Sony Gave Me $1349 Worth Of PlayStation Games This Year

In North America alone during 2014, Sony handed out 71 free games totaling a value of $1349 to PlayStation Plus members. I paid $49.99 for all of them.

That staggering statistic comes courtesy of website Push Square, which recently published a comprehensive evaluation of Sony's premium PlayStation service PS Plus. The optional subscription, which costs $49.99 when purchased annually, nets its users online multiplayer for PS4 (granted, that's not entirely 'optional'), cloud-based storage for game saves, discounts on regularly priced titles, access to Tune In radio, and a monthly allotment of free games for PS4, PS3, and PS Vita among other perks.

As of Sony's last earnings call in October, the service has a 7.9 million subscribers.

Push Square really did their homework, and the entire report is worth studying in its entirety to understand the depth and value of Sony's offerings. One strong example is June, when Sony handed out $139.94 worth of free games, including NBA 2K14, Trine 2, PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate, and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time.

For those who value the review score aggregator, the average Metacritic score for those selections was 82. The average Metacritic score for the years' worth of PlayStation Plus games? 79.

Perhaps that's why, in an industry that relishes its controversies, very few people got bent out of shape when Sony followed Microsoft's lead and quietly introduced PlayStation Plus as a requirement for online gaming. Xbox paved the way, and the monthly selection of PlayStation Plus games softened the blow.

Looking over the list of freebies, there's an undeniable preference for indie games over traditional blockbusters. Some may view that as a detriment to the service's value proposition, but Sony's devotion to indie developers is well documented. Sure, it's also a cost-saving measure, but I love the sense of discovery I felt playing gems like Velocity 2X, Thomas Was Alone, and Don't Starve for the first time without taking a monetary risk doing so.