Games With Gold Vs. PlayStation Plus For April 2014
The Games With Gold Vs. PlayStation Plus debate has been decidedly one sided since the Games With Gold program was announced during E3 2013. Microsoft’s offering of Games with Gold giving gold subscribers two free games each month seems rather threadbare on the surface next to Sony’s PS Plus service in addition to the relative age of the titles with the older titles appearing on the Games With Gold platform more consistently. PlayStation Plus adds two new games to the roster brining the total of current free games to 22 across the PSP, PS Vita, PS3 and PS4.
Fanboys have waged forum based war with the Games With Gold Vs. PlayStation merits. Now the comparisons begin anew with the announced games for the month of April, 2014
Hitman: Absolution
Original Release Date | November 20, 2012
Games for Gold Release Date | April 1 – 15, 2014
Current Price | $19.99
Deadlight Original Release Date | August 1, 2012
Games for Gold Release Date | April 16 – 30, 2014
Current Price | $14.99
PlayStation Plus Instant Game Collection (New Additions)
Batman: Arkham City (PS3)
Original Release Date | October 18, 2011
PlayStation Plus Release Date | April 1, 2014
Current Price | $19.99
Mercenary Kings (PS4)
Original Release Date | April 1, 2014
PlayStation Plus Release Date | April 1, 2014
PlayStation Plus Instant Game Collection (Current Offerings)
Little Big Planet Karting (PS3)
XCOM: Enemy Unknown (PS3)
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception Single Player (PS3)
Resogun (PS4)
Dyad (PS3)
Borderlands 2 (PS3)*
Ends April 8
BioShock Infinite (PS3)
Brothers: Tale of Two Sons (PS3)
PayDay 2(PS3)
Remember Me (PS3)
Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition (PS4)
Tomb Raider(PS3)
Lone Survivor: The Directors Cut (PS3 / PS Vita)
Thomas Was Alone (PS3 / PS Vita)
Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP / PS Vita)
Unit 13 (PS Vita)
Street Fighter X Tekken (PS Vita)
WipEout 2048 (PS Vita)
Uncharted Golden Abyss (PS Vita)
Gravity Rush (PS Vita)
While the Sony offerings appear to dwarf the rather skimpy games from Microsoft, there are things that should be understood before forming your own conclusions. The first being that Games With Gold offerings will be available for download if you let your gold subscription lapse. The PlayStation Plus offerings will only be available to gamers as long as they maintain their membership. Once they discontinue the membership the games are no longer available. However, if the PS Plus subscription is renewed at any point in the future, those games will become available again.
When questioned at SXSW by Polygon about the seeming large gap between the two services, Phil Spencer replied, “One of our issues with Games with Gold — not ‘issues,’ but differences between the other system we get compared to, is the fact that with Games with Gold, you get to keep that game, regardless of whether you continue to subscribe,” Spencer said. “And the business around Games with Gold, for us, is just fundamentally different from some of the other programs that are out there, which does put a different financial picture on a — you’re gonna go buy a game that’s brand new, the cost of putting that in, just to be kind of blunt about it.”
The Xbox One currently does not benefit from the Games With Gold program but Phil Spencer, head of the Xbox Division at Microsoft has assured gamers that they are first in all his endeavors and that the future looks bright for the Games With Gold program.
