Sony considering PSN subscriptions
Sony is considering making PSN a subscription-based service similar to Xbox Live, according to recent comments.
At the moment access to PSN is totally free and Sony sits apart from Nintendo and Microsoft in the way that it prices downloaded games and goods in real money, not fictionalised points.
In a chat with IGN though, Dille confirmed that PSN may become a premium service in the future, with PlayStation users paying a subscription fee for access, though he was reluctant to discuss specific details of how the system might work.
"It's been our philosophy not to charge for it from launch up until now, but [Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kaz Hirai] recently went on the record as saying that's something we're looking at. I can confirm that as well," he said. "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."
Dille also briefly touched on the topic of digitally distributed games, saying that Sony was working very hard to put more PS1 and PS2 re-releases on PSN but that PS3 full-game downloads were unlikely.
"To download 50 gigs of data before you play a game [under current conditions], you could probably go buy a car, bring it home, put your family into it, drive to the store by and bring the game home by the time you [could download it," he explained.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyYes, go on, make one of your few one-up points to the 360 a thing of the past.
It'll be glorious.
They could leave PSN completely free for those who don't wish to pay for it. These people won't be any worse off than they are now. For those that do subscribe, they could have earlier access to demos, or discounts applied to their accoutns if they want to buy PS1/PS2 games.
id rather just use a computer, in the next 5 or so years there will be a working xbox 360 emulator and if youthink on it of terms of oeprating costs pc's wi nhands down becasue you have no montly subscription (except internet) when with the 360 you pay for internt (lets say £30 a month and 360 subcription thats allmost £400 pounds a year)
my computer runs graphics just as good as the 360 and it only cost me £160 for the graohc8is card and processor
Unless they do a dramatic change.
There is so much wrong with that I'm not sure where to start..
First off, counting the internet bill as part of the playing online package is ridiculous, especially if you don't include the same cost for your PC online gaming. But then, given the cost of internet per month, usually under £30, and the amount of things that are done online these days, I doubt it's really fair to include it as a "monthly" cost for gaming.
I think your timing estimates for an emulator are off. In fact, I don't think there ever will be one. What appears to be the major selling point for the 360 is the Xbox Live malarkey, which you won't get with an emu. Why bother putting all that work into porting the Xbox OS to a PC, dealing with all the hardware issues, only for no one to look at it.
I'll cite PS1 and PS2 emulators as an example - They're not fully functional even now. Chances are low that there will ever be a 360 emu that even remotely touches on the games list available on the console itself.
As for the costs? £160 now, yes, but what will that be when the next series of consoles are released? I don't know about you, but upgrades are pretty much at least an annual thing for most PC gamers, whether it's the entire box or just part of it. You also fail to take into account the cost of everything else that goes into a PC, and comparing that to a console.
PCs are more expensive, maybe not on console launch, but they will always have higher running costs than a console, purely because of the upgrade paths.
Overall, this would actually put the PSN in a promising position. The free option (ie: PSN as it is now) would be superior to the Xbox Live Silver offering, and the PSN Premium would offer far more than Live Gold.
Hmm, I must take exception to this statement. Gaming PCs are upgraded regularly, but only because the PC games themselves are becoming ever more complex and demanding of equipment. Were there a single, unified PC platform that gaming companies built to (see: console games), there would be no need to upgrade regularly.
Pretty much every household needs a PC, as it has many other uses besides gaming. A household does not NEED a console, it is a luxury. If you could only have one (PC or console), the smart money would be on a PC.
This is not entirely true as well. MOST of the top PC games that are available for online play (comparing apples to apples since the main topic is about PSN) require a paying subscription. There are exceptions of course......and those that are free are subsidized by advertisements for the most part. The money always comes from somewhere.
people keep reading PSN and subscirption in the same sentence and thinnk they'll have to pay for multiplayer.
Not so much a problem with bandwidth caps, but speed. As mentioned in the article going out and buying a physical copy in store is a lot quicker than downloading 20+gigs of data. From Sony's POV the cost of bandwidth pushed out to users is also a worry. However on the flip side a digital copy tied to a PSN user solves the issue of second hand games killing a portion of the market.
Edit: My 2c on the pay for PSN? Personally I'd hate it and seriously consider getting rid of my PS3 in favour of... nothing. Yeah I'd stop gaming and maybe only play a few games a month on my PC.
They already confirmed that the features that are free now will remain free, including online play. Seems strange that bittech "forgot" to mention this.
But then with the money saved on not having to replace my dead blueray player I could easily pay for whatever psn charges.
I doubt they will
if they dont charge for online gaming, and just random features, they still have a massive one-up.
I don't upgrade every year, nor do I see the need to. My current pc should be more than enough to play the latest games for several years. There is absolutely no need to upgrade "every year", I have no idea what you are spendin your money on.
The more the console business rapes it's players for cash the more those same victims may start to realize that the PC is the best way to go.
With six core CPU's and GPGPU technology knocking at the door it's only a matter of time before a Xbox360 and PS3 emulator are up and running. The 360 is nothing but a low end PC anyway but the PS3 will be a great challenge because of the Cell and it's PPE - SPE set up. Every emulated system has online gameplay.
As I understood the article they are considering to put paid extra content on it and no where does it say that they will charge for plain regular online gaming.
As for the GPGPU argument, ehmm.... ever considered the Electricity cost outside of a select few countries? unless both Ati and Nvidia find a way to slash power consumption by atlest 75% there is no way GPGPU can ever take off as running a GPU with any kind of load on it is horribly expensive.