"PlayStation Plus" Subscription Service Unveiled

" The few things that the playstation had over the 360, was free online services across the board. Now it isn't like that anymore.  "

So, does this mean I can't participate in the FF14 or the DCUO beta without PSN+? That's no good... :/ 

I just dont care for subscription services. Even if they're going to come up with features you cant get normally, I can just find a way to play games somewhere else for much less cash.

This isn't helping my decision making between an XBox and PS3 as a 2nd console (have a Wii).

I'm okay with spending 50 bucks a year for cross-game chat.

I think I'm going to stay as a free subscriber.  Basically they are trying to charge people for things that should already be free.  Like chatting with friends in different games, automatic updates (are we lazy now?)  

I'm very wait and see about this.

" They said it adds up to you getting 48 games a year and you can keep the avatars and themes. "

The few things that the playstation had over the 360, was free online services across the board. Now it isn't like that anymore. 

I don't understand where all the hate is coming from.  You don't have to do it and if you stay using the free stuff you don't lose anything.  It looks to be a service you just pay for if you want some bonus stuff.

No, thank you. I'll do just fine with my regular PSN.

Eh, I don't like paying for exclusive content.

I won't bet on cross game voice chat until Sony says it.

" @MetalMoog:They are implementing voice chat, they have an article up on joystiq.com and playstationlifestyle.net, I would post up the link but I'm kinda lazy right now, but they are putting out cross game voice chat when the service is released.  I don't know why they didn't broadcast that to the public. "

The service sounds like it has some value, but charging the same price as Xbox Live Gold is insane. Pass.

The game trials thing seems interesting. The problem still remains, though: No PS3 yet.

Doesn't seem worth it.

Wow, and I thought Xbox Live was a shitty deal, they're asking you to pay for stupid shit when you already get the only thing that matters for free!

I would only consider this service if they implemented the long awaited cross game voice chat.

There is still a chance that the leaked Cross game chat feature of Playstation Plus is going to be free. 
 
But I will try this out for 3 months at 18 dollars and see how it goes. They said it adds up to you getting 48 games a year and you can keep the avatars and themes.  
 
The difference between this and Xbox Live is that Xbox Live is pretty much REQUIRED to get anything out of your console while PSN is still free and by not using Plus, you really aren't losing anything except bonus content.

There's a good chance that a lot of this stuff will fuck free users over, but if the stuff is good, it's worth it. No matter what happens, it's still better than what Live is doing considering that free PSN has 99% of what Live offers. Even is Plus screws free PSN subscribers, they'll never be as screwed as Live Silver subscribers.

I promise you this service will go nowhere and quietly disappear in about a year, just like the vitality sensor.

Since I can still play online for free I'm ok paying if there's alot of multiplayer betas and worthy downloads dlc disctounts and stuff. As long as playing is free.

Free PSN games
 
Plus members will have exclusive discounts on items various items in the PlayStation Store (PS3 and PSP!) that will cycle month to month.
 
cross-game chat functionality to the PS3
 

"

 The stupidity of people posting here is astounding, PSN REMAINS as IT IS NOW, this is an OPTIONAL service basically for those interested, if you don't like it DON'T GET IT it is as simple as that   
 
[...]
  I dont understand the shitstorm.

The more popular PS+ gets, the more features will slowly be pushed to subscriber level. And every single new feature from this day onward will also be made subscribe-only. This is what always happens and this is what will happen with PSN now.   By 2012/2013, more than half of the interesting content will be PS+ exclusive, beta tests for any games will be PS+ exclusive, and the difference between PSN and PSN+ pricing will be so dramatic that they will some day get you.  The long term plan is to slowly make PSN+ as attractive and PSN as unattractive as possible. Of course they won't introduce this concept with a hard hit - but this IS the beginning of a dramatic change, and not just the introduction of a nifty little optional feature. "

it sounds good. im in 

The one major thing I respected in  Sony... Gone. :(

Uhm, don't like this at all, reminds me of that Simpson's skit when "Diz-Nee" buy some historical park and the announcement outside is "Sorry, but there's a profit to be had."
Oh well at least online play won't be charged for so no biggie, doubt I'll be trying it though.

I don't like the fact that I have to pay for cross game voice chat. That should already exist, and for free. What gives?

Guess i could be persuaded to try it out, assuming the EU-side doesnt get shafted.

People Ban together and make this fail. 
I knew they were going to pull a stunt like this. How is this a good idea? If they wanted people to pay they should've started this at the beginning, now they are taking services that should be for free, (Like updates) and making people pay for it. 
At lease MS told you they would take you to the cleaners in the beginning. But I saw this coming, I wish I had betted some money.

 The stupidity of people posting here is astounding, PSN REMAINS as IT IS NOW, this is an OPTIONAL service basically for those interested, if you don't like it DON'T GET IT it is as simple as that   
 
[...]
  I dont understand the shitstorm.

In the Zune pass though, you can keep 10 song per month regardless of if you ever cancel or not. So that comparison doesn't really play.

Yay! I love paying to get things for free!

Sucks that I won't get the good demos until later now but no big whop either way.

Why all the hate? You get 4 games every month, early beta access and probably cross game voice chat for 4 bucks per month.  And online is still free for everybody. They dont force you to buy it. I dont understand the shitstorm.

$50 seems okay. I will try it for a year and see how it goes.

So... even though they claim to not take anything away from "standard" PSN members... they're really gimping demo access.   If you wanna try-before-you-buy, it sounds like you'd better be ready to pony up that subscription fee :/

The stupidity of people posting here is astounding, PSN REMAINS as IT IS NOW, this is an OPTIONAL service basically for those interested, if you don't like it DON'T GET IT it is as simple as that those who are only interested in playing their games online keep doing so for free and forget about this, don't diss it and complain about it because it will not affect you at all besides to anyone with a brain the value of what you will get especially with the games that will be available to you each month will be more than enough to outweigh the fee without even talking of cross game chat etc,,. also Core is Included, Betas to many games which will save you having to pre-order said game half the time to get into the beta etc..
 
But what can you expect when half the morons posting negative things here are either Xbox fanboys or retarded illiterate morons who keep saying "no cross chat, lame" over and over when the comments are full of links and the article itself points that it is included and coming.... 
 
BTW why should cross chat be free on PSN and  fault Sony when it is pay for use in the Xbox aswell?
 
Oh and for those making fun of the free costumes for Home, don't you all have "Avatars" that you dress up as dollies in the Xbox? doesn't Microsoft sell clothes and accessories for said Avatars? it is time for you all to grow up and realize it works both ways.

Cross-game chat seems like something that should be free on normal PSN.

The first thing that came into my head is why would I pay for discounts isn't a contradiction? 
I honestly feel like I cant judge until I see what kind of content I would be getting. I mean I think it would be cool for example if im psn+ I would get the extra costumes from Uncharted multi-player for free or the map packs from Killzone 2. That kind of content I would like yeah okay because I payed for this service it would be cool to not buy and it automatically updates so I wouldn't have to worry about going into the store and installing it. Then comes the exclusive content I have no idea what kind of content it would bring but then again it could be really awesome exclusive content or really crappy content. Im just gonna wait and see what they bring to the table.

Oh Yeah. When this comes out on the first day I'm subscribing.

wait n see i guess never know.

 "It can turn itself on and off, and use my bandwidth at will." Is this the beginning of Skynet?  

sounds fine to me. 
 
discounts + "free" games should make $50/year reasonable.

I would say this is a bad idea but it seems that to a certain degree Sony understands what features need to be free and what features need to be "subscription only". Though the whole "Playstation+ users get demos early" is pretty sneaky. But, so far, it sounds way more logical than XBL Gold ever did.

Actually, multiplayer will still be free. But PSN will never be able to hold a candle to Xbox Live, regardless of if it's paid or not. "