvion: Since the service has become mandatory my opinion of it has gone down too. I thought that message problem was a fluke at first but it seems to happen every time.

Oh great, more tired indie games I played last year and a continued delay on Driveclub.

Couldn't they at least give us something with actual 3D graphics? The PS4 is becoming the second-tier indie platform I never wanted.

@svirfneblin: Super meatboy sold millions of copies so I think that Team Meat is actually doing quite well for themselves, I wouldn't worry too much :p