Today, PlayStation and Xbox announced the titles included in their respective monthly promotions PlayStation Plus and Games with Gold this November.
Xbox dropped the ball this November with their less than stellar line-up featuring World of Keflings and Iron Brigade. To be fair, both games have been positively received by critics and players. The problem isn’t about the quality of the games offered, it’s not just the appropriate titles to show gamers that Games with Gold is better than PlayStation Plus.
On the other hand, PlayStation Plus’ November offerings include a variety of titles for the PS3, PS4, and PS Vita. Capcom’s surprise RPG hit Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen, futuristic third person shooter Binary Domain, and co-op puzzle game Ibb & Obb are the free titles for the PS3.
I’ve always believed the maxim that quality trumps quantity. Unfortunately, this isn't the case for Xbox’s Games with Gold promotion this November.
It’s also quite disappointing that Xbox’s promotion is only applicable to Xbox 360 owners. There’s still no word if the promotion will carry over to the Xbox One. I am sure that we will eventually see it implemented for the Xbox One, but there’s really no need to rush if these are the kind of games we are getting.
Yes, AAA titles like Dead Rising 2, Assassin’s Creed II, and Halo 3 have been made available to Xbox Gold subscribers since its inception. Great games, but they aren’t exactly the most recent blockbusters. Perhaps with time, they can start to offer hits that have come out in the last six months or year like PS Plus.
PlayStation made a smart move by offering “free” PlayStation 4 games to their PS Plus subscribers at launch. Contrast and Resogun may not be AAA titles, but DriveClub was supposed to be in the former’s place as a PS Plus digital launch title if it wasn’t unexpectedly delayed. However, it still shows that PlayStation is willing to give out AAA next-generation titles alongside indies as well.
Before you accuse me of being a Sony fan girl, I’ve owned both consoles from the beginning of their first generation. My attention is pretty much contingent on which platform provides the best games and services for me at a given time.
Therefore, I will say that one thing Games with Gold does right with its promotion over PS Plus is the fact that players can keep their downloaded games forever. The latter locks away all the games you’ve received from PS Plus if you discontinue your subscription. However, your content will be restored if you sign-up again.
It’s worth noting though that both promotions require you to download the featured games of the month in a given time frame for it to be playable even after the promo ends.
A lot of gamers tend to nitpick on the usage of “free games.” It’s not completely free because you are paying for a subscription to have access to all these titles similar to Netflix. With PlayStation Plus, I definitely feel like I am getting tons of free games for the price of one AAA title.
I feel like I’m in Oprah’s studio and she’s giving away free games instead of cars. The only thing better than my subscription right now is its European counterpart, which has even better games.
In my opinion, Games with Gold needs to take more risks by offering both Xbox 360 and Xbox One titles that are fairly recent if they want to compete with PS Plus’ promotion. That’s where it boils down to in the end. Do you feel like you’re getting more out of the subscription than what it is asking you to pay every year?
PlayStation wins November by a knockout, let’s see how Xbox fares in the next rounds.
