New report - SOny to charge for PSN premium service

Here's the story: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/104/1047600p1.html

IGN -

Quote :

November 19, 2009 - In a move to help bolster the company's online sales revenue, Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai stated the PlayStation Network may see a premium subscription-based service on top of its current free-to-play online model.

"SCE will further increase sales by offering users new entertainment through the combination of hardware, software, peripheral and PlayStation Network," said Hirai (via Eurogamer). "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."

When asked for comment, Sony Computer Entertainment America stated they have nothing to officially announce at this time.

"We are looking into a variety of options but have nothing to announce at this point in time," a SCEA spokesperson told IGN.

It's unlikely Sony would begin charging for online play such as Microsoft does with its Xbox Live service. This premium model would most likely center around additional video or game content, such as exclusive first-looks at trailers and demos.

What does it mean?

Well Sony likes to release rumors early so people get used to the idea. They have been losing money left and right and they are starting to get desperate. This means Sony is going to try to break even by charging for online. We might see an hours cap for free online play and if you want to play online unlimited you'd have to subscribe. We could also see Sony making all DLC exclusive to Premium paid users.

What we can be sure of is this. It's only the beginning. Once they role out the premium service you can bet that features will start disappearing from free PSN. It won't be long before PSN will only be worth using if paid for. Free is going down the toilet.

That's funny. I guess the benefit of buying a PS3 for free online will soon be down the drain.

No doubt the brownies will find pathetic excuses, like they always do...

With the way Sony has been bleeding cash I think this was inevitable. It will be entertaining to see how the brownies spin this one. lol

You know what i would love to see. Some games would have free online (crappy ones) and for the better ones you actually had to paid LMAO. I would love the mass rage of the PS3 fanboys.

Psn fails.

I don't think they will charge, The opnline sucks really bad ,i think even dreamcast is better online.

Dreamcast did have better online lol.

Dreamcast is still on of the greatest gaming consoles of all time.

Spartan v07 wrote:

I don't think they will charge, The opnline sucks really bad ,i think even dreamcast is better online.

they're gonna have to seeing all the money they've lost so far xD

LOL, if this is true, Ill keep on on spamming "PSN isn't free! HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA XBL is better HAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHA"

hehehe, now them brownies have something to think about

why stick with psn when xbl cost the same and is way better, but im curious what they will improve from normal to premium psn....?

The brownies on various forums are now saying that they would be willing to pay if the service was good. LMAO What a bunch of hypocrites.

Master_Chief wrote:

The brownies on various forums are now saying that they would be willing to pay if the service was good. LMAO What a bunch of hypocrites.

They really are pathetic. Seriously, if Sony died, they would have a mass suicide.

I reckon they will keep online gaming free for now, just charge for downloads and stuff whereas on XBL we pay for a superior online gaming experience but get the downloads (many MORE downloads) for free.

It's quite a bad decision for Sony to do this now though. They should've just done it from the start. Now a lot of people are just not gonna bother (because when people buy 360's they know they have to pay to use the online service and so if they bought a 360, chances are they are intending on paying for online. Whereas, if people buy a ps3 they know they're getting free online and if it suddenly changes, they're just not gonna bother paying because one of the reasons they bought a ps3 was for free online).

i hope they charge 70 dollars a year for this.
i wanna see the looks on the brownies faces