psn store not allowing you to buy games given away as part of PSN Plus

[TechyMike]

Yesterday I noticed Onrush was for sale in the PSN store.
I already have the game as part of my PSN Plus membership but at such a cheap price I wanted to buy the game so it was mine to keep forever.
I loaded up the store and saw the price on the game page yesterday afternoon and decided that I would buy the game after my tea.
However last night the PSN store was down and unavailable. Knowing that the game's discount price expired at the end of 28th April, I said to myself I will buy the game in the morning.

Imagine my surprise when I went to buy the game today on the store, there is no price next to the start button.
Looks like overnight Sony had deemed it impossible for you to buy any games that you were given as a monthly giveaway.

I had a list of games that I wanted to keep forever and I know fine well they were all available to buy as there was a price next to the download or start button when I looked early this week.
I have checked every game like this and there is no price at all after last night's store maintenance!

Last month Sony gave away FF VII remake, most of you will have taken the "kind" offer and added it to your library.
Now if say next month Sony price the game at £9.99 and you want to take advantage, you won't be able to buy the game as Sony won't show the price in the store for you to add to your cart!!

I have tried the online web store and it is the same.

I have contacted Sony this morning to tell them that is impossible to buy any games that were "free" games!!
I will update this thread.

 

[TechyMike]

Sony's Finally Resolved the PS Store's Biggest Flaw

Now you can buy games that are part of subscriptions

www.pushsquare.com

Was supposed to be fixed last year.

The store is currently not allowing you to buy games "given" away.

 

[TechyMike]

Also the Play at Home games to keep forever cannot be redeemed if these games are part of your PSN Plus free games.

 

[Claymore74]

Create a second account and buy the games you want on it. When you want to play them, set your console as primary for that account and you’ll be able to play them on your main account. In other word, game share with yourself. Also useful if you have EA Play and one of the ps+ titles is an ea play game.

 

[TechyMike]

Sony's reply:

"After looking into your query it's been confirmed that as you already own the games through your PS+ Subscription they(sic) will not be able to obtain them through the Play at Home initiative. Unfortunately we are unable to amend game licenses to make it possible.
We apologise if this causes any inconvenience."

Seems very unfair!
And very unfair when Sony do not allow you to buy any PS+ monthly games either so you can keep them as yours.

Unfair practice by Sony!!!!!

 

[Darth_terra]

I'm trying to understand what the issue is here, do you no longer have PS+ so you wanted to buy a game that you added to it? if that's the issue then yeah I can see how that would be a pain.

If you still have PS+ I don't see the issue at all, games that are part of PS+ are yours they don't go anywhere you just have to be subbed to play them, I still have access to PS+ games from when it launched on PS3.

 

[silvercue]

you can buy it if you cancel PS+ can't you?

 

[Claymore74]

The issue is that there can be multiple ways of buying a game depending on the subs you have, but Sony only attribute the purchase to one of them - and there is no way for you to choose which one.
So if you have both PS+ and EA Play for example, and purchase a game that is free that month on PS+ but is also in the EA Play vault, Sony attribute the purchase to EA Play. So if you later stop the EA Play sub but keep PS+ going, you lose access to the game, even though you 'purchased' it at a time when it was available on PS+. Equally though, if you stopped PS+ but kept EA Play, you'd still have access.

But the problem is there is no way to choose, and in my mind it should just apply all applicable licences to your account at the time of the purchase.

The Op's issue is similar in that he wanted to buy a game (Onrush) when it was on sale at a cheap price, to ensure he had it forever, even if/when he stopped his PS+ sub. But as it was already in his library under a PS+ licence, he couldn't buy it. It's not possible to add the same game multiple times to your library.

The way around it is to have a secondary account without the PS+ sub, and make all your paid purchases on that account. If you're bothered about playing games all on a particular "main" account, use the primary PS4 / PS5 console sharing feature for the account you make the paid purchases on. That way, you can buy whatever you like without PS+ titles affecting your ability to buy.