![]() ![]() Control is one of 10 games that pulled a Metacritic of 80 or better, which makes the 2021 PS Plus collection’s overall Metacritic of 73.8 (practically level with Games With Gold) a real head-scratcher. Concrete Genie (PlayStation VR 75, 1.3 years)ĭestruction AllStars is one of those multiplayer console exclusives that needs a big audience to thrive, and publisher Sony launched it on PS Plus to give the game a good chance to gather the crowd.Control: Ultimate Edition (PS4/PS5, 85 the Ultimate Edition is a day-and-date launch, the game itself is 1.4 years old).Destruction AllStars (PS5, 62, day-and-date launch).This is a solid first month, leading with two unusual RPGs many players may have missed when they launched (in Maneater, you’re a shark) and tossing in a AAA tentpole like Shadow of the Tomb Raider as a big-value known quantity. Shadow of the Tomb Raider (75, 2.3 years).Image: Spiders/Focus Home Interactive January They’re all listed with their Metacritic score and age (at the time of availability). They’ve been noted as such all others are PlayStation 4-compatible. Five games are both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 compatible, nine are PlayStation 5 only, and five are PlayStation VR only. We’ll start breaking down, month-by-month, the offerings. Even if you add the MSRP of last year’s PlayStation Plus Collection games ($474.80) to 2020’s library, this year’s haul is valued more than last year’s ($1,264.52). The Metacritic average is down one point from 2020, but the combined MSRP is almost double last year’s $789.72. In all, there were 40 games in the PlayStation Plus Instant Games Collection for 2021, with an average Metacritic score of 73.8 and a combined retail price of $1,424.60 (taken from the PlayStation Store at publication time of this analysis). And with large third-party publishers willing to lend their biggest franchises to the cause, it shows that Sony does a better job, or at least makes a stronger effort, at selling its partners on participating in this program. Seven day-and-date launches, ranging from upgrades like Control: Ultimate Edition to indie games like First Class Trouble, show SIE reinforcing PS Plus as its debut stage, much as Xbox Game Pass plays the same role for Microsoft. It’s unclear whether this is separate from PlayStation Now, or another tier of service within it, and even then what impact it could even have on PS Plus, whose offerings deal with the PS4, PS5, and PlayStation Vita.īut if 2021 is any guide, don’t expect Sony to de-emphasize the games players get through PlayStation Plus. ![]() There are rumblings that Sony has a new subscription service in store for 2022, but it’s one that leverages the back catalogs of the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable eras. Sony has an Xbox Game Pass competitor coming to PS4 and PS5, new report says Small surprise that, for Microsoft, the free titles coming in Games With Gold are a shortcoming and, for Sony, the PlayStation Now streaming/downloadable subscription is considered second fiddle, its voluminous library notwithstanding. They’re two entirely different services, but one could credibly say you’d buy an Xbox Series X for Xbox Game Pass, and you’d buy the PlayStation 5 - assuming you can find one - for PlayStation Plus. Announcements of a new month of games are a circle-the-calendar reminder for most dedicated video gamers, and PlayStation makes it easy to claim everything quickly, without clearing off space for a full download. Sony used 2021 to solidify its position with PlayStation Plus as a debut stage for some new games that are at least worth a look, as well as a rewards mechanism to thank longtime subscribers for paying for multiplayer. Games With Gold’s year-end MSRP can be fairly chided for the influence of both, but not PlayStation Plus. And these aren’t Sony inflating the MSRP of a game it’s offering for free, nor are these games the dubious full-price wares of budget publishers whose catalog never goes on sale. Recently, I’ve tried to de-emphasize dollar figures as a measure of value in this analysis, but the numbers still stick out. In 2021, PlayStation Plus gave players 40 - a per-game average of $35. Since we started breaking down the offerings of PS Plus and Xbox Live Games with Gold in 2014, the $1,424.60 given out by Sony this year is second only to 2018, when the company was supporting three platforms with six games a month. And this year, PlayStation Plus gave subscribers more than $1,400 worth of video games. When we build this year-end analysis, we’re adding up the game’s listed, non-sale prices at the end of the year. Unlike Microsoft, Sony doesn’t mention the PlayStation Store’s retail price for the free games it doles out every month in the PlayStation Plus Instant Game Collection. ![]()
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