Playstation Network Getting Premium Subscription Content
Today Sony held a media/investor conference to discuss some of the company's future plans. While not all of it is relevant to gaming, there was, of course, a portion of the conference that touched on Sony's plans for the PS3 (and to a lesser extent the PSP). Some interesting details were revealed which non-investors can learn all abut through the conference's slides made available here. Sony sees it's motion controller and 3D gaming (via special glasses and a firmware update) as two of the PS3's key advantages over the competition, all good stuff. But under the Playstation Network section of the presentation there is a tiny detail that might seem a little out of place.
The line "New revenue stream from subscription" appears on the slide detailing how PSN is one of the PS3's key advantages. Of course, this is meant for investors, so new revenue would be seen as an advantage. But as a gamer, this is worrying news. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I had always thought that that one of the PS3's key advantages over the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live was that PSN access was free.
Don't worry, at least too much yet. Online play will still be free through PSN. Shortly after the conference, Sony's Kaz Hirai commented on the subscription plans to reassure gamers that the current free services will stay the same.
"SCE will further increase sales by offering users new entertainment through the combination of hardware, software, peripheral and PlayStation Network. 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."
Premium content could mean any number of things ranging from more Qore-like content on PSN, to an MMO game, to exclusive Home channels, to early access to game betas and demos. It's good to know that the things on PSN that are currently free will stay that way, but I am very curious to see how Sony will introduce the new premium subscription content into PSN.
Hirai - Current PSN service to remain free, subs for "premium content and services" [VG247]
NaviFairy
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 19 November 2009
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: investor conference, PS3, psn, Sony, subscription
Ah... so motion controllers and 3D gaming is the advantage of Sony... Interesting!
This also might include the "clubs" part of home which warned of a future subscription fee as well.