February is coming to a close and March is right around the corner. The new month means gamers get another batch of free games from both PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Games with Gold. As we did last month, we’re going to take a look at the games being offered. The goal of this is simply to determine which service has the better value for this month, while keeping in mind that each has other benefits, we’ll just be looking at the free games.
As usual, Sony has come out with more free games for their PS Plus subscribers, but Microsoft isn’t resting, releasing a nice slate of games for people to try out. So, who will win the battle of PlayStation Plus vs. Xbox Live Games with Gold for March 2016?
PlayStation Plus Free Games for March 2016
Broforce – PS4 – 83%
Flame Over – PS Vita – 69%
Galak-Z – PS4 – 82%
The Last Guy – PS3 – 77%
Reality Fighters – PS Vita – 54%
Super Stardust HD – PS3 – 85%
MetaCritic Average Score – 75%
Oldest Title – 2007
Newest Title – 2016
Xbox Live Games with Gold for March 2016
Sherlock Holmes: Crime and Punishment – Xbox One – 72%
Lords of the Fallen – Xbox One – 71%
Borderlands – Xbox 360 – 84%
Supreme Commander 2 – Xbox 360 – 75%
MetaCritic Average Score – 75.5%
Oldest Title – 2009
Newest Title – 2014
The Winner Is…
This is a very interesting month because it seems like Sony and Microsoft took totally different paths in choosing their free games. PlayStation Plus is pretty much all indie titles, with a few standouts among them, but Reality Fighters really drags down their average score (which is not at all the only factor in determining the winner). Xbox Live Games with Gold on the other hand is packed with AAA games, but they’re mostly older ones. In comparison, PS Plus members will be getting a free game on launch day with Broforce.
Looking more at the age range of the games shows another stark difference, with Xbox Live Games with Gold all being fairly old, but in a sort of middle ground, with all the games being a few years old, but not ridiculously so. However, PS Plus is a wide range of ages, with Super Stardust HD going all the way back to 2007. Luckily it is a really good game, but one problem comes up.
The older games on PS Plus are worthless without a PS3, while these two Xbox 360 games are, or will be backwards compatible on Xbox One. With the excellent, though now somewhat outdated Borderlands being offered really makes the case for Xbox Live Games with Gold this month. Of course, as it is the oldest title for Xbox, you can probably grab it pretty cheap, and its sequels are usually seen as improving on it quite a bit.
Overall this month feels like a tie, but in the sense that some people will prefer PS Plus and others will prefer Xbox Live Games with Gold. It comes down to which of the games you might actually play, with PS Plus throwing out some great indies, and GwG responding with nice, but older AAA games. I’ll give the win to Xbox Live myself, though I’m sure many will disagree.
To grab all of these games head to the PlayStation Store and Xbox Store.
