Sony has just announced PlayStation Network PLAY, "a new program showcasing four of the season's hottest action titles." We'll just cut right to the quick here, guys: It's Summer of Arcade, but for PS3. Oh, and with a way dumber name.

The four games on offer are Street Fighter III Third Strike Online Edition which will be available on August 23 for $15; the latest DeathSpank adventure The Baconing available August 30 for $15; the impressive BloodRayne: Betrayal, available for $15 on September 16 (a delay for PSN); and lastly Avalanche's Renegade Ops, available on September 15 for $15. There's one last game in this lineup of four: If you purchase all four of the above titles you'll be gifted Payday: The Heist by way of a voucher code "for redemption when the game releases." One caveat: You've got to be 18 or older (read: lie on your PSN account). If you don't want to bother with all that, you can pick it up solo for $20.

So that separate free game also sounds a lot like Summer of Arcade, but since we already know how Summer of Arcade works, we've taken it upon ourselves to catalog the ways that PlayStation Network PLAY is, in fact, totally different than Microsoft's initiative:

• You can pre-order titles; each pre-order nets you a free PS3 theme
• "PLAY also offers gamers a separate gift with purchase for each order made throughout the duration of the program" - we're not sure what this is, but "gift" sounds nice!
• PlayStation Plus subscribers get "an automatic 20% off every PLAY program purchase"
• One final difference: Unlike Summer of Arcade, it doesn't appear any of these titles, short of Sony's own Payday: The Heist, have any exclusivity. We're following up with Sony and all of the individual publishers now.

And that's about it. Get the full details at that Source link below.