PlayStation Plus August Line-Up Receives Hefty Criticism

PlayStation Plus, commonly referred to as PS+ launched as an optional service and allowed subscribers to access a huge selection of premium games every month. Unfortunately, this service became mandatory for PS4 owners wanting to play games online. Apparently, Sony decided to go down this route to enhance their networking infrastructure and try to reduce downtimes. Honestly, I’ve not seen a major difference in Sony’s network reliability and it’s difficult to know what state their service is in compared to both Valve and Microsoft’s Xbox Live. Of course, many consumers still pay the fee because they believe the wealth of included games each month makes the investment worthwhile.

Annoyingly, the quality of bundled games each month has declined at a rapid pace and caused many PlayStation owners to vent their frustration. Initially, I excused Sony because it wasn’t easy to offer various stellar PlayStation 4 games due to the limited library. However, the PlayStation 4 has been out for some time, supports older games via emulation and apparently now has a repeated title in this month’s line up. The August 2016 package comes with:

• Tricky Towers, PS4
• Rebel Galaxy, PS4
• Yakuza 5, PS3
• Retro/Grade, PS3
• Patapon 3, PS Vita
• Ultratron, PS Vita, PS3, PS4

The only really good addition here is Yakuza 5 while the rest leave a lot to be desired. This sentiment is shared by the overwhelming majority of YouTube viewers and the trailer currently has a staggering 18,418 dislikes. In the comments section, there’s an abundance of criticism such as:

“Is this a joke?

“Pathetic”

“Disappointment awaits”

“I don’t get it PS4 sold nearly double compared with Xbox One yet Xbox get all the good exclusives I guess they were right when they said ‘Greatness Awaits’ because we’re still waiting! Then not only do Xbox get good exclusives they get much better Free games of the month, with games for gold!”

Clearly, there’s a growing dissent within the PlayStation community towards the PS+ service and Sony needs to address these concerns or adjust the PlayStation Plus model. I’d recommend switching to a two-tiered system with a basic package for online pay (ideally free like Steam), and premium service granting access to a great library of games.