We’re only a week away from the launch of the PS4, but Sony still has some surprises in store for those who are buying the console during the launch window.
Sony announced today that every PS4 sold will come with three vouchers that offer gamers a chance to try out some of the services that are integral to the PlayStation 4 experience. Much like its current PS3 bundles, every PS4 will come with a free 30 day trial of PlayStation Plus. On the PS4, this will net you the ability to play online, access to free games and regular discounts on PSN games.
The second voucher is a free 30 day trial to Sony’s Music Unlimited program. Since the PS4 won’t support DLNA or MP3 playback out of the box, this is your only way to listen to music on the console. Just remember to cancel before your free 30 days are up or you’ll end up like me with an unexpected charge of $10 on your account.
The final and arguably best voucher is for $10 to spend on the PSN. Sure, it’s probably not enough to buy a full game, but that’s $10 off any game bought on the PSN. If you happened to pick up a PS3 copy of a game coming to next-gen consoles, you can also use that $10 credit to upgrade to the PS4 version at no extra cost.
So, how long is this promotion going to last? Sony only says that it’s available “for a limited time only.” My best guess is that it will be available as a launch window promotion so you can probably expect to see it last for at least the first six months of the console’s lifecycle.
Now we just play the waiting game to see what Microsoft has to offer those who buy an Xbox One at launch. We already know that day one buyers will get special day one branded hardware, but I wouldn’t complain if the company decided to throw in a free month of Xbox Live or a few free movie downloads.
[Image: PlayStation Blog]