PlayStation Plus North America vs Europe vs Japan vs Xbox Live’s Free Games: Where’s the Best Value?

Giuseppe Nelva July 6, 2013 11:00 AM EST

The Instant Game Collection offered to PlayStation Plus Members is a very compelling offer. So compelling that Even Microsoft had to adjust Xbox Live in order to offer some free games to its subscribers, but not many know that there are large differences in the games offered to PlayStation Plus members living in different regions, and those differences could even be big enough to make some reconsider the region they subscribe to, as becoming a PS Plus member in a different region is not that hard at all.

Let’s take the current offer as an example, and let’s see what every region gets, comparing the value of each offer to determine a victor in value.

Let us start with the North American PlayStation Plus:

Battlefield 3 $39.99 Saints Row: The Third $39.99 XCOM: Enemy Unknown $39.99 UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception $39.99 LittleBigPlanet Karting $39.99 Machinarium $9.99 Pinball Arcade $9.99 Joe Danger 2: The Movie $14.99 The Cave $14.99 Labyrinth Legends $9.99 Malicious $9.99 Knytt Underground $14.99 Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward $34.99 Gods Eater Burst $19.99 Germinator $9.99 Uncharted Golden Abyss $35.99 Gravity Rush $35.99 wipEout 2048 $39.99 Total: $461.82

$461 is quite an amazing value, The cost of the service is $17.99 for three months and $49.99 for a year.

Now let’s move on to the European PlayStation Plus:

Battlefield 3 € 69.99 Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus € 34.99 Uncharted: Golden Abyss € 24.99 XCOM: Enemy Unknown € 39.99 LittleBigPlanet Karting € 29.99 Gravity Rush € 14.99 Catherine € 59.99 Malicious € 7.99 Unit 13 € 14.99 Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception € 34.99 Payday: The Heist € 16.99 ICO & Shadow of the Colossus HD € 24.99 Demon’s Souls € 19.99 Saints Row: The Third € 29.99 Sine Mora € 9.99 Total: € 434.85

The European PS Plus has less games, but a higher monetary value that translates to $557.96. This is mostly due to the fact that games in Europe tend to cost more, and for most gaming products publishers will simply make the equation $1 = €1, despite the fact that one Euro equates to $1.28. We do notice, though, that despite having slightly less games the European PS Plus gives more titles that cost more.

Let’s add a column to the table above to display the price of the same games in the US, to be able to do a more compelling comparison.

Battlefield 3 € 69.99 $39.99 Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus € 34.99 $34.99 Uncharted: Golden Abyss € 24.99 $35.99 XCOM: Enemy Unknown € 39.99 $39.99 LittleBigPlanet Karting € 29.99 $39.99 Gravity Rush € 14.99 $35.99 Catherine € 59.99 $19.99 Malicious € 7.99 $9.99 Unit 13 € 14.99 $26.99 Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception € 34.99 $39.99 Payday: The Heist € 16.99 $19.99 ICO & Shadow of the Colossus HD € 24.99 $29.98 Demon’s Souls € 19.99 $19.99 Saints Row: The Third € 29.99 $39.99 Sine Mora € 9.99 $9.99 Total: € 434.85 $443.84

As you can see the real value of the free games on the European Playstation Plus gets near to what the North American brothers get, but falls just short. Considering that three months of PS Plus cost European gamers €14.99 ($19.23) and a year costs a full €49.99 ($64.14), a subscription to the NA service could be seen as quite compelling for them given the higher value and lower price.

Now, let’s fly to the other side of the Pacific Ocean and let’s see what our Japanese friends get from their PlayStation Plus instant collection. You better prepare to do some scrolling, because the list is going to be long.

The House of the Dead 4 ￥1,000 Nikoli no Puzzle V Bijutsukan ￥500 Neutopia ￥600 Neutopia II ￥600 Echochrome ￥1,800 Qruton ￥1,000 Datura ￥1,000 Patapon ￥1,400 Battle Fantasia ￥1,500 Rayman Origins ￥2,500 The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky ￥2,940 Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward ￥5,840 Altered Beast ￥600 Time Travelers (PSP) ￥4,980 Time Travelers (PS Vita) ￥4,980 Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus ￥5,040 Malicious ￥800 GUILTY GEAR XX ΛCORE PLUS ￥1,200 The King of Fighters’ 94 (PS3) ￥900 The King of Fighters’ 94 (PSP) ￥700 Way of the Samurai 2 Portable ￥3,000 Danball Senki W (PS Vita) ￥4,480 Danball Senki W (PSP) ￥4,480 Tokushu Hodobu ￥5,000 World Heroes (PS3) ￥900 World Heroes (PS Vita) ￥700 Danball Senki Boost ￥4,480 LocoRoco Cocoreccho ￥800 Ape Escape SaruSaru Big Mission ￥3,800 Lemmings ￥800 Rayman ￥600 Rising Zan: The Samurai Gunman ￥600 Dokapon! Ikari no Tetsu Ken ￥600 LSD ￥600 Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kempucho ￥600 Arc the Lad ￥600 Shin Megami Tensei if… ￥1,000 Ma Megamitensho Devil Children ￥600 Touge Max 2 ￥600 Theme Park ￥600 Populous: The Beginning ￥600 Theme Acquarius ￥600 Theme Hospital ￥600 High-octane ￥600 Magic Carpet ￥600 Theme Park World ￥600 Lunatic Dawn III ￥600 Neo Atlas ￥600 Neo Atlas II ￥600 Lunatic Dawn Odyssey ￥600 Paca Paca Passion 2 ￥600 Paca Paca Passion Special ￥600 Shinsou Kaiten Wanwan Umi Monogatari ￥600 Sanyo Pachinko Paradise 5 ￥600 Sanyo Pachinko Paradise 3 ￥600 CG Mukashi Banashi Jii-san 2-do Bikkuri ￥600 Yaku 2: Noroi no Game ￥600 Spectral Tower ￥600 Spectral Force 2 ￥600 Pocket Tuner ￥600 Pro Mahjong PLUS ￥600 Athena no Kateiban: Family Game ￥600 Ide Yosuke no Mahjong Kyoshitsu ￥600 Dezaemon Kids! ￥600 Mesukosei no Hokago. . . Pukun Pa ￥600 BlockKids ￥600 Guilty Gear ￥600 Prismaticallization ￥600 Wizard’s Harmony 2 ￥600 Wizard’s Harmony R ￥600 Cho Aniki ￥600 Langrisser I & II ￥600 Langrisser IV & V FINAL EDITION ￥600 Harmful Park ￥600 Konami Antiques MSX Collection Vol. 1 ￥600 Konami Antiques MSX Collection Vol. 2 ￥600 Ganbare Goemon ￥600 Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu ￥600 ZERO DIVIDE ￥600 Project Gaiarei ￥600 Grille Logic ￥600 Building Crash! ￥600 Tsuukai!! Slot Shooting ￥600 Lunar Wing ￥600 Thunder Force V Perfect System ￥600 My Garden ￥600 Kyuutenkai ￥600 Neorude 2 ￥600 Koutetsu Reiiki Steeldom ￥600 Neorude 3 ￥600 REVERTHION ￥600 O Mise de Tenshu ￥600 SuperLite 1500 Series Chikichiki Chi Kin ￥600 Kamaitachi no Yoru Tokubetsu-hen ￥600 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 15 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 32 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 35 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 33 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 39 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 48 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 55 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 56 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 57 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 60 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 63 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 65 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 70 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 69 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 71 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 82 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 91 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 88 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 95 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 97 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 98 ￥300 Simple 1500 Series Vol. 100 ￥300 Motteke Tamago with Ganbare! ￥600 Super Black Bass X ￥600 Marl Okoku no Ningyo Hime ￥600 Marl Okoku no Ningyo Hime 2 ￥600 Kitchen Panic ￥600 U.P.P. ￥600 Armored Core ￥600 King’s Field ￥600 King’s Field II ￥600 Shadow Tower ￥600 Armored Core Project Phantasma ￥600 King’s Field III ￥600 Echo Night ￥600 Armored Core Master of Arena ￥600 Kawa no Nushi Tsuri: Hikyou o Motomete ￥600 Gakkou wo Tsukuro!! 2 ￥600 Brigandine Grand Edition ￥600 Bomberman Fantasy Race ￥600 Bomberman Land ￥600 The Conveni 2: Zenkoku Chain Tenkai da! ￥600 Mikagura Shojo Tanteidan ￥600 Fire Pro Wrestling G ￥600 Culdcept Expansion Plus ￥600 Michinoku Hitou Koimonogatari Kai ￥600 TILK – Aoi Umi kara Kita Shoujo ￥600 Fuuraiki ￥600 Minna no Golf 2 ￥600 Mahoutsukai ni Naru Houhou ￥600 Ganbare Morikawa Kimi 2nd Pet in TV ￥600 XI[sai] ￥600 Gun Parade March ￥600 Popolocrois Story ￥600 I.Q Final ￥600 Kururin PA! ￥600 Valken 2 ￥600 MigiHidari (U-SA) ￥600 ZEUS Carnage Heart Second ￥600 Total: ￥135,920

While the Japanese PS Plus focuses a lot more on older and classic games, there’s a lot of them. The total value is just shy of One hundred thirty-five thousands Yen, that corresponds to a whopping $1,343.30.

Now, before you run to subscribe to the Japanese PlayStation Plus (incidentally there’s a 15 days free trial that you can use to try it as I explained in this post), there are a couple caveats we have to consider. Current video games cost more in Japan than in the US, due to the much higher cost of living. For instance Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus costs the equivalent of $64.14. That said, the vast majority of that immense list is made by classic games, and those tend to cost less in Japan for some reason. The usual price for a classic game in North America is $5.99. In Japan most of them cost ￥600, that equates to $5.93.

This means that the Japanese PlayStation Plus undoubtedly offers a much higher monetary value in free games. What’s even more amazing is that the subscription does not cost more, but less. Three months are priced the equivalent of $14.82, and a full year is $49.41.

With that kind of numbers, it seems to be rather uncharitable to include the free games offered by Xbox Live in the comparison, as it offers only one free game at any given time, one every half a month, and the promotion just started, but it does have to compete in the same market with PlayStation Plus, so it’s only fair to compare what we get. The upside is that subscribers get to keep the games even when their subscription ends, while PlayStation Plus members retain their free games but can play them only while their subscription is active.

So far Xbox Live gave us Fable III ($19.99) and Defense Grid the Awakening ($9.99). On July the 16th we’re going to get Assassin’s Creed II ($19.99). While the ability to keep them even when our subscription expires is interesting, they’re either very deep into the back catalogue or quite cheap Xbox Live Arcade games, making the offer extremely uncompelling compared to what we get with PlayStation Plus in any region. Let’s not even talk about the Japanese PS Plus, because we’re simply in a different order of magnitude here.

Of course we have to consider the quality of the Xbox Live service into the equation, but the fact that Microsoft started to offer free games as well shows quite clearly that they aren’t too confident in that alone. It’s definitely less objectively quantifiable than free games, so you’ll have to assign it your own personal value.

Unfortunately to truly enjoy the Japanese instant game collection you need to be able to understand Japanese, but not considering that factor, the PlayStation Plus offer from the archipelago of the rising sun is the clear victor between all the services mentioned, and not by a small amount.

Now imagine how compelling PlayStation Plus would be if Sony offered the same value in North America and Europe as well. You can bet that it’d silence most of the remaining complaints about having to pay to play online. If the Japanese consumer electronics giant wants to deal a crippling blow to the competition, this may be a viable route to pursue. After all, if they can do it in Japan, why not everywhere?