Sony Issues More Clarification On Plus Content Questions

PlayStation Plus is a great deal for many, but lots of new (and prospective) members have questions concerning the content you're allowed to keep, and content that goes away once the membership goes away.

Well, Sony's Jeff Rubenstein tried to clear that up over at the PlayStation Blog in his reply to a poster asking for a clarification on the potentially confusing issue. Rubenstein's reply is as follows:

"Free add-ons expire if your subscription ends. Add-ons you pay for (even if you pay at a discount) are yours to keep for good. The same thing is true for games- free ones expire if you don’t renew your subscription. Anything you pay for – even at a discount – is yours forever. Themes and avatars that are free, stay free for good.

There may be instances where a downloadable game is free and the add-on is priced at a discount. In this case, if your subscription ends, you would still have access to the DLC, but would need to re-purchase the game in order to use the add-on."

So essentially, the best way to describe it is this- if you buy something at a discounted Plus price, that will be yours forever. Don't worry about it disappearing when your membership ends. The stuff that will go away is anything you received for free as a perk of being a member. That sort of makes sense and should help to clear things up (for the most part). If you have any more questions, though, feel free to post a question at Sony's Blog; they're usually pretty good about answering queries.

Tags: playstation plus, psn, subscription details

7/26/2010 8:41:09 PM Ben Dutka

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Comments (54 posts)

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WorldEndsWithMe
Monday, July 26, 2010 @ 10:15:13 PM
Reply

Makes sense so people don't sign up, grab the freebies and run. I still have no use for it and I understand some people wanna be cool and have rare avatars but for GOD'S sake can we get some more basic ones? Or have each game come with one? I've had the same piece of crap since I got my PS3 because paying for an avatar goes against my religion.

13 up, 2 down

NoSmokingBandit
Monday, July 26, 2010 @ 10:44:49 PM

I use Captain Qwark and i have no intention of ever switching. Unless the make a new Cpt Qwark ;)

Last edited by NoSmokingBandit on 7/26/2010 10:45:00 PM

1 up, 0 down

WorldEndsWithMe
Monday, July 26, 2010 @ 10:47:13 PM

You tell em Quark!

2 up, 1 down

NeoHumpty
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 7:53:02 AM

I've always thought it would be a cool idea to make it so that if you unlock the Platinum trophy for a game, it becomes unlocked as an avatar. It would be a nice incentive as well as some bragging rights for your favorites. Plus, I would assume they would all be approved for use before hand.

5 up, 0 down

Highlander
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 12:12:07 PM

@NeoHumpty,

That's actually a great idea, it would be a great way for platinum players to be rewarded.

3 up, 0 down

THEVERDIN
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 5:50:36 PM

I'm with you, I think every game should come with avatars.

3 up, 0 down

CrazyIrishBoy
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 11:47:16 PM

On the subject of platinums there defiantly should be some more reward than the platinum itself, some say the platinum itself is good enough as it shows your completion of the game, what it really shows is the countless hours wasted collecting 300 items on a map that are there for the purpose of making the platinum harder and more fustrating to get, so some other incentive would be nice :)

Dont think ill splash out for plus myself.

0 up, 0 down

Dancemachine55
Monday, July 26, 2010 @ 10:17:07 PM
Reply

Well, that certainly clears things up.

Nice to know that not everything you get on Plus will expire.

This has made me even more tempted to get a subscription. There's a lot of $2-$5 minigames and addons that are incredibly tempting.

Not to mention all the free games!!! LBP and Wipeout HD for free so long as you have a subscription?!?!? Sounds like a steal to me. Plus, how many of you will be playing those old free games 2-3 years from now?

In the long run, I think Sony may be onto a winning formula here. You pay for a service, have access to free content or discounted content through the service which you can use so long as you are still subscribed. Once you've had enough of the free content, or never play it anymore, simply cancel your subscription renewal. All your free stuff is gone, but you've already used it, so no point keeping it.

Now all they need to do is integrate better or more streamlined chat options to compete with Live, and then the PS3 really will do everything!!!! (I saw a guy play Halo 3 on his PS3 after chipping it, the PS3 really does do everything!!! Even Halo!!!!!)

Last edited by Dancemachine55 on 7/26/2010 10:21:43 PM

0 up, 1 down

WorldEndsWithMe
Monday, July 26, 2010 @ 10:49:34 PM

Huh? As far as a know there aren't any chips that allow the PS3 to emulate the 360 or pc.

3 up, 1 down

BTNwarrior
Monday, July 26, 2010 @ 10:27:43 PM
Reply

What happend to the free copy of LBP you get for signing up? Is it coming out later, or is there some special loops you have to go through to get it

0 up, 0 down

WorldEndsWithMe
Monday, July 26, 2010 @ 10:48:17 PM

Taht is in teh Europes Ownlee.

2 up, 2 down

godsman
Monday, July 26, 2010 @ 11:12:57 PM

Yeah, it was a bit disappointing. I realized that after I signed up too, but I already owned my LBP disc game, but was hoping somehow, if we were to get LBP DL, I would get to keep the DLC I didn't have already.

0 up, 0 down

BTNwarrior
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 4:27:14 PM

That sucks alot, I thought for a while there that I wouldn't have to pop in a disk every time I wanted to play that game

0 up, 0 down

fluffer nutter
Monday, July 26, 2010 @ 10:30:10 PM
Reply

This is the same stuff they've been saying ever since they officially released details. Why are so many people so confused over this? I'm not trying to be rude here but if these people can't understand the simple rules, then maybe they need to stay off of the internet. lol

7 up, 5 down

kraygen
Monday, July 26, 2010 @ 11:14:42 PM

I'm with you, I didn't realize there was still confusion either.

Free stuff is yours as long as you pay subscription.

Pay for it, it's yours no matter what.

See, easy.

2 up, 0 down

fluffer nutter
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 12:25:51 AM

The ones that thumbed me down are exactly who I was talking about. lol

3 up, 2 down

Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 12:46:30 AM

The simple answer is that people don't want to read. If it's not in bite-size form, they don't have the attention span to get through it.

I'm not talking about PSXE people; just many gamers in general.

6 up, 1 down

Jawknee
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 10:04:01 AM

Oooooh Ben, you shouldn't generalize about things "you can't prove.". Might piss off the PC police again.

/sarc

0 up, 0 down

spiderboi
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 10:15:53 AM

its the twitch-syndrome. one look and you gotta react right away without fully understanding...

2 up, 0 down

Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 3:14:56 PM

I'll "generalize" all damn day when it's a fact.

3 up, 0 down

Shadow_Striker
Monday, July 26, 2010 @ 10:55:33 PM
Reply

I have ps plus and one important thing is that those free games and dlc, when you download them before you are able to a window pops up and say something like "this content is free and as such is yours to use as long as you have a ps plus account" so its pretty straight forward telling you what is your and whats rented.

0 up, 0 down

Mavfan321
Monday, July 26, 2010 @ 11:07:27 PM
Reply

I have a nice Chun-Li avatar cue thumbs down ;)

In all seriousness I enjoy discounted DLC rates and I'm really loving what Plus has had to offer so far as someone who is always on the PS store looking for some good stuff, which there is plenty of from DLC, to whole games, I can't complain.

0 up, 0 down

godsman
Monday, July 26, 2010 @ 11:10:35 PM
Reply

I signed up for mine already. I am treating this as an annual game rental. Most likely I'll be tired of the game at the end of the year anyway.

One problem I find with Playstation Plus is that I see it as a game discount package, rather than enhanced experience like Xbox Live (where they cripple you for being Silver member). I find it hard for some gamers to reach into their wallets for PS+.

0 up, 0 down

frylock25
Monday, July 26, 2010 @ 11:14:50 PM
Reply

did anyone notice that firmware update 3.41 is now out?

and there is a psp firmware update coming v6.31

Last edited by frylock25 on 7/26/2010 11:17:34 PM

0 up, 0 down

kraygen
Monday, July 26, 2010 @ 11:16:14 PM
Reply

Is there anywhere that you can find out whats coming out for ps plus in september? I looked at the stuff for july and august and there is very little there I have any interest in, but

I'm sure that at some point over the next 15 months there will be plenty, but I don't see any point in getting it now if there's not going to be something I really want for a few months.

1 up, 0 down

Alienange
Monday, July 26, 2010 @ 11:16:35 PM
Reply

Well if they're giving away free games and then making people pay for the dlc then of course the customers are confused. Thank goodness Rubenstein has the balls to go out there and clear things up.

1 up, 1 down

fluffer nutter
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 12:27:32 AM

They've made the details just as clear, since the official announcement. He is repeating exactly what they've already said. I guess they needed to repeat themselves several times for people to finally think "Oh. They've said this before. I guess it means the same."

0 up, 0 down

Jawknee
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 11:08:39 AM

Hes probably palmed his face when he was told he needed to explain this yet again. haha

1 up, 0 down

maxpontiac
Monday, July 26, 2010 @ 11:42:06 PM
Reply

I always understood that from the get go.

1 up, 1 down

DeathOfChaos
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 12:35:46 AM
Reply

Everyone knows all of this apparently, but it sems like all the ones that do are people who've bought the PSPlus and seen a notification or something. I've never even went and looked at the description for in on the PSN, mainly because I don't feel any content coming from PSPlus would intrest me yet anyway. It seems reasonable to do it that way, but it kind of seems weird at the same time.

1 up, 0 down

tanner1
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 6:58:28 AM
Reply

Im from the U.K and i looked at playstation plus for my m8 and im sure they've taken lbp out of the deal

0 up, 0 down

JackC8
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 7:25:52 AM
Reply

The only thing that kind of ticks me off is the so-called "early" access to demos. It's not early, it's at the same time that Xbox users get it. Us non-Plus subscribers just get our access to it delayed for a week. That's not a perk for Plus subscribers, it's a penalty for everyone else. You would think they could use some of that money they're getting to pay the publishers for honest-to-goodness "early" access.

3 up, 0 down

Underdog15
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 8:39:09 AM
Reply

Don't forget the fact that if you cancel a subscription, you can play all your old free content if you re-subscribe later. So it's only sort of gone when canceled. Call it a distant memory.

0 up, 0 down

noshownogo
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 9:50:53 AM
Reply

Ben can you summarize your comment to the post ;b Seriously tho playstation plus isn't for everyone just yet, but I have no doubt that closer to holiday time, quite a few of us naysayers will jump on board.

0 up, 0 down

whooka
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 10:03:55 AM
Reply

Oh, sure, per the article about Gamestop's used game sales 'All corporations are out to make money' but Sony' business models are always so loyal to the consumer. You never really 'own' any DLC and the way it's currently priced (same as actual physical, retail media like Dragon Age Awakenings Addon or in some cases more like Infamous being more as DLC then you can find it on the used rack), it's a losing deal for the consumer and a complete win for said company as the consumer never has any real, tangible asset or equity. And it's worse with stuff like Comics which are about the same price as the physical, printed comic which one actually owns, can read anytime, may go up in value over the years and one can scan it to make their own electronic copy if they want. I learned my lesson with the update the removed Other O/S as i bought Dragon Age Awakenings Retail so I could avoid having to give up the Other O/S because Sony's afraid of piracy and when I had to reformat my drive I discovered a) alot of new games like Dragon Age you can't even backup your save data for because Sony/etc are worried about someone nicking textures or something equally lame. sure you can do a full system backup but who wants to spend all that time to back up saved data, all a pain because they're afraid of piracy. I had everything restored from a backup but couldn't load my Dragon Age Awakenings game because it said it was missing data which came from one of the tiny, $4 addons I purchased at some point. I had to redownload that to get my game back and to do that i had to get on PSN and to do that I had to lobotomize my PS3. Nice loop. So just remember stuff you buy DLC is 'yours' if:

a) you keep taking all the firmware updates, which are probably forced now anyways, whether they include feature-removing items or not

b) your PS3 doesn't get bricked, you were able to actually backup the game data (my guess is no with DLC stuff), and if you replace your PS3 your SOL since your backup is only good for the same physical console

While Bioware gets shout outs for making a game so good i finally caved and turned my PS3 into the plonker version, all Sony stuff comes with a ton of caveat's now that most don't consider or is in the fine, legal print. DLC at the moment is a total scam and too bad for Sony as now all my impulse buys are at the Apple Store for my iPhone.

0 up, 1 down

Jawknee
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 10:05:30 AM

Dude if wall your going to do is b*tch about our corporate conspriracy theories, please get lost.

1 up, 2 down

Underdog15
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 10:25:18 AM

They don't stop you from backing up save files. Only system data that needs HDD space. And you're HDD backup can be used on other PS3's. I've done it before.

The system data will just reinstall itself on your next PS3, and as long as your save files are backed up, you won't lose info. And anything you buy or download from PSN, including plus items, get attached to your account. (You'll see a little pink shopping bag next to them in PSN store.)

Then all you have to do is activate your new PS3 as the system attached to your PSN ID. And poof! You can redownload everything you've ever purchased from PSN all over again.

SO ya, it takes some work if your PS3 gets pooched, but PSN updates and firmware won't change that fact. You hardly lose everything.

As for the other OS feature, I have a desktop PC I use for computer stuff, so I couldn't care less. I'm glad any loophole anyone might find in the PSN was patched up. I hate playing against people with mods you might find on other systems. (I HATED it so much when I used to play Halo online with the college buddies!) And I definitely don't want people gaining access to the PSN accounts information.

Last edited by Underdog15 on 7/27/2010 10:28:28 AM

2 up, 0 down

Jawknee
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 11:04:03 AM

The irony in this, Apple is worse when it comes to this kind of stuff. A buddy of mine lost his HDD. He had over 2k worth of music he purchased from iTunes. They wouldn't let him redownload any of it. They said if he wanted it back he would have to pay again. Finally after hours of complaining on the phone with customer service they let him redownload all his music but told him if it happened again he was SOL.

Last edited by Jawknee on 7/27/2010 11:07:36 AM

0 up, 0 down

Highlander
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 12:20:49 PM

Hyperbole is no substitute for thought.

1) firmware updates are not mandatory, you have to decide to update.

2) the reason game saves are locked is to prevent people from cheating in online games by distributing game files which already have everything enabled.

3) Your 'locked' game save files can't be copied to USB for backups, but you can still backup the entire HDD (including locked game saves) using the built in backup procedure.

4) The removal of otherOS was due to an egomaniac man-child with delusions of grandeur who has now shrunk from the hacking scene having been unable to do more than ruin the PS3 OtherOS mode for everyone.

5) DLC is a scam? How? Once you buy it, it's yours. You can activate it up to 5 times (simultaneous). As long as you don't abuse the activations and manage them actively, you should never have any issue. I have replaced two HDDs, and reformatted twice and each time I deactivated and reactivated. Both times I had to reformat the HDD due to corruption, I wasn't able to do a backup, but the only thing I lost was the game saves for games that I couldn't copy off to USB before hand. Everything else was re-downloaded and re-activated without any issue at all. This includes PS1 games, PS Minis, PSP titles, PSN titles and Singstar content.

6) Your system backup is not only good for one physical console. You can move a backup to a new system, that's kinda the whole point. Even if it was, simply deactivate your old console, and activate your new one and everything will download again. Once again the only thing lost is any game saves that you were unable to copy to USB.

Gee, you sure do like to spread a lot of dis-information don't you?

Last edited by Highlander on 7/27/2010 12:22:02 PM

1 up, 0 down

Fane1024
Thursday, July 29, 2010 @ 7:01:14 PM

...so that's why the Rock Band saves are locked?

I'm sorry, Highlander, but there is no excuse for locking saves so that you can't create back-ups. If I needed to run the Backup utility every time I wanted to protect my progress, I'd never have time to play the games.

Also, if you try to restore a backup to another PS3 (or even the SAME PS3 if it's been to Sony for repair), it won't restore everything (including the aforementioned locked saves).

Last edited by Fane1024 on 7/29/2010 7:04:00 PM

0 up, 0 down

Jawknee
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 10:06:49 AM
Reply

This was pretty clear from the get go. Some questions remained after the initial unveiling but they made it clear even before E3 arrived.

2 up, 0 down

Underdog15
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 10:26:25 AM

Yeah, I purchased PLUS, and I'm loving the features so far. That Zombie game you can download is fun and hilarious!

But yeah, as any smart consumer would, I knew all about these features a long time ago. If it wasn't clear, I wouldn't have purchased it.

1 up, 0 down

Jawknee
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 11:06:16 AM

Me neither. I love it. Glad i signed up. Wipeout HD is fantastic. Its a game i should have bought without the subscription. If i ever let my Plus membership expire I'll be buying Wipeout for sure.

Have yet to try that zombie game. I am a bit anal about cluttering up my download list since we can't organize it. So i trying to pick what is most interesting. But ill take your word for it. Are there trophies?

Last edited by Jawknee on 7/27/2010 11:07:04 AM

1 up, 0 down

ColTater
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 11:31:35 AM

No, no trophies for Zombie Mini game, and you can run through it in about an hour and 15 minutes. It is simple mindless fun though. The other Mini, Fieldrunners is a strategic military game that has actually provided me with more time wasting goodness and is actually a challenge on the harder difficulty levels.

1 up, 0 down

Underdog15
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 2:07:49 PM

I think you can organize them to a degree. I can't remember if you have to be in your games list to press triangle or square, but there is a way to organize.

0 up, 0 down

Highlander
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 2:46:40 PM

The one thing I wonder is if your subscription lapses and your 'free' games is disabled. Will it offer to let you purchase the game, or re-subscribe then and there when you attempt to use the 'disabled' game?

0 up, 0 down

fluffer nutter
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 3:52:00 PM

You can organize your games after you've downloaded and installed them. I have all of mine in folders per genre/style and the "free" ones from PS+ are separated too.

0 up, 0 down

Jawknee
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 3:52:06 PM

If you have auto funding turned on we wouldn't need to worry about that because it would resubscribe automatically. If it's off, and or sub lapses I just assumed it would be up to us to remember to purchase the game.

@fluffer, I mean organize the items on your download list. Some of that stuff I'd like to delete or move. Takes a lot of time sifting through all the demos and unwanted items when you need to download the wanted items again.

Last edited by Jawknee on 7/27/2010 3:57:16 PM

0 up, 0 down

rogers71
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 5:22:48 PM

@Jawknee,
I agree with you on the organizing of the download list. I just upgraded my PS3 to a 500 gig hd and wanted to get back some stuff that I previously deleted for space. I have about 400 items in my download list and it was a real pain scrolling through them to find the ones I wanted.

1 up, 0 down

fluffer nutter
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 6:12:22 PM

Why would you want to go back and organize your download list? Do you re-download everything for fun?

0 up, 0 down

Jawknee
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 8:30:44 PM

I have had to redownload some DLC a few times, twice because of hardware failure and another because I bought a slim. Also if games start acting weird, it helps to delete the Utility data and reinstall it. Deleting utility data usually deletes dlc too.

1 up, 0 down

fluffer nutter
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 @ 6:35:10 AM

Why are your games acting weird? You putting Green Day on your PS3?

0 up, 0 down

Jawknee
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 @ 10:14:04 AM

God no. Haha Haven't liked Greenday since Kirplunk. And even then I preferred my Guttermouth and NOFX collection.

I was having some weird auto skips and hang ups in killzone 2, also when playing RDR, the character models in the Armadillo Hold'em room were missing their textures. They were a blurry mess and when I tried sitting down to play a hand the game would freeze. Deleting the utility data and reinstalling it fixed it. In kz2 case I had to sift through my 220+ items on my download list to redownload the map packs I bought. Not a huge deal, just would be nice to be able to delete some of that unwanted junk.

0 up, 0 down

Jawknee
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 @ 10:47:02 AM

*audio skips

0 up, 0 down

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