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Xbox's Games With Gold 2014 Library Would Normally Cost $585

New research shows substantial saving for annual Xbox Live gold subscribers.

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Games With Gold, the monthly subscription service tied to Xbox Live Gold accounts, gave away $585 worth of games in 2014.

That means an annual $60 Gold subscription represents a saving as big as $525 for those who maximize the value of the service. These calculations, which were first brought to light by Polygon, were spurred by a separate investigation which found that all of 2014’s PlayStation Plus games would normally cost $1,350.

Although the difference in savings between both services is quite sizable, this is partly because PlayStation Plus offers free games across PlayStation 4, PS Vita, and PlayStation 3, whereas Games With Gold is only applicable to Xbox One and Xbox 360. Furthermore, Games With Gold launched on Xbox One in June, skewing the comparison further.

There is an additional bonus for Xbox Live Gold subscribers; the free games available on Xbox 360 can be still be played regardless of whether the customer's Gold subscription expires. This does not apply to Xbox One games, however, as an active Gold subscription is always required for access.

It is also calculated that the average Metascore for Games With Gold offerings is 78, which is roughly the same as PlayStation Plus.

Games released in 2014 for Games With Gold includes Sleeping Dogs, Dead Island, Dark Souls, Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition, Halo Reach, and Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise.

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RekkingNoobs247

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My PC has over 400 games that I paid $600 for and has a $5000 value. PS+ gave away $1400 worth of games in the same amount of time. At least you beat Nintendo. Good job earning 3rd Xbox you deserve it!

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sol_pro

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S.T.F.U you nerds its only a game go out and get some sunlight. you cry and whine like little bidtches

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Sideways8_4ever

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games with gold....lol what a joke

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Hoogovens

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Using a calculator = research??

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gamerboy100

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@Hoogovens But they don't all cost the same price, so the prices do need to be looked up.

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ALightningBoldt

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Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't mostt of the servers available from Microsoft for free or a steep discount for developers?

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NoSoul81

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Edited By NoSoul81

It's like a huge coupon book to places you'd never go to and claiming you saved "thousands of dollars".

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Thanatos2k

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So? That's like one of those coupon books for Burger King that claims "Over $150 in savings!"


No one's using all of that. No one cares about all those games.

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deactivated-649984c465889

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A golden shower of value from Microsoft

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Leedo21

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I have both Xbox Live and PS+.... let's be honest everybody.... both are a great value add! It's free games.... end of story! WIN!

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Xander_108

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Edited By Xander_108

I'm sure that Games with gold or whatever is totally worth it and it may even be possible that the true "Gamer" value of Free games on both systems are a bit closer but Man...Xbox blows so much money to get people to buy a system maybe they should think about giving more to the current owners. Honestly I think if Xbox was a stand alone company, no MS backing, they would have failed long ago.

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xantufrog

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xantufrog  Moderator

Both services are a great value for those that consume a lot of games. Less so for those that do not, but that issue is no different than any other service like Netflix; if you don't watch TV, Netflix probably isn't worth your money, now is it?

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Snyper22

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Wow that's a huge difference from the 1,200$ worth of games PlayStation offered. I don't understand how Microsoft has all the money and Sony still comes out more generous. Theirs something very wrong with this situation.

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wowfanboyzsmh

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@Snyper22 Because vita,Ps3 and Ps4 all get different games.

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Stogin

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@wowfanboyzsmh @Snyper22 So by just adding the Vita, that explains the more than $500 difference?

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ALightningBoldt

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Edited By ALightningBoldt

If you read the article you'd see that the difference is due to free games being available 6 months longer on PS as well as the vita games are included in that total

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TeknoBug

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@Snyper22 It does seem that way, the article even said both are around 78 games each across 3 platforms for PSN and 2 for XBL.

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greaseman1985

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@Snyper22 Perhaps if you read the article you would understand. They specifically address this point.

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oflow

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@Snyper22 yeah but $900 of them were garbage indie games you wouldnt want to play anyway.

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Stogin

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Edited By Stogin

@oflow @Snyper22 Right, because MS gave away no indie games this past year...oh wait, they gave away a bunch of those too! In fact, just like PS+, no AAA games given on X1 this year...Take the fanboy out of your mouth.

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oflow

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You're the one here whining I got my moneys worth from my gold account

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oflow

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You're the one here whining I got my money's worth out of my gold sub.

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northArrow

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@oflow You're probably right, but that doesn't make it okay for Microsoft to offer $585 worth of garbage indie games you wouldn't want to play either

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xantufrog

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@oflow @Snyper22 ugh

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irishrizo

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Edited By irishrizo

Dark Souls, Halo Reach and SF IV Arcade Edition are the only Xbox Gold games that were awesome for me! Most definitely worth the 40 bucks a year lol not to mention i got to watch all the World Cup games for free ^-^

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wowfanboyzsmh

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@irishrizo Sleeping dogs,Halo 3,Gears of war,AC2,Dead rising 2,Saints row the third,Dishonored,Halo:Reach,Darksiders 2, and Battlefield bad company 2 were all awesome for me.

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northArrow

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There still hasn't been a single game in the GWG program I would have purchased and very few of them have I played beyond the first 10 minutes. I still don't see XBL as a worth while investment

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ALightningBoldt

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Edited By ALightningBoldt

@north arrow. I've been paying for XBL for a decade (i have no problem with it paying for it) and it just got free games this year. I'd say it's more worthwhile now than ever before. I'm with you though, I probably wouldn't have bought many of the games they gave for free. However I'm glad I got them for free because a lot of them are fun games.EA Access is a great deal as well. UFC coming on Thursday!

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greaseman1985

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@northArrow XBL is more worthwhile than the worthless PS+

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Stogin

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@greaseman1985 @northArrow Wow you are so blind it's literally hilarious.

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uchihasilver

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@greaseman1985 @northArrow ^^^ BEWARE FANBOY ABOVE ^^^

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G_Vakarian

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Edited By G_Vakarian

That is assuming you would have bought the games for $60 anyway and since the one's they give out are usually "indie" garbage or over 5 years old probably not. They are still just picking your pocket for a service that doesnt cost them a dime.

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gamerboy100

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@g_vakarian The only "indie garbage" they have given away is The Raven, one of this month's games. You only get 1/3 of the game for free and the game has a lot of bugs and assorted issues. The story is the one positive thing about it.

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greaseman1985

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@g_vakarian No, they are taking CURRENT prices at the time the games were given away for free to Gold members. And how does XBL not cost them a dime? What do you think the servers and manpower cost?

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G_Vakarian

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@greaseman1985

The servers dont cost $5 a month per person using it and for online play are actually run by the game companies not MS.

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hitomo

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@g_vakarian well, they still mine ur personal data and behaviour ^^

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punksterdaddy

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I bet they are inflating those figures because the games were either old, shooters or complete sh*te!

I've played 3 games this year that I didn't already have from this service, while appreciated them, I was still completely disappointed that I never got anything close to what Sony have gave away. Also the game that is currently free is The Raven, which could be good (with it's hilarious face melting bugs), but I would need to get the whole game to find out. All we got was episode one of three and they didn't even make it worthwhile to buy up the other 2.

So in December we got 1 game and a third of another.

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ALightningBoldt

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Edited By ALightningBoldt

I wouldn't say PS+ games have any better games than GWG. Both have solid Indies. I suppose injustice is better but I already have that on 360

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ElectricHobo99

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Funny huh, you buy an Xbox and it gives you Worms, best go see a doctor.

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zzamaro

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Edited By zzamaro

Then that would mean that the oldies they were offering sure were overpriced.

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JustBeFahad

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Edited By JustBeFahad

Not bad at all seeing as it started in June for XB1. It will certainly improve over a period of time.

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RelGn

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585 worth of sh1t for both consoles

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ElectricHobo99

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Edited By ElectricHobo99

I think you might be mistaken. The PS Plus games are a tremendous value. So how would you argue that games like Resogun, Trine 2, Outlast, Velocity, Strider, Injustice UE, Escape Plan, among others are in some way not a good value? XBL gold games are typically on the lower end of the free spectrum, but your claims actually have very little merit.

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diablohitman

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@electrichobo99 lower end ? sure the xbox one games cuz there s not a huge list but uhh halo 3,AC2,crackdown,sleeping dogs,gears,dead island,dead rising,tombraider.,hitman,saintrow,darksiders,dishonered and more were all great games sure theyve been out a few years but i picked up at least half of those that i missed at launch

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uchihasilver

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@diablohitman @electrichobo99 I think what he means is games on PS Plus are newer and more relevant, regardless MS have nearly caught up and are starting to offer more recent games now, either way both services are great for gamers =)

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spartanx169x

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Edited By spartanx169x

@relgn I downloaded quite a few I had never played. BF2, Hitman, Sleeping dogs, Gotham City Imposters as 4 examples.

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JDWolfie

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Just beat Dust: An Elysian Tail and playing Saints Row 3 and also got Hitman: Absolution for free a while back. I know they also gave away Halo 3 awhile back. Some games are better than others, but it seems most of the free games they give away are quite old.

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KealGSeo

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@MrFreehuggs Thinking he was serious is ingenious reasoning.

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