So on the Monday Freeview, we have brought you some examples of free shows or games you’ve been able to get a hold of. Up until this point though we have ignored two very important “free” options in the gaming world. These are the downloadable gaming libraries available to those subscribed to the XBox Live Gold and PlayStation Plus services.

While these services are technically not free, the inclusion of downloadable titles has been added to them as an added value while both primarily serve as a way for gamers to play online for the XBox 360, XBox One and PlayStation 4.

First, let’s take a look at the PlayStation Plus service. Originally a waning service as it wasn’t required for online play, the Instant Game Collection was one of the features that had not been fully exploited. It wasn’t until about two years after the service launched in June of 2010 that they began offering full PlayStation 3 titles to the roster as opposed to mainly retro games or PSN titles.

Sony announced yesterday that with the purchase of a 12 month PlayStation Plus subscription, buyers would also get an additional 3 months for free added to their subscription time. A 25% bonus is nothing to ever be disappointed in. But the question comes up if PlayStation Plus is worth the $50 yearly (now technically 15 month) price point.

Of the Big 3 press conferences, Sony had the strongest conference for gamers. This partially comes from one of the most impressive pieces of footage from a game already announced as well as an exciting new trailer as well that no one was expecting. While they did diverge slightly away from core games and put some emphasis on the move and a new peripheral, Sony definitely delivered the “gamer’s conference” when compared to Nintendo and Microsoft.

After a standard clip montage and Jack Tretton giving the same introductory speech that has been heard time and again, things started off strong with the reveal of Beyond: Two Souls by the same studio that brought us Heavy Rain. With the lead character played by Ellen Page, Beyond promises to bring together storytelling in gaming unlike anything seen before. With the footage below, it may be the truth.

What was one of the other hotly anticipated games that followed ended up being somewhat of a letdown for those watching. The crowd was strangely silent during the demo of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale which looked generic as a Smash Brothers clone with a very boring level layout. Also announced as playable characters were Nathan Drake from Uncharted and the Big Daddy from Bioshock.

As a part of the March 10th system update for the PlayStation 3 (v3.60), PlayStation users will be allowed cloud game save support. This feature will currently only be available to PlayStation Plus subscribers, PlayStation’s incentive based online subscription program which up until now has allowed for game discounts as well as features like Hulu.

According to IGN, a Playstation representative has stated, “We haven’t announced any plans for it to be available to everyone at this time.” While this doesn’t rule out free users being able to do this in the future, the space and bandwidth aren’t going to come free and a feature like this is definitely an incentive for hardcore gamers to subscribe to avoid loss of their game data from a system crash.

They also announced that 150mb of data with a maximum of 1000 data files will be allowed per PlayStation Plus account.

It will be interesting to hear if this affects PlayStation Plus subscription rates moving forward.

For current PlayStation Plus subscribers, PlayStation has given advanced instructions on how to use this feature. Check them out after the jump, and go to the cloud!

As we mentioned a few weeks ago, for those users lucky enough to get the invite, Hulu Plus is currently in it’s preview period.  As promised, Hulu has begun enabling the applications on various devices, including the much anticipated PlayStation 3 update.

In a coup for all you Playstation 3 defenders, Hulu Plus has chosen the Playstation 3 for limited console exclusivity through the end of the year. And for those of you who were concerned, no you don’t need a CD to play it like Netflix, you just need to download the free app from the PlayStation store.

The program looks almost identical to the Hulu desktop, and the video streams in beautiful 1080p (as long as your internet  and TV can handle it). Unfortunately, in order to access the preview you do need to be a PlayStation Plus member. Aside from Hulu Plus, said membership allows access to free or discounted add-ons, themes, avatars and games.

One of the great things about the Playstation Network is that, as opposed to Xbox Live, using the network and playing online has always been 100% free for Playstation 3 owners. At Sony’s E3 press conference today, Sony acknowledged this fact, but still wanted to offer players more. That’s why they announced “Playstation Plus” a new premium subscription service that will supplement the Playstation Network and will offer a more “enchanced experience”.

By subscribing to Playstation Plus, Playstation Network users can gain access to demos earlier than other gamers, receive discounts on purchases made on the Playstation Network, and watch the Playstation lifestyle series Qore. In addition, subscribers to the service also will get free Playstation Minis and even classic Playstation games every month.

Playstation Plus will cost $49.99 for the year, or $17.99 for three months of service. Content from Playstation Plus will only be accessible as long as your subscription is active. The service launches later this month, and all Playstation 3 owners will get a free three-month long trial of Playstation Plus. All other features of the Playstation Network will continue to be free.