Sony consider Premium Network Subscriptions

[blackwiggle]

This has been posted at Kotaku.
See link for the PDF of what each of the 4 "Proposed Subscriptions " would get you.
This is only a SURVEY,they happen all the time,but it might give you an inkling on what might be ahead for the PSN.

http://kotaku.com/5429592/sony-survey-says-premium-playstation-network-subscriptions-under-consideration?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kotaku%2Ffull+

Here is a link to a better description of what these services include.
http://www.sonyinsider.com/2009/12/21/leaked-information-reveals-exciting-playstation-network-premium-service-details/

Quote:
A survey sent from IPSOS Online Research indicates that Sony is considering premium subscription plans for the PlayStation Network, detailing potential prices and premium services, including full hour game trials, free access to PSOne Classics, and cross-game voice chat.

Reader Brenna sent us PDF files containing the Sony survey, which begins with the following bit of text:

Sony is considering offering a premium PlayStation Network subscription in the future. The subscription offering would provide new premium features you could choose to pay for and are in addition to the features currently available for free such as access to online multiplayer gaming (current features would remain free).

Following the introduction is a series of definitions of terms such as Token Wagering - a set number of tokens given to subscribers per month that can be used to be on games and exchanged for PSN content - and Cloud Storage Space for Games, which would allow players to save their game online rather than on their hard disk, protecting their data.

Other notable services listed as potential premiums include loyalty reward programs, automatic updates, member-exclusive Facebook Connectivity, an online music service and music video service, Hulu TV catch-ups, member-only game content, discounts, demo-sharing (sharing exclusive member-only demos from your full games with friends), and Netflix without a disc.

By far the most attractive premiums are full title trials, which give the user one hour access to full PlayStation 3 games, and free access to PSOne Classics, PSP minis, and premium themes.

The list also indicates that some eagerly awaited features could be subscriber only, such as cross-game voice chat. Having waited so long for the feature, I doubt fans would be particularly happy to have to pay for it.

The chart below details four potential plans, with three costing $69.99 a year or $9.99 a month - more than an Xbox Live Gold subscription, and one running $4.99 a month and $29.99 a year.

We've contacted Sony for comment on the survey, but have yet to hear back as of press time. Just keep in mind that companies regularly test the waters by sending out questionnaires like these, and they by no means represent any concrete plans on Sony's behalf.

It seems as if they simply want to gauge customer reaction to the various plans and features.

[abukii]

I am definitely not sure how to comment on this...
Sure the content is nice, but Sony has been so keen on not charging for their service...so, I will reserve judgement until we find out more. Thanks for the links and info though.

[DeepMix]

i will gladly pay if the premium service worth it, otherwise i wont, the actual online gameplay and features will remain at no cost, the premium services will just add more features to the online gaming

[AG-wolf]

Wow, this is a ludicrously unintuitive and incoherent approach to something that already has a very functional and effective execution. Xbox Live.


I'm not trying to start any kind of console war (though w1p3out and Kigo are both gone, so I imagine civility is in much larger supply anyway now lol ), but Microsoft has charged a straight $50/year for live since they launched the service 7 years ago. They have a very intelligent and straightforward solution to asking their customers to pay for something on top of the cost the customer has already invested in the console, associated hardware, and the games. All of my friends who pay for the Live service and take advantage of its features have NEVER had any complaints with paying the subscription, with the features that are offered, or with the quality of service provided.

Offering multiple different "packages" is insulting to the consumer, too... maybe someone wants Feature X but doesn't need Y and Z, but if they get something which has X, it may in turn drop W or V. It's like trying to buy a car and the dealer is trying to shove all this different crap down your throat. Also, some stuff is just retarded;

- loyalty program rewards? What? they give you something shiny because you mindlessly threw your money at them?

- trophy alerts? what could that even possibly BE? "You got a trophy!" oh wait, doesn't it already do that...

- member-only in-game content? way to alienate your userbase

- cross-game voice chat. 360 has had this for ages, you mean the PS3 never had it at all?

- free access to PS1 games? That's a really cool idea... now if only they would actually offer decent PS1 titles... of course it's totally worthless if people own the physical disc of anything they'd want to play in the first place


If they're going to try and charge money for service, it should be all or nothing, no in-between BS. Or, if they're going to ask for a paid subscription, it had better be worth it. With Live Gold, you pay to play people online, and subsequently get all kinds of awesome extra features. With PSN, you get to play people online for free, so for a majority of the average PS3 user-base, they don't need anything more... outside of an extended warranty, I personally can't see how any of the proposed features are worth an extra $70 a year, much less how people are absolutely Eating It Up while at the very same time they will rag on people who pay for an Xbox Live Gold subscription.

I see this as a very negative direction... they will be segregating their established user-base, obfuscating the process that new and potential owners will have to go through when they consider purchasing, and charging unfair price for options that should be cheaper or free in the first place. On top of that, they're going to be painting the whole picture as something good, while the rest of the world sees nothing but hypocrisy from the same company which used Xbox Live as a negative factor in regards to their competition.

As long as they don't remove any of the current standard free features/capabilities which they offer, I don't care what else they decide to do. Outside of maybe a couple games which might catch my eye sometime in the future, this company won't get one red cent out of my pocket from this point onward.

[Rapier Racer]

Yikes, anyone would think this was more than a mere survey what with your reaction right there.

Everything that is currently free would stay free, therefore they can still take shots at Live because you still would not need to pay up to simply play a game online, the whole point of an online gaming service really isn't it?

They can add all the premium services they want no one has to buy any of them. The only gripe I think people would have is that fact that they propose to charge for cross game voice chat, which means they could let us have it for free but are holding it back, not that I care don't use voice chat anyway.

[AG-wolf]

I guess that's more the point I'm trying to understand... if everything that is free right now remains free, then there is little incentive to pay for premium services. I guess I just can't comprehend what angle they may try to approach it from, since I don't see the majority of people even caring about half of the stuff outlined in the second link. And the rest of the possible options aren't even justifiably worth spending extra money for.

[MrSmadSmartAlex]

Ha, wouldn't surprise me at all if they started including extra bandwidth as one of these "premium" features. Pay to play without lag and 1FPS :turd. :lol

[infoxicated]

I wouldn't pay for a premium PSN account unless it brought about certain guarantees regarding things I'd like to see in the service.

For example; no one... and I mean no one should be able to send me anything other than a friend request if they aren't on my friends list. That would mean I could let my daughter play a game by herself without worrying about yet another profanity strewn message from an non-friended user popping up for her to see. (i.e. from Kigo, as happened to me since August now).

Secondly, I'd like to be able to report an abusive message right there in the XMB and have an acknowledgement that it's being investigated.

And that's just for starters with the service. I'd like to be able to search my downloads, group them by different criteria, have access to premium themes for less (or free), and early access to demos and beta tests.

That and early access to store content - we're talking Wednesday instead of Thursday here, so that I'm not trying to download stuff when PS3 users everywhere are thrashing the network.

Oh, and adverts removed from things like WipEout HD and VidZone.

Chances are, though, unless my first couple of issues are addressed Sony won't be getting any of my money for a premium service.

[MrSmadSmartAlex]

I think those first two issues should be part of the free PSN service for everybody. There's plenty of kids with PS3s who could receive any filth at any time, if you're still getting abusive messages from non-friends. I don't know if there's an option to block messages altogether, but that would stop kids messaging their mates on the PSN, which isn't really a solution.
Earlier access to PSN stuff and ad-free PSN would be a good way for them to do it, I agree. If they do include ads in something though, it should be clear to the buyer before they pay, "premium" user or not (not like what happened with WOHD). Discounts/free stuff would be good too.