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Wretched Ride: PS4 Driveclub Game Rental Tied To Paid Subscription
MojoKid (1002251) writes "The upcoming PS4 game Driveclub is making waves for reasons that have nothing to do with its gameplay or development status. In a new video, the company has spelled out its free trial and upgrade policies, and the requirements are a doozy. First, the good news — PlayStation Plus subscribers will be able to download a demo of the game that contains a few maps and one trial area, India. If you choose to upgrade that version, the full title will cost you $50. Here's the catch — that purchase is tied to your Playstation Plus subscription. In other words, if you stop paying Sony the official $49.95 a year for PlayStation Plus, you lose your $50 game. This is completely at odds with how PlayStation Plus membership is supposed to work. It contradicts Sony's official FAQ, which states that: 'Any content you purchase with a Plus discount is yours to keep, regardless of you membership status.'"
...but apparently not to play.
This seems to be an unintended consequence of having an online-only game relying on service that is provided for a monthly fee. This wouldn't be an issue with the PS3 as online game play wasn't restricted to Plus subscriptions. I would have thought that people would have learned by now from the failures of EA/SimCity.
Official response: Well you didn't purchase it, you licensed it.
Silly consumers...
This really doesn't surprise me, especially since that time a few years ago when Activision were talking about pushing a required monthly subscription to play Call of Duty online. Not surprisingly, after massive user backlash, they merely pushed a subscription service that was required for the game's DLC. That other developers would try to cash in on this is not surprising in the least.
You know, the one that made fun of MS for trying to pull shit like this.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Actually, this is 100% in line with the FAQ. The PS+ version of the game isn't a demo. It's a low-content version of the game with a full trophy set. The $50 is DLC to add the missing cars, countries, and tracks to the PS+ version. The $60 version is a release which contains all of the above. You still own the $50 DLC. You just don't have access to the base game to be able to utilize that DLC. It's the same as any number of other games released on PS+. For example, LittleBigPlanet 2 has the Cross-Controller Pack, which provides you the ability to use a Playstation Vita as a second screen and a controller for the game that has unique play functionality. The pack also includes exclusive content (costumes, items, etc). If you let your PS+ subscription lapse, you can no longer play LittleBigPlanet 2, but you do still own the Cross-Controller Pack. You can no longer DO anything with that pack, but you do still very much own it, and regain access to its functionality if you resubscribe at some point.
Think about it this way. If you bought Diablo 2 and the Lord of Destruction expansion, and later sold Diablo 2, you would no longer be able to utilize the content of Lord of Destruction. It's the same thing, people.
Did EverQuest, World of Warcraft, or any other subscription MMORPG cost money to "buy" at launch?
Someone needs to really cash in on the idea of games which a) don't require you to buy a bunch of in-app purchases to actually beat the game, b) are yours to keep after you've paid the publisher/retailer some money, and c) don't make you feel like you just got raped after buying it. In other words, turn the clock back to the 90s before all the money grubbing got completely out of hand.
World of Warcraft. EVE Online. Elder Scroll Online...
This is standard on PS+, if you get a "free" game via PS+ (all games received for "free" are tied to your subscription, PS+ discounted ones aren't) and you buy DLC for it, the DLC becomes unusable if you end your PS+ subscription. Sony tells you that when you hit the download button for one of those "free" games. You can buy the base game later if you don't want to continue paying for the PS+ subscription, and then your DLC will be usable on that game. I am a PS+ subscriber, I avoid to buy DLC for the "free" games for this reason, but everything is perfectly clear on the store when you buy.
Why are you surprised?
You try to bullshit me with your contract, I'm not entering it. Keep your game, I keep my money, let's see who can rather afford it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
if you like your video game, you can keep your video game.
Sony's not doing this to us. We're doing it to ourselves. Stop accepting DRM. Don't subscribe to PS Plus. Don't "buy" this game. Goes for Steam, too.
Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
Sony is really crapping the bed with the PS4. Very few games compared to XBox One, more exclusives going to XB1, dropping free multiplayer in PSN+, and now things like this. All things that PS fanboys used to make fun of in regards to Xbox. It's like they took most of what was great at the PS3 and did a full 180. Whereas I'm finding the XB1 to be a fabulous platform.
(Disclaimer: I own both a PS4 and Xbox One and I'm not a 'fanboy' of either companies. Just calling it like it is)
It's better to burn out than to fade away
I'm going to skip this console generation : PS+ requirement to play online is ridiculous : I skipped all Xbox just because of their "Gold" membership and will start skipping Sony stuff too... I hope many will do the same thing!
just buy that and you should be OK
God forbid some of you should leave your homes once a month and melt in the sunshine. or have to wait a whole extra day if you buy the game from amazon
If anyone is upset that they bought a PlayStation and now features are being changed after-the-fact, I have NO SYMPATHY for you.
Enjoy :)
People fled gaming-PCs because of all the bullshit: obtuse DRM, all the half-done buggy games that need to be patched to be playable, the annoying installations and so on.
Consoles now have way more bullshit than the old-school PC gaming ever had and this is why people will start to leave consoles for another platform (probably steam.)
Just redefine "content". The game is not content it is a game. a Downloadable Content, DLC, is content. The OP assumes wrong. but then again it is a policy not a law.
So, this seems like a seriously stupid purchase choice. The unlock, however, is "DLC" for a game that is available from PS Plus, and therefore subject to further PS Plus membership. For $10 more, however, you can just purchase the silly game outright. I assumed the $10 more option was going to be the only way to get the whole shebang from the beginning. Having said that, considering the outrage, perhaps Sony/Evolution should just forget this option and offer a $10 discount to PS Plus members, considering the outrage.
ratchet?
My SIG is a P226
- Pay for the system.
- Pay for the game.
- Pay for a subscription to an online service so you can play the game.
- Pay for additional content to add to the game.
Pay, pay, pay, pay more, pay more again. It's like bringing the arcade experience of feeding quarters home. Is this really progress?
Join a community and help develop/run/use open source games. Unlike movies or other entertainment with enough support OS games could flourish with the right community behind them. The cost of development is no where near what a movie would be even something like say Pioneer 1.
Support the used game market, since the 80's even 90's 8bit + systems there's 1000's of games out there that probably 90% of gamers don't know they exist.
How about using Kickstarer to fund development of game systems/emulators that will play Nintendo/Sega/Atari/etc... cartridges?
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Your contract with Sony obviously came before your contract with the makers of DriveClub, and Driveclub's contract goes directly against the contract with Sony..
Sue the makers of DriveClub for tortious interference of contract. It's an open and shut case. You can't lose unless you do something stupid like make a filing error.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
It's almost like stockholm syndrome. The majority of gamers are sympathizing with their 'captors.'
I've had a couple long arguements about this stuff years ago when stuff heavier than 'cd-key' or even securom starting coming into play. The excuse I got from gamers was: 'Well if they didn't do that, we'd just pirate their games, like we usually do,'
X.x The irony of this to me was that they said this as they were pirating games, but ALSO as they were purchasing games they 'liked' regardless of the DRM, and formerly had been purchasing games during the shareware era based on the games/demos available. In fact the majority who'd 'pirated' games had done so by installing games without cd-keys or secu-rom type checks and simply running a nocd executable (which even today are almost always available 0-day.)
But despite all this you hear gamers talk about DRM in the same way 'pink 'n prissys' talk about Disney Films/World/etc or any number of other cult/fanboy companies. It's a necessary evil and we still love them just the same.
The only possible way I can see this problem being remedied is for all the people who actually care about these issues segregating themselves into a sovereign state where such things won't be tolerated, because quite frankly the breeding and nose breathing masses are not going to change their opinions rapidly enough to stem the tide.
And they fixed the issue. Now if you upgrade the PS+ demo with the DLC, you can keep playing the full game even if you let your PS+ subscription lapse...which is the behavior everyone wanted. Figured they'd do it.