As reported yesterday, PS3 system software 3.60 is live – as is the long-rumored cloud game save storage for PlayStation Plus subscribers.
How does the new feature work and, along with the other PlayStation Plus features, does cloud saving make it worth upgrading to a paid account with Sony?
Despite a somewhat vague announcement at E3 2010, Sony’s premium online service has been adding features, not to mention offering a lot of free content – growing into a surprisingly rich package for the price.
Even at the time of the Plus service launch, it was unclear whether the premium subscription would merely be a coupon program with niche appeal (like PlayStation home) or a paid platform where Sony could provide wanted features – without taking away any existing features offered as part of the basic PSN package.
Despite providing a number of quality titles at discounted rates (or entirely free), PlayStation Plus has yet to truly provide a must-have feature for Sony gamers that would help coerce holdouts into taking the paid Plus plunge. So, is the new PlayStation Plus cloud saving feature the next must-have OS add-on? It depends.
For anyone hoping for a robust online game save syncing system, where you could seamlessly access data from the cloud in-game, you might be getting a bit head of yourself – and could be somewhat disappointed by the limited functionality of the Plus cloud. Instead of an auto-updating system cloud-based hub, such as Apple’s MobileMe service, the Sony cloud storage is essentially just a drop-box for transferring and backing up saves – somewhere other than your PS3. The functionality is exactly the same as Sony’s supported USB storage – since files are copied, not moved (or sync’d), to the cloud. The cloud appears in the Game Saves section of the XMB as a folder – allowing for files to be downloaded or uploaded.
However, you cannot play files directly from the cloud – they must be downloaded into the PS3 in order to be used in-game (and, if changes are made that a player would like to keep, the new save data will need to be uploaded back to the cloud). The lack of an auto-save option or smart syncing system is not a deal-breaker but all the file management could prove to be more of hassle than it’s worth for some players. As a result, most PlayStation Plus members will likely use the cloud for accessing certain game saves when at a friend’s house – as well as backing up especially hard-earned game data they’d be scared to lose.
As a storage option, the cloud also has fewer limitations regarding which saves can be copied, such as those previously restricted from being copied to external devices, which can be copied to the cloud (though their are limits on the number of times some files can be downloaded per 24 hours).
PlayStation Plus users receive 150MB worth of cloud storage, which should be plenty for most gamers, as most files average around 1MB. That said, some older files, such as a BioShock end game save weighed in at nearly 12MB – which, depending on the games in a player’s collection could force some users into making some hard decisions regarding what is cloud-worthy.
PS3 Cloud Storage is probably the first step in a larger multi-device syncing infrastructure Sony intends to unveil as we get closer to the NGP launch; however, for the time being, it’s a limited but certainly useful addition to the premium PlayStation Plus service – especially for anyone who gets nervous about the idea of losing their save data.
Follow us on Twitter @benkendrick and @gamerant and let us know what you think of the PlayStation Plus cloud saving – as well as other features you’d like to see Sony implement.
PlayStation Plus is available for $49.99 a year and can be purchased through the PlayStation Store.
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It’s a great idea, but still not enough incentive for me to pay for PS Plus and Xbox Live.
Yeah, I’ll stick to the basic/free service for now…and likely for quite some time to come.
I beg to differ in that the lack of auto save or smart syncing IS a deal breaker, as well as the lack of a feature to sync all content at once.
Additionally, 150MB is not much space, limiting the cloud saving to save files (excluding game data, minis, etc.) is largely restrictive, and cutting PS1 & PS2 saves out the mix entirely is also ill-advised. Without these key features, there’s not much difference between cloud saving and a physical backup, other than the ability to save copy-protected save files to the cloud, and while that’s admittedly good, it’s not $50 worth of good.
But you guys do all realize that PS Plus isn’t just about cloud saving. There are alot more things to do with it. Honestly the cloud saving thing isn’t much. If you don’t like it, don’t use it but just know that theres more to PS Plus
Here are some of the things that I think should change in PS+ that would make it a better service.
– When subscribed to PS+ for 1 year, you get the full benefits of Qore, When subscribed to PS + for 3 months, Qore acts as single bought episodes.
– The addition of the Premium Qriocity Music Service to PS+
– Cloud Saving given more space then 150MB per person & Auto-Syncing added to it
– The removal of Auto-Download from PS+, make that a service for everyone.
These are some of the things I would like to see changed in PS+, if they added the premium Qriocity Music Service to PS+ I would go & pick up a couple of $50 PSN cards so I could be set for a couple of years. The addition of Cloud Saving is a great feature added to PS+ it just needs a couple of tweaks here and there ;-).
Sure, there are other things that come with PS+, but I’m saying that those other things, paired with a crippled cloud saving feature, still isn’t worth $50 out of my pocket yet.
I usually make a daily backup to my usb drive of save files of games I’m currently playing – Mostly one or two games.
Was pretty miffed when I couldn’t back up the ACII save file and what happens?
About halfway through the game my PS3 froze. Some file system error that couldn’t be restored. For copy protected save files the cloud saving feature is a must.
Although I’ve often wondered if savefiles are unique to the console and user why protect them?