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.
Source: Polygon, Push Square |Images via Sony, Microsoft
23 Comments - Add comment