I guess there's many ways to interpret "free". I choose to have an interpretation that gives me the most amount of FREEdom and hopefully cost me the least amount of money. You may choose otherwise.
My personal view is that GameSpot is free because there's no strings attached. GameSpot do not set any restrictions on access to their service. If GameSpot was only available through a certain ISP I would not consider them to be free.
I do not think the games on PS+ are free. I can not get the "free games" only and opt-out of the other paid services.
I also think Sony knows this distinction perfectly well. They are laughing all the way to the bank with the money from their "free games". This is completely understandable given that they are in the business of earning as much money as possible.
Disclaimer: This was not a criticism of the quality of PS+ in any way whatsoever. It's simply a discussion of the word "free".
You are so amazingly and completely missing the point. Please allow me to rub it in:
1. I think PS+ is a great service with great value and I've never claimed otherwise
2. I don't have a problem with Sony's marketing of "Free Games with PS+". They are a commercial company and I almost expect them to bend the truth a little in their favor. It's their job.
3. I even agree that this is a discussion about semantics. I don't agree that this makes it invalid. You can bet Sony have choosen their words Very Carefully when they created the "Free Games with PS+" slogan. Customers (me included) like it very much when they get something for free (although I prefer the kind of free I don't have to pay for). As this comment section demonstrate very well, there are plenty of people who are completely convinced they're getting something for free from Sony. Kudos to Sony for a very effective marketing strategy! :)
4. GameSpot is supposed to be an independent news source and not a mouthpiece for Sony. I (usually) trust them to give me objective information, but the article header and intro in this video can hardly be considered "objective information". It's basically a commercial for PS+ that Sony would be proud of. I think this kind of biased reporting is not cool.
@RobDev It is actually possible to make it clearer: "PS+ is a monthly subscription which _includes_ 3-4 games". Note that the word "free" is not used in the sentence.
I understand perfectly why Sony choose to market it like this. People love to _belive_ that they get something for free. So much in fact, that they forget about the money they just spent.
PS: As a PS3-subscriber it's pretty much just about the games.
@RobDev Sony says that "You can have these 3-4 games For Free, but ONLY if you give us X-amount of dollars first". Please explain to me how that statement makes sense.
That said... I'm a Play Station Plus subscriber myself and think it's a great service. However it is a _Game Subsription Service_. There's nothing free about it.
I like the idea of the NHL94 mode. I've pretty much given up on sports games, since I have to spend hours and hours just to scratch the surface of the controls/mechanics. I miss the "old" days when it was only "shooting, passing, hitting, and skating" :)
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