Right, some of you won’t want to agree with me here but there’s no use in pretending otherwise – Xbox Live Gold provides a more stable, reliable and feature-rich way to play online multiplayer than Sony’s PSN. I don’t think there’s any disputing that. But it costs money – £40 per year, if you don’t shop around.
[drop2]Now there are rumours kicking about this morning that the PlayStation 4 is going to lean towards a “premium online service” when it is (oh my god, we hope) announced later today. Those rumours suggest that the new online services will come under the moniker of PlayStation World, a name which will even replace PlayStation Plus.I think renaming Plus, a service which has blown away anything that PlayStation’s competitors could offer, would be a bit silly. The subscription service is not only very popular but has captured itself a well-loved place in the minds of many a PlayStation fan. Renaming it would be discarding all of that good will and brand recognition. But regardless, there’s a new slate here so it’s not beyond the realms of possibilities.
More interestingly, though, is the assertion that “most” of the PlayStation 4’s online services will be premium, paid-for subscriptions. Personally, I would have absolutely no problem in paying a fee, similar to Live Gold on Xbox, which ensures a similarly robust network infrastructure. With all the talk surrounding PlayStation Cloud – potentially the new name for Gaikai – there might be a lot more than just online multiplayer up for consideration when weighing up the virtues of any paid service.
So, the PlayStation 4 is widely expected to be revealed this evening. There probably won’t be a price for the console until E3 in June, at the earliest, but what about subscriptions and services? The entire industry is learning the incredibly profitability in monthly fees and microtransactions. What would you be willing to pay for and how much?
jimmy-google
I don’t like online gaming so there is no chance I would pay for it. Plus, though, is excellent.
Bilbo_bobbins
Playing online must be free with Sony, otherwise I’m oooot! If the premium service with all the gadgets was paid for, then fine, as long as online gaming was still free.
Mr_writer
Agreed.
If they keep online free I think they will get more subs to a premium service. As people will know they have the choice and it makes it more tempting.
If someone gave you a free ticket on an economy plane flight, but then said if you paid just £40 and you would be upgraded to first class you’d go for it.
seedaripper1973
I wouldn’t…free is free.
gaffers101
I’d pay for a Premium Service if it resulted in quicker downloads and more stable on-line connection, I wouldn’t like to see the end of the free service that Sony is offering at the moment though.
psychobudgie
My download speeds from PSN have always been solid other than the very early days of PSN and my on-line stability has also been solid for years. Not sure where the criticisms with regards to stability/speed come from.
In my experience it is normally down to dodgy routers or dodgy ISP throttling/traffic management. I’m perfectly happy with what I have now and if that stays free then they can charge for extras. If they start to charge, though, for the basics I’m oot.
Bilbo_bobbins
my internet is 60mb download. When downloading anything from PSN it’s more like 5mb max, its ridiculous the speed. Stability wise I have no problem at all though.
Peter Chapman
PSN downloads on my 100mb/s fibre connection are about half the slowest speeds I generally get from XBLA and about a quarter what Steam can regularly give me to my PC.
PSN download speeds do seem to have improved a lot over the years, but there’s still a way to go.
bunimomike
You lucky bugger. No matter where I’ve lived and what connection I have it seems to be an absolute lottery as to what speed Sony give me for the PSN. Not just that, but there was a time when you could download firmware upgrades (via the PC) and it would download them faster than the PS3 next to it (both wired connections and no wi-fi nonsense). Sony were (and still are) actively throttling things. My 80Mbit connection here is a joy to use but Sony are the only “big player” I find that are pathetic on download speeds when buying content online.
seedaripper1973
I concur.
BULLofDOOM
BT Homehub 3.0 with Infinity at a max of 76Mb/s – I’ve seen PSN download speeds vary a little but usually get a damn good speed. The Xbox seemed faster with updates/patches but slower with actual content/games.
Downloading Uncharted 2 (18GB) in the time it took me to have dinner and shower doesn’t have me concerned about speed. I’d say ISP and router settings are more an issue.
djhsecondnature
A big part of it is being able to choose. If I can play online with my friends for free, but pay for a better service if I want then I’d be okay with that. If it locks out everything, not so much.
wirralsman
I would be happy as long as there was some sort of separation of features. I wouldn’t want to pay for online play just because I have to in order to get PS+ content etc. A model where I can add features to my subscription like a Sky TV package would be ideal.
cc_star
Considering the way games are going as publishers start getting us used to pay to play, we’d be charged double or even triple; once to buy the game, secondly by the platform holder to access online then once online paying the publisher for this content or that content (which will become more integral to the game as time goes by)
Starman
Whatever they do, they can’t launch the ps4 with the same network. Far too much maintenance, slow downloads. They should unify the store as well. The EU team are useless.
blarty
The thing is, if the basic online multiplayer is provided free as is with the PS3 then I really don’t see what the concern is, however if it’s to be a paid for service then you can’t have it as the headline feature it has to be part of a much bigger basket of stuff.
BrendanCalls
If whats on offer remains comparable to what is on offer with Plus and includes a much more robust online service then I will happily turn over £40-ish a year.
ron_mcphatty
I’ve never played on an XBox 360, no idea what Gold is like but I’m happy enough with the idea of two-teir online services. Make Plus the premium option, bundle cross game chat in there, but leave online play through the vanilla PSN free for those of us who want it but don’t use it so often that we’d like to pay for it.