![Paid subscription coming to PlayStation Network [Update] photo](http://bulk2.destructoid.com/ul/155548-psn.jpg)
According to Sony, the PS3 will soon generate review from "paid subscriptions" on the PlayStation Network. This news comes courtesy of a recent Media/Investor conference, where a subscription service was revealed during a slide presentation.
The slide outlines the five key advantages of the PlayStation 3 and mentions that the PSN is due to gain a "new revenue stream from subscription."
Whether this means MMO-style content is coming to the PlayStation Network, or whether it means the PSN itself will soon offer its own "gold" style service, remains unclear. We do know that Sony is working on The Agency for PC and PS3, but that would be revenue gained by Sony as a publisher, and not the PSN itself. It may simply be saying, "Hey publishers, you can make money by putting an MMO on the PS3," but that would hardly be a "new" revenue stream.
It may very well be benign, but who knows? The wording does not make this a clear-cut case. Either way, we know that more paid content is on the way, so you better just not put your wallet back in your pocket. Ever.
[Update: Online play is confirmed as remaining free. Subscription model for premium content planned. More through here.]
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
7:00 AM on 11.19.2009
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Lol.
If not, I may be be not-so-quietly missing a lot more content. Hope it doesn't come to that.
Regardless I hope there not stupid enough to charge for psn, it being free is the reason it got half the support it has.
*shield*
threat->I'll go back to PC gaming D:
I don't think there'd be legal standing. Look at old SDTVs. Many were probably sold and advertised as being able to pick up over-the-air signals, but that recently changed here in the U.S. by the introduction of digital broadcasts, which necessitated purchase of something else. PS3 sounds similar to me, if indeed Sony decides to charge a fee of some sort for PSN.
It's not a big 'breaking the bank' deal but it's a charge for a service that has been a free standard of gaming since the 90s. But that is the way I, PC gamer, sees it mind you.
For consoles online gaming isn't that new but unified services are something that just came in last gen (Seganet was the earliest I can think of). So the console's online system is starting to reach where PCs were in the late 90s when they shed things like Pay2Play TenNet & Dwango for the free and infinitely more competent Battlenet, WON, Quakenet and such.
This is because online gaming has become much more important to consoles this generation (as it became for PC gamers in the mid/late 90s) rather than a novelty. So the feeling is if it's so important it should be 'included with the package' rather than a surcharge or a subscription.
Of course the key difference between the two is one is an open system which is ripe for competition and one is a closed system where your only option is "what the company says is your option".
Jesus, whiny little kids. Ugh.
Right and that's how I feel about it. PC online is a free thing because it's PC. That's a whole different world and ballpark. We're talking consoles and I think consoles are different. You're on MSoft/Sony/Nintendo's clock using their resources. It's not like the free-for-all on PCs.
I also completely agree with BattyAdroit. People need to chill out. I honestly believe this is where you can justify calling gamers spoiled.
As a PC gamer, I pay nothing in the way me subscription fees, and a lot me people are used to that, and people don't see why consoles should be different, reasoning aside. It's still costing people at the end of the day. Hell, that 40 quid could easily be spent on a new game instead.
That said, I barely notice I'm paying for LIVE and I hardly use it.
This.
Also, I, and many others bought the PS3 on the basis that our purchase price (high as it was) included online play capabilities. It would be a sales-of-goods act issue to remove a feature that I paid for at my time of purchase. My solicitor would be writing to them if they wanted me to pay again for something I've already bought. (Luckily i have a solicitor friend, even if he does play Xbox - yuk)
It's like saying, as of today you need to pay a little extra to watch Blu-rays. Or saying "thanks for buying this car, however the seats or radio are no longer free and require a subscription"
Saying that i can see this being an MMO/MAG subscription service, and if it's run by Sony as a "pay £30 a year for all the MAG and MMO you can get your thumbs through" deal, I'll pay. No problem.
What I wouldn't pay is Microshafts idea of pay your LIVE subscription to get access to major part of most games released these days, then pay even more for each MMO on top of that.
No Microshaft, bad global corporation, bad!
Phone T9 dictionaries are fickle beings.
I'm a PC gamer too. I don't discriminate :)
But PC is a different platform. You cant expect it to be the same. PC isn't just one consolidated network, like XBL or the Sony network. Its spread out all over the world, and you cant expect every server you play on PC to charge you. Thats just silly. So for PC its free. For consoles its not.
Online gaming on a console is an EXTRA feature. Remember your PS3 and Xbox still work when they aren't connected to the internet. You can still play the games you buy without the internet.
I can pretty much assume that you won't be charged to say online. Pretty sure the online model is a lot more open and requires a lot less traffic through Sony. Could be wrong though.
And considering up until recently I was paying over £100 a year for one certain game, £40 for the likes of MAG sounds pretty good. Hell, Activision want to add subs into CoD, although I'm pretty sure there's a difference between 256 players and 18, heh.
The free online has spawned a number of online only games, something 360 has to avoid incase you don.t pay for live.
It would certainly be cuntish to charge for online when all that is actually used is matchmaking for p2p systems.
Ehem, ehem. Ms ehem.
Extra content, videos, betas etc.
As long as the don't start with 'you can get this demo first' crap I'll be ok with it.
All XBL members? That's funny, I don't pay $50 a year. I don't pay anything. I don't use online, so I don't pay.
See and that's what I don't get. Okay it cost almost the same as a new game for a year of XBL. That's not bad at all. It's essentially buying a new game or in pessimistic terms sacrificing a new game. Is that the end of the fucking world?
"suddenly start paying full price for a game and then more for the online content"
Again i'll bring up Socom, online only, no subscription fee, half the price of a "normal" game. (£20 at launch, on offer on PS Store currently, think it's about £15!)
As a 99% online player I'm more than happy to get half price games without 5 hour campaigns that I don't care to play. - That was a dig at MW2, but the campaign was fantastic, so i retract said dig.
If you're playing SOCOM... you should get a new hobby anyways. lol.
REMEMBER FOLKS! A "$" sign is a badge of honor that is only awarded to those who go beyond the call of duty to make money. Few have received such an award. So the next time you see the "$" embedded on someone's name, it shows how much that person cares to his dedication to making money.
Which reminds me, how much money has Micro$oft made from Xbox Live subscriptions each year?
Think about what your saying, sacrifice a game for what? To us a feature on a game (you already paid for) on an internet connection you own( and again pay for) there's no logic behind that.
Although to be honest my interest in Socom has dropped recently, to the point where I removed the 5Gb install to free up space.
But put out another online only Socom for £20 and I will buy it, no questions asked.
You forget the whole, "you are using their servers, and it costs money to maintain those servers, and that's why they charge" thing. What you're saying is the equivalent of someone stealing YOUR wireless bandwidth, and then the thief's saying that they are entitled to YOUR internet.
They WANT to pay for laggy L4D2, they WANT it so bad.
And not to mention your entire point is based of the ownership of YOUR internet and YOUR game. XBL is on THEIR servers. So pay up.