E3 2010: PlayStation Plus Officially Announced

At Sony’s E3 Press Conference, Jack Tretton officially announced PlayStation Plus, the premium subscription service for the PlayStation Network. The service will build on top of the existing free service, offering gamers exclusive content, early access to demos, automatic download of demos and game related content and more.

The service will offer “hundreds” of dollars of value according to Tretton, including early demo access, beta invites, free games, free themes, and a host of other new content. However, there is a small catch – all content will be owned for the “duration of your subscription”, i.e. you unsubscribe and you lose access to it.

The service will cost $49.99 for a yearly subscription or $17.99 for a 3-month subscription. For a limited time only, Sony will be offering 3-month free trials to the service.

Games:
As a member you can expect to get your hands on at least four games a month at no extra charge.  Each month there will be a selection of one PSN game, two minis and one PS one classics available on PlayStation Store for you to download. You also get premium avatars and dynamic themes each month, many of which are exclusive to members.

Talking of exclusive, there will also be discounts available on loads of PlayStation Store content, just for members, so make the most of them as these will change each month as well.

Finally, wherever possible we’ll be making sure that members are included in some selected demos and beta trials before they go live to the public so you can be the one to tell all your mates about the next big game they ‘must’ get.

Just the games, avatars and themes alone are worth at least £200* per year, so even before the other benefits, this service is great value for money

Full Game Trial:
This premium feature gives you the chance to try PSN and Blu-ray disc titles before you buy them in a whole new way.  We are not talking normal demos of selected parts of a game here.  With Full Game Trial, you can download the full game and play it as if you owned it for approximately one hour, depending on the game, before you decide if you want to buy it or not. So you can check out the online modes, play against friends or anything else you’d normally do with a game.

The other great thing is that your progress and trophies from the trial will all be unlocked if you buy the game so no need to go back and start again.

Automatic Download:
We wanted to offer members the speediest service possible so sign up and you can set your PS3 to automatically receive the latest game updates for all the games you play, PS3 system software updates and even have game demos sent directly to your PS3 without lifting a finger.

Just set the time you want to receive them and your PS3 will automatically wake up and download everything, ready for when you next want to play. No more waiting to play your favourite game because there is a new patch or having to remember when the latest system software is launching, let your PS3 do the work.