Sony Still Considering Monthly Fees

In an interview with Nikkei, SCE’s Chief Technology Officer, Masayuki Chatani has revealed that the company is still considering monthly fees. “Servers and the like have running costs,” he said, “and we would face difficulties if our business depended solely on the sell-and-forget model. After we sell the hardware, though, we continue to sell products such as content and services.”

“We expect to see considerable growth in digital content, such as game download services, avatar items and the like. We can also accept payment in a growing number of ways. In addition to single-payment packaged software, there are also schemes like monthly fees or per-item charges. I think this variety of payment methods will bring about a diverse range of playing methods, too.”

He also revealed that SCE considered solid state storage for the PS3 Slim, which would have further reduced the size of the unit. “It is also possible to use Flash memory, or network storage, for example, instead of the HDD. We considered both options,” he said, “but felt that the price would be too high for the amount of storage capacity the PS3 needs. “