Sony Demands Cash For PlayStation 4 Online Play

[Jaden Kazega]

The more I think about the title of this thread the more I feel like it is misleading. They're charging for the service. Demanding is a forceful/negatively concieved term and doesn't exactly convey the sense of non-biased journalism people like to see.

I've been seeing this a lot on the Escapist. Is this a common practice? I do find it fairly irritating. =/

 

[Eggsnham]

Disappointing, but I suppose it was inevitable.

 

[Weaver]

Basically, now we have to pay for all of this sharing & social feature crap no one asked for and no one wants.

That said, I'm already a PS+ member.

 

[Something Amyss]

Yeah pretty much. I still kick myself though because I remember one time when I was on PSN in the PS+ section they were selling a 2 year subscription to PS+ for like $80 and I didn't take it. >.<

I kick myself, period. I thought "fuck this" when they announced it and the ignored it until my PS3 died and just decided to buy a new one. It came with a PS+ year sub, and suddenly, I'm like "damn, wish I'd been in on this sooner!"

PSN card. It's what I've been using since the network issue.

Honestly, I'm not sure why people weren't doing this beforehand. All three consoles made it fairly easy to redeem things, so if that's your concern. Hell, you can pay cash for the cards, so you never have to have any account data related to your bank or credit card.

Then again, I'm familiar with Microsoft's practice of billing people after they've canceled or turned off auto-renew, so I played it safe the second I did anything with either console I owned.

 

[Something Amyss]

I've been seeing this a lot on the Escapist. Is this a common practice? I do find it fairly irritating. =/

It's pretty common in gaming journalism.

Actually, it's getting more and more common in mainstream journalism, too.

...Now I'm sad.

 

[Roxas1359]

I've been seeing this a lot on the Escapist. Is this a common practice? I do find it fairly irritating. =/

It's pretty common in gaming journalism.

Actually, it's getting more and more common in mainstream journalism, too.

...Now I'm sad.

I started noticing it too...makes me sad as well.

Also, I still remember the first time I got PS+, it was about 2 years ago. I never got it before because I thought it'd be pointless as I was still a huge Xbox person. Then the week I got it every FF game was 50% off...and I never looked at Xbox Live the same way again. XD

As for the cards, I always buy the cards and never store credit card information, or in my case debit card since I don't have a credit card, on my consoles. I feel safer with having the card, and it's a good thing that Live got rid of the point system because it was just plain stupid and often times it forced you to buy more and more cards to get one thing since they only sell the cards in 1600 and 4000. >.>

 

[Rebel_Raven]

As a long time subscriber to playstation plus, I'm not terribly bothered. If + goes to upkeep now, and they maintain the weekly sales, bi-weekly free games, occassional free avatars, and all the rest of the neat perks, I feel it's worthy of support.
If, by chance, it helps with the planned reverse compatibility via streaming/Gaikai, it's another real reason to support it, IMO.

Sure, PCs don't charge you for something like plus, but the reliability of a console is a large bonus to me. So long as Sony balances the negatives like charging for online multiplayer with positives like numerous side perks, I'm happy.

 

[TallanKhan]

Perhaps if Sony ditched the live chat and "share" features, along with the other additions no one was asking for in the first place then offering this online service wouldn't have such a large price tag to them as an organisation, and as such they wouldn't have to milk the end user for so much money.

 

[Dr. Pepper Unlimited]

I don't like being nickel and dimed, even if it is only a few dollars. I wouldn't touch the 360 because of a required subscription, and this helps cement my discussion to not bother with the PS4 either.

 

[MammothBlade]

Hasn't this been said over a million times now?

Seems completely fair to me. Bandwidth and servers aren't free.

Perhaps if Sony ditched the live chat and "share" features, along with the other additions no one was asking for in the first place then offering this online service wouldn't have such a large price tag to them as an organisation, and as such they wouldn't have to milk the end user for so much money.

Except a lot of people do want those features. Remove them and XBOX live has an advantage, Sony can't win can they?

And $5 a month isn't by any standards expensive, that's quite ridiculous.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

"The main pillar for the PS4 will be online play," Yoshida states.

This statement is just kind of sad. Are they so desperate for the prospect of "innovation" that they have to reinvent the wheel?

"Hey guys, my hardware can go online"
"WHOAAAAAAAAA....Wait, so can mine."

Otherwise, nothing is really surprising.

And once again I am impressed at how well Sony PR team is handling this launch, a declaration like this

Too paraphrase Yahtzee.

Micro$oft did most of the work for them

No, it really didn't. MS created the opportunity but it was Sony that took the initiative to punish hard; from the info after E3 we can see that Sony wanted to push online much more aggressively and had a higher price with an integrated camera, they modified their whole product/pitch in a very short lapse of time.

To use a fighting game analogy, MS did an unsafe move, but it was Sony that took the maximum damage punish to win the round.

...Which is essentially the same as MS falling flat on their face while Sony doing a glory pose.

Tomato Tomahto dude. Don't be so pedantic.

 

[Black Reaper]

Previously, ps+ looked appealing, it actually looked like a good deal(unlike xbox-live), but now it is turning into the same thing i hated last gen

? It's still the same deal? Does it being necessary somehow change the content?

Before, it looked attractive because it was completely optional, it didn't affect the games you already owned, now if you don't have it, all your multiplayer games will suffer for it

I didn't completely understand your reply, so mine might not make much sense

The deal is still just as attractive then. It's only percieved differently because, like me, you probably didn't jump on the deal and now you have to.

However, I'll add that the multiplayer games would suffer for not having this. The introduction of ps+ gave sony a significant amount of capital to put into the servers to keep competing with Microsoft. The online games now demand servers that are significantly pricier than the days of the ps2 and the money is necessary to provide that infrastructure. Frankly, I understand why people don't like spending money, but we should also understand that there are significant costs involved here that PS shouldn't have to swallow.

I guess it still looks like a good deal, but i don't want to endorse consoles charging for their internet, even if they need it to survive, i guess i'm a selfish bastard
At the very least, it looks better than xbox live, i don't know if ill ever get it, but if i do, there's that

 

[masticina]

Well that is the one small bad stitch in an otherwise pretty good launch. But you know yeah I understand why they doing it, if they WANT to beat Microsoft they HAVE to invest. For that they need money!

And Playstation Plus still will offer some nice deals at the side, older games that you can download and play for free. I mean if you are thinking about buying Infamous 3.. why not play Infamous 1 and 2.. if they are out on playstation plus.

Not saying that every old game would end up on PSN Plus but a few would. And that is pretty much awesome.

And as said so far, you still can get updates, patches, and access to leaderboards without PSN Plus.

We had 7 years of having allot of free, and now we might have to pay just a little bit for it. As long as the price is right right.

 

[gamegod25]

As I've said before I don't mind paying for online so long as I feel like I'm getting my money's worth. And with the 360 and XBL I felt that the ease and better overall experience was worth the relatively small investment. And since you can still play offline/non-plus just fine with PS4 and if you do have plus then you get free games too.

 

[Reeve]

This is how Sony makes up for the cheaper price of the console. Is it more expensive than Xbox Live and how do the connection speeds compare?

 

[Bluestorm83]

Paying for internet twice is something im just not willing to do. Going to stay pc.

You're not paying for the system's online capability, just paying for their servers that handle all the Multiplayer crap. You'd still be able to go online or watch Neckflits or peruse the Hulules or whatever you young kids do these days.

Except this is false, only the XB gold will give you dedicated servers, Sony doesn't have the infrastructure to offer that and are charging the same amount.

Also the real reason is their financial situation if anyone was wondering.

How do you know what the infrastructure of the yet-nonexistant future Sony Plus program will be? I call Shenanigans on this presumption.

 

[rob_simple]

I think, in the five years I've had my PS3, I've probably clocked in about three or four hours playing online. I was considering getting Playstation Plus, anyway, for all the other benefits, but it's good to know it won't be a necessity.

See Microsoft, this is how it's done: don't force your users to pay for services they don't want to get the ones they do.

 

[Amir Kondori]

What is up with the wording on this article? They make Sony sound like muggers. Is this language used when talking Xbox Live membership fees?
Sometimes the Escapist is like the Fox News of games journalism.

 

[martyrdrebel27]

so... Microsoft announces a whole list of games going on sale and the communities collectively shit-talks, snickers and shrugs it off. Meanwhile, Sony starts charging to do he exact same thing it has been doing for free for years, and everyone is cool with it? God, has this site's user base really gotten THAT bad?

 

[conmag9]

I find myself very, very pleased that I play single player games/modes almost exclusively. The principle of the matter bothers me, however, but then I just don't like subscription fees in general.