Free PSN Games: Analysis

As you probably know, Sony is hyping the re-launch of PSN and the PSN Store with some free giveaways, including an offer of two free games from among the following for all PS3 owners:

LIST, BY TITLE:
Dead Nation
inFAMOUS
LittleBigPlanet
Super Stardust HD
wipEout HD+Fury

Woohoo! Thanks, hackers!

My gut tells me to go with Dead Nation and inFAMOUS. But if you’re anything like me, you suck the fun out of every decision by over-analyzing it.

This Kotaku post explains why I’d be getting a better deal with wipEout HD+Fury than Dead Nation based on the following price points:

LIST, BY PRICE:
inFAMOUS - $23.44
wipEout HD+Fury - $19.99
LittleBigPlanet - $17.98
Dead Nation - $14.99
Super Stardust HD - $9.99

I see several flaws in this line of reasoning:
  
     (1) Who knows if these prices will be the same after the PSN Store re-opens?

SOLUTION: N/A - With the PSN Store servers offline, it’s difficult (if not impossible) to know what the price of something was, is, or will be. Meanwhile, the Amazon prices listed are already out of date.

     (2) The price quoted for wipEout HD does not include the price of the Fury DLC.

SOLUTION: N/A. See (1).

      (3) Dead Nation, Super Stardust HD, and wipEout HD+Fury are all download-only titles. Comparing their prices to boxed-game prices is apples to oranges. What about having to wait for the box to come in the mail? What about shipping charges? What if somebody steals the box off my doorstep? What about having a hard copy, in case an EMP wipes my PS3 hard drive? What about saving a few bucks by getting a used copy? Heck, what about supporting local business by buying from a brick-and-mortar store?

SOLUTION: N/A. See (1) and (2).

Price, in this case, is clearly a hopelessly flawed metric. It is said that "A fool knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." Consider the following formula:

VALUE = QUALITY / PRICE

That is to say, given two items of equal quality, the one that is twice as expensive offers half as much value.

Assuming we want to max out our value, and since we’re talking about free games here, price isn’t a relevant factor. In this case, value corresponds directly to quality.

So -- how should we determine the quality of these games? For simplicity’s sake, let’s go with Metacritic score (I know, another deeply flawed metric, but this blog post is already long enough as it is):

LIST, BY METACRITIC SCORE:
LittleBigPlanet - 95
wipEout HD - 87
            + Fury - 89
                        = average - 88
inFAMOUS - 85
Super Stardust HD - 85
Dead Nation - 77

There you go. Any sensible person would pick LittleBigPlanet and wipEout HD + Fury.

Personally, though, I already played LittleBigPlanet. I’ve never cared much for racing games, so I doubt I’ll get wipEout HD + Fury. And I want a real game, not an arcade game, so Super Stardust HD is out.

That leaves Dead Nation and inFAMOUS. Sigh. The moral: trust yer gut.