PS Plus Essential Is Quietly Having a Great Year on PS5, PS4

"Obviously, we understand not every game will appeal to everyone; some of you may have already purchased some of these titles, therefore you’re not getting quite the same return from your subscription."

That's exactly it. Years old games just don't add much value for me. IMO, the only subscription somewhat worthwhile is game pass ultimate for its day 1 new games. And even then, losing access when you unsubscribe is not very appealing.

If you released those games together as a single package then good luck trying to claim it's worth $350. That's about $30 per title. Look again at the list and tell me how many are worth $30? Just Dragon Age I reckon.

I have checked (thank you Deku Deals) and if you add up the cheapest price each title has been available for (which I believe is a much better indicator of value), then it comes to just £121 (about $157). Still more than the asking price but hardly worth writing home about.

I feel like their doing a banger job. As a poor teacher, I only buy one or two games a year, but I play a lot of multiplayer. It also lets me try a bunch of games I would never think of buying for myself and end up have a great time like the Stanley Parable. Plus we get to keep these for the life of our subscription, unlike titles that come and go on PS Plus extra or GP. Keep it coming!

Well, let's say that's AN opinion.

No doubt some entitled buffoon will be along shortly to say it’s been a shocking year of poor titles.

And I've not added a single game through the service, those I was interested in such as Robocop and Turtles, I bought a long time ago. So, whilst I would say that there have been some good releases on it, for me it's largely worthless as I don't really play games this way

I have the highest tier of both Game Pass and Playstation Plus. I think Playstation Plus is often better.

I must admit, I’ve already scored three games that I was circling, so that’s great for me! Dragon Age and Robocop were real surprises.

And that's why I'm switching from Premium to Essential this month! Well... that AND my own personal playing and buying habits.

Personally I think it's great value.

It's got to a point now where I very rarely actually buy a new game because I've always got something to play (i subscribe to premium)

Regarding new games, unless it's something I really really (and I mean really) want to play... I tend to hold of because I'm sure one day it'll end up on PS plus in one form or another

I dont think it great value at all.

multiplayer gaming is free on PC and the various stores give away more free games than essential

@Ooccoo_Jr At their lowest ever recorded price you're getting 121 pounds worth of games for £60, but more specifically, the equivalent of £20 as there's still 8 months of games to come. I think that's worth writing about.

Playstation Plus Essential (and before its name change) has always been amazing value.

@trev666

I think it all depends on what you're looking for or expecting from the service.

If you simply want the ability to play online, then yes I do agree it's not great value considering it used to be free.

However I personally don't play online, well..... you could probably count on 1 hand the amount of times I have since getting my PS5 in 2020 anyway.

I look on it more of a games rental service.

I bought PS Premium for just under £78 when it was on sale and I'm never short of anything to play.

If you break the £78 down it works out around £6.50 a month which I genuinely think is amazing value for what we get

It’s a great value yes.. but you’re only speaking for the PlayStation Store.. all of these games are way cheaper when u buy physical.. just saying

@Member_the_game the article is about ps+ essential not other subscription tiers

@Alps_Stranger I recently made that exact change and don't regret it one bit. BTW, your username always gives me a chuckle.

@trev666

It kinda all rolls into one as far as I'm concerned

My point was that if you buy it at the right time (when it's on sale) it's actually very good value in my opinion (again assuming you don't just want the ability to play online)

Hmmm.... debatable... 😉

@WolfyTn not really. If you take a look at the article on the recent sale, there is a comparison with amazon prices, many of which are higher than the digital games on sale.

Great year? What do some bad info to the players. I think, magazines, sites etc doing propaganda for sony is pathetic. Is not a great year for ps plus or sony itself. Gamepass has better games and much more good games. The promos on xbox are muuuuuch better. The same game on ps store we find for $19,99 and on xbox just 13,99. Its a big diference. I have both consoles. And if some fanboy came to say abou graphics or hardware on ps5 i say..its the same. Each have your limitations and etc but just a few. I dont care too much with whos have better memory or etc. This is pathetic. Im a fan of GAMES! Not consoles. I play games! Not consoles. And im a big fan of course of both consoles. But sony is way behind in these terms. And i can say... sucks!

One or two really great games I end up loving, especially if I wouldn't have tried them if they weren't free on Plus, can make the year.

I'm not sure that any of these games fit that mold for me. Maybe Robocop, but I already bought it - and that's part of the issue with Plus, is that some of the best games it gets show up only after they've been out for a long time and were deeply discounted before joining Plus.

That's not ALWAYS true, I acknowledge, but it's true more often than not.

I just downgraded from Ultimate to Essential but the games being offered had nothing to do with it. In terms of games there has been nothing I want to play or hadn't already played elsewhere.

I only need it for multiplayer access for GT7 so essential is my cheapest option. If I didn't need that I wouldn't be using plus as a service in any form.

No doubt if I make even a hint of a complaint about a service I am forced to pay for if I want to play online, someone will be along to call me an 'entitled buffoon'.

As an adult who has to pay a lot more for boring adult things that are nowhere near as fun, £60 for what’s included is an excellent deal.

@SleepyNick

Stop being an entitled buffoon lol

No choice for "it's okay"?

From the 12 games, only Robocop and TMNT that appeals to me and i already own TMNT. So i voted "meh". But i think last year was pretty good...

@naruball not talking about Amazon.. I’m talking about used games via GameStop, GameXchange, independent sellers from Craigslist (+other), pawn shops, etc..

The games are super “meh” for me mostly. I think i addrd only two this year.

Its the cloud saves where the ps plus shined.

It’s an incredible value, but as the article alludes to, the value of each title is in the eye of the beholder, so a game can be worth $60 but if it sits in my library unplayed it’s worth $0 to me.
However, I think Essential (and the higher tiers) are still great values for me. The better judge has always been looking back at the prior year and counting how many games I played from the service. Usually it’s about 6-8. I think it was closer to 10 last year. I figure an average cost of these games are about $20 (that’s being conservative). If I play 8 games, at $20 value each, then that equals $160, which is the break even point for the cost of my year sub of PS+ Premium. Then all the other perks are basically free on top of that — cloud saves, online play (yuck! 😜), PSN sales, and my new favorite, cloud streaming.

I would immediately stop my subscription if I wouldn't need it to play online, and I think many other subscribers would do the same. This tells a lot about how much the "great value" is effectively perceived as great value.

@WolfyTn well, I'm talking about Amazon. Because some people avoid used games for various reasons. For one thing, zero money goes to the publisher or the developers who made that game. But if don't care about that, you could argue that games on PC are "free".

If you define value solely in monetary context like in this article, then yes you get value. Same as every month and year.

But what this article doesn't even touch is the context of game value in terms of game quality, playability etc. There is much less value in this context than in just monetary terms.

This is a very poorly thought out and biased article by the editor. How disappointing.

Pricing them at their rrp is pointless, you'd have to be incredibly stupid to be paying full rrp on games multiple years old, all will have been available for less than half the prices being used.

Don't think this year has been particularly notable so far, it's been very average I'd say.

However, the value is absolutely undoubted. I'm on premium, play pretty much daily and haven't bought a game in about 4 years as I've never been short of stuff to play.

I do like that as long as you claim them, they are there 'forever'. I think that's the weakness of the new subscription services, they don't really inspire any reason to stay subscribed like this model does.

As someone who rarely buys actual games, I bought Helldivers 2 and before that BF 2042
I exclusively take advantage of my PS extra subscription and at 30p a day it's the best value subscription out there
I wait for PS store cards to go on sale and use them to stack my PS sub
I imagine for people who regularly buy games they won't get quite the same value as someone who almost never does