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[PS4, PS5] March 2021 PS Plus Games - Final Fantasy VII Remake / FarPoint / Maquette / Remnant from The Ashes

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Edit - officially announced.


The March 2021 games have been announced on Facebook (and subsequently removed). As usual, available from the first Tuesday of the month.

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  • +15

    Great month.

    And don't bother crying over the fact this version of FF7 doesn't qualify for a PS5 upgrade.

    Those who bought it deserve the free upgrade.

    A an absolute AAA game less then a year old is huge.

    Remnant is great too!

    • +6

      How come it's not eligible for ps5 upgrade, did they announce PS+ versions not eligible

    • I've bought it - it'd be nice it was some other games but I think it's good that many will be able to experience it who otherwise, wouldn't consider it. It's a great game in its own right :)

      can't wait for the upgrade and the DLC.

    • pretty sure the DLC extra chapter isn't a free upgrade.

  • +8

    Wow, great month! Was planning to get FF7, glad I held off.

    • +5

      Same didn't buy it. This alone is worth the sub for this year

        • +3

          If you have followed the ozbargain way of PSN plus sub only cost $45 a year. You do the maths

  • +6

    Anybody still online for Remnant from The Ashes, would like to get the platinum trophy

    • +25

      Name checks out.

    • Yep! I bought it and all the DLC. Great game and very active.

    • The game is alright but frame rate on this game is atrocious. Desperately needs next gen patch.

  • +1

    Crazy month. Final Fantasy 7 remark wow it’s a amazing game glad to see it given away for free.

    • its not really free so to speak its inclusion on subscription…..you need to pay for still

  • +2

    I don't think Sony will try to match Microsoft's Game Pass. They do not want to give up their US$70 games.

    I think they'll just start dropping old big ones/new titles once a month on PS Plus.

    • Game Pass for PS will never happen. It simply isn't profitable. Why would you want to charge $10 for a game and give up $70? That's a $60 opportunity cost. All you'd make is $120 a year, which is the price of two games.

      A $10 a month subscription can't be Microsoft's end game.

      • +5

        The argument against that is you can have lot more people paying 120 a year than people buying single games for 70.

        • +1

          and if those people paying 120 a year play two games or more, it's a loss. Who plays 2 games a year?

          If half the user base plays 4 games a year, the only way to not lose money is if half the other half of people who subscribe pay but don't play anything. That's not realistic.

          If someone plays 3 full priced games in a year, someone else needs to play only 1 game that year to break even. But how many people are going to be playing multiple games a month, much less a year?

          Anyone who subscribes will never have to buy a first party title ever again. These things cost tens of millions, sometimes hundreds of millions.

          There's a good reason why they obfuscate their game pass revenue by combining it with another division, and also not revealing profits.

          • +11

            @lostn: Don't disagree with you, but that's what Blockbuster said about Netflix…

            • +1

              @Jackson:

              Don't disagree with you, but that's what Blockbuster said about Netflix…

              Last I checked, Netflix costs more than game pass. And renting a movie was what, $6 in value? A game for us is $90. What's being offered is of different value.

          • +12

            @lostn: Who buys full priced games?

            • @flashi007: Exactly, this is Ozbargain not OzRRP

            • +1

              @flashi007:

              Who buys full priced games?

              People who want to play it on day 1.

            • +2

              @flashi007: For big games I want to play, me.

              If you look at sales figures every month, millions of people buy full priced games at launch.

              To use an example, God of War which is not even close to the best selling game, but it was an example I pulled out of a hat. It sold 3.1 million copies in the first 3 days. Those would have been full priced sales. So that's $186m USD revenue in the first 3 days. If they offered it for $10 subscription, all they would have got for it is $31m. And that $10 also gives access to every other game in the catalog, so revenue for all of those games would have to count as $0.

              And that's just the revenue differential for the first 3 days.

              According to wikipedia:

              "In total, the game sold over five million copies in its first month, with 2.1 million in digital sales.[121][122] By May 2019, the game had sold over 10 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling game in the series."

              10 million copies, $100 million revenue if sold via subscription. That's less than the revenue they would have received for the 3.1 million copies sold in the first 3 days.

              Now you can argue that more people will have played the game if they had access to it for $10. And if you attribute the $10 to revenue for GoW from those additional players, then for accounting purposes, every other game played that month counts as $0 revenue, which would be considered a loss if you do the same maths to compare how much those other games would have made if sold at retail.

            • @flashi007: I do … sometimes; for games I really like :D now you make me feel bad

          • @lostn: lots of people dont actually buy that many games so the idea is you can bring people in with the 10 dollar sub, keep them in the system and raise the price over time. There are other benefits to being this cheap also. they position themselves as being better value than a ps5. they position the xbox one x to be good value and gamepass to be necessary at the same time. if they own a game they can encourage people into their own subscription while selling the game at full price to anyone who doesn't want it. they are basically running a campaign to convert people to gamepass subs (and to a lesser extent xbox/pc users).
            gamepass for PS cant really happen cause they have been moving to bigger budget but fewer exclusives so microsoft is actually quite cleverly building marketshare by moving away from that niche (which they haven't been great at for a while)

      • +6

        Software attach rate for the Xbox one was less than 7 which means on average gamers buy 1 game for every year the console was out. If they convince you to pay for almost two games a year plus whatever your were going to buy that is not on the service anyway then they make a packet.

        • I’d love to know the attach rate for PS4 and Switch. Arguably much higher than Xbox one would’ve been. Still you made a good point.

        • +1

          Software attach rate for the Xbox one was less than 7 which means on average gamers buy 1 game for every year the console was out.

          How are these figures taken? If someone has Games with Gold and plays the free games, does that count as a purchase?

          • @lostn: Total PS4 games sold are about 1.6-1.7 Billion units, give it or take. As an example, the PS2 sold about 1.55 Billion units.

            Also, games on gamepass/games with gold/ps plus/ps now don’t count for sales figures.

      • +5

        You think Microsoft is doing this to not make a profit good ol' charitable Microsoft amrite.

        • +2

          You think Microsoft is doing this to not make a profit good ol' charitable Microsoft amrite.

          They have already admitted game pass is not profitable.

          Any time you press them on it, they'll say, don't worry about us. We'll be ok.

          By that he means, they make so much money on other divisions they can absorb the loss without a second thought. Sony can't do that, so you won't find a game pass for PS.

      • That maths is incorrect.

        Microsoft doesn't make 100% of the money from a game sale.
        I believe the going rate is between 20-30% for 3rd party games.

        Most people don't pay full price either, let's be generous and say it's $80 average price.

        MS would then pocket $20 (25%) per game.

        With GamePass they get the full $10 per month.
        So they only "lose" if someone buys more than 6 games a year, which the majority would not.

        However GP doesn't quite work like that and while no one knows what MS pays devs to be on GP, but I'd hazard a guess it's less than $2 billion AUD per year which is about what MS makes from the 18 million GP subscribers.

        So I think they're doing fine.

        • +2

          Microsoft doesn't make 100% of the money from a game sale.
          I believe the going rate is between 20-30% for 3rd party games.

          We are talking about 1st party games.

          Most people don't pay full price either, let's be generous and say it's $80 average price.

          I would like to see the figures on that. I agree that not 100% will pay full price, but how much is "most"? 51%? The most copies sold happen in the first month with the exception of evergreen titles like GTA, CoD, Minecraft and the likes that continue to make top 10 every month years later. You get a boost when they become "red label" or budget priced, but even if we ignore all sales at discounted prices, the money you gave up for full price sales is huge.

          With GamePass they get the full $10 per month.

          That's $10 total, not $10 per 3rd party game. $10 for every game offered on Gamepass, 1st or 3rd party. And don't forget that MS has to compensate the 3rd party for giving customers access to the game without purchasing it. For that to be worth it to the 3rd party, the amount compensated has to be equivalent to purchasing the game.

          So they only "lose" if someone buys more than 6 games a year, which the majority would not.

          I think you're ignoring a lot of things. Microsoft's royalty on 6 3rd party games sold may be equivalent to $120, but what about the money they have to compensate to the 3rd parties for giving access to the game? That's going to cost money.

          However GP doesn't quite work like that and while no one knows what MS pays devs to be on GP, but I'd hazard a guess it's less than $2 billion AUD per year which is about what MS makes from the 18 million GP subscribers.

          You're definitely ignoring something huge. That $10 a month also includes 1st party games day and date of release. So a Gears of War game might cost $50 million to make, and more to market the game. Some games are $100 million. And instead of selling the game for $70 USD, they're giving access to it for $10 which you can beat in a month easily. That's $60 they could have had but didn't get (opportunity cost). And that same $10 also gives access to every other game on the service for no extra cost. So all of that is free.

          $2 billion revenue is not a lot of money a year if that's all they get. That's 30 million combined copies games sold at $70. You can easily sell more copies than that.

          This whole model is contingent on a low install base console where people don't buy many games. You let them play a lot more games, but they don't pay as much as they would have if they didn't have the service. In other words, a casual gamer console.

          18 million GP subscribers.

          Something else you're missing with these stats. You say that the attach rate is 7, so 1 game a year. That is across all users. Game pass is 18 million people. They've sold more than 18 million consoles, so you can't use equivalent maths. Those 18 million people are going to be playing a lot more than 1 game a year. They're the part of the audience who would have bought more than 1 game a year. You don't lose revenue selling game pass to someone who buys 1 game a year on average, but selling game pass to your most hardcore customers who would have bought the games at launch? Absolutely that's a lot of money being left on the table. The attitude has already changed in the xbox community. "That game I'm definitely not buying, but if I can play it for free on Game pass I'll give it a shot."

          When someone does that there's no money being made on that game. They were already subscribed to game pass for other games, so they get to play this for nothing extra.

          • @lostn: Good points.

            I'm not going to break everything down and I'll admit I'm probably off base in some instances, so I'll defer to MS themselves who say this isn't overly profitable right NOW, so you're right there.

            But the subscription base is growing rapidly and there's probably a number of subs they need to hit that'll trigger profits and then things will just grow and grow from there.

            I will say though you probably need to broaden your scope instead of looking at it purely from $ per game level.

            This is about creating an ecosystem where people are buying an Xbox because of GamePass (where normally they'd just get PlayStation), they then buy Xbox Live, they then buy accessories, they then buy games on Xbox instead of PlayStation (not every game is on GamePass) and suddenly they've got a fan for life.

            MS can't compete head to head in the game space, Sony are so superior in first party right now that it's like Ali v Danny Devito.
            So MS pivoted to a sub model and went quantity & value over quality.

            MS are the biggest company in the world, they can afford to play the long game.
            In fact, a lot of big companies run at a loss (Uber, Spotify, Snap etc.) it's all about future earnings, subs, revenue and gaining market share from competition.

    • +2

      Sony is underestimating gamepass and consequently will lose. Might take 10 years though.

      It's not about short term profit, it's about being the biggest dog in the kennel. Great position to be in to sell operating systems, phones etc… Set Bing as default… Get advertising dollars. MS isn't stupid, they're taking things one bit at a time. They've struggled on several fronts but they will continue to try again and eventually it'll stick.

      • +2

        It's not about short term profit, it's about being the biggest dog in the kennel.

        Being the biggest dog in the kennel is a pyrrhic victory if all you'll get is $120 a year. If Sony can sell more than 2 games a year, they're better off not doing game pass.

        Who wants only $10 a month? If you sell just one game that month, that's $70 right there, or 7 months worth of game pass. These games are expensive to make. Sony isn't content to give away everything they make for a combined $10. They'd rather you bought it, and unless you're a trillion dollar company so would anyone.

        Game pass is a great deal for you. Not a great deal for someone who sells games that are worth much more than $10.

        • You think it's going to stay at $120 a year?

        • I get your points. However, it is not that simple. Clearly, we are seeing Sony giving out decent games on PS Plus now (and the PS Plus Collection for PS5 is a response that while Sony cannot do GamePass equivalent, they have something so new comer to PS5 platform do get to play some PS4 hits cheap and easy). So clearly, it is something Sony cannot just ignore and continue solely on first party exclusives.

          • It's about making your customers happy (at least for now).
          • It is not just GamePass console only. There is GamePass PC and Microsoft does entice people to play more games with MS rewards.
          • In game purchases - that's another area Microsoft is targeting. Top grossing games do rely on in game purchases.
          • Entice people who would normally not buy games at RRP to commit to $5-$10/month. If you have GamePass, you are normally not going to waste it, that means playing games on Microsoft platform (that does take away time one would otherwise spend on Sony platform).

          Both Sony and Microsoft are in a tricky situation. With mobile gaming soaking up a big chuck of gaming revenue and AAA titles getting more expensive to make, and they are competing with each other (while their common, bigger enemy is still soaking up more market share).

          I own both PS5 and Series X. Given the current new release game pricing for PS5 and Series X, I will be even less willing to buy new release games at RRP. That's not a good thing, especially for Sony. To me, Microsoft / XBox is turning the tide and GamePass is the key reason. Sony is too smart to underestimate it.

          The sad reality is that Sony does need to ensure quality on PS Plus. Sony wants my monthly PS Plus subscription. Microsoft can use its Azure cloud infrastructure, Sony has to pay Amazon or Microsoft for cloud services.

      • +1

        Trust me, the least Sony is doing is underestimating Gamepass.

        But they sold 300 millions physical/digital games last calendar year 2020 on a single platform (PS4), can MS say the same?

        Total games sales for PS4 are around 1.6-1.7 BILLION units give it or take a few millions.

        They are doing fine.

        • Sales volumes probably don't even count subscription. I don't see how they could.

          So the appropriate metric will be profit.

          Is gamepass making the gap smaller? Id bet yes.

          You've got to look forward, not behind.

          • +1

            @justtoreply: Is fair to accept that the “old” business model is still making Sony a lot of money.

            Eventually, once the gaming medium is switching full to digital, Sony will start to focus more on games as a service.

            After all, they are the ones that started this trend with PS Now.

  • Macquette !! Amazing’ great to have a new release title!

  • Best month ever with 3 new games.

  • +4

    wow, that is incredible. FF7 Remake PS5 free upgrade was just announced. I wasn't expecting it that soon.

    • You received your PS5 from Big W?

      • yes. Got it on Monday.

        • Good on ya, mate!

    • ^^^Didn't read previous posts

      • There were no comments when I opened the link. I left the tab open for a while before I read and commented.

        It doesn't contradict what I said anyway. If true, I only said the upgrade was announced. I didn't say you will get it. But I still think you might. The report that said you won't was deleted. It would have to be a new SKU for it to behave differently than a paid version of the game. I've never seen this happen before. It may come with implications on save game compatibility and trophies if the game SKU is different.

        • +2

          Please note the PS4 version of Final Fantasy VII Remake available to PlayStation Plus members is not eligible for the PS5 digital version upgrade.

          https://blog.playstation.com/2021/02/26/playstation-plus-gam…

          To me it looks like Square want to double dip and get money from Sony for PS plus and sales from the ps5 upgradeable version.

          • +1

            @emblurr: I own the disc version. So if I download the PS+ version, and install that, then I will have two copies of FF7R installed on my HDD?

            I was hoping to be able to get the free upgrade (via my disc version) while being able to play it on PS5 without the disc inside. I guess that isn't possible? I wonder if the PS+ version will even be able to read my save files if I play it on PS4.

            • @lostn: Your save file will work, but upgrading digital via disk? I’d say no. Disk locked copy would be seperate from ps plus copy I’m pretty sure. It’d be awesome if we could do that though. My disk drive sounds unhealthy.

  • +3

    I just realized Maquette is a day one release freebie; same with Bugsnax, Soulstorm in April and presumably the others too.
    They seem to be following suite with gamepass in putting out some of these launch titles. :D

    • +2

      & so pleased about that! Soulstorm announcement made me so happy!

    • +3

      Destruction Allstars was launch freebie for Feb and March too.

      • +1

        & Bugsnax. Sony confirmed there’s more launch freebies to come!

  • Damn, two great months in a row. 👍

  • +1

    Would be great if I had my ps5 from EB. Still waiting after trading in my PS4 during their promo end of Oct. Just realised my ps plus membership is getting wasted :(

    • +9

      you can still claim the free games via browser.

      I was bummed I missed out on that trade in deal, but if you still don't have yours, I guess I dodged a bullet.

    • +5

      You can also claim via the app too, the app is way better now

  • man i just bought FF7 last month and finished it…

    • +1

      Aerith or Tifa?

      • +5

        Barret

      • +2

        Jessie for waifu

        I got tifa first playthrough during that night time scene

        • Jessie for her ride. Tifa for her dress. Aerith for her pure innocence

      • +1

        Tifa first playthrough, Playing second playthrough now for Aerith

        • lol can't you get them all in one playthru?

          • @neonlight: No you can't. You need multiple playthroughs because certain actions and decisions trigger different characters for 1) dresses (this one requires a minimum of 3 playthroughs to obtain all 9 dresses) and 2) the resolution scene in chapter 14 (total of 3 different scenes)

            • @DevlicK: damn i don't have the time for that! just give me the best one i will go for

              • @neonlight: I would just youtube the resolution scene. You don't get an achievement out of it.

                You do get an achievement for the 9 dresses though - that only took me 2-3 hours max in my subsequent play through to collect the other dresses.

                For Tifa, you'll need to do our Discovery quest 3x to get all three options.

                For Aerith, you'll need to do all side quests (in Chapter 8? I think) for the most beautiful dress, 3+ more side quests for the okay-ish dress, and 0 side quests for the trash dress.

                For Cloud, it depends on which set of side quests you do in Chapter 9 (whether it's Chocobo Sam or Madame (forgot her name). There's the option of not doing any, which would give you the 3rd dress

                There's a site that outlines all this somewhere, but I'm replying on my phone at work so I'm just recalling what I remember.

                Edit: Thought I'd add that you unlock Chapter selection option when you first complete the game, so you can jump from chapter to chapter. Just make sure you complete the chapter so that it registers your choices.

  • -6

    Mehhh

  • Don't have PS5 only ps4 would I see FF7 remake??

    "The PS5 version of the game will include improved textures, higher frame rates, faster load times, and better visual effects. You'll have two options: graphics optimization for 4K resolution and performance optimization that targets 60fps."

    I guess we can still play just can't upgrade for free.

    • +1

      You'll have two options: graphics optimization for 4K resolution and performance optimization that targets 60fps.

      I'm kinda disappointed that the 10.2 TFLOPS of the PS5 couldn't handle both at once. Instead you have to choose between 4K and 60 fps. My 2017 PC should easily handle that.

      • wait for PS5 pro with multiple GPU

      • +1

        If your 2017 PC has been upgraded with a 3070/3080 then yeah

      • Ah wells yes I thought ps5 can handle too

  • No (profanity) way that’s amazing…

    How much do you reckon it’ll cost to upgrade to the ps5 version intergrade?

    It’s free for PS4 ff7 deluxe owners, which is only $10 or so more than standard at their lowest sale prices…

    That said not out til mid year

    • They won't let you upgrade this version apparently. Sony probably got a cut price deal on giving away the game, in such a way that you can't upgrade it.

      You can buy the paid version right now for half it's normal price, and get a free upgrade through that. Otherwise, the PS5 version of the game is $70 USD, although the PS5 version does include the Yuffie episode which those who upgraded for free have to pay for.

      • +1

        You can buy the paid version right now for half it's normal price, and get a free upgrade through that.

        Or you can probably wait for second hand physical copies to drop in price as some people will offloading theirs since it will be free on PSN.

  • what happens if i already bought final fantasy 7 remake for ps4 disc and have a ps5 also? did i just waste my money? should i just return my disc and download it through the playstation store for free instead?

    • +1

      You'll get a free upgrade to the PS5 version so hold on to those.

      The one from PS+ won't be upgradable.

    • -6

      Return both and get an Xbox, it will be on game pass soon.

  • Can someone confirm whether you need the base game to play the new yuffie episode that's coming out? Or is it a standalone purchase? Also if you do need the base game, would the ps plus version suffice?

    • +1

      You need the PS5 version to play the DLC.

      • Thanks for clarifying

      • +2

        I think that's scummy.

        Those who own it on PS4 should be able to buy the DLC without getting a unicorn PS5.

        • I don't even want anything on the PS5 at this point, need to wait a year for the stock to become better and for the games to appear.

  • I have never got psplus.

    When do I need to sub by in order to get the games? Only looking to get it for a month.

    • +3

      next Wednesday, it will be available to download for a month. Remember that you can only play the game while your PS+ sub is active.

      • Thank you, so PS Plus doesn't start at the start of the month? So If I sub for one month next Tuesday, I can play them for a month?

        • New PS+ games are announced last Wednesday of the month and released first Tuesday of the month.

          Usually.

          You can play them as long as your PS+ subscription is active. Even if it lapses and you resubscribe a year later, you'll get access when you resubscribe.

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