Why Playstation Plus Isn't For Everyone (But is Still a Great Deal)

     My one year Playstation Plus subscription (which I got free for signing up for a credit card) is coming to an end in just a few short days, and I am not going to renew it. You may have heard that it is an amazing deal and well worth the money, and it is for many people. It just isn't for me at the moment, and I'd like to explain why.

     Playstation Plus is a great deal that gives you a huge return on your investment.. If you bid on codes on ebay, you can get a year's subscription for about $40 -$45, and you get games worth many times that amount of money. But my main concern is the amount of time I have to play games. You may have noticed that I'm making a list of all the PS3 games I want to play before getting a PS4. This list is going to be pretty comprehensive when it is finished. In order for Plus to be worth it to me, there has to be at least $40 worth of games in the instant game collection that I will play that year. The time constraint of one year might not seem like a big deal, but think of it this way. You need to play $40 worth of games every year from your IGC, or you aren't getting your money's worth. The hundreds of dollars of games you “get” on Plus don't have any value unless you play them. Of course, you also need to consider the amount of money saved by buying things on Plus sales. This is a little deceptive, as games that are on Plus sales are usually on sale for normal people too, so you should count the amount of money between the Plus price and the sale price, not the Plus price and the normal price. So really, you need a little less than $40 worth of games in the IGC if you count the money you save buying things on sale.

     At the moment, there doesn't seem to be enough harmony between the bucket list and the IGC to justify purchasing another year of Plus. All those free games are great, but free games are worthless if you aren't going to play them. And then the idea that you need to play $40 worth in a year adds a pressure to the situation that I'm not comfortable with. I want to play the games I want to play when I want to play them and in the order I want to play them, not worry about playing what is free so that I make up enough value to justify my subscription, especially since my free time is very limited at the moment.

     There is the phenomenon of finding hidden gems you weren't going to play and didn't even know about. I played Closure and Anomaly just because they were on Plus, and I love those games. But with my new list, it's getting harder to justify trying just any random game when I have a written out backlog a mile long and I've already passed on the game when choosing my bucket list. I literally looked at every game on PSN, so there aren't any games I haven't heard of. It's possible there's some game out there that I passed on in my bucket list review that I would love if I tried it on Plus, but I'm giving everything a thorough review, which makes that less likely. The fact that we're nearing the end of the PS3's life cycle and I'm making this list is a big part of why I'm not renewing. I looked at all the games and am picking what I want to play. There won't be many more PS3 games. In the middle of a generation (say, the PS4 in a few years), Plus is a great way to try out random stuff it throws your way. Here at the end of the generation with my definitive backlog almost complete, it makes less sense to me.

     In conclusion, I think my $40 is probably better spent buying the games I know I want rather than subscribing to Plus again. This could change, of course, if a lot of games on my list end up on Plus and it's obvious that I'll play $40 worth of them in a year. I'll have to evaluate it as the list becomes more final and the instant game collection gets bigger. I'll also have to do the math and consider buying a temporary Plus subscription from time to time when there are big sales, as some of the Plus discounts are really big. A temporary subscription could pay for itself during a big sale. Playstation Plus is a great value for your money, but remember that you have to play those free games (within a year!) in order to actually get your money's worth.

P.S. Here is a peak of how the definitive PS3 Bucket List is coming along. These games have made the cut. I have hundreds more to look through at this point though!

Flow – beautiful non game

Genesis Collection*

Enigmo *

Galcon Labs*

Retro/Grade*

Wild Arms*

Everyday shooter*

plants vs. zombies*

last of us

walking dead*

Pixel Junk MonstersPS3 version – tower defense

BreakQuest 2

Ico and Shadow HD*

Grubbins on Ice

lone survivor – 2d pixel horror

Siren: blood curse – 8.9 gigs, get European version?