Last month, the internet was abuzz with the news that Sony is thinking about charging for its online service, PlayStation Network. Kaz Hirai, however, was quick to the forefront in announcing that all of the current amenities offered on the Network would continue to be free, but upcoming features may require a subscription.
It seems plausible that Hirai is talking about the ability to have premium avatars or things of that nature, but recent comments from Masayuki Chatani has brought back the murmurs of a monthly subscription plan similar to Xbox Live.
“We would face difficulties if our business depended solely on the sell-and-forget model. After we sell the hardware, though, we continue to sell products such as content and services,” he said.
“We can also accept payment in a growing number of ways,” he added. “In addition to single-payment packaged software, there are also schemes like monthly fees or per-item charges.”
I don’t have a problem with this so long as the ability to play online with your friends is still free to all. If they change that formula at all, I think the company can expect quite the backlash.
What do you guys think?
I could pay for a few privileges, depending on how expensive they are.
I hate it, its pointless, if ur goin 2 start doin it now, u shoulve at the start! People will hate this idea
I received a mail rom sony but i dont know if it optional? is it? cause i dont wanna pay
never mind i already read this sure was ignorant lol
I’m hoping for it to be honest, hopefully most of the annoying kids and cheaters/glitchers will stop playing on the Playstation Network.
ive said it b4, and ill say it again, i dont mind paying for extra privilleges, just keep online gaming free, and let the extras be worth mi wild
If they’re going to make a subscription fee they should do it right and put the piddly crap aside and go big.
Not paying and selling my ps3 if cant play online with friends for free. Done deal.
Well it definately should be free, but if it has some decent features for a relatively affordable price ($15-$20 a year), I’d sign up!
i am not digging this at all
as long as playing online is free, im good
God I hope they don’t want to start charging for EVERYTHING like that M$ company does
well we aint losing anything, if the premiums good. ill pay as long as its as cheap as xbox live and id prefer to pay yearly like my bro does for xbox
I WILL NEVER AND I MEAN NEVER PAY TO PLAY WITH MY FRIENDS ON PSN!!! IF PLAYSTATION STARTS CHARGING US I WILL PROTEST AND BUY A FREAKING XBOX AND PAY FOR XBOX LIVE!!! PLAYSTATION MADE THEE DECISION TO HAVE FREE ONLINE PLAY AND NOW THEY SHOULD STICK WITH IT!!! IT ESPECIALLY BETTER NOT BE MORE THAN XBOX LIVE OR I WILL NEVER CONSIDER GOING BACK TO PLAYSTATION!!!
As long as I can play online without paying, it’s fair enough.
better not get monthly fees, that’ll be even GAYER than the 360! a yearly fee of 30 bucks would be fine for me…50 atmost..
If it’s for new avatars and extra things like that idc. But things like game betas will probably be charged, in which case I don’t approve.
I will pay for it for avatars. To be honest the ones available are pretty lame. It would be awesome if somehow they would segregate the subscribers from nonsubscribers somehow to give the premium dedicated severs. THAT is worth $10 a month.
As long as its EXTRA features I could pay for, then that’s fine.
But REGULAR online play and doing all the stuff we do now NO THANKS!
If its gonna be optional and I can still play online games for free than i could care less. If its forced Im gonna buy an xbox or switch 2 PC gaming because atleast xbox you get some of what you pay for like crossgame chat( WITH VOICES NOT TEXT ) and they have a bigger online community.
This will wreck the PS3 momentum train if Sony decides to add monthly subscripitions like Microsoft do with Xbox live. If it happens Except massive backlash
Unless they won’t require you to pay for playing games online I think it’ll be all good.
A charge will result in LESS online players!!! is that a worth the extra few $$$? i don’t think so!!!
they can charge for add ons and that nice stuff that is cool but once they try to charge me to play with my buddy’s i know that they will start losing sells like fast. it is a bad move on there part and possible hurt them alot but not fatally because they have other products keeping them up and afloat….they better not do the american way of business and just become greedy and no more care towards the customer.
Kaz Hirai already confirmed that playing online is free Sony are just trying to find other ways to make profit that doesn’t interfere w/ our online gaming experience.
We’re seeing it now w/ Qore, Playstation Pulse, Comics, Downloadable Games, Video Service, Home, etc.
Point is Sony has other ways of making money.
sure sure i will pay for psn. but sony must suck my d**k first.
Yeah people are going ot hate it. But You will all get used to it. Just like xbox live will get used to it. Xbox live is pretty cheap a month, and I think that Sony will want to keep its price close but a little lower than that of Xbox Live. You all are freaking out cuz you dont want a free thing to end. Nobody ever does. Free stuff is awesome. But for the most part, Sony knows that its not going to lose a decent percentage of its “Clientel” (gamers) because people are going to keep playing online regardless if theres a price or not.
It’s all going to come down to consumer choice. IF the consumer wants to plat the game online bad enough, then they will. But if not, then they wont. You can play your games and be perfectly content without online capabilities.
I think that only gaming online should be paid for, and the wifi and surfing the web is left untarnished.
I could pay for a few privileges, depending how the prices are and what i am getting in return.
You guys are missinterperating what was said. He said that everything that is free now (which includes online playing) will remain so. Sony is just going to probably do a package subcription such as you might get Qore, and some premium avatars, themes, etc. Or they might do something better than that, which is perfectly fine, but in a nut shell everything will remain the same. Just in the future you might have to buy the subscription to have the best PSN has to offer.
Personally I hope that if they do come out with this subscription thing that it’ll be a yearly charge that allows you to play MMORPG’s coming out that are P2P (Pay to Play) such as FFIV for no additional charge, because I really want to play it but I won’t unless the subscription covers it or if it’s free to play. I refuse to pay them 10+ dollars a month to play.
look its not cool if they do this they take away what separates them from xbox and will lose millions of customers a lot ppl don’t have jobs and crap to be paying this i mean we already pay 60 fuckin bucks for a CONTROLLER and a game then 300 for the system itself. Now they wanna make us pay for the thing a lot ppl like the ps3 for FREE ONLINE service sony makes enough i mean they’d have bigger sales if they had more four player offline games especially adventure and shooter instead of focusing just n online.
you guys should stop sayin its ok its not ok its stupid and greedy and sony should respect its customers enough to not do what fuckin microsoft does if i gotta pay for online why even choose ps3.
Type your message here…
I’ll make this simple online gaming free if its not then it would be pointless to even have a PS3 and the PS3 would have betrayed there customers they annouced free so keep it that way!!!!!!!!!!!
I agree with ARC-1300 keep online gaming free and let extra things be worth my wild
BACKLASH
This is bs man, in my family group we have 5 ps3’s 3 of them have gone back to sony for refurb replacment due to YLOD and blueray player failure, all of them crashed after the warranty ran out, ITS COSTING ME A FORTUNE:(
Now Sony would like some more of my cash for on line services that we are getting for nothing. its plums and onto for Sony i aint payin no more >..<