PlayStation Minus

Sony’s new PlayStation Plus program seemed like it would be a worthwhile upgrade with only minor potential issues at launch when the company first announced it. The service will allow for subscribers to stream games from prior PlayStation libraries and offer select titles released for the current console generation. It wouldn’t entirely compete with Xbox Game Pass thanks to the lack of day-one releases, but that would ideally be made up for with the sheer number of archived titles. It would even allow for users to download some PSOne and PS2 Classics, those previously purchased on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4.

The issues the program is launching with are beyond “minor,” however, enough that it feels like Sony intentionally tied their virtual shoelaces for self-tripping.

Several PSOne Classics that have arrived on Asian stores thus far are the PAL versions, the old and dreaded European editions that run at lower framerates compared to the NTSC versions previously released outside the continent. This might sound familiar: Sony made this same mistake with the PlayStation Classic mini console. There’s no way they didn’t see all the criticism that hardware received, so perhaps “mistake” isn’t the right word — they might really believe these are the superior versions.

Not every game is affected, as third-party titles like Tekken 2, Abe’s Oddysee, and Mr. Driller are the NTSC versions. But nearly all the first-party games like Ape Escape, Hot Shots Golf, and Jumping Flash! are PAL iterations. The better versions of these games are on prior PS platforms, and through, you know, emulation.

Anyone interested in playing PS3 and PS4 games will run into a separate issue: The games available for streaming won’t support downloadable content. It’s a bad issue for reasons beyond select titles having good DLC: It’s not hyperbolic to say that a number of games will be incomplete without it. Take Asura’s Wrath, for which developer CyberConnect2 and publisher Capcom had the wisdom to attach the real ending to paid DLC. The PS Plus streaming version will prevent anyone from experiencing the entire game. It’s true that this was previously a problem with PlayStation Now, but new services should mark opportunities to fix prior issues for the larger audience that will take advantage of them.

Sony also had a surprise for everyone who purchased PS Plus subscriptions at discounted prices and stacked them in preparation for the Premium iteration. Sony Knew What They Did, and thus users in Asia were being charged a giant tax for the new service, enough to negate prior discounts. “Giant” wasn’t grandiose-enough word in some cases. Anyone who paid in advance for, say, a decade of service at a discounted cost saw an eye-popping price tag. This is not a common occurrence for updated services, and Sony could have easily swallowed the cost of several users getting a discounted heads-up.

Fortunately, this one was fixed shortly after it started happening, and only a couple of hours before this post went live, due to a “technical error” or whatever the hell they want to call it. Nice way for Sony to let the audience know that they could have officially done this if they wanted to, however.

There’s another issue ostensibly unrelated to the new program launching, though the timing is suspect. Sony confirmed through their website that the ability to transfer games from PS3 to Vita ended on May 11th. Most games can still be downloaded through the Vita store, but a select number of them were never updated to be available through it. Act surprised that plenty of Konami games are among them, like PSP titles Castlevania Chronicles, Silent Hill Origins, and Coded Arms, and PSOne Classics like Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill. It’s a shame Sony didn’t let anyone know in advance that this feature was disappearing, to give anyone time to prepare. Features like this vanishing were bound to happen when Sony’s efforts to kill the stores on older platforms outright were cancelled due to outrage, but how hard could it be to provide a heads-up?

The saving grace here is that there’s still time to fix the PlayStation Plus Premium issues before the program officially launches in other territories — specifically on June 2nd for Japan, June 13th in the Americas, and June 23rd in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. (The PS3-to-Vita transfer issue is barely being discussed, so there’s no incentive for them to roll that back.) Sony has backtracked on nonsense plans after facing backlash, like their aforementioned intentions to kill the PS3, PSP, and Vita stores and the initial Horizon Forbidden West pricing scheme. There’s about a 50-percent chance of the same thing happening for those outside the pricing scheme “fix.” That also means there’s an equal chance that they believe this storm can be weathered for the rest of them.

I saw a number of comments from people who thought Sony was heavily advertising this program now to distract from Jim Ryan’s nonsense thoughts on abortion rights in the United States and the revival of the gender discrimination lawsuit against the company. There’s a bit of humor in this turning into a PR mess too. Whether Sony will care enough to make sure the launch is improved for territories outside Asia remains to be seen, but it won’t take long to find out.

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