PlayStation Plus announced at E3: $50 / year
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted June 15th 2010 4:12PM
posted June 15th 2010 4:12PM
And here it is! PlayStation Plus has been announced. As we suspected, the PlayStation Network itself will not change, while power users can upgrade for $50 a year or $18 for three months. And to sweeten the deal, your first three months are free. And what do you get for your hard earned dough? Tons of premium content, including "hundreds of dollars of products" throughout the year, early access to betas, and Qore. Sony is also indicating that Plus subscribers will be able to send voice messages to other gamers to invite them to play, even if they've made the foolish decision to not subscribe to Plus. Naturally, though, they won't be able to reply in kind unless they too pony up the cash.
@big nazty
haha you tell em! You can really just hate those Sony fanboys. I hope all of those ps3 owners enjoy using a remote with a little retarted ball on top of it while kinect is completely hands free.
so it's xbox live gold 5 years too late? don't say anything about online play because the experence is better on live anyway. who would spend $50 for the same experience as xbox live when they bought the ps3 for that EXACT reason?
@zunelovr3
what I mean is that some ps3 owners only bought the ps3 because online play was free.
@zunelovr3 Please, oh do tell me Steve Ballmers nut scrubber, what is so much better about Xbox Live? That is, when the xbox hasn't RROD'd and you're able to play?
They both play without any lag (I have played on both huge amounts of time, so I know) they both have ingame voice chat support they both have a store that also supplies Indie games, they both have video streaming through NetFlix, they both allow you to rent or buy digital movies or games, they both have media player apabilities, The PS3 has a browser, they both offer the same DLC on multiplatform games. So please, tell me, if you can stop sucking on Steve Ballmers nuts for one second, what is so much better about Xbox Live?
@pintozoz
2 ppl can go online at once from the same Xbox.
You can chat with friends not in game without the need of voice/video that ps3 asks for. When it says it needs video support
@pintozoz
Quite frankly the user experience. Obviously, Live and PSN didn't come out at the same time, and that headstart that Live has makes a tremendous in the overall feel of the online component. Additionally the 360 was designed for live where as I personally feel that PSN was designed for the PS3. If you don't know what I mean by that, consider the fact that the console ships with a mic and a port at the bottom of every controller (rock band/guitar hero, dj hero, arcade sticks, traditional). The idea that the online component isn't just an extra is a feel that you just don't have yet with Sony's user experience. Not to say that they won't get there (here's hoping they do. If for nothing else, the competition will bring ridiculous features to all online networks), but they aren't there now. Honestly, it's difficult to explain to those people who come from computer gaming world or people who are just ps3 owners/fans/die-hards but the level of polish XBL has, especially as a social network, is something that is glaringly absent on PSN. Obviously, there's still work to be done on XBL (why MS didn't add a browser like Internet Explorer on here when even the damn dreamcast had a browser is puzzling to me) but it's still in my honest opinion the best option for Online.
Flame me if you want, it's just my opinion as a gamer.
@pintozoz
What's better about Xbox Live? I own both consoles, so here are my observations....
Hmmm, let's see...well, I can chat with friends while NOT in a game, or if even we are in two different games, that I could NOT live without. They were the FIRST to have things like Netflix and I really enjoy the Zune support.
My biggest complaint with the PS3 is updates. Get sooooo excited to play a new game, tear open the packaging, only to have to sit and wait. And wait. Why do I have to wait 30 minutes to an hour for game updates? What if I only have 2 hours to play that night? And don't even mention system updates. Maybe if Sony would actually manage their OWN servers instead of handing them off to a 3rd party, I wouldn't have to turn on my 360 to entertain me while I wait for my PS3 to update. Paying for Live doesn't bother me because I'm paying for quality. Haven't had a single problem with Live, ONCE!
And no, it's not my internet connection. I pay a pretty penny for bandwidth. My 360 always updates in LESS than a minute. Literally 10 seconds for an update, reboot, and I'm playing.
I will admit, I am biased towards the 360 partially becasue of the TYPE of gamer I am. If you like RPGs, shooters, etc. that you like to play with others, the 360 is the way to go. If you like racing games or sports games, buy a PS3....
I haven't touched the PS3, except to watch a movie, since GOW III came out. I get on my Xbox almost every night....
Sweet, now Sony fans can finally shut the fuck up about Live carrying a fee.
@tiuk
What about the free online play PSN continues to offer while Live still charges for it?
Ok let me clarify for some of you that don't know.
Playstation Plus is a pay service that allows you to download content from the playstation store and use many other features. These are it, as it has been released to other news webs that focus on gaming:
PSN (playstation network) is simply for online play. You still get to access the store and buy any items as well as download demos.
Playstation plus has the following:
Subscription to Qore (if you don't know what that is, then you don't need to worry about it, but it costs $25 a month)
Free downloads of PS1 games as long as you have your PS+ account. You can download and play as many PS1 games as you want, as long as you have an account available.
Discounts and special offers from the PlayStation Store.
Voice Chat that allows you to send voice messages to anyone, even those without a PS+ account.
To turn off the flames of these Xbox fanboys, the main difference is as such:
PSN is a free online service that allows multiplayer over the internet and access to the store as well as text based messages and internet browsing capabilities.
Xbox Live Silver allows you to send and receive messages and visit the Xbox Live store, but not to play online.
PS+ gives you unlimited access to Qore, PS1 games, voice chat as well as special discounts. This is what has been said thus far, there are many more things to come.
Xbox Live Gold simply adds the ability to play online.
Let the flaming and ranking up or down begin.
Hey guys,
Alrighty, so obviously there is a huge rift between people that are cool with this and those that really hate this idea... i get it and want to say up front, these are just my personal thoughts, you don't have to agree with them!
OK, first of all I have to ask my self, what are we paying 50 bucks a year for? The chat upgrade and system auto patch function are just hardware upgrades and there should really be little to no maintenance cost over any other PS3 system feature. So, I would have to say that the fee is to help out cost of servers or networks. ...that may be obvious but i wanted to point it out because I think this is what annoys me more than anything, that we are paying a subscription fee ultimately (at least the main reason for most) to have voice chat, at software update! It just seems like they are trying to make users pay for a package that we really don't need and are using the voice chat function as a carrot to get us to cough up some dough. Oh, and they threw in some demos, BETA invites, free PSN games to make it seem more fair... This just doesn't seem like something anyone should be paying for. Network and server use on the other hand we really should be paying for. But SONY can't go back on there whole "the PSN is free" thing or people would throw it in there faces. So they have to make up reasons for us to pay for something that should be free.
I would so much rather see everyone have to pay 30 or 40 bucks a year for ALL the functions! This way everyone is on a level playing field. SONY would have more cash for network maintenance, bandwidth and hopefully innovation (maybe Home could get out of Beta) and most of all, it wouldn't be some lame attempt to trick us into paying them for a functions that no one should have to pay for! Again, i have no problem paying for services that have upkeep cost, i do have a problem with this game of deception to pay for something they tote as being free and giving paying users functions that they hold back from the non paying user.
And as a side note, I am a little off put by the whole free demo, beta and game thing too. I'll pay for games i want and don't want free games that I'm not interested in. The demos on the PSN are now going to be pushed back for the general user. And I guess I'm not getting any more Beta invites...
This is just my personal rant, I'm sorry it's long winded and i keep repeating stuff... It's late, I'm tired and this really bugs me so I'm just vomiting out all my thoughts ; ) I'm trying not to be unfair here. You are welcome to disagree with me (but please be kind : ) In the end I really like my PS3 and do want to see it do well, that is why I'm writing this crap, I want to see the PSN and PS3 bring us great service!!
Time will tell how this works out... For me, I'm going to wait on the service when it comes out and see what other users say about it. I do hope the extra funds helps to make a better PSN though!
Cheers!
@mindsize
I wouldn't pay a yearly fee for basic Playstation Network. My playstation would instantly become a bluray player only.
I'd buy a new X360, and pay someone to frankenstein me up some Xbox controller guts into a dual shock so I never have to use the god awful xbox controller.
If sony took what I can access today for free and made it pay, they deserve sever backlash.
Cross Game Chat! Can't wait for July to get my subscription!
I don't have a PS3, but I support any company giving out beta access.
I
Well I'm not getting it.
Sounds like a waste
I'll use those 50$ on a year subscription to live on my new 250gb Xbox
If Plus is $50 (dollars) will it be £50 (uk pounds) also? May be a stupid question but the actual PS3 price is different in the US than the UK. It's more dollars than pounds (if ou know what I'm saying) but it ends up worth about the same amount considering the exchange rate.
It's basically what the xbox does is have a yearly fee of 50 bucks, its the concept Sony took.
I love marketing spin.
If you don't pay, we'll delay your ability to access something
"Early access for subscribers!"
Will not buy.
*waits for the premium servers*