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One of the benefits on using PlayStation Plus is online saving of your savegames. I don't plan prolonging my registration to the service.

But what will then happen to my save games once I'm no more a Plus user? Will I still be able to access the ones which are online, not being able to upload new ones or will they just be lost forever?

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  • I seem to remember ( but can't find the article now ) that online saves will be kept for a certain amount of time, (12 months) then after that the data cannot be guaranteed. If you sign up for membership again you will be able to access this data But another way to look at it, if you don't plan on using the services once it expires, how useful will 30 days of online storage actually be to you? – Rigas May 21 '11 at 23:12
  • @Rigas That's the question, is it only 30 days of storage or can I still access it afterwards? Because it's a good offline backup solution in case my good (very) old fat PS3 dies... Otherwise, I'll have to buy an external HDD for regular backups but not as good as off-site backups. – LudoMC May 22 '11 at 9:26
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According to this press release, you will no longer be able to access your cloud saves if your Playstation Plus membership expires. However, your data will remain on Sony's servers for six months, and you can access them again as long as you resubscribe within that time period.

But, if your PS3 dies six months after you backed up your saved games, you've just lost 6 months of gaming! The way I see it, if you're going to back up your saved games at all, you should go the whole way and pay for PSN+ membership.

And you should anyway, since the cloud service is the only way you can backup your copy-protected saved games.

(Apparently the backup utility can backup protected saved games, but it can only restore them to the same PS3. If that PS3 is dead, then tough.)

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  • Take it from me. My PS3 died a few weeks ago and I've spent ages researching how to get my data back. There aren't very many choices. Do something now before yours dies too. (It's only a matter of time, IMHO.) – YellowMegaMan May 27 '11 at 13:36
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According to http://uk.playstation.com/onlinestorage/, you can only access your online storage while you have a active membership. Once your membership expires, so does your access to your online game saves. Relevant excerpts are below:

If my PlayStation Plus membership expires, can I still use Online Storage?
If you stop your PlayStation Plus membership, you will not be able to access Online Storage.

Can I store copy-protected data using Online Storage?
If a developer has chosen to use the PlayStation 3 system saved data copy protection on their game saves, PS Plus members will still be able to save them with Online Storage and use them in the same way as other game saves. However, there will be a 24 hour period after saving before they can access the data on any PS3.

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