Another year has just about gone by. The door is closing quickly on 2016. And with that comes the end of the free goodies gamers received by both Games with Gold and Playstation Plus. Both Sony and Microsoft gave away tons of games during the year through their own services, but which one had the better offerings? Personally, I believe that the offerings given out by Microsoft and their Games with Gold platform gave gamers the most value for their subscription to their service. Let the debating begin.
First and foremost, both Playstation Plus and Xbox Live Games With Gold were very successful. No matter what side gamers were on, they were treated very well this year. Now with that out of the way, I personally believe that Games with Gold was a better deal for Microsoft gamers. Again, this is just one persons opinion.
Lined up, dollar for dollar, it may appear that Playstation Plus subscribers got the better deal. If you take and add up all the offerings by Playstation Plus this year, you would come up with a total of roughly $1300.00 worth of free games! If you did the same with Games with Gold, you’d end up with roughly $1050.00 worth of games. That’s a heck of a lot of free games given away by both sides of the competition!
So with these numbers in mind, how can I still say I prefer the Games with Gold Service over the Playstation Plus offerings? I mean after all, gamers get about three hundred dollars more in free video games! Who doesn’t love more free video games?! Here’s where we use the old line, quality over quantity. Sure, Playstation may offer a lot more games, three hundred dollars worth, but they aren’t always better. What’s more they aren’t always unique games as well.
To make my case, let’s take a look at the most recent month of December and compare the two services. First, let’s take a look at the latest line up for Playstation Plus.
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Xbox One / Xbox 360 Backwards Compatibility
- Sleeping Dogs
- Outlast
- Outland
- Burnout Paradise
Well, that list is definitely shorter than the Playstation Plus lineup. A whopping 4 games. Which again, is great! If we total up these four games, we get roughly $74.00 worth of free games. Not as much as Playstation Plus, but still a pretty decent lineup of games.
Now if we continue playing the numbers game, for the month of December, Playstation Plus is offering “nine” games for $110.00. Games with Gold is offering four games for $74.00. That’s a five game and $36.00 difference. However, if we take out duplicate games that Playstation Plus offers, then its more like a two game difference.
So, with all this information in mind, how can I still say that Games with Gold is the better offering. Well, it’s actually pretty simple. You can access and use all of the offerings of Games with Gold on one system. With the announcement of Backwards Compatibility on the Xbox one, every single Xbox 360 game that has been given away by Games with Gold since then, has also been backwards compatible. With Playstation Plus however, you need to have access to three different systems. And sure a lot of gamers might have that. I personally never got into the Vita, and my Playstation 3 was stolen during an apartment robbery and I never got around to replacing it (the Playstation 4 had recently come out so at the time, it was a better investment for me). So for me personally I get more value with the games with Gold service. Every month I log on to the Playstation Store site and grab all my free games, even the PS3 and Vita ones, just in case one day I pick up those systems, but I can only take full advantage of the Playstation 4 offerings.
But that isn’t the only reason I prefer the Games with Gold service. I also am more fond of the games they give away for free as well. Personally, the indie games that Playstation Plus offers are hit or miss. And usually for me, they are a miss. Same goes with Games with Gold, however Sony has usually pushed the indie games more than Microsoft. In contrast, Microsoft has offered more consistently bigger titles, although they may be a bit dated, are still tons of fun to play. Some standout titles, both indie and AAA, for me have been: I Am Alive, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, The Escapists, Mirror’s Edge, Beyond Good and Evil, Sunset Overdrive, and Lords of the Fallen. This is purely based on taste in video games however.
In the end, it all boils down to your own personally taste. Maybe you like the indie games Playstation Plus offered more than I did. Or maybe you still have access to a PS3 and Vita. Whatever the case my be, I think we can all agree, that it is a great time to be a gamer and we are all grateful that both sides are even giving away free games, let alone hundreds of dollars worth.
As I said earlier though, debate away.
Let us know in the comments below which service you prefer and what your favorite free titles have been!
J.j. Barrington
Any reason why you don’t mention that games given out on GWG have already been given away with Plus?
Hank Hill
Probably because it doesn’t matter.
J.j. Barrington
Sure it does. If you want to say GWG is better this year, it’s only fair to mention that the games- or many of them, at least- that contribute to that have already made an appearance on the competing program.
Hank Hill
Except PS+ has also given many games out that GWG has already had. It doesn’t matter to most Xbox gold subscribers if they recieve a game that’s already been given away on a console that they don’t own and I’m sure most PS+ subscribers couldn’t care less if they received a game that GWG has had either.
J.j. Barrington
This isn’t an article about what matters to Gold or Plus subscribers. It’s comparing the year of games given out through each service. In that respect, what has already been on one service ABSOLUTELY matters.
If there were games on Plus that had already been on Gold this year, then those should have been mentioned, too.
Hank Hill
“It’s comparing the year of games given out through each service.”
Yes and If were comparing this year only, then games given out other years shouldn’t matter.
“If there were games on Plus that had already been on Gold this year, then those should have been mentioned”
That’s the thing, this year there was only one instance of a game being given out by a service and then arriving on the other service latter on in the year and that game was Costume Quest 2, in which Xbox gave away first.
asbofive
Exactly!!