subscription based psn on the way

Helix

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/report-sony-to-reveal-premium-psn-service-at-e3

According to reports, Sony is set to reveal a premium PSN service at this year's E3, which will give users access to a range of new features for under £50 per year.

VG247 has said that the new pay-for service will offer a string of new features and that subscribers will be given one free PSN game from a choice of "two to four" every month.

"If you work it out, PSN games cost an average of £6-9 each, so over a year you're basically going to be breaking even," a source told the site.

They also revealed that a music streaming application similar to Spotify will be announced at the company's press conference on June 15. The application is thought to be able to run in the background while games are being played.

Access to the new features will cost "less than £50 per year" and their roll out reportedly won't affect the current service offered at all. That will continue with the premium model being an optional extra.

Rumours that cross-game voice chat will be saved as a paid feature are apparently not true - "I can tell you now, 100 percent, that that's not the case," said the source.

The report ties in with previous indications by Sony that it would be introducing an Xbox Live-like subscription model at some point in the future.

"Especially in the online area, we are studying the possibility of introducing a subscription model, offering premium content and services, in addition to the current free services," Kaz Hirai told investors back in November.

He underlined then that multiplayer functionality, Home and other features that are currently free would remain so.

Daemos

I haven't seen anything yet that would even remotely interest me in paying for a subscription.

Retr0gamer

Sounds rubbish to be honest. Even the 'free' PSN games seem to be choosen for you and will more than likely be all the crap ones. Looking bad for free online play in the next sony console though.

noodler

If they were to give me a €40e credit note for the PSN along with a quota of free movies per month then I would probably be okay with paying it (for 40e of course).

The devil will be in the detail.

Retr0gamer

Well it's better than MS. Found out yesterday that they suspended my Xbox live account which means I can't get at my xbox live arcade games. My crime? I didn't renew my xbox live arcade membership and they couldn't do it automatically because I used a temporary credit card. Maybe I don't have the money to pay for it?

noodler

Even if you had used a real CC, and then cancelled it, surely they should be sending you a message begging you to come back?

When you say ban, do you mean they just cut you off for non-payment?

Captain Chaos

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Well it's better than MS. Found out yesterday that they suspended my Xbox live account which means I can't get at my xbox live arcade games. My crime? I didn't renew my xbox live arcade membership and they couldn't do it automatically because I used a temporary credit card. Maybe I don't have the money to pay for it?

Thats hardly MS's fault. How are they ment to bill you if you give them no means to do so. Plus they tell you a month in advance that your membership is about to run out through XBL and email.

And what do you mean by arcade membership. There is only silver and gold. Silver members are free and can do everything Golds can except plan online games.

Did they not drop you back to Silver seeing as your CC was a temp and had no credit on it. If thats the case I'd be on to customer support and or consumer rights that they tried to automatically renew a membership unless it is in the contract.

Helix

they suspended his gamertag instead of just dropping him from gold to silver as one would have assumed theyd have done in that situation

Retr0gamer

They didn't drop me to Silver, they full on banned me. So I've a suspended account and no access to XBLA games. They did keep e-mailing me during the month saying they couldn't bill my account but I couldn't be bothered turning off automatic renewals because I was lazy. I don't have the time or money for XBL at the moment. It's in the T&C that they can automatically renew xbox live and they only recently put in the option to turn it off so no laws broken there. Thought I'd be dropped to Silver not full on suspended. Anyway I e-mailed and going to ring up tomorrow.

Grumpypants

Yes ive been waiting for this pay Service now we can stop those sony are going to start charging messages and threads.

If i dont pay for LIVE then im not going to pay for this unless i get a serious injection of income sometime soon.

If they did a good package like 1 free PSN game, 2 free movie rentals a month. Then it might tempt me.

noodler

So if you aren't online with the 360 then you can't play the games you have paid for from XBLA?

Retr0gamer

No, if you have a silver account you can play and buy XBLA games, you don't need to be online. However they didn't drop me from gold to silver they outright suspended me from xbox live, basically banning me. All my XBLA games are now 'trial' versions and I can't redownload them or access the store.

TheTosh

I can see this premium crap flop and with the games market being a fickle business with customer loyality going to who ever has the best deals. Sony's greed will lose customers, they had their chance to charge for online play and that was when it was launched but its too late now to do. Free online gaming is a big appeal for people when choosing between X-Box and PS3, would Sony be stupid enough to lose this lure?... If they do start charging I'm sure the numbers of people playing PS3 online will plummet.

mailrewop

TheTosh wrote: »

I can see this premium crap flop and with the games market being a fickle business with customer loyality going to who ever has the best deals. Sony's greed will lose customers, they had their chance to charge for online play and that was when it was launched but its too late now to do. Free online gaming is a big appeal for people when choosing between X-Box and PS3, would Sony be stupid enough to lose this lure?... If they do start charging I'm sure the numbers of people playing PS3 online will plummet.

its still gonna be free

Daemos

Yeah they're not charging for what we currently get for free, it's an optional subscription that'll give you more features.

TheTosh

Its free now, but how long will it stay free?

Helix

TheTosh wrote: »

Its free now, but how long will it stay free?

therell always been a free psn on the ps3, but maybe not on the ps4

this is very possibly testing the waters for the next generation of online ps3 service

gstar

i would agree that having free gaming on the ps3 (no subscription fee) would be a big lure for me also. Having said that, i would not be happy to pay for the service currently provided over the psn, but i would be more than happy to pay a sub for increased functionality, hell i would even pay a sub just for a decent browser that doesnt crash my system every time i give too many commands!