PlayStation Plus was the most important innovation to come out of the seventh generation of consoles, and it's now more powerful than ever. Lately though, PS Plus has caught a lot of flak for the games it has been offering since the PS4's release.
If you ever feel like breaking one of the cardinal rules of the internet, read the comments wherever you see the latest PS Plus games announced (preferably here). You'll likely see plenty of complaints about the line-up being indie titles and old AAA games. Just go back to ignoring them, Sony is doing developers and gamers a great service with their game line-ups, creating a win-win situation for all involved.
Sony gets the subscribers to hand them money, and the monthly free games keep them coming back to the PlayStation Store. It's a guaranteed method of exposure for their digital store front, that people are paying them to partake in.
The Instant Game Collection makes their consoles more appealing, especially if you're the owner of the PS3 or Vita and are looking to upgrade to next gen. In that case, you probably have PS Plus already. Your new PS4 will have at least two games waiting on you, possibly more if you've picked up crossbuy games or a bundle, and the longer you wait to jump on that train the more free stuff you're missing out on.
For smaller indie developers, exposure is often the difference between abject failure and massive success. There are thousands of great indie games you'll never hear about, let alone play. Getting their games onto PS Plus means it's going to be seen , and likely played, by millions of gamers. With well over 10 million active PS Plus subscribers, smaller devs simply can't beat that level of promotion.
That's fine and dandy for developers, but what are gamers getting out of the deal? Well, let me give you a personal example of how PS Plus is great for gamers and developers.
This was something I thought I could do without.
Demon's Souls was free on PS Plus in April of 2013, over four years after its release. I'd heard of the game, but it seemed like something I could live without. Four years after its release, I still had no desire to purchase the game. However, a free game is something I'm not going to pass up on, especially when it's a free game I'm technically paying for. Since I had it, I decided to play it.
Thanks to that free copy of a game I was never going to buy, I've bought every Souls game released to date. That's five sales (I double dipped on DS1 and DS2) that From Software got in exchange for one free copy of an old game. That's not even including the DLC either. I found a new favorite video game franchise and From Software made a few more sales. We both won, and it's all thanks to PS Plus playing matchmaker.
It's not a phenomenon exclusive to me. This situation is playing out on a massive scale right now. Of course, I'm talking about Rocket League.
If you've been living under a rock since earlier this month, Rocket League is a soccer game. Except all of the stupid rules have been gutted, there's no flopping, no unnecessary stoppages…and did I mention you play as rocket powered cars that can be decorated with awesomely stupid accessories?
This game made soccer fun for Americans. Suck it team USA!
Rocket League has been a massive success. Between the PS4 and PC it was downloaded over four million times in just 15 days, with over 175,000 concurrent users. The game is so beloved that even the crappy servers aren't stopping the hype train, and non-gaming related media sites are talking about it.
The major reason behind this game's success? The majority of those downloads came from PS Plus, which has become a massive platform that can put the spotlight on smaller games and let them shine. Need proof? Rocket League is actually a sequel, and you most likely don't even know its predecessor's name, despite it essentially being the same game. Although, Psyonix didn't do themselves any favors by naming it Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars.
Gamers are winning because they're being introduced to new games that they probably wouldn't have tried otherwise, some of which they're bound to fall in love with. Developers are winning because their games are getting exposure, and those exposed gamers may buy more of their stuff down the line: Rocket League DLC is going to make a hell of a lot of more money now than if it hadn't been on PS Plus. Finally, every time somebody subscribes, opens the PlayStation Store, or considers the Instant Game Collection when choosing their 8th gen console, Sony scores another tally in the Win column.
