Red Faction: Battlegrounds coming April 5 for $10, distributed free as PS Plus incentive

by Griffin McElroy on Mar 19th 2011 12:34PM

An email recently distributed by Sony to PlayStation Network users contained a flabbergasting amount of news regarding THQ's next, miniature installation of the Red Faction franchise, Battlegrounds. First off, the email confirms the game will drop in North America on PSN (and assumedly XBLA) in the same week as Europe, on April 5. Entry to the 'grounds will run shoppers $9.99 (800 Microsoft Points).

However, if you'd like to eschew that fee, you can simply enroll in the PlayStation Plus program before March 25 -- doing so will allow you to grab the game for free and keep it forever. It's unclear whether this deal's available for everyone, or just the people who received the aforementioned invitational email; we can't imagine Sony left too many people off that mailing list, though. They rarely care about exclusivity when it's money time.

Tags: microsoft, playstation, playstation-plus, ps3, psn, red-faction-battlegrounds, release-date, thq, xbla, xbox

Reader Comments (41)

I was not a fan of this game in the beta but free is always a great price.

Well, you get to keep it as long as you pay for PlayStation Plus... but I have no plans to cancel.

Awesome ! Free stuff !! How can you go wrong with that :D

PSN+, Best $50 I spent last year and I will gladly spend another $50 when the time comes.

@The angry pro consumer gaming ga I got the 3 month for 17$ >_< lol

The one's of you that have PP, is it worth paying for??

@hangunVShelicopter

If you actually use your ps3 a lot (like I do) than it definitely is worth it. Probably paid for itself at least twice already and still has like 6 months or so left?

@hangunVShelicopter

I have Plus and enjoy it for the most part. There are the occasional repeated games or games that I'm not interested in, but not enough for me to damn the service. Cloud saving is most definitely an added bonus for me if only for the ability to backup copy-protected saves.

If you have the money to spend I don't see why you wouldn't give it a shot. If you don't like it you don't have to renew.

@hangunVShelicopter

I haven't bothered with any of the free games (I'm more short on time than money right now, and would rather be spending that time on better games), but I think it's worth it just for the auto-updates and cloud saves.

@hangunVShelicopter
I bought it last week for the Cloud Storage...I immediately had a moment of regret, but I'm sure in 15 months I wont regret the savings.

The only thing, I'm going to stop buying PSN games when they come out, because Plus has a habit of releasing them free (or discounted) just a few months later.

@hangunVShelicopter

Yeah I think it is worth it. Aside from the free stuff (pays for the $50 already), background downloading of patches and installation is so convenient. Also, anything that is in your download queue will automatically get installed as well.

Cloud saving is great too as you can backup saves that you normally can't transfer to a memory card.

You get Qore too.

I'm afraid getting PLUS is just an incentive for me to spend more money, which I don't really need at the moment. From what I've seen it's mostly $2-$5 dollar discounts on games and the occasional free one.
But correct me if I'm wrong.

@Fillem You are right.

@The Cole Train occasional free one? there are Free Mini's all the time...and OCCASIONALLY a free PS1 game...and now for the past few months...a free PSN game every month....hopefully they will keep that up

@Fillem £40s worth of Fallout 3 DLC we got one month. And that was along with the usual free PSN, PS1 and minis games. Most months have something worth having. And it pays for its self very quickly.

Is the game even worth the effort? Forget calling it a free game, you're still paying for it with the cost of signing up to Plus. PASS.

@PN04 It's the same bull crap MS does with Gold. "Use all these features for FREE! *exclusive to Gold members only*"
nerp

@The Cole Train Thing that sucks about Live though is that you can't play online without the Gold. I love all my systems but that is one thing that's great about PlayStation. You don't have to pay to play online.

@PN04 You'd have a point if this was the only free game, but since signing up about 6 months ago I've arguably gotten two to three times my money back for PSN+ with all the free shit I've been given.

@PN04

really? Maybe we should break down the $50 for PSN like people do for Xbox live Gold....but by each item you get instead of weekly or monthly...I have gotten WELL over $100 worth of content and my year isn't even halfway thru yet........

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi

$100 worht of stuff sounds ok but I have to ask how much of that was stuff you actually would have bought if you didn't have playstation plus?

so far the only thing I've seen that interested me was "Stacking"

@eat it I guess that's a fair question, but there have been several things that I wound up liking that I probably wouldn't have spent the money on without knowing otherwise.

@eat it No, stacking would be the only thing that I would have "considered" buying, but I would have missed out on playing awesome stuff like Shatter, replay Sonic, Sam & Max, Zen Pinball, Mushroom Wars, Critter Crunch, etc.

I would not have paid for any of that and yet I would have missed out had it not been for PSN+, not to mention now that I get DLC at discount I buy more that I ever have before since if its not good the loss is not great.

@The angry pro consumer gaming ga

You hit the nail on the head TAPCGG (what an acronym for your name)...

With Plus, I picked up the games I knew I would like but it has exposed me to new games I would not have given time to normally. Critter Crunch was fantastic and Costume quest hit a sweet spot for me.

As for the whole "Pass" thing, I'm not one to go back to old games to play them very often... too many new games coming out these days so if I ever let my PS plus membership lapse, I won't be missing much.. I've got a shelf of games I've completed and half a shelf of games I haven't opened yet. I think I'll be playing the latter before going back to the former *unless I want to start trophy whoring* but that's not my goal at the moment - pure and joyful gaming is!

PS+ keeps paying off....and I'm glad that I will have TONS of Digital content for when the NGP comes out....and the thought of getting NGP games discounted and maybe even free just makes me all warm inside

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi
The NGP can't come soon enough! That machine looks beastly and the fact that its portable means I might revert to 2 systems only. My PC and the NGP! I just really hope that they learned their lesson from the psp and have a better security plan.

@DV8ing1

I'm sure they have..wouldn't be surprised if they had some crazy ass DRM specific chips in each came stick as well as the NGP.....as well as some funky "key" that changes each time the game starts which could also be embedded into the download versions of the games as well.....

it wont be entirely piracy proof...but my guess is that it will take some time

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi I think this was meant as a reply, but as someone with both I have to say that PS+ has turned out to be a steal... particularly given that I don't need it to play against people.

I've been really turned off by the fact that I need Gold to even use Netflix on my 360.

@Softserve That's funny, because the one thing PS+ has given me is more people to play Critter Crunch online with. Not being a member, and a day-one purchaser of that brilliant game, the online was dead until it was made the free game. So kudos to that.

PS+ is a great service, just not for me. I buy digital content by the bucketload, and I buy them on release. Stacking on day-one was cool, but I'd rather give my money to Double Fine - which I did. That and I know I'll want to fire it up two years from now. Kudos to having a choice, unlike with LIVE where I feel obligated to be Gold.

I totally read 'I don't need [PS+] to play against people' as 'I don't need to play against people' ... my apologies.

@Make it so

I didn't get flying hamster for free and I didn't get this email either. I have been a PS+ sub since the very beginning.

@Jason B

You have to check your messages on the PS3

awesome for PS+ owners but I think I'll just grab it on XBLA when it goes on sale or before RF: Armageddon comes out (incase it unlocks stuff for RF:A).

oh and 'cheevos.....yes I said that

@Papa Neorev
I guess great minds think a like. I also plan on doing the same thing.

I got the email, it says this offer is only for me and can't be transfered to anyone else at the bottom of the screen and I don't have PS plus yet.

But I'm going to now since cloud saving is up and I don't think this game is included in the PS+ and you get to keep it even after your PS+ is done and over with. That's what it seems like to me anyways. I could be wrong.

@soorma

The only messages that I have received from someone not on my friend list is from PSN saying that the next episode of Sam and Max was available.

Thanks for all the answers! I'ma have to look in to it fo sho!

I just want to clarify something -- this is *NOT* going to be a free game for current PS+ subscribers. This is only available as an added incentive to prospective NEW PS+ members who were selected for the promotion who sign up for PS+ within that time frame. So all of us who currently have PS+ are out of luck. What a joke.

@tyrobasaurus

it's not a joke, it's called a promotion. that's how promotions work; they're to gain new business. where in the post is it unclear that it's for new customers? and you're not out of luck, you're free to buy the game if you like the demo.

I just signed up for PS+ last month and recieved the email, so I am hoping I get my code come April.

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