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

12 Author Replies

  • Wow what’s up with SCEA??? why is it america plus members seem to games that are either really old or nobody wants to play them. like little big planet 2, infamous 2, and darksiders are you serious (old) or games like foosball 2012 and anomaly warzone earth who wants to play those games. Plus right now seems like a waste of 50 bucks. Because i own most of the old titles already and I have no interest in games like foosball.

  • we did get darksiders a little while ago, dont forget that guys.. I’m just disappointed when we get vita only games like last week..

    but to all those people that are saying “dont complain, its FREE” well.. technically its not free since you pay for PS plus..

  • Sony NA, we have been begging you to understand that your offering is always worse than EU.

  • @DonkeyKongKilla

    Alright, my mistake. I followed the convo backwards, and I can admit I concluded wrongly due to looking only at your final follow-up to baha. Anyway, screw insulting each other back and forth, I didn’t intend to start fights or seem like an a-hole.

    I’ll be sure to read through before I jump the gun here on in.

  • I’m glad I didn’t renew. I’ll spend the money on games I actually want.

  • its not free if you own most of the games already :-/

  • @ TitleOne,

    GOME really is a fun game if you’re into these type of games I tried it a while back on a friends PS3, its pretty fun once you get the hang of it. I wouldn’t have downloaded it if it wasn’t free, so looks like this will be a great update for me.

    Anything else offered this month is gravy as far as I’m concerned.

  • @JoeGoodsnake – Thank you, and if I came off as one I apologize, I didn’t intend that either
    And that’s all I’m saying, Reading more thoroughly never hurt anyone haha.
    Have a good day.

  • @JoeGoodsnake

    I don’t work for Sony, you are correct I have no insider information other than what Morgan and crew have shared. I will very strongly agree that the requests to add Darksider to the IGC did help to bring it. In all honesty I can’t prove that complaining 6 days prior brought darksiders. The same as people complained last month that EU got GOME and the US didn’t, here it is. Why wasn’t it released 2 weeks ago when people complained that US didn’t get it?

    For it replacing NBA Jam, I would like to point out that it is still free for PS Plus on the US webstore. So it has not yet replaced it.

    I do like your point about January being the only month to have two retail games. At the root of what I meant to say is complain away, it does help, they can’t fix what is broken if people don’t tell them. I just gave my opinion that I don’t think that requesting Sony deliver darksiders resulting in positive outcome in 6 days. Big business doesn’t “usually” work that way in my experience.

  • @mnstrings – I’m actually kind of curious, It kind of looks like DCUO and gives it that feel from what people are saying. I noticed it’s Multiplayer only based? So what are the objectives and such for this game.

  • @ 701,

    Vita games given away DOES NOT IMPACT the number of PS3 games that are given away, genius.

    Regardless of how many PS3 games we get each month has NOTHING to do with the Vita games we get.

    Plus, if you are going to nitpick about what free is, you are in this for the wrong reasons. If you want a more satiable answer, I suggest you go read the ToS.

  • GOME is the worst update possible to announce even after EU+ announced they are giving Sleeping dogs like a week back. Y will I even bother to download GOME when I am sure it wont be hving a healthy online community, which is necessary for these kinda games. I will rather play DUST 514 a MMORPG which is a actual FREE game instead of playing this crap GOME.

  • @bir5586 – then it’s not for you, unless you get use out of the discounts, best advice let the sub run out.

  • @JoeGoodsnake turning a blind eye to what? I clearly mentioned multiple times that I’m aware EU gets different (or what some like to call “better”) free games than us. What I don’t get is how something like that somehow makes the value of NA Plus any less. PS Plus isn’t ONLY about free games. And for people to constantly whine saying that EU got a different game from us, and now somehow NA Plus is a waste of money or a rip off is ridiculous. What’s even more stupid is that this game (GoME) was one EU got before us anyway, and so was Darksiders. So how are people saying they want the games EU is getting, we get some, and then still whine?

    Anyway, I already said if free games are all you (not YOU specifically) care about, why don’t you just make yourself happy by 1) getting an EU subscription, 2) subscribe to Gamefly and get as much “free” games as you want, or 3) I don’t know……maybe go out and actually BUY some games! Instead of continuing to support something that will just continue to make you miserable.

  • @ 709,

    Its fun in the sense that is both a MOBA type game (if you’re into them) as well as how there’s an optional 20 min timer, so these things don’t take forever lol.

    If you’re new to these types of games, they also made the controls a lot simpler to understand. Basically you split up into teams and try to destroy each others’ home base. I only played like 3 games, so I’m not sure what else there is to do, but I will try it out again. I just remember I had a fun time and it was easy to get into after a game or two. Maybe watch a quick YouTube video of the game in action?

    I don’t recall having any connection issues when i tried it. I would hope that if there are any issues, that the influx of users thanks to this update will remedy that.

  • @DonkeyKongKilla – wasn’t really seeking advice, but thanks nonetheless. Hopefully SCEA takes some tips from their parent company Japan or even Europe an kick out some games that most members wanna play. if you not gonna do that how about discounts on all your content and not just a few. Make people feel like they didn’t just throw 18-50 bucks down the toilet.

  • @BlueBl1zzard –

    Thats right I dont want to support something that will continue to be miserable. I want to cancel the plus subscription and get the money back atleast for the remaining 11 months. But how can I do that? :(

  • one things I will say, on occasion the actual store updates and random plus extras surprise me. Like disgaea 1 & 2. Those are some serious classics. I’m still trying to lvl 9999 disgaea 4. I spent years (literally) playing 1 & 2. Sooooo, i’ll wait till 8 when the store updates to see if it’s not a total wash…

  • @mnstrings – I had fun with DCUO, your description hints its different. Although it had Versus modes it had other things like missions you could do. Not sure if I ever did MOBA style. But it even have the same text and stuff for World of Warcraft at the end of the trailer video shown on this post. Similar?

  • @bir5586 –

    LOL! it’s hopeless dude, too late. is urs 3 months or a year subscription?

  • @TwinDad

    While it may be doubtful that Sony reacted so fast to complaints, I find the evidence pretty powerful. One really good piece of evidence that I think I used the wrong words to explain is the whole ‘Darksiders replaced NBA Jam’ thing. I put the word “replaced” in quotes in my original reply to you because I didn’t know what a better way to describe it was.

    Unfortunately it came out wrong and you understood it to be that it literally replaced it. Sorry about the confusion, what I meant to say is that as soon as Darksiders was released it took the choice spot on the PS Plus page in PSN. That is, the game that has the most screenspace on PSN when you click on PSPlus –> Featured (or Games, don’t remember). Usually, this spot is reserved for the big retail game for the month, which was NBA Jam the week before Darksiders got released. I think this shows that they “changed their mind” for the month.

    (continued)

  • @TwinDad

    (continued)

    In my opinion, I think it may be a combination of people asking for Darksiders in the weeks before, and the large outcry against NBA Jam together that resulted in Darksiders being released the week after. But even if there was no demand for Darksiders, I feel that -some- retail game would have been released just because of complaints.

    Furthermore, you have to admit, 2 weeks for GOME is not that different from 6 days for Darksiders. It is only an 8 day difference. With that, even if it’s not the case that complaints are making a difference, I’d still argue it’s worth it since if Sony realizes we’re dissatisfied, I am sure they will try harder. That’s all I care about.

    Anyway I’m off for the day, so any further replies will have to wait for tomorrow. Have a good one til then, TwinDad. ;)

  • @DonkeyKongKilla – I know its too late for me haha its the year just renewed it last month

  • @ SabKrit,

    Ok, I have seen you complaining a lot longer here than one month. How do you have 11 months left on PS+?

    You willingly paid for another year’s worth of PS+ knowing how it’s been going for the last 3-4 months (according to you,bad updates)?

    Oh God, please someone refund him, I can’t bear the thought of having to see the same type of comments over and over for almost a year!

  • @ sab_krit

    you are essentially now attached to another plane, wrapped helically around an axis. ;-)

  • @bir5586 – DUDE its not DonkeyKongKilla, r u on crack? lol jk. Renewed last month? what? Why? cuz of Darksiders?

  • Great job on posting Dead Space 3 online after midnight. So many times I go out and buy a game because I don’t want to buy it Tuesday night and wait until Wednesday to be able to play it because of the huge gig downloads. I hope this happens more frequently. We can stay up a little late, buy and download the game and play it at a decent time that afternoon before the store even updates. Kudos to whoever decided to finally make that decision happen.

  • @bir5586 – Well I mean thinking business wise, the free content with subscription seems to be full games that are going to have a recent release of the newer one of the franchise, like bioshock 2 for instance, Wouldn’t be surprised if Darksiders 3 or others would be on its way out within the year. But its up to the publishers ultimately. Discounts and free with subscription seem to be of what I just stated or picking from the bottom of the barrel that you basically said, this service just isn’t cut out for everyone it’s to help people save money, primarily for ones that need it I assume. If you can already get anything you desire then you really don’t need the service in general. But it could be beneficial to you when they give out discounts on newly released game if they do what I stated earlier and announce indications on new released games and such that will be discounted in the mere future maybe 2 month noticed. So people don’t get screwed out of it. Well, if it’s possible for them to do.

  • @TitleOne – I have been wanting to cancel after the first month but cannot do it, thats y I meant 11 months, cuz I realized I made a mistake the very first month when we got RE5 compared to Crysis 2 but not able to cancel it and stuck with 12 months. Only month I was happy is on Jan.

  • @sab_krit – my bad haha all non anime profile pics look alike jk. its because i wanted gravity rush

  • @ElroyMckracken

    Screwed.

  • @DonkeyKongKilla – Darksiders 3 will not happen anytime soon, THQ is getting closed.

  • @DonkeyKongKilla – I can see your point and that is a good idea to do that.

  • Well I hate to break it to you ,but you are in for a world of hurt if you haven’t been satisfied by all the sales/free games/features that have been offered. They most likely aren’t going to just start tossing AAA games into the IGC, so you can either make the best of it and accept it or like some people here who just don’t get it, keep coming here every week saying the same thing over and over.

    Its going to be a looong year.

  • @JoeGoodsnake

    I don’t pay this much attention, but doesn’t the latest game released always get the prime spot on the PS+ splash page? It would seem that is part of what they would pitch the PS+ benefits to for the publisher. Then again, if I was take2 and let them have Borderlands 1 I would want that front and center for the entire time it was on PS+.

    I do see your logic in your argument. Frankly I would love them to be able to select a game on a whim based on last weeks feedback. I’m still waiting for them to select a RPG as a PS+ feature as that genre poll was weeks ago. So let me say that I do follow your logic, and am willing to see and agree to your side. Let me just say my biased mind with my big business experience lets me keep a partial disbelief in the magic of quick turn around.

    Have a good day too. :)

  • @ Morgan Haro

    Any chance that we are getting a 1 year Vita Anniversary game sale like they are getting in Europe? It did release here at the same time.

  • @sab_krit – Hah, Just using it as a example.

  • so, in light of brevity, accept the big (tiny) Sony-wiener with a smile and hope they at least spit on it next week, month, time they try to penetrate your wallet.

  • @sab_krit:

    Yes, THQ is no more, but there is talk that Platinum Games might pick up the Darksiders franchise. I really hope so because that’s my favorite series since Legacy of Kain.

  • Arg! I guess it had to happen sooner or later. I just bought GoME a few days ago for $15. :(

    The good news is that it is one seriously fun game, and it is well worth it. My son loves it too.

  • @TitleOne – That’s the point to the blog, to let it be known if we are satisfied or not. Wow, even Morgan stated that before on numerous comments. We aren’t suppose to just suck it up and be fine with it nor are we subject to be Sony fanboys and say they can do no wrong. It gives them perspectives to go get what we’d like to see.

  • I signed up for plus hoping to get a few cool games and some good discounts (let’s face it there’s no other reason to be a plus member — nobody cares about online storage or automatic updates…). Instead what I’ve been getting is discounts slightly better than regular PSN members (but still not near Steam sales) and games like Foosball HD and NBA Jam…

    It’s hard to complain about a service that is $17 for 3 months, and I sure as hell got value out of that $17 (infamous 2, quantum conundrum, etc)… but I can’t say I’m eager to renew my subscription. I’m just gonna beat all the good games that are up now and wait until PS+ NA gets out of their slump.

    Still can’t get over Foosball HD. I was literally speechless when the blogpost came up. But whatever, I got my $17 worth and probably won’t be returning.

    Here’s to hoping they somehow get back on their feet and offer some good stuff! All my support goes out to ya

  • @ch8882002usnavy I asked Ms. Grace Chen in the store update post last week if they had anything special planned for vita’s 1 yr anniversary and she said,
    “There’s a lot of great promotions and campaigns coming up in February (and March), so keep your eyes open for those!”

    So hopefully that’s a good sign.

  • @DonkeyKongKilla – So what u r saying is that NA+ sucks comapared to EU+ cuz all the publishers are more inclined towards giving g8t stuff to EU+ and nothing to NA+. So why to even have a crew for plus? cuz its the publishers who decide what to give to different regions. Understood, but why all the publishers in the world are totally inclined towards giving good stuff to EU and less attrative stuff to NA? If publishers doesn’t want to give NA+ g8t games to hand out, what makes you think they will allow NA+ to give excellent discounts on new games or wanted games? Well, either ways NA+ is totally screwed cuz of the publishers of the games, damn publishers. NA+ should have mentioned this in their ads.

  • @TitleOne –

    But why it is like this? Why Sony is so hellbent not to cancel the subscription? Every other big stores have a 30 day return policy, if they dont like the product and that too its physical compared to plus service.

  • somebody has to respond to these inane posts, sab. that’s why they have a crew. it really is at a publishers discretion what they choose to give away, and yes, they do tend to overlook us. but you could always be an xbox live member.

  • @BlueBl1zzard

    I sure hope so because I would love to build my Vita library some more. Thanks for the info

  • I got music unlimited for a year for 12$ due to plus, and that’s kinda nice. I use it alot, hd streaming sounds superb over optical connection.

  • Hey Morgan I have a little sugestion, regarding the poll, could you please include which update is better?? wheter US or Europe??, im saying this because even do I think Guardians is a great game, but I still believe that comparatively, Europe once again is getting the better part of the deal, and it seems its always the same reasons, because they overall receive more games, which usually are more valuable, better rated, more recent etc, so in this case, even do I said that guardians is great, still I think Europe updates are better, and since its a paid service, (regardless some people say “dude its free” well its not free, thats why there is a fee!!! )but whatever, still there is disparity in the service, if you are struggling and dont know how to do things better, trie and look in Europe, maybe youll learn a lesson or two, and even do I believe next week a disc based game will be announced, i know that the game wont pass the 20$ value, and with luck it will be of the year 2009-10 but hopefully it wont be another fighting game at this point as a costumer i feel upset, and even depresed with the way you are handling this service because lets face it Europe gets more for the same.

  • @sab_krit – Probably because what that one guy said, most of us can pay for it. But here’s the thing, They said more people are on NA plus then EU. Take that into consideration and it could be more of a promotional tool to get more people over there to sign up for Plus. If we all those who are unsatisfied actually boycott Plus and see how it drops how many people that have then and stop with the empty threats, we might actually see more results of change happening with the service. I’m locked in til October.

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