After more than three years of availability, the sheer monetary value of PlayStation Plus is a redundant boast. How much the service is valued by individuals varies greatly, with some crying foul at ownership rights and inconsistent month-to-month quality, but with 30 days of PS Plus included in every PlayStation 4 purchase, at least 4.2 million people have discovered, in the last two months alone, how PS Plus is changing the ecosystem of console gaming. And despite the aforementioned inconsistencies in quality–largely thanks to individual preference and play histories–2013 was probably the service’s best year yet. Blockbuster titles like Spec Ops: The Line, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and Borderlands 2 joined stellar, smaller games like Hotline Miami, Machinarium, Sine Mora, and Dokuro. That’s just the Instant Game Collection, which one Redditor values at nearly $800 given Black Friday sale prices.
On paper, 2014 is off to a great start–BioShock Infinite, DmC, Don’t Starve, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Smart As, and Worms: Battle Islands are all vying for your attention in the month of January. But longtime PS Plus subscribers can attest that a wealth of excellent titles, all dropped in a single month, is not always a good thing. The monetary value of PS Plus is undeniable, but its true value proposition–the entertainment and fun you experience while a subscriber–depends greatly on the pace of game releases and their consistent quality.
As a longtime subscriber, I’ve found that months heavy in blockbuster titles breed apathy. When I don’t have time to play every game in a stellar monthly lineup (like January 2014’s), I focus on one, maybe two, that I know I can finish before my next anticipated game release. Frequently, the next game on my want list is mere weeks away, so each free PS Plus game I start is vying for a share of very limited time. With each passing month, the problem is compounded, as more PS Plus games pile up in a backlog that will never be cleared. I’ve always wanted to play Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and Sleeping Dogs. I’d love to finally finish Outland and Beyond Good and Evil HD. But if something else I like comes in the following month’s lineup, I know if I don’t play it then, I never will–and four weeks later, it’s buried by more.
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Some games are abandoned in favor of other, more pressing titles–games I deem more deserving of my limited time. Half-finished games abound. I can generally power through the shorter stuff (Thomas Was Alone and Hotline Miami might be my favorite PS Plus-associated titles of 2013), but looking back on my years of membership, I highly doubt I’ve played more than 8 or 9 percent of all the free games released.
To be clear, my problem is not that PS Plus offers too many free games–from a consumer standpoint, there’s no such thing. Rather, I’ve found the Instant Game Collection to be poorly paced. Three or more lengthy blockbuster releases in a single month pretty much ensures I won’t play all, or any, of them. I carefully weigh my perception of each game’s quality against how long it will take to finish, all before answering: What deserves to be played? What will be doomed to an ever-growing backlog that now numbers in the hundreds?
By and large, I’ve accepted that I’ll never play a great number of PS Plus games that I’d love to experience, or even see more of. Alien Zombie Megadeath, Soul Sacrifice, Vanquish, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Darksiders, Just Cause 2… the list goes on. Not being able to play even a small chunk of what Sony’s handing out sucks, and the personal value of PlayStation Plus is only valid for what you get out of it. $50 per year to play and finish nine or ten good games is a great deal. But for me, that’s an optimistic estimate of completion, and $1,000 of video games is worth nothing on your $50 investment if nothing’s getting played.
And there’s always that back-of-mind concern–if January 2014 is a fantastic month, value-wise, will February’s offerings be poor to compensate? What ramifications do fabulous freebies and the business dealings that arrange them have on future perks?
I acknowledge that, among the innumerable types, habits, and interests of gamers, I’m only one person. I frequently buy new games, both retail and digital, and play an equal or greater amount of review copies provided by publishers. The problem may not be that the Instant Game Collection is poorly paced–maybe I’m not the right kind of gamer for it. But if that’s the case, what does PlayStation offer for enthusiastic consumers who want to play new games and get significant enjoyment from a subscription service marketed as the highest tier of PlayStation involvement?
With PS4, PlayStation Plus is now required for most online gameplay, so it’s fair to say that anything else is just icing on the cake. But PS Plus didn’t start as a license to play with friends. It began as, and continues to be, the greatest monetary deal in gaming. What it’s lacking is a thoughtful, balanced approach to its free game releases.
But it’s not just my problem. Without more careful consideration of what subscribers can handle, most games won’t get played. So isn’t most of Sony’s effort–and the money trading hands to bolster the lineup– just going to waste?