Thursday, December 9, 2010

Screw off. LittleBigGyp.



So….let me get this straight. You have a nice little game prepared for your peripheral of questionable success, and to you guys, the logical thing to do is to make it Playstation Plus exclusive? A subscription fee for a “Free” download that could’ve easily been a $5-10 downloadable release?

WHO has Playstation Plus? Last I checked, it was a resounding failure on par with Home’s limited audience, and with questionable features like “early demos”, or “PS store discounts”, what did you expect? It was a attempt to stab at what made Xbox Live successful without actually knowing what made it successful (see PSPgo and the iPod Touch), and since they decided to keep giving away the online multiplayer for free, it further invalidated the $50 a year fee to all but the most dedicated of Sony blind followers.

If I can thank Sony for anything, it was giving me a choice NOT to have it, because it really is a worthless service. Pay…to get discounts? Some of which are usually only a savings of 2-3 dollars? Early demo access? I can wait a week. Free PSone download of THEIR choice every month? I’ll pass. Automatic game/system updates? How is that even a PAID feature?

By offering the entire infrastructure with negligible contrast between paid and free, they shot themselves in the foot right out of the gate. Also, their constant parroting that it’s “free” to play and communicate online with your friends (potshots at XBL) locked them into this position. They couldn’t have started charging for it even if they wanted to. It’d be a harsh betrayal of their fanbase. Kind of like the Qore subscribers that were screwed over because of PS Plus’ similar feature set.

Same thing going on here.

I understand that they REALLY need subscribers for the fledgling premiums. But this is stupid. They did it with High Velocity Bowling around launch time to a resounding backlash, and here we are again. Instead of making it available to the millions of PS3 owners, ESPECIALLY the ones who have bought the Move, they’ve bottlenecked the userbase to what I’m sure is a few hundred thousand (if that). The lot of early adopters who bought the Move this year and are still really wondering what the HELL to do with it are screwed as well. Good job.

The worst part of it all is, really. I like the Move. I think it’s forward thinking technology in the vein of the Wii remote’s physical input, and is in some ways better. I also like the way it’s marketed as a controller I can play real games with despite the inevitable presence of shovelware. That’s definitely something that appeals to me. But I don’t think Sony wants me to like the Move. Not like this they don’t.

I don’t want an EyePet. I want a Kinectimal. Echochrome II isn’t out until the end of the month. Despite the extra legroom the motion sensor gives me, I literally played the hell out of RE5 on my 360 and Heavy Rain is only worth going through another time BECAUSE of the Move integration. Sports Champions is tangibly pleasing but aesthetically dry, and really, The Shoot is the only game keeping me from shoving the controller up my nose in a WoW cancellation style freakout. They’ve got me shooting, ducking, spinning and all sorts of tomfoolery, making it easily one of the most tactile lightgun games I’ve ever played.

I can still remember the look on my face yesterday morning:

“A LittleBigPlanet Move game?! I didn’t see this coming..”

*clicks*

(Playstation Plus Exclusive)

“Surely they mean the ‘free’ price tag…eh, whatever. Good for them.
(Nope. No “Buy” link to be found.)

*incredulous stare*




Good job, guys. Minimum $17.99 just to play?

I’m good.

1 comment:

  1. Well Penguin, I certainly see your point here. But I do think this falls into the realm of "perks" for PS plus subscribers, since Sackboy's Prehistoric Moves is being released to ALL users on Dec.14th. It is also evidently, being bundled with LittleBigPlanet 2 in January. :)

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