Happy (almost) New Year! The PlayStation Plus team is gearing up for another banner year in 2013 as we continue to deliver free games, discounts, and access to events, betas and more to give PlayStation fans the edge when it comes to their gaming lifestyle. This week, we welcome PS3 Game NBA JAM On Fire Edition and PS Vita Game Chronovolt to the Instant Game Collection. You’ll also find deeper discounts with the last week of the PSN Holiday Sale.
Important note: We’ll be updating the PlayStation Store today (Monday, 12/31) due to the New Year holiday. Therefore, this Plus update will be live later today when the update has published.
Don’t have PlayStation Plus? Go to the PlayStation Store on your PS3 or PS Vita or click here to get access.
December 31st PlayStation Plus Update
NBA JAM On Fire Edition (PS3)
Free for Plus members
Chronovolt (PS Vita)
Free for Plus members
PSN Holiday Essentials Sale (Week 3)
Various discounts for Plus members
|
Game |
Normal Price |
PSN Sale Price |
Plus Sale Price |
|
Batman: Arkham City |
$29.99 |
$20.99 |
$14.70 |
|
inFAMOUS Festival of Blood |
$9.99 |
$6.99 |
$4.90 |
|
inFAMOUS 2 |
$19.99 |
$13.99 |
Free in Plus |
|
Assassin’s Creed 2 Deluxe Edition |
$19.99 |
$13.99 |
$9.80 |
|
Shadow of the Colossus |
$19.99 |
$13.99 |
$9.80 |
|
Bulletstorm |
$19.99 |
$13.99 |
$9.80 |
|
Sound Shapes (PS3 and PS Vita Cross Buy) |
$14.99 |
$10.49 |
$7.35 |
|
Sound Shapes (PS Vita only) |
$14.99 |
$10.49 |
$7.35 |
|
TOKYO JUNGLE |
$14.99 |
$10.49 |
$7.35 |
|
Skullgirls |
$14.99 |
$10.49 |
$7.35 |
|
Touch My Katamari |
$24.99 |
$17.49 |
$12.25 |
[poll id=”30″]
As the last Plus post from 2012, I also want to extend a sincere thank you to all those who leave their feedback week to week. Whether you’re excited about an update, or giving your feedback about what you prefer, it’s always great to chat with you all. With PlayStation fans like you guys, I’m looking forward to an awesome 2013, and I hope you all will continue to bring the feedback; positive or critical.
We’ll be back next week as usual, but make sure you make your voice heard in the comments below, and also make sure to vote in the polls. You can also delve into the PlayStation Community Forums in the PS Plus space to continue chatting about Plus, or find other great sub-forums to participate in and build your PlayStation community cred. See you in the comments!
Man this really blows. Who’s in charge here anyways? Someone at PS+ need to get a grip on reality. Do the people picking these crap games even play games themselves or what? I feel like I’ve been getting slapped in the face by your updates for the last three or four months. I’m not one to complain (although I did last month too), and I was hoping it would get better. But the Plus service in NA has become terrible. Someone pull their heads out of the dark place its been. PLEASE FIX PS+!!! It’s Broken.
Nothing good on these sales when you already own most of them at retail price.
thank you guys
and a 2013 with a lot of games for us all
bamahollis88
hes Reposting what another person posted a couple weeks ago. plus it was a SARCASM post.
A free PS Vita game, and another great PSN title!? Not to mention some great discounts!
I might have to pick up Katamari.
And to all of those who are disappointed by NBA Jam have obviously never played NBA Jam :P It’s a fantastic arcade-style game that is fantastic for local multiplayer. I cannot recommend everyone trying it out;
it’s a sports game for those who don’t like sports games.
Every week for all December the blog comments have been the same. How does Sony go about gathering their marketing data for presenting PS+ deals? It seems to have been very poor.
I like NBA Jam On Fire.
Too bad I already have it.
Nothing for me this week (again). Not trying to be rude, just trying to give some useful feedback. Again, as many have said: we want popular top-shelf games. We’re not getting them.
“Nothing for me” is holding strong at its highest percent yet.
Please fire the PSN store staff (or whoever is in charge of sales and Plus content) before this gets even worse.
Or be happy with customers not spending on the US store.
i was expecting something better.
i will definitely be checking out chronovault :)
nba on fire edition is definitely sweet too!
Great update, IMO!
Oh, and Happy New Year Morgan! :)
@saab01 Dude that’s not cool and I hope you’re not serious. These people who have jobs and maybe families (and in an economy like this) should not be fired simply because you aren’t satisfied with the free games you’re getting. (reading that now sounds even more ridiculous). That really makes us as gamers look really greedy and spoiled…
As for your “solution” I don’t think it’ll work as (from what you’re suggesting) the PS Plus team would give us the initial list of games to vote and pick from. What if people don’t like any of those games? For example they tell us to choose 3 games from the following: 1)Bioshock 2 2)SSFIV 3)Anamoly Warzone Earth 4)NBA Jam 5)Retro City Rampage 6)Chronvolt 7)Closure, people would still complain no matter which three games were chosen (as 6 of them were free this month anyway). Or I could be wrong and allowing people to choose the games magically makes them happier (yeah I highly doubt that).
chronovolt* excuse me
I really hoped for the batman arkham city to be free like in europe.
I
I’m not sure if this will get answered here, but I couldn’t locate another place to ask. When I first got my PS3, I downloaded the demo for RE5. Then when I got PS+, I DL’d the Trial for the Gold version. When it popped up on the IGC, I DL’d it again and thougth I was good. I didn’t notice the little yellow tab next to it.
I played the game for a bit to check it out, then set it aside while I worked on others. When I went back to play it, it said the content was expired. I deleted the file then went back into the store and went through all of my downloads, thinking it’d be that easy. The only instance of RE5 I found, however, was the demo I DL’d back in the day. I can’t find the Gold version anywhere. And now that it’s no longer in the IGC, I have a feeling I’m SOL.
Am I doing something wrong or did I miss out on this game?
Thanks.
im surprised to see all of these people complaining about the offerings over the last few weeks.
do you guys understand the value of $50 bucks?
plus has been a great value since day one….and now its still an amazing value….unless u can take the value of all of the games offered since this time last year and equate it to less than 50 bucks on top of cloud saves, discounts, and exclusive beta access….
im not a sony defender…im just a logic defender.
it blows my mind…really.
again, great update and thanks for the free day 1 game and 15 dollar nba jam: on fire edition for free
@261
You may have initially triggered the 60 minute trial of the game?
you would need to go back into your download list and redownload the game…it may have an unlock key that u need to download as well.
if thats not the case, then contact customer support.
@fractality820 You are probably SOL. It’s always smart to add anything that is in the IGC into your cart at the very least. That way you can download it at a later date. For instance. I don’t own a vita yet I have all of them labelled as purchased so I can download them later when I actually get one. :D
It would be nice if people would stop making contradictory complaints.
A1. “We want popular RETAIL games!”
yet…
A2. “Why did you provide game X when so many people already own it?”
B1. “We’ve had a ton of fighting games. No more fighting games!”
yet…
B2. “Where’s Mortal Kombat?!?!?!?”
C1. “We want recent games, not games that are over a year old!”
yet…
C2. “How come EU gets RDR and Vanquish but we don’t?!?!?”
Not saying Plus is perfect, and I’m not saying I’ve never seen a game announced for the EU IGC that I’d like (Big Sky Infinity & Retro/Grade come to mind), but I’m sure the complaints would be taken more seriously if they were all congruent instead of often being total opposites.
Well, not going to complain or ask for more. Just won’t be renewing my membership. It’s not that I haven’t got my moneys worth. I think I have but I’m not liking the direction this service is going and don’t want to risk another years membership to find out. If only I could have purchased LBP2 when it was on sale a couple of weeks back.
While NBA Jam is not for me I can appreciate that they are trying to provide a variety of genres for the different gamers out there. However, it really seems that there hasn’t been as much variety over the past few months as I’d like to see; from my perspective we’ve gotten a lot of fighters, brawlers, and shooters with the majority of the games that have been offered being too violent/harsh for my tastes.
Correct me if I’m wrong but have we ever gotten an RPG for plus? I can’t recall off the top of my head. There are so many wonderful niche titles available that cater to a much broader consumer base than violent shooters and fighters we’ve been offered, I’d simply like to see more of these unique titles that Sony has to offer mingled among these other more mainstream titles (as old and seemingly unwanted by the vocal minority as they are).
As a consumer the most important thing is that I see that I am getting the best value for my money and that hasn’t been the case these past few months, it is mostly a personal preference and not every drop can cater to my interests. I would love to see an RPG like Rainbow Moon or a Dungeon Crawler thrown into the mix every once in a while.
This is perfect. I’d been looking to get both sound shapes and Tokyo jungle but I didn’t want to add any more funds to my account. Now thanks to the sale I have just enough to get them both. I’m glad I waited.
i only really play my ps vita and overall plus has been a great deal if only for gravity rush and uncharted other then those two it has been pretty sad and almost every week since i got ps plus last month when i check this post i see “nothing for me this week” as the most voted i at least would just like to see a couple good psp games for free since i know there is not all to many vita games out right now
“Nothing for me this week” for three updates in a row. I’m starting to get a little agitated. If PS+ doesn’t improve, I’m not renewing for a third year when my second year ends next summer. The offerings have either been lame lately or crap I already own. Definitely losing patience with Sony.
@261, fractality820- I believe that if it’s in your DL listing you should be fine. However, I think it was a “trial” as in the timed version that you downloaded & not the IGC RE5? Someone please correct me if I’m wrong. However, at this point, if the content is expired, you’ll have to wait till RE5 cycles back into the IGC- which could be a year since its inclusion.
Edit: beaten by JonJonXD.
@263 and 264 Thanks for the advice. I did download RE5 Gold when it was in the IGC and it showed up as the Trial instead. Now it’s not appearing in my download list. Oh well. I’ll keep trying and if I must, I’ll get a hold of customer service. Or I’ll just deal with the fact I have dozens of other games waiting to be played and I have very little time to play them.
I’m confused… Does Lumines get an extra discount for PS Plus users or not?
Just a heads up, next year/time just tell us honestly that the sales will be mediocre, mostly stuff that was on sale before, etc… instead of hyping it up all month and promising that it will equal the quality of the massive discounts on new games the EU had.
In other words, replying to posts and promising high quality + all the typos and errors lately, have made this a mess of your own making. I wouldn’t have cared about what was on sale this year if you hadn’t hyped it so much and promised it would be as good as the EU got.
If all I had heard is ‘some stuff will be on sale this holiday’ then I would have had much different expectations, and much lower standards for the last few weeks, in which case I would see the store and plus updates in a more positive light.
So next sale just be straight with your customers: no we won’t get big discounts on new games, no it won’t be anywhere near the quality of the EU sales, yes it will be games that were on sale before recently, yes add-ons almost never see a discount anymore. Simple enough.
Last year you guys had a sale on PS+ Subscriptions around the end of the year into the beginning of this year. I’ve been checking constantly and you haven’t had subscriptions on sale like at all this year… except for like one week in September. I’m really skeptical to spend $50 to renew my subscription.. I appreciate you guys a lot, but you’re dropping the ball here and there when it comes to stuff the fans want. What’s the point of the polls if you’re not listening to them?
I do understand that it’s probably hard for companies to agree to having their games be free or something sometimes, but at least do SOMETHING nice as a transition thing. I mean the holiday sale is okay and all, but I’m really surprised you’re not doing the celebratory subscription discount again. Even if it’s only for this week or something, it’s going to be really hard for you to recruit subscribers if you don’t do the discounts during times people are actually paying attention (like holidays)
I’m a playstation plus member and the prices for the sale items aren’t reflecting that, is there a problem with my account? Also I guess I didn’t read that the store was updating early and I missed the mafia 2 purchase I had planned.
Another great update, have been a loyal Plus member since day one and will continue for years to come.
Question????? anyone else log into the PS Store and it doesnt recognize they are a PS Plus member?
Great deals! I’m going to buy Assassins Creed II, Tokyo Jungle, and Batman: AC for my sister since I got her a PS3 few weeks ago, she will love it, and I’ll love the low prices. :)
Not really a sports game fan, but for free? You know I’ll be trying it out, especially since it got a 9/10.
As for Chronovolt, I already have a huge backlog on my Vita (and ran out of memory) :( so I may just “buy it” but not download it until a while later.
Thanks for the sale. :)
I will definitely renew my subscription in June.
Wow plus is getting worse with each update, why have a poll or a comment section if you are not going to listen to the feedback. For the last month the not for me vote has been the majority but yet you do another crap sports title. At this point you guys need to start looking at a way to give refunds on the service.
Meh. Again. Won’t complain about Jam but the Vita game is disgusting. Get a new bus driver SCEA this one can’t cut it anymore. The service was great when I signed up but it has been slipping alot lately. Hopefully they start things off right in 2013 or find somebody else to run this US Plus business.
I restarted my PS3 and the store app multiple times before I was charged the correct PS+ price for Tokyo Jungle and Sound Shapes, but I still can’t manage to check out with Lumines on Vita for the Plus price.
As a Plus Member, I stopped buying PSN games a while ago (@89). Could we get Journey and The Unfinished Swan before my lack-luster Plus subscription ends?
edit: (@85)
As a plus member and PS3 owner since March 2011, I’m delighted to see AC II under $10. Last week I was glad to nab Journey, Sonic 4 1 & 2 and Afterburner Climax. These discounts get the vote from me! Happy New Year to the Plus team!
never heard of that vita game but I’ll definitely give it a go!! And as for the sale will finally play Batman Arkham City. Now I wait for the dlc to be cheaper and I’ll get that too!
There are some good sales this week and I love basketball, so NBA Jam isn’t too bad although quite obvious that sports games aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. However, as far as this week’s update the value that we are getting is lower since Chronovolt seems to be a $5 game and obviously NBA Jam is a $15 game or lower. I would love to see discounts on DLC for IGC games or give us the choice whether to get the full game or for those that already have it, they can get the DLC heavily discounted at least.
Nevermind, I should’ve read the responses first. I think a few more bucks for Lumines wouldn’t hurt. I mean, if I want to play it, I ought to buy it.
I really like this week’s sale the most out of the three.
Wow… quite the way to end the year. Good thing i readied myself for another horrible update… thus i was not dissapointed.
@Morgan Last week, I wasn’t referring to overhauling the Share side, but just the fact that new ideas haven’t been posted for 3-4 months now. What is the point of posting new ideas when they won’t get posted for people to vote on. Also please update the PS Vita so it gives you to option to automatically upload saves to the cloud or give use a upload ALL button.
Also what is the point of selling Sound Shapes only for the PS Vita when you get both versions for the same price?
LOL, after reading most of the comments, I have to say its funny how some of you have such high expectations.
One can only hope some of you don’t renew and thus have nothing to complain about anymore since you aren’t really losing any money out of it.
Seriously, I can understand some criticism from some people, but some of you sound downright stupid from the stuff you post.
Especially those saying, “not a stupid sports game” Are you for real? I’m glad they are offering different types of games, it gives me a chance to try out games I would have not otherwise played.
Some of you need to have a reality check and not expect to get more than one AAA game a month and look forward to the good PSN games.
Well, finally on week three I can vote for something other than “nothing for me.”
Chronovolt at least looks interesting, so I voted for that. Hopefully the standard store sales will have something interesting, as that’s been my saving grace the last few weeks. Though, the update seems to be a bit later than last week, so I may have to wait until after work to check it out… >.>
I demand multiple accounts on PS Vita, I’m paying PS Plus subscription on both US (pretty bad) and EU (rules) regions.. And I want to get all the goodies from EU store for my PS Vita, just as I do on my PS3. That stupid lock to one account per Vita its just ridiculous.
I must become in PS+ EU member to get decent games …?
Yay… you just had to give us a sports game didn’t you?
There is nothing I want on the holiday essentials sale this week. I’ll be getting NBA JAM: On Fire Edition.
I used to play the original NBA JAM when i was young.
@50 (Ghostwize) You’re right, that was totally uncalled for, I apologize. But you see people complaining about everything, if you spread misinformation it only gets worse, to the point where 6 pages of comments later people are still complaining about it, when Morgan addressed that in a reply to your comment on the very first page.