PlayStation Plus June 2012 Update

[-Alex-]

Gotta say, it just got freaking awesome!

PlayStation Plus has changed!

By now, you?ve probably seen what?s going on with the US PlayStation Plus update in June and the ?Instant Game Collection? and I?m certain you?re all excited to see what we?ve got in Store for you too.

Well I?ve got a lot to go through with you so brace yourself and please keep your arms and legs inside the blog post at all times.

So let?s cover all that shall we?

First of all, you?re still going to get MASSES of discounts on all kinds of stuff in Store, both Plus exclusive and extra discounts on Special offers.

You?re still going to get exclusive dynamic themes, avatars and access to beta trials ? in fact we?ve got some truly fantastic betas coming before the end of the year for you.

Then, there are the games. From now on, the watchwords are more and better. More new games, more digital Blu-ray, more of the very best the

PlayStation?Store can provide.

You?re getting 10 games up front and from next month, 3 of those games will change, and you?ll get at least 3 games per month thereafter.

The important thing is that whenever you decide to join

PlayStation?Plus, there will be a minimum of 10 games for you to start playing right away.

So which games? Let?s go take a look. Oh and if you see a number in brackets, it?s a Metacritic score for your reference.

PlayStation?Plus Game of the Month

The Game of the Month will be changed every 4 weeks.

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown

This definitive version of the VF5 series includes overhauled fighting mechanics, new characters, new single player & online multiplayer modes and more.

Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown brings the latest arcade version of the Virtua Fighter 5 series to

PS3, adding two new characters?Virtua Fighter 3 favorite Taka-Arashi and newcomer Jean Kujo?and dynamic and interactive fighting arenas. Console-only features include a robust and detailed Training Mode, eight player Online Room Match Mode, and a match record feature to replay, save, and upload fights.

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown will be available until 4th July 2012

PlayStation?Plus Games Catalogue

You have six whole games to start you off, and as each pair of titles is replaced, the next pair will be around for 12 weeks.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (70)

Step fearlessly into the heart of combat in the 41st Millennium as Captain Titus of the Ultramarines, unleashing visible violent death against the enemies of mankind. Storm into battle and use a combination of the most lethal ranged and melee weapons against the brutal Orks and insidious forces of Chaos. Form your own Space Marine squad or Chaos Space Marine warband and take the battle online.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine will be available until 18th July 2012

Chime Super Deluxe (78)

Experience the next generation of music gaming. Me: unique, compelling, creative and demanding. You: quick-witted and open-minded with sharp reactions and synaesthetic passion. Featuring all-new music by Plaid, Sabrepulse, Shlomo and more, alongside classic Chime tracks by Moby, Paul Hartnoll (Orbital), Philip Glass, Fred Deakin (Lemon Jelly) and Markus Schulz.

Chime Super Deluxe will be available until 18th July 2012

Darksiders (83)

Deceived by the forces of evil into prematurely bringing about the end of the world, War ? the first Horseman of the Apocalypse ? stands accused of breaking the sacred law by inciting a war between heaven and hell. Dishonored and stripped of his powers, War must return to Earth to search for the truth and punish those responsible.

Darksiders will be available until 15th August 2012

Renegade Ops (80)

Renegade Ops is the most explosive experience on PSN. Control five different vehicles on land and air, each with unique abilities in stunning environments. Power up your skills for the ultimate in destruction. Play alone or team up offline with two player split screen and experience the chaos of 4-Player online Co-op with your friends.

Renegade Ops will be available until 15th August 2012

Outland (83)

In the middle of Balance and Chaos, now stands one man whose efforts may bridge the ancient divide, or doom the world to destruction. The award-winning studio Housemarque, maker of Super Stardust HD, has created an ambitious platformer inspired by epic adventures such as the Prince of Persia? series. Each player?s adventure will take him between light and darkness and force him to adapt to an ever-changing world.

Outland will be available until 12th September 2012

Oddworld: Stranger?s Wrath HD (82)

In the dusty, undeveloped wastelands of Western Mudos, cantankerous townsfolk find their settlements besieged by belligerent outlaws. Along comes Stranger, a tall, dark and enigmatic bounty hunter with a mission to capture troublemakers and scoundrels and return them to civilized townships for incarceration. But Stranger is keeping a secret and needs expensive surgery to survive. In his quest to earn enough Moolah, Stranger reluctantly accepts the ultimate bounty from the owner of the Mongo River and suddenly his adventure takes a very different turn.

Oddworld: Stranger?s Wrath HD will be available until 12th September 2012

For the next 52 weeks, whenever you join PlayStation?Plus you will be able to get your hands on these titles ? they?ll be available at any time over the next year, yours to download and play for as long as you subscribe.

inFamous 2 (83)

When Empire City comes under attack from a mysterious creature known only as ?The Beast?, not even the electric super powers of Cole MacGrath can save the town from complete destruction. Battered and defeated, Cole finds himself fleeing towards the southern U.S. city of New Marais in search of a way to overcome this powerful new nemesis. Playing as Cole, explore the vast, decaying metropolis of New Marais and form relationships with the good people of the city, or side with their corrupt counterparts.

Motorstorm Apocalypse (77)

Test your bottle and your reflexes as you hit the streets of a crumbling city in 40 nerve-shattering races. Take your chances against the apocalypse in 13 awesome vehicle classes, from rocket-powered Superbikes and lightning-fast Rally Cars, to formidable Monster Trucks and fearsome Big Rigs. Create your own online race events for up to 16 players, customise and share thousands of vehicles and unlock tons of perks and rewards to smash the opposition and climb the global leaderboards.

LittleBigPlanet 2 (91)

Download LittleBigPlanet? 2 and take your Sackboy? on an adventure packed with clever tools, quirky characters and loads of multiplayer fun. Get creative and build absolutely anything you can imagine, from shoot-?em-ups and racing games to your very own movies and music. Then share your unique creations online with the rest of the LittleBigPlanet? community. There are millions of levels out there just waiting to be discovered, all built by fellow LittleBigPlanet? fans right across the globe.

PlayStation?Plus Presents

Not content with offering you those 10 titles I also have another small announcement to make ? here in SCEE we?ll be running a little sideline within Plus called ?PlayStation?Plus Presents??

We?ll be searching for the very best independently developed titles for PlayStation 3 right now and in the future ? those games that really stand out we?ll hand pick for our Plus subscribers. Each ?PlayStation?Plus Presents? game will be available to download in Plus at no extra cost for 8 weeks from the moment it launches on the Store, meaning that as well as blockbuster titles, as a Plus subscriber you?ll be able to play the very best of indie too.

Our first PPP title will be an extremely cool little shooter called Retro/Grade ? it won the Audience Award at IndieCade 2010 and was a finalist for Excellence in Audio and Excellence in Design in the 2009 Independent Games Festival. I urge you all to go and check it out because you?ll get to play it soon enough.

Retro/Grade is just the first such title that will be available at no cost to Plus subscribers when it launches later this summer.

Now you know what?s yours for the taking, I?m sure you have some questions.? I?ve tried to answer a few pre-emptively below.

What about my PS one, PS2 and minis?

Based on all the feedback we?ve had from you guys over the last couple of years, we?ve decided that our subscribers would be better served by offering you more digital Blu-ray titles and top of the line PSN games, rather than scrabbling around to find a compelling PS one or minis titles. That said, if a truly awe inspiring minis title or one of the greatest PS one or PS2 titles that ever existed suddenly shows up on PS Store, you can bet your britches that we?ll secure it for you.

How come SCEA subscribers get 12 games and we only get 10?

It?s true, SCEA get two more games than SCEE subscribers up front.

However, most titles in SCEA Plus will stick around for 16 weeks before being refreshed ? in SCEE we keep games for a maximum of 12 weeks, which means we rotate through more games in a full year ? in fact we are committed to delivering over 45 games to you as part of your subscription before June 2013, and that?s before we factor in any extra minis or PS one titles that might show up. Additionally, any ?PlayStation?Plus Presents? games will be extra to the standard game rotation.

Will those 45 games include repeating games that have already been offered in Plus from the past?

As you?ve already seen, some of the games that are being provided to you may have been discounted in Plus before ? we will try to keep this to a minimum. We?ve committed to offering only the

absolute best

games available on the PSN Store, which means meeting a minimum quality requirement. I cannot guarantee that you won?t be offered a game that has been discounted before but there will be more than enough brand new titles and games that have never been in Plus to provide you an astonishing amount of value, even if you purchased all of those discounted games previously. What we won?t do is ever offer something that?s been included as a 100% discount title before unless it?s a true ?second-chance? offer ? that means it doesn?t count towards your total.

?????-

Guys, while you?re reading this I am almost certainly asleep in a strange bed in California so please bear with me ? I will do my best to respond to as many comments as I can while I?m here at E3.

In the meantime, I want to see feedback, I want to see suggestions for games to be included later in the year, I want to hear anything you have to say about these changes!

In the meantime, enjoy the anticipation of receiving five top class digital Blu-ray titles, four of the best of the Store?s back catalogue and one brand new PSN game, all still just ?39.99/?49.99 for a year?s subscription.

And of course, if you join right now, there?s still time to get May?s content as well.

New Themes!

2nd Anniversary Dynamic Theme

New Avatars!

Panther! Rhino! Tiger! Walrus? er? Giant Squid?!

(Why not, eh?)

STILL AVAILABLE:

Hamsterball ? 100% off until July 4th

You save ?7.99/?9.99

Wakeboarding HD ? 100% off until July 4th

You save ?11.99/?14.99

Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom ? 100% off until July 4th

You save ?7.99/?9.99

Sky Fighter ? 100% off until July 4th

You save ?7.99/?9.99

Ricochet HD ? 100% off until July 4th

You save ?3.19/?3.99

Mushroom Wars ? 100% off until July 4th

You save ?7.99/?9.99

Magic Orbz ? 100% off until July 4th

You save ?7.99/?9.99

Smash Cars ? 100% off until July 4th

You save ?11.99/?14.99

• 15% off Ghost Recon: Future Soldier until June 20th
  
• Free and Exclusive Daredevil Map Pack with purchase of Mad Riders until June 20th
  

More to come later this month! Keep your eye on the PlayStation?Store Updates!

[compl3x]

So much damn content I truly cannot keep up. I need to upgrade my PS3's HDD.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

So much damn content I truly cannot keep up. I need to upgrade my PS3's HDD.

According to your signature it looks like you've played inFamous 2, but yeah, it's 15GB!

[TheLegendOfMart]

I love this update, grabbing everything apart from Darksiders.

[AbandonedTrolley]

VF5 is new this month too and Oddworld isn't that old either.

Great update that no doubt will be called rubbish as you don't get to keep them lol

300GB left on my HDD so i'm fine for a few more of these bumper giveaways.

[TheLegendOfMart]

I'm not trying to start a flame war but the way I see it Xbox Live has almost everything worth having behind a paywall, you even have to pay to play online.

With PSN you used get free stuff every month, sometimes some big titles. Now you get 10 big games up front and rotating roster of big titles, whats there to complain about. No one is going to give you ?100s for free for ?35 a year.

[compl3x]

According to your signature it looks like you've played inFamous 2, but yeah, it's 15GB!

Yup. The only platinum I've got was from inFamous 2. :p

[MightyJordan]

Good thing I sold my copy of Virtua Fighter 5 ages ago. :p

With all this content, I am definitely renewing my subscription next year! I may also not renew my Xbox Live Gold, seeing as I haven't played online in a long time, plus it'd probably make me go on the PS3 more to play all these games. :p

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Just a heads up about inFamous 2/LBP 2, unfortunately they are named differently from the retail counterparts, so save games don't work. LBP2 has an export feature if you boot up the disc version that will make your save work in digital version. inFamous 2, no such luck. Same thing happened with my digital copy of inFamous we got for the PSN hack - If you edited your save on the PC you could get it working though, not sure if you can do same thing for inFamous 2.

[AbandonedTrolley]

Not too big a deal for me in LBP2 as I didn't create anything on that one, never played inFamous 2 so will be starting a fresh, never finished the first either :(

Will see if Motorstorm has any issues as well, I noticed that it is the full retail with 3D functions still intact.

[TogaForComfort]

Great update that no doubt will be called rubbish as you don't get to keep them lol

They clarified in the comment you do get to keep them, just like before they changed the format. I can't see how anyone can say this isn't worth the money now.

[AbandonedTrolley]

Can confirm that Motorstorm also is different in terms of save file to its disc based version :( Looks like I will be going through a lot of it again.

[LingeringSoul]

Damn, that is a really solid list of games. I've been on the fence about Playstation Plus for a while now, but I think this might push me over the edge. I have already played a few of those games, but it would be nice to play VF5:Final Showdown, especially considering that I just bought a new fighting stick a few weeks ago (bought it for SFxT, but the more the merrier!). Would like to play LittleBigPlanet 2 as well, as I unfortunately traded my copy in last year.

inFamous 2 was one of my favourite games of last year, and Motorstorm Apocalypse is great as well. Highly recommend those two games for existing Plus users, on the off chance that you haven't played them yet.

[-Alex-]

Damn, that is a really solid list of games. I've been on the fence about Playstation Plus for a while now, but I think this might push me over the edge. I have already played a few of those games, but it would be nice to play VF5:Final Showdown, especially considering that I just bought a new fighting stick a few weeks ago (bought it for SFxT, but the more the merrier!). Would like to play LittleBigPlanet 2 as well, as I unfortunately traded my copy in last year.

inFamous 2 was one of my favourite games of last year, and Motorstorm Apocalypse is great as well. Highly recommend those two games for existing Plus users, on the off chance that you haven't played them yet.

To be honest with you, I was looking forward to playing VF5 myself... I played it last night. Complete let down!

[Lingwo]

I am probably being stupid.

Let me get this straight. If i sign up to PSN Plus. I get to download those games for free for as long as i'm a PSN Plus member?

If so that is an absolute bargain.

[shakey]

Man, Plus is just off the chain right now... First, I own LBP2 and Infamous 2, so a little peaved that they are free, at least Infamous 2, as it is still pretty new :/

But for all the other games, I'm only ****ed that i don't have a bigger HDD in my PS3. Sants Row 2, Just Cause 2, Tekken 5, Rachet and Clank, and plenty more I just don't have the room for!!!! So I just went ahead and put them in my download queue, that way I can get them whenever :p

Still, no better time to join Plus than right now :)

[ahhell]

Now that is a good deal.

[Lingwo]

Just signed up. Been wanting to play Motorstorm Apocalypse for a while now. Plus i am fed up waiting for the HD update for the PC version of Strangers Wrath. So i am just going to play the PS3 version instead.

Excited to see what games are next on the list.

[LingeringSoul]

To be honest with you, I was looking forward to playing VF5 myself... I played it last night. Complete let down!

Harsh to hear that, though I do have one question right off the bat: are you an existing Virtua Fighter fan? I was a huge fan of VF4:Evo back in the PS2 days, so honestly I'll be happy even if it's just more of that. Virtua Fighter is definitely a hit or miss game (no pun intended), and I can fully understand if somebody doesn't like it, but hopefully you're just referring to a "let down" in terms of the fundamental game play, as opposed to a let down in terms of bugs or stability issues.

[-Alex-]

Harsh to hear that, though I do have one question right off the bat: are you an existing Virtua Fighter fan? I was a huge fan of VF4:Evo back in the PS2 days, so honestly I'll be happy even if it's just more of that. Virtua Fighter is definitely a hit or miss game (no pun intended), and I can fully understand if somebody doesn't like it, but hopefully you're just referring to a "let down" in terms of the fundamental game play, as opposed to a let down in terms of bugs or stability issues.

To be fair, 3 of us played it on 2-player versus while smoking something green tonight... and it was alright actually. It's not so bad on versus mode, but on single player it's way too easy and repetitive (press R1 or R2 over and over and over again to K.O.). I've never played VF before, but I had the old Tekken games years ago, and this is very comparable to Tekken Tag Tournament.

But it doesn't "feel" like a new game. It feels stuck in the 90's/00's, and there's no 'campaign' either. As I say, 2 player is okay...