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[Voost Kain]

March marks a change for Sony's PlayStation Plus service. Instead of giving away 4 games, spanning the PS4, PS3 and PS Vita, Sony is now only giving away two.
Each month Sony will give subscribers two games on PS4, but PS3 and PS Vita games are no longer one of the perks. In and of itself, this isn't such a big deal, but it does underscore one thing that Microsoft is doing so well.

Microsoft is giving away twice as many games as Sony now. Two for Xbox One and two that are either Xbox 360 or original Xbox games, or some mixture of the two. Again, simply giving away more games isn't the real point here. The point is that all four games, no matter the platform, will play on Xbox One.
That's because of Microsoft's excellent backwards compatibility program. Now, when Microsoft releases Xbox 360 or OG Xbox Games for Games With Gold, you can play them on your Xbox One even if you've never owned those earlier systems. (You can see what's available in March right here.)

As it stands, it's no great loss to see free PS3 and Vita games go. But it underscores that extra value that Microsoft gives players. Add in Game Pass and you can see just how many strides Microsoft has taken to make Xbox more than just a specific console, but a viable platform that extends beyond any single console generation.

I'm actually surprised Sony is dropping the PS3, even people still on the 360 can get games with gold on the original consoles, not just XBO BC. I'm assuming that PS3 active users has fallen to the point that Sony no longer things its worth it.

As for the other part of the article, it seems Sony is working on a BC solution but it seems to be for the PS5 and not so much the PS4. Of course all PS4's have emulators built in so why Sony won't offer maybe some PS2 games or something with PSN seems weird to me but I'm sure they may or may not have a logical reason.

Also apparently they were giving away Vita games in the west as well, that's surprising.

 

[Imtjnotu]

Good job Ms

 

[BTHR Zero X]

And this month is COD4: MW which is a last gen anyway....

 

[AV]

You can pick up the PS3/Vita games they were giving away for practically nothing already, I'm surprised the offer lasted this long. I have no idea who's staying subscribed to PS+ for the free PS3 games - likely not many people.

Bear in mind, they need to make room for the free PS5 offerings, even if those are probably going to be terrible for a few months.

 

[Dunki]

I never did understand this complain when Sony did this for years now for Ps4, PS§ and Vita. Sicne they can not really rotate there has to be a limited somewhere. Later you will get PS4 and PS5 games in this as well.

 

[Xenon]

Thank you Sony for making MS up it's game. I'm just glad I decided to stick with Xbox live instead of PS+. The BC aspect makes it so much better for me.

 

[Allandor]

Well, I can understand why they don't deliver any more PS3 or Vita games. Most users can't even use those "extra" games and PS3 is more or less almost dead, now. But I think they will give some more games in the future. Or Microsoft is reducing they game catalog, too, because they now have gamepass.

I wonder when sony is shutting down the PS3 store, after all they don't seem to make much money with it anymore. And as they don't have a BC program, it means just costs for them and might be a security problem in the future as maintenance is reduced to a minimum. MS on the other side is still selling old games and DLCs with the xb360 BC program. So the store is still needed.

 

[jshackles]

You can pick up the PS3/Vita games they were giving away for practically nothing already, I'm surprised the offer lasted this long. I have no idea who's staying subscribed to PS+ for the free PS3 games - likely not many people.

The big thing was that a lot of the PS3 and Vita games were cross-buy, meaning some months we got as many as 6 new games that were playable on the PS4. In addition to the two PS4 games we also used to get two PS3 and two Vita games.

 

[MMaRsu]

Contributer tho..

 

[KingT731]

Nice fluff piece.

 

[Voost Kain]

Thank you Sony for making MS up it's game.

Wait, what?

 

[DreamsiclesPlz]

I haven't had PS+ in over 2 years now. It's never been worth it.

 

[Mochilador]

They should change the price then. Less content for the same price is really shitty.

 

[Fbh]

Yep, it sucks.
They increased the price not too long ago, now they hand out less games with nothing to make up for it. I wouldn't be surprised if by the time the Ps5 launches they cut it back to just 1 game a month.

Hopefully cross play continues to thrive so I can just stick to PC and still play with my friends on PSN. Said it in another thread but as of late 99% of what I play online on PSN is Rocket League anyway and I can play that with my PSN friends on PC now.... for free

 

[Nymphae]

You can pick up the PS3/Vita games they were giving away for practically nothing already, I'm surprised the offer lasted this long. I have no idea who's staying subscribed to PS+ for the free PS3 games - likely not many people.

I'm not staying for it, but PS3 and Vita freebies to me were literally the only things I cared about outside of access to online multiplayer. I have PS4 games already. I get that it's nice for people with kids or people who just want to try a ton, but I have a PS4 because I buy new PS4 games. I thought it was a great value add that I could pad out 2 other system libraries with a + sub. Now, to me, it feels like I lost sub features and got nothing to replace them, and the price didn't change.

 

[Leonidas]

Can't believe Sony would remove 4 games/month without replacing them with a few extra PS4 games. With 6 games/month PS Plus was worth the price for me. But with only two games, there is much lower chance I'll be interested in the games(current month I have no interest in either game so it's a wasted month, first complete waste of a month of the service for me that I can remember).
I probably would not have re-upped if I knew this was going to happen.

 

[Alebrije]

Not just twice but better....PLUS has been a trash can these months.

 

[Geki-D]

I'm glad there's actually press picking up on this. Sony seriously dropped the ball this month.

 

[LordOfChaos]

Market leader vs second place syndrome continues.

I hope next gen is as close to 50/50 as possible.

 

[jshackles]

I'm glad there's actually press picking up on this. Sony seriously dropped the ball this month.

The PS5 hasn't been officially revealed, and I imagine it'll be AT LEAST 6-8 months after the console's release before we start getting one or maybe two PS5 games as part of the service.

So if Sony stays the course, it looks like it'll be another 2+ years of having less content than Xbox every month. Hopefully more of the press picks up on this and starts pressuring Sony into offering a couple of PSVR games along with their offering, at the very least.

 

[Dr. Claus]

You can pick up the PS3/Vita games they were giving away for practically nothing already, I'm surprised the offer lasted this long. I have no idea who's staying subscribed to PS+ for the free PS3 games - likely not many people.

Bear in mind, they need to make room for the free PS5 offerings, even if those are probably going to be terrible for a few months.

Assuming BC is a thing, we may also see digital PS2/PS1 games being added for free on occasion.

 

[Fox Mulder]

I don't see the issue if you didn't care before.

MS put in the work for BC and has been offering more games that you can play on the xb1 for awhile now. Sony just gave up vita and PS3 games, but PS4 only players couldn't use them anyways. They were already worthless to me.

 

[AgentP]

Sony dropped the PS3 and Vita because they can see the internal numbers. Beyond the occasional cross-play game that had a PS4 native version, who bothered with them? All the matter is quality over quantity. I get both offering every month and only look for the gems and ignore the rest.

 

[zeorhymer]

Never cared about PS3/Vita since I don't have any of them. Wasn't a loss.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

Why does it feel like if Sony gave away 20 mobile shovelware games it would be best month ever!!! cuz wow 20 games!!!!

3/4 games the past two months have been retail games (literally the number one Plus complaint for years), and the 4th game has an 87 metacritic.

I do wonder why they don't give away any PS2 games though, throwing in something like Kinetica or Twisted Metal seems like such an easy way to add a game for little opportunity cost.

 

[MiyazakiHatesKojima]

Ps Plus > Xbox Gold with games

 

[jshackles]

I do wonder why they don't give away any PS2 games though, throwing in something like Kinetica or Twisted Metal seems like such an easy way to add a game for little opportunity cost.

I could see that working - add a PS2 classic and a PSVR game, and everyone is happy again. At least for a while, there are only about 50 PS2 Classics available.

 

[Lucumo]

Why does it feel like if Sony gave away 20 mobile shovelware games it would be best month ever!!! cuz wow 20 games!!!!

3/4 games the past two months have been retail games (literally the number one Plus complaint for years), and the 4th game has an 87 metacritic.

Yep, reminds me of the days when PC gaming magazines would write "10 GAMES ON DVD" on the front when it was just nine shovelware ones and one actual game.

 

[Breakfast at Noon]

As someone pointed out in the PS+ thread when I mentioned this.. "it's irrelevant"

Suuuuure it is.

 

[Kagey K]

Ps Plus > Xbox Gold with games

Games with gold is giving away Metal Gear Rising this month. That alone should make it better then PS+ to you.

 

[Geki-D]

Games with gold is giving away Metal Gear Rising this month. That alone should make it better then PS+ to you.

Plus did that in October 2013...

 

[Jigsaah]

Thank you Sony for making MS up it's game. I'm just glad I decided to stick with Xbox live of PS+. The BC aspect makes it so much better for me.

How is this Microsoft stepping up their game, when it's Sony who stopped supporting PS3 and Vita titles? Are you kidding me right now? Microsoft isn't doing anything it hasn't always done since Games with Gold started. Sony is discontinuing something, yet you thank Sony?

What planet is this?

 

[ANIMAL1975]

Well that was a fast Forbes contributor reaction article!...

 

[Kagey K]

Plus did that in October 2013...

Yeah and MS gave away The Witness in April ‘18. Not sure what your point is there and I don’t see anyone playing Rising on their PS4.

 

[Xenon]

How is this Microsoft stepping up their game, when it's Sony who stopped supporting PS3 and Vita titles? Are you kidding me right now? Microsoft isn't doing anything it hasn't always done since Games with Gold started. Sony is discontinuing something, yet you thank Sony?

What planet is this?

The whole reason Microsoft gave out games with gold was to keep competitive with PlayStation plus which was giving away games. Head Sony never done that I doubt we would have had games with gold at all.

 

[MiyazakiHatesKojima]

Games with gold is giving away Metal Gear Rising this month. That alone should make it better then PS+ to you.

That's true

 

[Jigsaah]

The whole reason Microsoft gave out games with gold was to keep competitive with PlayStation plus which was giving away games. Head Sony never done that I doubt we would have had games with gold at all.

I'm not so sure that's true. It's impossible to prove either way though. So I'll just leave it at that.

Question though, Microsoft trying to become the Netflix of gaming...going to all devices...is that a product of Sony as well in your opinion because they had PSNow on Samsung TVs and Sony phones and PC?

I ask because it's a similar principle.

Also, is nobody considering the possibility that Sony stopped offering PS3 and vita games because they want to include these games as PSNow offerings next gen?

 

[Clear]

How is this Microsoft stepping up their game, when it's Sony who stopped supporting PS3 and Vita titles? Are you kidding me right now? Microsoft isn't doing anything it hasn't always done since Games with Gold started. Sony is discontinuing something, yet you thank Sony?

What planet is this?

I suspect its just more MS astroturfing, which they have been going hard in with for some time now.

I'm sorry, but the plain fact is globally MS have by far the smallest sales and install-base of the big 3 console vendors and yet seem to get a disproportionate amount of hype from "independant" reporters. It flies in the face of reasonable doubt that this continuous flow of pro-xbox contributor articles is organic.

 

[ethomaz]

That is sad.

In another side Sony is outputting over twice more games per year than MS.

 

[GermanZepp]

You can pick up the PS3/Vita games they were giving away for practically nothing already, I'm surprised the offer lasted this long. I have no idea who's staying subscribed to PS+ for the free PS3 games - likely not many people.

Bear in mind, they need to make room for the free PS5 offerings, even if those are probably going to be terrible for a few months.

Ps5 plus games, are ps4 games. That is one of the reasons for backwards compatibility

 

[Voost Kain]

The whole reason Microsoft gave out games with gold was to keep competitive with PlayStation plus which was giving away games. Head Sony never done that I doubt we would have had games with gold at all.

This doens't really work and leans more toward wars.

The thread is talking about amount of give away games, and the 360 being more active with users, but most importantly, allowing BC with Xbox One, are amng the primary reasons Xbox is still giving away a larger number of games. with PS3 basically dead, Vita being dead in the west for like 3 years, and no BC, Sony really can't do more than two unless they want to give away 4 PS4 games which is a bit silly.

I mean they COULD do that but it's clear they don't want to. Even MS doesn't give away 4 Xbox One games they have the 360 take up the other slot, or the original Xbox.

 

[Jigsaah]

If I was Sony this is what I would do...

Start offering the same amount of games, just make them all PS4 games. Boom, you still hold the crown in free offerings and you don't have to offer PS3 or Vita for whatever reason they decided to do this.

You think it's possible people weren't really grabbing onto those games?

I suspect its just more MS astroturfing, which they have been going hard in with for some time now.

I'm sorry, but the plain fact is globally MS have by far the smallest sales and install-base of the big 3 console vendors and yet seem to get a disproportionate amount of hype from "independant" reporters. It flies in the face of reasonable doubt that this continuous flow of pro-xbox contributor articles is organic.

What does sales have to do with hype? And are you really claiming there is a bias in favor of Microsoft in the media? You're trolling me right? Ha, good one.

Is this why almost everything positive Microsoft does is somehow spun into a negative? Because media is so much in Microsoft's pocket?

Remember when Microsoft announced that there would be patches upon the release of the X to place 4k assets into the game. IGN wrote something along the lines of Microsoft is FORCING players to download 4k assets.

I don't know about anybody else, but I bought the X for the 4k assets, yet somehow Microsoft is painted to be this overbearing console maker coercing it's customer to download something THAT THEY FRICKIN PAYED FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE!

You don't wanna have this discussion with me, you will lose every time.



I can't make this up.

 

[LostDonkey]

Sony really dropped the ball on the BC. Kudos to MS for the way they are handling it.

Hopefully PS5 will learn from MS in that regard.

 

[Nymphae]

Start offering the same amount of games, just make them all PS4 games. Boom, you still hold the crown in free offerings and you don't have to offer PS3 or Vita for whatever reason they decided to do this.

What would that be, honestly? They can't be making a ton off of those old titles for PS3 and Vita. Yes, it's some, but it seems like a strange time to try and recoup lost revenue for PS3 and Vita titles they've been giving away. Giving away nothing but (more) PS4 games would surely cost them more.

 

[Jigsaah]

What would that be, honestly? They can't be making a ton off of those old titles for PS3 and Vita. Yes, it's some, but it seems like a strange time to try and recoup lost revenue for PS3 and Vita titles they've been giving away. Giving away nothing but (more) PS4 games would surely cost them more.

Yea I don't think it's so much about the sales as I believe they want to increase the value of what they would offer on PSNow for next gen.

There is also one other explanation but it's a super longshot. They figured out BC and are going to start offering games for PS3 and Vita for purchase...but even then, you can buy PS3 games and vita games on PS4 now can't you? I've never actually bought a ps3 game on my PS4 and I don't own a Vita so I actually don't know how this works. Do you buy it and then have to plug in your PS3 to play it?

 

[brap]

2 X 0 = 0
Sony doesn't give their games away they just let you borrow them as long as you have PS+.

 

[sublimit]

I realize that MS would have been just as bad as Sony has been with their PS+ services if they were in their position but i still have to congratulate MS for actually respecting their customers.And i'm saying this as someone who never bought an xbox console in his life and always had a PS console as his main entertainment system.

There's no way in hell i'll ever resubscribe once my PS+ subscription ends in a few months from now.

 

[Lino]

Yeah I expected them to start offering better games since we're so late in this gen almost at the end, yet the offering is still trash

 

[jshackles]

2 X 0 = 0
Sony doesn't give their games away they just let you borrow them as long as you have PS+.

Which is yet another way Microsoft has the superior program. The BC games they give away with Gold are permanently tied to your account, and can be played even if your subscription lapses.

 

[Damian black]

Which is yet another way Microsoft has the superior program. The BC games they give away with Gold are permanently tied to your account, and can be played even if your subscription lapses.

Only the 360 ones not sure about ogxbox.
for Xbone you dont get to keep anything.