Back in November, a presentation slide revealed that Sony had a paid subscription plan in the works for PSN. And now Peter Dille, the head of PSN, had this to say in an interview with IGN:
Will we charge for it or why don’t we charge for it? It’s been our philosophy not to charge for it from launch up until now, but Kaz recently went on the record as saying that’s something we’re looking at. I can confirm that as well. That’s something that we’re actively thinking about. What’s the best way to approach that if we were to do that? You know, no announcements at this point in time, but it’s something we’re thinking about.
Now the question is what exactly will they be charging for. Will they charge for online multiplayer, like Xbox Live? Or will they offer up some new premium goodies to entice people to pay up while leaving the current offerings up for free? In any case, it looks like there’s soon to be a little less ammo in the console wars. But don’t worry, Sony fanboys: You still have Blu-ray. No one can take that away from you. [IGN via TFTS]
matt
Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 10:31 AMhrm…
I think if people wanted to pay for online they would have got an xbox…
me, I got a PS3, and I won’t pay for any online stuff, I have a computer where I could get any equivalent for free…
Heath
Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 11:38 AMAgreed, and I’d love to know what they would be charging for considering most game developers pay for their own host servers for online gaming. If it’s purely to connect to the PSN and access downloadable content as well as PS Home then they should expect to lose money from people not downloading any media from the store and advert payments from people not accessing Home. Bad idea.
Hsin-Tsai Chang
Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 5:37 PMsame here, i got ps3 so i dn’t have to pay for xbox live.
Ha
Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 7:30 PMI don’t think they would charge to access the downloads store, and that it would be quite similar to Xbox Live. This means that you’re paying so you can play multiplayer online which may include Home. But there will possibly be less ads in Home because Sony doesn’t need to get as much from advertisers.
But really, at $50 a year (About $4/month, and less than a game) why do people base their console choice on whether or not they have to pay for online? $50/year is nothing compared to the amount you would spend on games.
zaphodity
Friday, February 5, 2010 at 1:02 AMI pay money for a PS3 then more money for games THEN money for an internet connection, NOW they want me to pay for the ability to play a game on their console ?…If you do then bye-bye Sony…There’s always PC.