tlwizard

Damn. That Wolf Among Us price is $5 less than the sale they had last month when I picked it up.

Decker

I've been waiting for a Dragon's Crown freebie, but I don't know..... I really enjoyed that game when I rented it. If it were $10, I'd buy it immediately. At $18, I might still bite, but have to think about it first.

And I can't believe how cheap Ni No Kuni is. I bought it at 20 and have yet to open the packaging.

I'm also severely tempted by Open Me, which I've had my eye on since way before it actually got released.
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chess

Nothing jumping out at me this week other than stuff I already have.

Decker

One other unannounced sale : Ubisoft PSP & Vita games. Significant only for the Vita's launch Lumines game for $7.50. It's a really strong title and a lot of fun to play. Maybe the best of the launch games.

Decker

Trials Fusion coming to the PS4 on April 16th. Personally, I think the whole series is vastly over-rated (by players, it's appropriately rated by critics) and frustrating. Anyway, it'll be $19.99 on PSN or $39.99 on disc (which includes a Season Pass)

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slop101

I love the Trials games - for me, they're platforming bliss. Some courses can be frustrating, but for the most part, they're what I play videogames for.

Decker

PlayStation Plus Instant Game Collection for March :

Dead Nation Apocalypse Edition for PS4
Tomb Raider PS3
Thomas Was Alone PS3 /Vita
Soul Survivor Director Cut PS3
Unit 13 - Vita
Monster Hunter Freedom Unite PSP/Vita

chess

PS+ is just killing it lately. Two of the best games of 2013 in back to back months, and I didn't even know Dead Nation on PS4 was a thing until a week or so ago. For those who didn't have a PS3 but now have a PS4, Dead Nation is a great game and well worth a download.

That said, not much new for me.

Is that supposed to be "Lone Survivor"?

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Decker

Yeah Lone Survivor. I was going off my phone this morning so I couldn't cut & paste.

I traded in my PS3 copy of Tomb Raider to Best Buy last month because I sort of had a feeling this was coming.

chess

I need to do that too, along with Borderlands 2.

mattysemo247

I KNEW they were going to do Tomb Raider on PS3 instead of PS4, that just makes more sense. Still a great deal though, especially for those that haven't played through it yet. I can't believe all the releases from 2013 they have been adding to Plus lately. Bioshock Infinite, DMC, Metro Last Light, Remember Me, Payday 2, Tomb Raider, etc.

It's crazy that someone that is just getting into gaming could literally buy a PS3 and PS+ and not have to buy a single game and still have tons of great stuff to play through.

chess

I don't know how they do it.

The games that have big DLC business models like Borderlands, Bioshock Infinite or Battlefield 3 make sense to me, because publishers probably figure they can sell added content to some portion of the people who download. But for games like Tomb Raider, DMC, Binary Domain, Metro and Remember Me, I can't figure out how it makes business sense to give you that much content (on three platforms) for $30-50 per year.

Raul3

Yeah, I mean it's great for us gamers. So I don't care that much.

But the curious mind in my wants to know too. Is that a loss leader for Sony? I guess there is no way publishers lose anything.

Decker

The arrangement Sony makes with publishers is the biggest secret in gaming. Believe me, I've looked and it's a total mystery. I have no idea how Sony makes any money off PS Plus and couldn't even begin to guess how much it costs them not just in expenditures, but in lost revenue. I know I certainly would have bought Resogun and the PS4 version of Dead Nation if they weren't free for me. I'd also have bought Remember Me, Metro Last Light and Payday 2 if they were on a good sale.
I'm certainly not complaining, but honestly I was pretty happy when PS Plus gave us one $10 PSN game, a PS One title and a Dynamic Theme or two every month.

Rob V

I'm relatively new to PS+ and gotta say that it kicks all kind of ass. I'd have put my day 1 PS4 and X1 purchases on hold had I of known how many awesome / free games were coming down the pipeline for the PS3.

Decker

Probably not what Sony was going for, but that makes sense.

funkyryno

That's my situation. I bought a Last of Us/Batman PS3 bundle on Black Friday and PS+ membership for $30. I've been playing a lot and haven't had to buy a single game yet. Awesome deal.

U6C84

I'm not sure how much it costs to pay the publishers of other companies and everything, but I can tell you that the additional revenue from PS+ cards over the past 3 months should easily offset the royalties they may pay.

Raul3

Hmm if you don't know much Sony is paying publishers you can't say the second part.

Sony is not paying MSRP, or anything close to $60 of course. Talking about AAA games. Are they paying under $10?

Decker

Much less, for fun let's say it's $3 each. That would be $9 for this month's games (Remember Me, Metro Last Light, Payday 2). Then you have Modnation Racer and Outlast. Let's say $1 each. Now we're already at $11 for the shortest month of the year. We still have 11 more months. And it's not like Sony is getting $50 for every retail card sold, so let's say they get $40 for each one (that already assumes they lost $10 on every single retail card sold on Black Friday). Now with these assumptions, February used up $11 of the $40 they were allocated for the entire year. And, of course, if they're expecting any of the revenue from the card to support their internet server a' la Xbox Live, that money has to come from the same $40 purchase as well.

fujishig

Let's be honest, though, how many people were still waiting to buy, say, Bioshock Infinite by the time it became free on PS Plus? Maybe some real bargain hunters, but are those really the ones likely to pay a monthly fee for a program like this (also look at the insane Steam deals some of these games go for during the Xmas sale)? The publisher gets to squeeze some last bit of life out of the game, and hopefully reinvigorate their DLC.

The real problem comes when it instigates behavior change, but if they were really worried about that, they've already conditioned people to wait for a sale on physical media with stuff like Greatest Hits and almost instant Ubisoft price cliffs. I will say that I'll avoid marginal 1st party games because of this. I'm sure Knack is a fine game, but it's a prime candidate for a free Plus game a few months from now.

Raul3

The thing is that digital is better for a lot of people. We just don't want to pay the price.

So, in my case, sorry Sony!, I bought inFamous 2 in disc, used I think, and just played for a few hours, and when it went free I downloaded the digital game, and played that version only. So I didn't have to change discs. Also, I already played Bioshock in the Xbox, TR in the PC, but I'm getting them in the PS3, because they are free, digital, and I may replay them in the future. Or maybe not, but it's an option.

So yeah, Sony has to pay for a lot of people like me.

maxfisher

PS+ is awesome, but in my 5 months using it, every free game is something I wouldn't have paid for or already had. Any AAA title that's been out for 6 months or more, I'll have already bought and played if I had any interest. I've enjoyed Contrast, Resogun & Don't Starve and imagine I'll like Outlast & Dead Nation, but none of them are games I would've paid for. So for me personally, there's no lost revenue to publishers. In fact, it's the opposite, as I would've never even picked up a Vita without the free PS+ titles, but now that I have one, I've paid for a handful of games to complement the freebies. I realize a lot of people would've paid for some of the free games, but I have to imagine I'm not the only one where the model has actually increased the amount of money of I've spent.

dsa_shea

The nice titles are the ones that have been out for months but I'm fine with that. Plus is still one of the best deals in gaming. We could have been getting Fable and Assassins Creed 2 so I'm not complaining about the titles we do get.

chess

But point taken. I did already have Tomb Raider, Borderlands 2 and Battlefield 3.

My favorite things on PS+ are the (AA?) games that I wouldn't have bought otherwise but kind of wanted to check out like Saints Row 3, Remember Me, Metro Last Light, Binary Domain, and Deus Ex.