SCE CEO Kaz Hirai confirms premium level will be added on top of PS3 and PSP's online service, which will remain free to play online.
(http://www.gamespot.com/news/6240938.html?tag=latestheadlines;title;1)
So maybe features like cross game voice chat, party chat and a party system, and maybe dedicated servers or who knows what else, will be a part of this paid service.

I'm of two minds on this one. On the one hand it seems pretty scummy to promise it would always be free and then introduce a paid tier, obviously they're not lying but it still seems a little unfair to all those who chose a PS3 because the online is free. On the other hand Live has shown that people are more than willing to pay for a quality service.

One of the things I've heard a long time from PS3 fans is that the PSN is just as good as Live or "good enough," something I've never fully agreed with. For the PS3 owners out there, what would this paid service need to include to be worth your money (if necessary for the sake of this argument assume the cost to be the same $60/year as Live)? Is this something you'd ever consider, is it something you just don't care about, or is it a slap in the face to all those who were promised a free service?

Finally, a potential reason to actually use PSN! I've always felt it was terrible, especially after being spoiled for years with good service on Live. I'm one of those people that doesn't mind spending money on a service, as long as it works well...

Would you be willing to pay for both though? I happily pay for Live but there aren't enough PS3 exclusive games to justify paying for both for me, and too many of my friends play on Live to switch.

I don't see myself leaving live for a better version of PSN,
maybe if PS3 gets some really good online multiplayer exclusives,

I did the game on each system thing, its too much, into CoD 5 for like $200 with a copy for each system and all 3 map packs for both, rather rank up on a single system

Xbox is my main gaming system, PS3 is going to have to do something epic to make me switch,

upgrading the PSN is a big push that the PS3 needs to compete as a true gaming system, and no longer be a BluRay player and Media center that you can game on

Would you be willing to pay for both though? I happily pay for Live but there aren't enough PS3 exclusive games to justify paying for both for me, and too many of my friends play on Live to switch.
I wouldn't mind as I never pay full price for live, I always end up stocking up on a card or two when they go on sale. So I'll likely follow suit with the PSN cards and grab them on sale.

They'll force you to buy this upper tier because it'll have some feature that even occasional gamers would want. Maybe like access to demos or betas.

Perhaps early access like Live Gold vs Silver. I doubt they can get away with removing all access from free users without feeling too much heat.

According to a recent survey sent out by Sony, we may soon see a $69.99 yearly fee for a premium PlayStation Network service. Now before you get all up in arms, hear me out. While I think the price is steep, you’re actually getting some quality content here for your money. Kotaku (http://kotaku.com/5429592/survey-sony-considering-premium-playstation-network-subscriptions) got the scoop on some of the listed features in the survey.

Some of perks for your cash that caught my eye include hour long demos for all games, unlimited access to PS1 Classics, PSP Minis, and premium themes, discounts on PlayStation Store purchases, and cloud based storage for game saves. If these turn out to be true, you can sign me up… if it’s not $70 a year. That’s a lot of clams.

To really compete, I think Sony needs to aggressively price this against Xbox Live Gold. Yes, you will undoubtedly get much more bang for your buck with a Premium PSN, but critics and fanboys will surely attack the service for being priced entirely too high. Sony has a long standing history of pricing things out of the ballpark at launch (PSPgo anyone?), so hopefully they really think those one over.

A little while back, I pondered if it a Premium PSN would be worth the cost. Now that we have a bit of an idea on what Sony is thinking, has this changed your mind?
http://loot-ninja.com/2009/12/18/could-a-70-yearly-psn-subscription-be-around-the-corner/

Im a PSN user. From what ive heard, the new pay service will basically still be like Qore is right now, although likely expanded to include PSN movie service features.

I dont think cross game voice chat or dedicated servers will be part of the pay service.

Cross game chat was in the list they sent out as a survey. I hope that comes down as a free service. It shouldn't be in the paid tier. There were some really nice features as well as some that require some explanation.

Let's be clear though and state that everything that is currently free will remain free. You will not have to pay for online play.....ever.


Nice Features:

Free PS1 classic games
Full Title Trial-1st hour is free
3 year warranty

May or may not be worthwhile:

Exclusive experience with Sony Brands (say whut?)
Access to Betas
User-User challenges
Online Music service
Online Music video service
Loyalty Program rewards
Catch-up TV

Should not have to pay for:

Netflix access without disc
Cross game chat

,

I'll probably pay for the premium cause i'm a sucker and like to spend money like it has an expiry date

but the PS1 classic, the trials, and little stuff like that would probably make it more worth while for me, I'd like to see some better network reliability, I've heard its now a lot better than it has been in the past,

I still really want to be able to play my large stack of PS2 games on my PS3,
corded controllers upset me, and the wife absolutely hates wires, she was actually happy when I got my 360 since the controllers hide nicely on shelf below the coffee table, me playing the 360 is another story

$70 a year is not that expensive, it's a little more than the cost of a game. Whether it's worthwhile really depends on if you'll play PS1 games and how those things on dezzpayne's middle list turn out. If they suck then you're paying $70 a year for PS1 games and cross-game chat.

I think the 1 hour game thing would be great, though how exactly would that work? Would developers have to create an entirely separate "1 hour" version of the game? It's easy for a linear game, but think of something like an open-world game where you can do whatever. How would 1 hour of Fallout 3 work?

I'd be really pissed if they included the cross-game chat in this. I have very little interest in the feature, but I view that as a core-feature which should be available for everyone. This premium thing should be bonus stuff, like Qore has bonus features along with it.

Gord

I think the 1 hour game time thing will be on Sony's plate, not the developers. They will introduce a time bomb of sorts I guess. I can only see this working properly by downloading the full game up front which is bit of a turnoff. Shall see.

Keep in mind that, at least in Canada, Sony has no "media services"..
No Movies, no Music and no Netflix (as Netflix isn't even available to Canadians)

So, items such as:

Online Music service
Online Music video service
Catch-up TV
Netflix access without disc

Would be moot. Would we be expected to pay the same amount for half the service as our friends to the south? Probably.. and mosy likely a little bit more.. (Sony isn't exaclty exchange rate friendly)..

The launch of a paid service may mean the launch of those things in Canada, or it might come here at a discount because they don't exist.

Probably.. and mosy likely a little bit more.. (Sony isn't exaclty exchange rate friendly)..

Actually, they are. A $299 PS3 in the US is $299 here, and a $9.99 PSN game on the US store is $9.99 here. Americans would actually save money by purchasing a console up here (a $299 console would be about $283 US right now).

Now, with that said, I'd be interested to see how much they would price it here as well, given that we don't have access to the video material.

Gord

I really hope that cross game chat isn't included in this priced tier. When I'm given a choice which system to buy an online game for (i.e. Modern Warfare 2), then I'm going to choose the Xbox version every time, the ps3 controller is just to me, terrible for shooters. I have several friends who have PS3's and we've not once played a game together. But on Xbox Live we've been going through a large number of games co-op or competitively.

As far as the media stuff goes, with a complete lockout of all those features in Canada, we better see a significant price drop in the payed tier. One could arguably state that the biggest selling point to the payed tier is all you can eat media, more-so than any PS1 games or mini's. But if we don't get access to it, they'd be very idiotic to charge us the same or as little as 10 dollars less for the subscription. And lets be honest even if they get the CRTC approval to start offering media content in Canada, it will turn into the bastard child we get on the Xbox Live front with maybe 30% of the total offerings the american service has.

I think the ps3 has more of the war to fight yet before they can get away with gouging their limited install base of yet more cash at this point.

QuantumFluxx, some of your comments are very contradictory. You talk about how cross-game chat is important, but yet you play the games with your friends which in turn makes cross-game chat irrelevant as you are in the game together.

You talk of how PSN will be gouging but also comment on how you pay full price for only about 30% of Lives services.

You talk of a limited install base when the PS3 is the closest it has ever been to the 360 in sales, and has been gaining by millions since the price drop. Doesn't sound very limited. And the fact still remains that the PS3 has sold more than the 360 in the same amount of time of release. The 360 had not sold as well as the PS3 at the 3 year mark.

As for the controller, I have found the 360's very clunky with a very, very poor d-pad where the PS3's is easier to handle and was designed to be more than just a shooter controller. Triggers are the least of my worries compared to the shooter only design of the 360's controller.

And the most important thing is that online gaming is free and going to remain free. I personally do not care about ps1 games or minis or whatever else they are offering. If I did, I would still be playing them. I don't waste money on Live, and I'm not going to waste money on this.

Glad to have a choice to have additional features yet I can still just buy a game and play it without having to worry about keeping access fees up-to-date. Go Sony for giving us a choice and not strong arming us into paying to play online:)