The recent changes to Playstation Plus has got me thinking about the future of the downloadable game service and what comes next….Has Sony’s clever marketing policy of it’s subscription service put it ahead of Microsoft’s XBLA/Indie/Games on demand feature? Only time will tell.

For those who are unaware of what Sony have done with Playstation Plus, the service now offers gamers an abundance of free games for the length of time in which they pay for the service. When I say abundance there are a nice array of games available instantly with further monthly freebies and offers giving you discount on further titles. Let me assure you that the games on offer have been pretty good so far with highlights including Little Big Planet 2, infamous 2, Motorstorm Apocalypse, Deus Ex and Red Dead Redemption plus other titles available to download via the PSN service.

Although this sounds impressive (and yes it is) one has to remember that a PS+ subscription will set you back around £40 per annum which is around a similar price as an Xbox 360 Gold membership yet Microsoft offer very little for free, but when you analyse what Sony are offering it is in fact a rental service, as in order to continue to be able to play the said games you have to renew your subscription once it expires.

I for one have never really had that much interest in PS+ until this new service was announced and promptly went out and bought a pre paid annual subscription card to see what the fuss was about and so far I am pretty impressed with what has been offered. So far I have downloaded a shed load of new stuff and gained discounts on some Vita games and content which I may not normally have purchased……

Wait a minute; did I just say I have downloaded a shed load that I would not normally have purchased? YES!!!!

At this point I must say that whoever at Sony came up with this new idea deserves a massive pay rise as he/she has gained the company what must amount to hundreds of thousands of extra income already from people like me and this means clever marketing on their behalf.

Whether this has come too late is another question but you can see the knock on effect as the people in charge of Microsoft’s online service have suddenly started offering many more discounts on a regular basis. This is all well and good but perhaps the best way forward would be to offer older XBLA titles for free as many new gamers may just weigh up the options and think that what is best for them is to go with Sony’s offer and get top drawer titles rather than a 600ms point saving on an XBLA game that has not sold too well or a 70% reduction on Bioshock DLC for the 400th time!!

I personally welcome this competition because as most gamers are aware the better online gaming of the 2 front running consoles has always edged towards the XBOX 360 and for the time being I can honestly see this staying the same but if Sony continue the momentum it is building with the all singing all dancing new PS+ service then the 2 horse race could become ever closer.

Whatever happens from now on in, us, the paying customers are surely the ones who will benefit the most from this healthy competition but the only problem I can foresee is that we may all end up with dozens of un played games which actually may come in useful during the summer gaming droughts which I have previously mentioned in one of my other blogs!