1UP: Stacking Review

Stacking proves that lively character and set designs, catchy music, and clever writing are far more important in making a good game than simply simply adding filler to extend the quantity of gameplay hours.

[Forbidden_Darkness]

I was going to buy this game anyways, but thanks to Playstation Plus, i'm getting it free :)

Great score for a very creative game. Hope to see more great scores for it. This game deserves to sell.

[Yi-Long]

... I'll wait till it's on sale, like I did with Deathspank and Costume Quest.

[XRider]

You're paying for PSN+ it would be the same as paying for Xbox Live and getting this free. You're still paying, that's not free.

[Lucreto]

Its free for me. I made back my $50 already so technically its free. It is not the same as Live. People with Live still have to pay for the game anyway.

[Steve_0]

@Lucreto,
PSN+ looks like a pretty good service, for what you get. My only real gripe is not knowing in advance what to expect month by month. I don't game online so it isn't really worth considering, but I can see why people who do get a lot of PSN content would enjoy it.

That said, you didn't get this game, or anything else from PSN+ "free". You can't say that you've made back the money in the price of content, because:
a) you should only consider content you would've purchased without PSN+
b) that content has no financial value to the end user.

What I mean is, you can't say "I payed 50$ for PSN+, and got 10 games valued at 5$, so technically I got them free." because that content has no real financial value to you. You can't resell it, so you're still out 50$.

Maybe I'm nitpicking, but free is never free, and PSN+ content doesn't pretend to be. It's a service. You might be happy with it, you might even spend less money in the long run with it, but don't go pretending that you've made back your investment on it.

[KotC]

XRider your comment history shows you are pro PS3 and Xbox but I'm sure the PS3 horde is raping your bubbles right now for exposing the truth.

[Biggest]

It isn't the truth. It is NOT the same as paying for Xbox Live. If you pay for Xbox Live, you pay $15 extra for Stacking. If you pay for PS+, you pay nothing extra for Stacking. That is just dealing with the current topic mind you. There are obviously many more examples as to why paying for either of them is not the same as paying for the other. Steve_0 is also wrong in his thoughts. Some of the PS+ offering are games/themes/avatars/whatever else that you have to pay for, but with a substantial discount. On those alone you would get $50 in value over the life of your subscription (since you get to keep discounted content). If you were only interested in the "free" stuff, then you are correct. It's no different than Netflix. You can use it as long as you're subscribed. You own nothing that you didn't pay for.

[Steve_0]

@Biggest,
How am I wrong? Try to understand what I'm saying here, I don't have anything against PSN+. on the contrary, I think it's a pretty good service, and games like this included make it even more so. What I am trying to do is make it clear that you're not getting any content free of charge. If you get this game through your PSN+ subscription, which you pay for, then how are you getting it free of charge? Yes you didn't pay specifically for this game when you signed up, but nonetheless you pay for PSN+ and all the content and discounts that go along with it. You can't simply add up all the content and discounts in your argument, as I said, you can only consider content that you would have purchased without the PSN+, at full price. And anyway, You're paying for that content through PSN+ yearly.
It's akin to saying "My iPhone was free when I bought it on contract through my carrier.". No it wasn't. You're paying for the hardware through your 2 year (or whatever) contract.
Nothing is free. Ever. There is always a catch, otherwise a business would fail its primary goal: to make a profit.

[Biggest]

I was referring to the comment about making money back. If you are an active buyer of PSN content, you will eventually equal and surpass $50 worth of content during the 15 months of PS+ subscription. The "free" content is obviously not yours to own. But anything you purchase with PS+ discounts belongs to you. If you save any amount >$50, you've received more than the initial value from PS+. I agree with everything else you said, of course. It's no different from any other digital subscription service.

Edit: Although it is more valuable than those subscriptions. In comparison to Netflix. . . You can have one or all of the free games at the same time with PS+. With Netflix you can only have up to three simultaneous physical copies of a thing.

[Steve_0]

@Biggest,

Let me put it this way, you have $100 in your wallet. You pay $50 for PSN+. Lets assume that nothing else changes in this wallet, you don't use the money to buy anything and you don't add any money. At the end of the year, you have 12 months worth of PSN+ content. How much money do you have in your wallet? $50, not the original $100. So none of that content was free.

You may save money, yes, but what Lucreto said:
"Its free for me. I made back my $50 already so technically its free. It is not the same as Live. People with Live still have to pay for the game anyway."
is false. He didn't make back any money, and neither will anyone else. He had X dollars, now he has >X dollars, and digital content. Thus that digital content is not free of charge.

EDIT: The part about Live Gold, is of course correct. No argument there.

[ElementX]

"I was going to buy this game anyways, but thanks to Playstation Plus, i'm getting it free"........"This game deserves to sell." Don't you see the irony of your statement? If you're getting it free it isn't selling. They made a deal with Sony. If you really want to support the developer, purchase your copy!

[Biggest]

Something tells me that Sony is paying them for the "free" distribution of their product. I'm sure that Sony isn't making money (via PS+) on Stacking while the developers get nothing.

[ElementX]

Sony isn't paying the developers as much as they'd make off an individual sale. It's all business and Sony doesn't want to lose any more money than they already are. I'm guessing they're giving the developer a small portion of what they'd make from genuine sales.

[Dac2u]

I can't wait to play this tonight! I'm happy to see it's getting great reviews.

[Rampaged Death]

Will be trying the trial and then buying it on XBLA tomorrow. Keep up the great work Double Fine !

[Rob946]

Within the 1st 2months psn+ had giving me way more then 50euro.Will definetly be subscribing next june agen

[BabyTownFrolics]

i kust wanna be clear, if you have ps+ and download stacking for "free" is this one of those items that you have no access to if you let your PS+ subscription run out, or do you keep it forever?

[KotC]

You have to pay for it if you let PS+ run out aswell as most of the other games you downloaded.