PlayStation Plus Update: Guardians of Middle Earth Free; Karateka 50% Off

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PlayStation Plus Update: Guardians of Middle Earth Free; Karateka 50% Off

Welcome to this week’s PlayStation Plus update, where we’re excited to bring news that the Guardians of Middle Earth MOBA greatness will be coming free to PS3 for PS Plus members! If you’ve never tried this unique genre that’s taking the gaming community by storm, give Guardians of Middle Earth a download and see what all the excitement is about. While you’re at it, check out a handful of discounts on some pretty amazing games you may have missed out on for both PS3 and PS Vita.

Friendly reminder: The deal is on through March 4th: purchase a one-year membership of PS Plus and get three bonus months free. Current members can stack this value on to their existing membership as well. Learn more about the offer here, or click the link below to go to the SEN online store.

Don’t have PlayStation Plus, or just want to add more time to your existing membership? Go to the PlayStation Store on your PS3 or PS Vita or click here to get access via the Sony Entertainment Network online store.

February 5th PlayStation Plus Update

Guardians of Middle Earth (PS3)

Free for PS Plus members (Original Price: $14.99)

Take up arms in the clash over Middle-earth with the most powerful heroes from the greatest fantasy epic of all time. Form alliances with and against friends and jump into the wildly popular Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) gameplay. With 20 iconic guardians from Middle-earth, and new guardians coming all the time, it’s the perfect time to get lost in the multiplayer fray in epic 5 versus 5 battles.
Karateka (PS3)

50% off for PS Plus members (Original price: $9.99; PS Plus price: $5.00)

A beautifully simple premise with a fun pick up and play fighting system, Karateka blends old school gameplay charm with fluid combat animations and gorgeous backdrops and music to provide an amazing adventure with a ton of replay value. Are you skilled enough to rescue Princess Mariko with the fighting finesse of her True Love? Or will you need the power of the burly brute to topple the opposition? For more on Karateka, check out PS.Blog’s post from Assistant Producer Heather d’Evelyn.

Big Sky Infinity (PS3 and PS Vita – Cross Buy Enabled)

40% off for PS Plus members (Original price: $9.99; PS Plus price: $5.99)

Big Sky Infinity is a lightning-fast, randomly-generated game that adapts to how you play; which means, it’s never the same game twice. You pilot a spaceship that’s flying straight into an alien armada. The further you progress, the harder it gets, with giant bosses, streams of enemies, and unique events that shift the gameplay to keep you on your toes. It’s Cross Buy enabled, so this purchase will get you a version to play on both your PS Vita and PS3. Check out more Big Sky Infinity from the game’s director James Whitehead.

Knytt Underground (PS3 and PS Vita – Cross Buy Enabled)

40% off for PS Plus members (Original price: $9.99 $14.99; PS Plus price: $5.00 $8.99)

Knytt Underground tells a quirky and strange tale that’s set in the future, hundreds of years after the humans disappeared from the planet. Sprites, fairies and various other lifeforms roam tunnels in the underground. With a curiousity about their origin and the meaning of life, they strike out to find those answers they try to understand the ones who had obviously figured it out: the humans. It’s a beautiful adventure with a vast environment to explore and story driven quests that will keep you hooked. Read more about Knytt Underground in the PS Blog’s post featuring the Creative Director Nicklas Nygren.

Thanks for reading this week’s update. As usual, you can join the PlayStation community over on the PlayStation Community Forums in the PS Plus space to continue chatting about PS Plus, or find other PlayStation topics to discuss, or even start one yourself. See you in the comments!

PlayStation Plus Update 2-4-2013

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877 Comments

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  • (continued from post #547)

    Now, thanks to you guys at Sony, I can’t even see Qore nor Pulse anymore (two things I *greatly* enjoyed and also, *greatly* enjoyed from Sony); and I really was looking forward to, now that I had the money in my Playstation-Store “wallet” to do so, download the Qore episodes that I wasn’t able to see before (such as the episode that talks about Crysis 2) — especially now that I’m a Playstation-Plus member (don’t get your hopes up Sony. I only bought a “1-year plan”-Playstation-Plus card online so that I could get access to that “online cloud-storage game-saves backup”-thing that I needed so I could backup my COPY-PROTECTED games (like the Assassin’s Creed games I have and the two Crysis games I have (Crysis 1 and Crysis 2), since I was upgrading my PS3′s hard-drive)) and can get those Qore episodes (at least this is what I’ve heard and read) for free.

    Also, for the love of humanity, what is UP with the CONFUSING (and/or EXTREMELY-*CONFUSING*) category-names in the “homepage” of the Playstation-Store?

  • (continued from post #551)

    I mean come on: “New On PS3″, ” *Hot* on PS3″, and “Most Downloaded”. Usually “Hot” (in this particular case) can mean one of two things (and in some [particular] cases, like this one [for example], it can mean a third thing), it can mean like “hot off the press” (well you know what that means) (“wow”, “it’s new”, “it’s on FIRE”, “it’s what people are mostly interested in right now”, etc. etc.). (It can also mean “it’s what people are[, mostly,] looking-at right now and/ore are [most] interested in getting”).

    But then you have “NEW on PS3″ (which means pretty much the same thing as “HOT on PS3″ — referring to when I explained 2 seconds ago what “Hot on PS3″ means).

    And THEN you have “MOST *DOWNLOADED*” which means basically — that, what people said it means / what you read it means / it’s self-explanatory. “What people are MOST *DOWNLOADING* on the PS3′s “Playstation Store” “. “What are people MOST *DOWNLOADING* on Playstation-Store[?]“.

  • (continued from post #552)

    So it pretty much creates ALOT of confusion (if not a-TON of confusion). You have “HOT” on PS3, which can mean “hot off the press” (as in “new”) (which you already have in the category “NEW on PS3″), or it can mean “what people are MOST *INTERESTED* IN” (which you already have in the category “Most Downloaded”).

    So please, make the categories simpler and/or easier to use [and/or understand] (aka. more “user-friendly”, like they were in the [affectionately-called] “Old Blue” Playstation-Store).

    And please read all the comments and stuff about the “new” Playstation-Store in the comments section of all of your blog-posts ever since the “new” Playstation-Store came out, including the forums (including but not limited to the forum-pages I showed you and gave you the links of), and the YouTube-pages for your products and/or videos (including but not limited to that YouTube-page for your walkthrough-of-the-”New”-Playstation-Store that I showed you and gave you the link of).

    Many thanks in advance for taking the time [and patience] to read this message and consider all feedback (including but not limited to mine obviously :-) ).

  • P.S. since this is a “Playstation-Plus”-Update blog-post I have to reiterate and re-emphasize: We want our Qore episodes and our Pulse videos back. Please put them back in the Playstation Store! O_O

    (I really wanted to see the Qore episode in which you talked about Crysis 2, but I didn’t even have a PS3 back then (let alone a PSN-account, or a Playstation-Plus subscription, etc.), and now that I have a PSN-account AND enough money in my PSN-“wallet” to download that Qore episode, I can no longer do it because Qore episodes [and Pulse videos] are no longer IN the Playstation-Store! O_O . (Not to mention, that now that I’m a Playstation-Plus subscriber, I can (at least from what I’ve heard and/or read) download Qore episodes for free [and therefore without spending any money in my PSN-“wallet”).

  • lol, OBond007

    Good luck on getting one person to read all that.

    I have no idea what you said, just saying good luck!

  • Can we get to vote on upcoming releases? If so i’d like to put a vote in for Red Dead Redemption and Dead Space 2!

  • PS Plus is lame. I only have like 4 months left and not finding any reason to resub. Weak sauce.

  • @Morgan – I saw you post this in the forums in the Sound Off thread for this week’s update:

    And remember folks; if we can’t be respectful of one another, we’ll be removing folks from the forum access. There will always be differences of opinions, but inability to have a fun discussion about games here and not resort to inflammatory comments; you’re out, and I’ll be happy to see you to the door.

    Are you allowed to get rid of the haters here too? These negative posts may change a person’s views on the content presented. I want to get the GoME game. But the negativity in this blog is confusing me.

  • WOOOOWWWWW!!!

    Thanks for the offer for PSVita games Sony, I’m looking forward for Big Sky and Kyntt, althought they are offered free in EU, but no problem it’s still good to see first week is still filled by PSvita titles.

    and the MOBA, it’s very good, I like MOBA but not having PS3 for now.

  • So dissapointing, I try to refer my friends to PlayStation Plus but they see that all we get is 3-4 year old retail games or 5$-15$ download titles, and they’re quickly turned off. You want to shut us up than give us Sleeping Dogs!!!

  • I can’t wait until these people talking about their subs being almost up are finally done. Maybe we won’t have to see their comments in PS+ post anymore.

  • WELL A LEAST UPDATES ARE GETTING BETTER. NOT A BAD AS THE DECEMBER LET DOWN DISASTER.

  • Seriously a very underwelming update. EU gets Sleeping Dogs and we get a crap MOBA. Lovely.

  • Thanks for the news Morgan. Not the best update, not the worst, Foosball was prob the worst….

    What I really miss from PS+ are the free avatars, themes, minis, PS1 classics, sega classics, etc. I also miss the monthly updates, it would let me plan out my gaming schedule a little better.

    Should go back to the old formula:
    – 1x PS3 game per month or two (doesn’t need to be the newest)
    – 1-2x PSN game per month (again, doesn’t need to be the newest, but surprise us now and then with stuff like DDneon)
    – 1x PSX game per month (People love the classics, an easy way to keep them happy, especially with JRPG titles)
    – 1-2x MINIS per month (Hungry Giraffe was the most enjoyment/time spent finishing a game I have had in years)
    – Avatars, themes, sales, early access, sega classics, etc…
    – And I suppose 1-2 Vita games per month now as well.

    This post will probably be ignored but anyways, PS+ is still a great value for the money, but the value/money ratio is slimming very quickly, especially for people who don’t only use the PS3 as there sole gaming console. 3-4 humble bundles alone top what we have gotten in the past year.

  • Final thoughts: I was in the weekly update band wagon because we were promised more enticing content which could not be negotiated a whole month in advanced but honestly it seems more like last minute decisions to add games on a weekly basis with little to no thought put into it.

    Foosball really?

    ~Mis

  • Guardians doesn’t interest me in the least.

  • Hello Morgan and Grace… I hope I’m not too late!

    You don’t have too respond to this, just read!

    I rushed home to post this: Please, please, please…(f****n pretty) please! Do not give Dead space 2 out for a freebie this month! It has discounted to death, and I bought it already. So has other people.. Give out part 1 and do a discount for dead space 2(I know its coming) for the release of 3. I know how the trends work, and I just don’t want to be disappointed for the whole month of February. I have been a plus member since the igc, and while I know you guys have been trying not too.. It really has been stale since the release of vita igc. I am greatful for it all, but its so many other games out there to make deals with. My sub ends tonight, and somethins telling me that dead space 2 will be the big freebie this month.. I just stopped the auto-renew(for the first time) and will have to wait and see what march is looking like. I can live without lotr: gome and the inevitable ds2 leaving me 1 unknown ps3 game and a vita game. Feb looks passable, and that’s what I have to do. But love guys man. P.s if you can assure me quick that the big game for Feb is not dead space 2 I’ll get the $50 for 15 month deal today!

  • @ ossiecastro5

    That really is not got logic; people are talking bad about it so they should stop talking and not be allowed to voice their opinions. How about you look at the games the US and EU is getting and then decide for yourself if you’re ok with what the US is getting. If you are ok with it then voice your opinion or don’t say anything at all, if you are not ok with it then voice your opinion or don’t say anything at all. Why would you get confused about getting GoME? Here I’ll tell you what to do so you won’t be confused. Get off the computer and wait until tomorrow and try the game out for several hours, at that point in time you can then make a decide if you liked the game or not.

  • I really enjoy the Plus service even if I only really get one game a month that I do like, It still works out to be a good deal for me. That being said, Morgan lost any fiber of Credibility with me a while ago. I never seen anyone talk out of their rear so much. Love plus, Morgan not so much. Sorry guy but you need to be more upfront with the community and not try to hard to sell us on plus every week when we are already members. Over hyping crap all the time is very poor buissness and the fact that everytime you get called out on it you take absolutly no responsibility for your comments and deny them all together. Poor ethics BUD…

  • So am i paying $50 for a year full of disgusting content like this?

  • Finally signed into the blog so that I can post…

    Week after week I hear the cries of the masses and their distaste for the US selection of games, but I stay hopeful that their cries will eventually be heard and met with a possible new game on par with EU/UK to sate their appetites… Alas, still NO, months later and it’s still bad and old games on sale and no AAA release.

    Seriously, Sony, if your going to continue the PLUS program, at least throw us a bone once in a while. I agree with “all the haters” this new shimmy shuck Instant Game Collection is a joke and sad. In addition, they’re not “haters”, they are the majority and the term would only apply if said content was actually good. So, in reality, they are just being honest with the current state of SONY’s mediocrity.

  • I can understand that all of you have the right to complain when the free game for the week isn’t to your liking but I cannot understand for the life of me the people who are demanding certian games be free. Look, if you want said game so bad (ie: Sleeping Dogs,) here’s an idea, go buy it! It is a great game made by great developers that you can get pretty cheap now! I recently saw it for $19.99! I mean, do you not buy any games at all or do you just subscribe to Plus with the idea that every game you want will be free? Good luck with that!

    As I have stated before, the free games on the PS3 side (other than Darksiders) just haven’t been of interest to me for quite a few months but the value of Plus is so much more than free games! Just look at the amazing sales recently, we got Journey, The Unfinished Swan, Papo y Yo and many more great games on the cheap! Not to mention the cloud storage, automatic updates, etc.

  • @ nolo451

    Obviously you don’t possess the intelligence to comprehend a simple post that I need to keep repeating to you so go back to 8th grade and learn some critical thinking skills (pro tip: it will help you outside of the PS forums) and then we’ll talk.

    Peace

  • Lousy update…Makes me regret renewing my playstation plus…why couldn’t get a game like dead space 1 or a playstation title that everyone would like but not everyone one likes lord of the rings man…

  • How surprising, another garbage update. Funny how all we seem to get in the US region is the left-over cr*p from the EU region, while the EU region of course gets plenty of AAA-titles as well as all the top titles from the US region, obviously.

    How does that make sense? Case in point this week with GOME which was one of the cheapo PS+ games last month for EU.

    I don’t care if you give us the exact AAA-titles that EU have gotten like Red dead redemption, Dead space 2, Crysis 2, Sleeping dogs, Arkham city, Vanquish, Mortal Kombat… and the list goes on… although I certainly wouldn’t mind getting at least SOME of those titles anytime soon (!!) but at least give us something COMPARABLE, and games that people actually want to play. It’s quite obvious from most of the comments these past few months that people are NOT happy with the “free” PS+ games we’ve been getting lately…

    If you want me to renew my + with the current promo, I want to see some GOOD QUALITY games offered first!! How about starting with the remaining episodes for Walking Dead??

  • @race2winnet I hear you…
    But make no mistake, its about the games. And the constant EU comparison is just respectable. As much as I want to come on here and flame the haters, I can’t blame them for not feeling the way I feel. I feel that it would get better and I am patient (sorta) but when your paying for the same thing someone else is getting and you find out that, what the other person is getting is better? you’d be pissed :/ different region or not. The quality has(is)been degrading. And they need to know that, if they don’t how will it ever get better? It’s only one way to shut them up, and that’s by giving them the pickle!

  • Another Dissaponting update, like usual. I have 2 months to go on my current subscription and i will NOT renew it. I guess Plus US just really doesn’t care about his content anymore. I’ll give you a hint guys, “quality over quantity” usually works well. You know, like Plus EU does it… Oh wait, they also gave more games besides being BETTER ones, nevermind.

  • been looking forward to giving Guardians a try. I’m ok, I’m getting Cooper tomorrow for my Vita!

  • Dear Sony/PS Teams,

    Misaow said it best!!!!!!! = Comment #563

    ^f*** ing smart!!! I MISS those days of PS+ sometimes! Then you pull out goodies like Double Dragon Neon and Darksiders (thank you, DD Neon was especially great!) BUT I’d rather have ONE awesome new game per month than a mix of 3 older & not-so-great PS3/PSN titles per month. OR make Demon’s Souls &/or Red Dead Redemption free for PS+ subscribers and watch NO ONE EVER COMPLAIN, EVER AGAIN :)

  • @ Morgan Haro

    Thanks for taking the time to visit the forums and give a reply, we really are excited to see rainbow moon sometime in the future maybe time it before the launch?

    I will be check out the free game this week, not to bad, though I think everyone is waiting for another blockbuster to come to plus.

  • I’m going to try Guardians of Middle Earth .

  • + MAC2WIN on February 4th, 2013 at 7:38 am said:

    >The worst part is that Guardians of Middle Earth has been around for PS+ EU for a month already.
    >https://blog.eu.playstation.com/2012/12/19/playstation-plus-your-january-content/

    Yes, and since nobody was asking “look there EU plus got GOME, why didn’t US” get that??
    The lack of such response must have sent a signal that we really wanted that game…
    So they decided to give it to us.

    Anyhow. Nothing for me this week. But since I’m guessing that the poll is set to ‘private’ again. I won’t bother voting on it.

  • Haters gonna hate – if you look at the history of PS+ they always have given out really good games interspersed with stuff that might not appeal to everyone or is low rated. PS+ has been ridiculously good to me especially now that I own a Vita.

    Speaking of Vita….please more Vita game discounts? They make going fully digital really appealing.

  • In my 1 year & 1 month of being a plus member I have never once complained about plus infact I’m usually telling others to relax we will get some thing better next week…. BUT I seem to be noticing a trend the last couple months. EU is getting top notch AAA titles and us in North America are getting shovel ware week after week! Whats going on? Why such a disparity in the free content?

    How about putting a poll together every month with a list of possible free games and let the community vote on which ones make the cut that way as a collective the majority of us will be pleased!

  • Terrible update. We want Sleeping Dogs. I am starting to regret my Plus subscription

  • There is nothing in this update that appeals to me, but instead of crying, I will simply say “congrats” to any of you Plussers who are interested in these types of games. there have been plenty of weeks where the selection was to my liking, won’t throw a hissy fit because we have a week here with nothing for me.

    PS-Morgan, dude, when I saw the picture I got excited because I thought it was the hack n slash War In The North, any chance you guys can try for that?

  • Guardians of Middle Earth Free!, Thx Sony!.

  • @ Juno5143,

    Whatever you say man. I repeated myself and even clarified what I meant, yet you keep taking it as some sort of insult. Internet=serious business?

    Oh no, some random person is mad at me what ever will I do? Guess I’ll go ahead and quit my job and throw away my degree because some guy on here said I have to go back to 8th grade!

    I mean seriously? Schoolyard insults? Not even going to bother replying back to you. I already should have just ignored you after you called me brain dead. That’s what I get for trying to respond to someone’s comment I guess.

    I’ll never get why some people get so heated over comments on the internet. Dumbest thing is, if you actually read what I said, I was just saying why they made it private. Holy cow, did I not realize that would get someone so butt hurt about it.

  • Haven’t been playing PS3 much recently so PS+ updates don’t matter too much for me right now. I love it though when friends buy a game and it becomes free for PS+ not long after though, lol!
    Playstation Omni announce on 20th please!

  • :D this is an awesome update me! thank you!!!

  • Nice update. I already own Guardians of Middle Earth (great game if you haven’t given it a try). Two cross buy titles on sale? Looks like I will be adding Knytt and Big Sky to my collection. Thanks again Sony.

  • That’s cool, I’m glad that I haven´t buyed any ps3 game lol

  • Once again pass hate online gaming with a passion.

  • well im very happy with mu EU subscription (my god do they make fun of SoA plus i mean its unreal) so now i guess since my plus runs out in march ill be sticking with my EU – im no expert but if i saw this many negative comments it would be a PR nightmare.
    (kinda like that extra long maintenance that we were given no explanation for the other week- u know the one that was supposed to be 8 hrs then went to 72?)

  • I wish Morgan could honestly admit that the releases are heavily in favor of EU and stop lying to us about it being equal. Sleeping Dogs (one of the best games I’ve played all last year) compared to ANY Lord of the Rings games…if that’s equal in your eyes Morgan, there is something seriously wrong with idea of EQUAL. I’m not asking that we get the same games and I only ask that if you give EU a piece of gold like Sleeping Dogs, we get something of equal value and not a turd you’re trying to paint gold. Stop giving us BS excuses, about license agreements, brokering deals in EU is the same as the NA because trade laws between Japan, America and Europe are all the same. So just broker a deal with some good game companies and stop feeding us BS and saying it’s gourmet.

  • This is why most of you complainers sound like spoiled children:

    You expect us to get the AAA games that Europe gets even though it should be obvious by now that we wouldn’t get it. Either you like to set yourselves up for disappoint, you’re not very bright, or you like whining.

    Second, many of you are complaining that we got a $15 game instead of a higher priced retail game. Big deal. PS+ is $50 a year and there’s a deal right now for 3 months extra for free. Isn’t it great that we got a $15 game as one of our 3 or more PS3 games for this month? How could that possibly be a bad thing? Ask yourself if you’d be so disappointed if Europe got the same games as NA.

    Third, most of you calling this game awful haven’t played it. Don’t lie. At least play it for 15-30 minutes when it’s free before trashing it. Based on the videos and reviews, it seems like a good, maybe great, game plagued by matchmaking issues. That could be a dealbreaker, but the sudden influx of players tomorrow and the EU PS+ subscribers who have been playing since last month might make it easier to find a game.

  • Nothing for me this year.

  • I wonder the sort of weak offering for Plus so far is due to Sony is holding up something big for the Feb 20 event. I bet they’ll announce some great deals for Plus subscribers on that day. Besides Sleeping Dogs that I love to have, maybe throw in Uncharted 3 for free?? They must have sth to offer on that day besides PS4 announcement, so folks should stay tuned.

  • @593

    Admiting things it’s the first step to changing them, so i don’t see morgan admiting anything anytime soon. I mean i don’t blame him he’s just an employee who must, you know, make money, you can’t blame the delivery guy for the awful taste of the pizza.
    I know that in terms of money the plus is still a good service (in MONEY terms), but as a gamer they just gave me a lot of games that i already buyed, PSN games that i would never buy or want, and maybe 2 or 3 good games that i didn’t have, for me it’s just not worth it.
    +EU got so many good games that its just not funny anymore, Deus Ex HR, MK, Dead Space 2 (OMG), Crysis 2, Arkham Asylum, Vanquish, and now even Sleeping Dogs (awesome). They even got GOOD PSN games like machinarium and Knitt Underground (yeah, the one we get a discount only). Why do i even bother with this.

  • You folks complaining are off the wall insane. Take a chill pill, read Morgan’s reply to #63 about the publishers, and remind yourself that ps+ only costs you (or your parents) FIFTY dollars a year. For those of you unaware, that’s not much. If you are truly as dissatisfied and entitled as you act, I beg you to let your subscription expire so the madness can end.

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