Sony PSN+ rumors thicken for E3: new features for paid users, free users can still play online
By Paul Miller 
posted May 25th 2010 10:25AM
posted May 25th 2010 10:25AM
posted May 25th 2010 10:25AM
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The only thing I like is the protection plan if I have an out of warranty ps3 can I get the plan
I would pay a one time 50 dollar fee for linux back
@racerbmw Although it was a very very small market, it is a shame it had to go :(
@racerbmw
You've nailed it on the head. Take away some services and then offer them back for a monthly/yearly fee! I don't have a PS3 but Microsoft does an excellent job doing this on Xbox. Bravo Sony, welcome to the club.
@BecauseItsNotGoogle or $28.99 before BCB if you bought from buy.com@ebay recently.
@racerbmw $50 fee?! I paid an extra $200 fee when I bought mine in November '07! Still can't believe they took it away...
@Commander Data
What services did MS take away that the 360 launched with and then tried to resell through XBL?
@BecauseItsNotGoogle Thanks for adding to the conversation 12 year old maturity level person.
@BecauseItsNotGoogle including paying a subscription to play games online.
No thanks, I think I'll play them free online on the PS3.
@N900
I own both and prefer playing on my 360 because the online game quality seems to be much better. Call of duty for example, I seem to run into more cheaters, have more connection issues, and more dropped games than I ever did on my 360 (which was rare). To me, paying the small price for XBL is worth it because I generally don't have to deal with those headaches.
@BecauseItsNotGoogle You really need to stop dickriding Microsoft. I'd rather have a reliable PS3 than going through 6 broken Xbox's (yes, my Xbox has broken 6 times due to GPU issues and my crappy disc drive). I refuse to give Microsoft any more of my money until they make a better Xbox that doesn't break in the first 6 months of purchase.
Ahh on topic, I can't wait to see what's coming up next for the PS3. Since the day my Xbox broke for the final time and I bought a PS3, I've been loving this beautiful system every minute.
@BecauseItsNotGoogle Warhawk, MAG, DiRT, Pure to name a few.
@admlshake Yeah, I've run into cheaters during a CoD match, but I never had many connection issues or other problems you've been running into. I do play on both systems, but when I feel up to it, I'll get the Gold subscription for 360. For right now, I'm sticking with the PS3 for online gameplay.
@racerbmw
The value will be based on the games it comes with.
It would be awesome if this becomes something like a Netflix Instant Watch for games. Where you could play a large back catalog of classics.
As far as Linux, it ain't worth $50. If you used it, you would know its useless, and not much of a loss, it could only access 200MBs of RAM where available, and PPC builds of applications are few and far between.
@racerbmw
You would PAY to get Linux back? They took it AWAY from you, and you would let them essentially extort you?? Come on, man...
@BecauseItsNotGoogle
fanboys
trolls
and whiners not welcome
@BecauseItsNotGoogle
The PS3 often has the popular big name multi-platform games, as well as a few exclusives. The "no games" argument hasn't worked for a while now. There may indeed be more 360 games, but the big name ones that aren't exclusives almost always get ported to the PS3 too.
$9.99.....a month....?
@Mach I can't imagine paying 9.99 a month for demos and game cross chat. This can't be true. It's probably 10 a yr. If that's true then um very disappointed. That's making xbl sound like a better deal.
@Mach Hopefully it's annually.... I don't feel like paying $120 a year for demo access
I will never ever pay to play online. I'm glad Sony is not taking out any features, instead, they are adding. How people pay for XBL I will never understand, nothing anyone says be it their consumers or MS themselves will convince me or justify that paying to play a game you've already paid is a smart decision.
Hell no.
@SuperMuna
Agreed. I'd happily pay a subscription plan for access to all PSN titles though. Instead of having to buy each and every one which I simply don't at all. Sorta like... imagine iTunes had a £10-20 a month subscription and you can download as much music as you want!
@SuperMuna
You will pay to play online or you will not play online. Sony isn't stupid. They see all the money MS is getting with their service and they want the same. Within a year or 2 Sony will have the exact same model as MS. If you still want to play online for free, start investing in a new gaming PC.
@Almo
If I have access to all or a good chunk of the PS1 titles I could see myself paying for this. However if it's only for a few "select" titles a month then I'll probably pass. I could see them filling it up with garbage like ESPN Extreme Games, Busby 3D, Smurf Racing, Threads of Fate, or ten pin alley or something.
@SuperMuna You can get on ebay a 12 month live (plus 1 bonus month, so actually 13 months) card for around $35. So that works out to only about $2.70 a month. I think that is pretty reasonable.
@sweet greggo They're not taking away free online gaming dumb ass.
@SuperMuna As far as I know you can play online games without having to pay, it's xbox live silver, but you won't get extra's etc..
@rhomaion
Hey dipshit, did you read where I said Sony would follow MS's model "in a year or two"?
Stupid commenter is stupid.
If the status quo remains and the paid route is for extras, then I'm all for this.
@NHAnimator
For real.. $10/yr would be fine with me..
$10/month on the other hand... that seems a bit much. That's two full price games a year vs some stuff I don't care enough about to pay 3 times what I pay for XBL (yes it's easy to find 12 month XBL gold cards for $40).
@hfm Or you could frequent sites like slickdeals.net and get 3 years of XBL for free. I got 6 years free actually, but they only allow you to buy 3 years in advance, so I had to give the other three years free to a friend.
I'd pay for psn. I feel like I've been stealing from then since i've switched from live.
@(F)uck
Corporations want people like you
@coolpal
First they have to get my support!
If it offered stuff I wanted I would pay. But its awesome, they look to give you content for your money. Rather than taking away any content. So I will see what they offer and decide.
PS3 has more and better exclusives than any other console.
I don't know that I like the idea of exclusive content, because that really means stuff held back from everyone else. On the other hand, if a PSN account just means you get it a month or two earlier than regular users, I'd be OK with that.
Sorta want.
I hope that Microsoft will change their tune and make online play free, or at the very least, make it so that you only pay once per console and then all profiles on the console can play online. I wouldn't mind paying for the service if I don't also have to pay for my kids (which I don't, and that sucks for them.)
I'll pay for it. Cross-game chat would be pretty cool plus it would be constantly evolving and there would always be new features added.
Additionally, they are bound to come out with more amazing features. They have a site dedicated to user submitted ideas, the best place to get new ideas for their own users.
This is actually a very good step forward & Sony is really going head to head with the Xbox Live service. Silver members on XBL basically get nothing; they can't play online, they recieve demos a week after they've already been out, etc.
Not only is Sony keeping everything free that it started with, they're actually adding a ton of extras to justify a purchase. The cloud saving service alone should be worth the price of admission.
This seems like a really terrible idea to me. I enjoy playing my PS3, but I enjoy my 360 even more, because of features like cross game chat. I already pay for Live; I don't want to pay for another online service. Sony advertised the free service, and they've been delivering updates pretty regularly, but they've still failed to deliver some basic features. To be asked to pay ($9.99 a month?!) for some of those seems like a slap in the face to consumers, and just continues to show how clueless Sony is as a corporation.
I miss the days when Sony meant the highest quality possible. They'd really have to deliver some great features for this premium service to be worth it, in my opinion.
@mamoore1982
I think they got over confident with the PS3. They were the leaders back in the day of the PS1 and 2. And when the PS3 was launching, they just assumed that everyone would pay the higher price at launch, and bow to whatever decision they made because they were Sony. In fact I seem to recall some sony exec making a statement like that in Europe when talking about it's release there.
@mamoore1982
Wait you're saying you're OK with paying for x-game chat on the XBOX but it should be free on the PS3 because Microsoft is already getting your money? That doesn't strike you as slightly ridiculous?
@Tes I'm saying it should be free because Sony has heavily promoted the PSN as a free service, and they were certainly doing so when I bought my PS3. Yes, I'm ok with paying for a good service, but I'm not going to pay for two similar services. Everyone knows features and upgrades will be coming down the line, and I think it's only reasonable to expect those upgrades to be free if you're going to be touting that no-cost service as a feature over your competitor.
I think it would be insulting to the consumers if they introduce a premium service that includes a cross game chat. I feel like that should be a basic feature of a service like the PSN, and it's disingenuous to advertise a free service for the past four years and now to turn around and tell consumers to pay if they want upgrades.
Yes, I know that sounds like I want something for nothing, but that's how they've advertised it. If they make the premium service worth it, I'll consider paying, but not just to get something that so many people feel should have been included from the get go. I mean, Xbox Live had cross game chat in 2005.
@mamoore1982
But what you're getting for free now is STILL free. They're not taking anything away. You personally wouldn't pay for the two services, and frankly why should you...but surely you don't expect Sony to base their pricing on the rare occasion someone owns several consoles?
Basically why should a NEW premium feature be free (and remember chat has NEVER been touted as free by Sony) when the competition isn't?
@Tes He's saying he's ok with paying MS because he knew when he bought the Xbox that he'd have to pay for Live. When he bought the PS3, he was told that he wouldn't have to pay a fee, and it would be a fair assumption that Sony would continue to add features to stay competitive with MS. Now they're charging you to stay competitive, which means they're adding on additional costs that weren't expected when you made the purchase. I completely agree, but I don't even play any games on my PS3 anymore so it doesn't really matter. I'm perfectly fine using my PS3 as a blu-ray player, netflix streamer (quieter than my Xbox and better PQ than my TiVo) and media streamer from my nas. .
@engadgetcomexcludeengadget
My point is, and I'm sure you'll agree, you don't have to pay for anything on the PSN. It was advertised as free, but it was never indicated that these additional features would EVER be implemented. No one should buy a product based on some imagined or assumed promise the manufacturer never made.
The free stuff is still free...no promises broken. To then demand that which you're happy to pay a competitor for, for free is just naive.
@Tes I understand what you're saying, and I don't want to seem like I'm demanding something for free, because I'm not. I just think that any reasonable person would assume that PSN would continue to be upgraded and made more competitive at no cost. No, they didn't promise any features, but the PSN was upgraded multiple times before I bought my PS3 and it has been upgraded multiple times since. But to turn around and begin charging for something as basic as cross game chat feels disingenuous when they add features like Home for free. Surely cross game chat would be an easier engineering feat than Home, and we get that for free.
I'm not naive, and I'm not demanding anything. Of course I'll still be able to play on PSN for free and they're not taking any features away.I simply feel slighted that to receive the full benefit, I'll apparently have to pay. I just don't think they should have touted PSN as a free service if they were going to roll out a paid version with more bells and whistles later though.
I
@mamoore1982
Damn, the hot dog vendor on the corner has been giving me free hot dogs for 2 years now, but it never came with ketchup, mustard or relish. Now he's gonna start offering these various toppings, but he wants to charge me for them!
I can still get the hot dogs for free, but he expects me to pay for ketchup if I want it. I mean, I already pay McDonald's for their food and it has always come with extra toppings included, so I think the hot dog vendor should offer his toppings for free. It's only fair, since he's always provided free hot dogs, so why would the toppings be any different?!
Do you see how ridiculous your argument is?
I can't see sony keeping multiplayer free forever. If they don't change that tune with in a year, I think they'll end it with the launch of their new console or soon there after.
@admlshake A lot of people bought the PS3 because the online gameplay is free. Sony had a difficult time catching up with the Xbox360. That move would definitely lower their market share.
I'll gladly pay...I use my ps3 daily, more features are very very welcomed....depending on what those features are of course