How much money did 'Xbox GWG' and 'PSN +' save you in 2014?

Kvally

Kvally

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2015 is almost upon us, and as we look back at 2014, we'll notice that it was quite an exciting year, specially for gamers. There were exciting new game releases for both the major consoles; namely Playstation 4 and Xbox One and massive discounts along with regular updates bringing new features to the respective consoles.

Talking particularly about the console's premium customers, the year was even more exciting. Both Xbox Live Games with Gold and Playstation Plus' services brought a variety of games to their premium subscribers which means that along with (probably) spending hundreds of hours playing free games, they also saved an abnormally large sum of money by just paying for the yearly subscription of their respective service.

But how much money did they save? Thankfully, Push Square and Polygon have the answer to this question. The two sites have compiled data of all the games offered for free throughout the year, courtesy of their respective premium services. The data has then been aggregated to calculate how much money did each of the services saved its subscribers. The results are quite interesting.

If you are an Xbox Games with Gold subscriber, you potentially saved money on the following games:

  • Sleeping Dogs (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 80, Xbox Marketplace price: $19.99.
  • Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 85, $14.99
  • Dead Island (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 71, $19.99.
  • Toy Soldiers: Cold War (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 81, $14.99
  • Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 84, $29.99.
  • Dungeon Defenders (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 77, $14.99
  • Hitman: Absolution (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 79, $19.99.
  • Deadlight (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 68, $14.99
  • Saints Row: The Third (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 84, $19.99.
  • Dust: An Elysian Tail (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 83, $14.99
  • Max: The Curse of Brotherhood (Xbox One): Metacritic score: 72, $14.99.
  • Halo: Spartan Assault (Xbox One): Metacritic score: 53, $9.99.
  • Dark Souls (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 89, $19.99.
  • Charlie Murder (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 78, $9.99.
  • Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 78, $29.99
  • Guacamelee: Super Turbo Championship Edition (Xbox One and Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 88, $14.99
  • BattleBlock Theater (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 85, $14.99.
  • Gotham City Impostors (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 71, $14.99
  • Strike Suit Zero: Director’s Cut (Xbox One): Metacritic score: 67, $14.99.
  • Dishonored (Xbox 360) Metacritic score: 88, $19.99.
  • Crimson Dragon (Xbox One) Metacritic score: 55, $19.99.
  • Motocross Madness (Xbox 360) Metacritic score: 73, $9.99
  • Super Time Force (Xbox One): Metacritic score: 80, $14.99
  • Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 81, $14.99.
  • Halo: Reach (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 91, $24.99
  • Chariot (Xbox One): Metacritic score: 74, $14.99.
  • Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 88, $19.99.
  • Darksiders 2 (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 83, $39.99
  • Volgarr the Viking (Xbox One): Metacritic score: 82, $9.99
  • Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 82, $14.99.
  • Red Faction: Guerrilla (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 85, $19.99
  • Worms: Battlegrounds (Xbox One): Metacritic score: 70, $24.99.
  • The Raven — Legacy of a Master Thief Episode 1 (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 74, $9.99.
  • SSX (Xbox 360): Metacritic score: 82 $19.99
Overall, if you are an Xbox Live Gold member, you possibly saved $525 on all these games which seems like a bargain considering the yearly subscription costs only $60. The games have an average Metacritic rating of 78.3, which is not bad at all, considering that a couple of games like Halo: Spartan Assault received embarrassing scores like 53.

On the other hand, if you are a Playstation Plus (North America) subscriber, you saved plenty of bucks on the following games, courtesy of Push Square:

  • Don’t Starve
  • BioShock Infinite
  • DmC: Devil May Cry
  • Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
  • Smart As
  • Worms: Battle Islands
  • Outlast
  • Metro: Last Light
  • Payday 2
  • Remember Me
  • ModNation Racers: Road Trip
  • Street Fighter X Tekken
  • Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition
  • Tomb Raider
  • Thomas Was Alone
  • Lone Survivor: The Director’s Cut
  • Unit 13
  • Monster Hunter: Freedom Unite
  • Mercenary Kings
  • Batman: Arkham City
  • Stealth Inc: A Clone in the Dark
  • Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
  • Velocity Ultra
  • PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate HD
  • Stick It to the Man
  • Puppeteer
  • PES 2014: Pro Evolution Soccer
  • Skullgirls Encore
  • Surge Deluxe
  • Limbo
  • Trine 2
  • PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate
  • NBA 2K14
  • Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
  • Terraria
  • Mutant Mudds Deluxe
  • TowerFall Ascension
  • Strider
  • Dead Space 3
  • Vessel
  • Muramasa Rebirth
  • Doki Doki Universe
  • Road Not Taken
  • Fez
  • Crysis 3
  • Proteus
  • Metrico
  • Dragon’s Crown
  • Velocity 2X
  • Sportsfriends
  • PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
  • Hoard
  • Joe Danger
  • TXK
  • Dust: An Elysian Tail
  • Spelunky
  • Batman: Arkham Asylum
  • Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara
  • Pix the Cat
  • Rainbow Moon
  • The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
  • Steamworld Dig
  • Frozen Synapse Prime
  • Luftrausers
  • The Hungry Horde
  • Escape Plan
  • Injustice: Gods Among Us
  • Secret Ponchos
  • Hitman HD Trilogy
  • Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut
  • Final Horizon
  • Titan Attacks
According to this data, Play Station Plus members saved a staggering amount of $1349 this year, again, considering the $50 yearly subscription fee, is quite a whole lot of money. The average rating, however, was roughly the same as Xbox's scoring a 79 according to Metacritic's reviews.

Although the difference in money saved between the two premium services might seem absurdly large, it's should be pointed out that Sony offers this service on three consoles; Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Playstation Vita but Microsoft offers it's services on two consoles; Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Moreover, if you opt out of the Playstation Plus, you do not have access to these games for free, on the other hand, even if your Gold subscription expires on Microsoft's Xbox 360, you still have access to your free games. Unfortunately, this feature is not yet available on Xbox One.

All in all, it was an exciting year for both the companies and their respective customers, and we are eager to see what Sony and Microsoft have to offer in 2015.
 
I paid £25 for a year of Gold.

I downloaded all the 360 games and 'bought' the Xbox One offerings just in case I get one.

I got my money's worth at less than a pound a game.

Next year they will reduce the 360 offering to one a month, I bet, but increase the One's monthly games.
 
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Now how many of the free games have you played...?

On 360/XBO, I've touched two of them. Holy hell Crimson Dragon is awful.
 
Yes, I was XBox live subscription from 2007 to 2013 Nov.
 
Neither service saves me any money. I don't wait for games to appear in either of them. If I want one, I'll buy it. For me, it's a benefit to get something I would not have otherwise bought. But it doesn't save me anything
 
Kind of ridiculous to say that "Play Station Plus members saved a staggering amount of $1349 this year," as if you'd buy all those games at full price if you didn't have PS+.
 
D-V-ANT said:
Neither service saves me any money. I don't wait for games to appear in either of them. If I want one, I'll buy it. For me, it's a benefit to get something I would not have otherwise bought. But it doesn't save me anything
Click to expand...

That's my problem with this as well and it feels weird to say, but I don't want the free games. I wish they would invest that money in other ways:
-make the service better
-more sales and permanent price drops on digital
-free Xbox music or some free movie vouchers each month
-pick a free dlc (within a certain value)
-bigger cash rebates on digital
-digital buy2get1 sales
-or simply just give us some digital monopoly money/credits each month to spend as we wish

Pretty much anything other than games, because if I want the game, I already own it. If it was on PC two years ago, I already played it. It only serves to undermine the value of indie-games at the moment, which is something that will be more visible in a few years.
 
pravus said:
That's my problem with this as well and it feels weird to say, but I don't want the free games. I wish they would invest that money in other ways:
-make the service better
-more sales and permanent price drops on digital
-free Xbox music or some free movie vouchers each month
-pick a free dlc (within a certain value)
-bigger cash rebates on digital
-digital buy2get1 sales
-or simply just give us some digital monopoly money/credits each month to spend as we wish

Pretty much anything other than games, because if I want the game, I already own it. If it was on PC two years ago, I already played it. It only serves to undermine the value of indie-games at the moment, which is something that will be more visible in a few years.
Click to expand...

So much truth.
 
Playstation Plus didn't save me a dime. Believe it or not, it actually cost me $7.99 each and every month. ;) Sure, Playstation Plus let me play a few random cheap indie play games every now and then, but it wasn't anything to fuss over. I am much more happy with Steam discounts, and I don't need a subscription for that. I've been very happy with PC gaming for the past few years.
 
Probably not very much really. Most of the games I wouldn't have bought. But it did provide a value in letting me play games I wouldn't usually play.
 
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If I had bought all those games at discount and then spent all that time to play each I would now be living in a van down by the river.
 
I rather have discount available for most games than free games that I may or may not be interested.
 
Probably not a whole lot. Sure most of the PS+ titles I downloaded but haven't bothered to play them and not sure I ever will.
 
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To say the thousand dollars of amount of saving by total worth of the game individually, is like saying the 100s of thousands of saving from subscription to a streaming service like Netflix.

I doesn't work like that. There are massive saving for sure, but thats just not the way to evaluate the saving.
 
Viktor said:
Probably not a whole lot. Sure most of the PS+ titles I downloaded but haven't bothered to play them and not sure I ever will.
Click to expand...
I'm same way for X1 except I do try to at least boot the game up one time. If it can blow me away very quickly, if not it just ends up in a huge collection.
 
I literally just got my Xbox One, however I've already been happy with a couple deals on games I would've bought anyway. Peggle 2 for $4 and Outlast for $8.
 
I'd say I saved about $100 this year with GWG and PS+ between the 2 Batman games, Hitman, and Tomb Raider. And in the case if a couple other games, I got unlucky and bought them a month before they became free (Metro:Last Light) so I could have saved more.

There's also a few games I have downloaded that I want to play but probably never will have the time to (Dead Island, Sleeping Dogs, Dark Souls, Red Faction).

Overall I think it's a solid program, though I believe both Microsoft and Sony need to go with more quality over quantity.
 
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