PlayStation Plus
© 2010, Sony
During E3 Sony announced that it will launch a new premium subscription service called PlayStation Plus on June 29th. The PlayStation Network as we know it will still be free to join and all the current features will remain free. PlayStation Plus expands on the service already in place and offers loads of content to subscribers. Starting on June 29th Sony will offer a one year or 90-day membership from PlayStation Store.
As an incentive they throw in a full copy of LittleBigPlanet if you sign up for a one year membership between June 29th and August 3rd. The one year subscription will be available for €49.99 while three months will cost you €14.99. What do we get for our money?
Sony says that members will get their hands on at least four games a month at no extra charge. That sounds good but the four games will be comprised of one PSN game, two minis and one PS one classics. Subscribers also get premium avatars and dynamic themes each month as well as discounts on loads of PlayStation Store content. The discounts will change each month as well.
The premium feature also allows for full game trials. Members can download a full copy of a game and play it for a certain amount of time as if they owned it. The timeframe depends on the game but you should have approximately one hour to check out the game. If you decide to buy the game, your progress and trophies will all be unlocked so there’s no need to start again.
The most useful perk, however, seems to be what Sony calls automatic download. Subscribers can set their PS3 to automatically receive game and firmware updates, and download game demos. All you have to do is to set the time when you want to receive them and your PS3 will wake up and download everything. That sounds really useful to me.
Check out PlayStation Plus and see for yourself. You need at least version 3.40 of the PS3 system software to make it work. I think that’s just what I need. Perhaps updates will get a bit faster then.
