"PlayStation Plus" Subscription Service Unveiled

No disc Netflix app and rumors of Cloud storage canned? Hopefully they'll be announced later on

since qore was said to be part of the psn+ package, and i already paid 25 dollars for that, does that mean i only have to pay 25 more for plus?
 
i doubt they will be that nice to us.

What worries me about this isn't that existing features might get sucked up into the pay categories, but that new features/updates to the system and interface that should realistically be available to all users will only be available to "gold" subscribers.
 
The game update "perk" would seem to confirm this is a likely scenario.

Do not know if want.

" @louiedog: 
@louiedog said:

I'm not going to argue with you, because the price doesn't seem outrageous to me. However, think about some of the features. Early DLC? You're not getting early DLC. The're holding back DLC for non-subscribers. The content providers aren't going to suddenly start working harder to get it out earlier to you. You know those betas currently on PSN? Prepare to see some of them go away if you're not paying extra. Exclusive demos? Are you going to start seeing more demos than are currently on the service? I doubt it.  The real story here to me is that unless you start spend $50 a year, you're going to be seeing less content on your PS3. "

 Not to be confrontational here, but all you did was flip around my adjectives to make them seem a disadvantage to nonsubscribers.  I understand and respect your point, but I can't say I have such a pessimistic attitude about it.  Honestly, the real draw for me personally is the "free for a month" game service.  If you're playing a single game for more than a month, you're probably gonna buy it anyway.  If you lose interest in it a week into the game, you just saved a ton of cash.  All a matter of perspective, I suppose. =) "

We knew this was coming. I guess Sony and Microsoft are just trying to match features as much as possible.

I'm kind of ambivalent on this.

Uhh, what about cross game chat? This does not seem like something I want to pay for so far, and I play my PS3 more often than any other console. Where are the good features!?

Im in!

So it's an upgraded Qore basically.  That's nice and all, but I'll wait to see the actual content we'll be getting with PSN+ 
 
Odds are I'll stick with PSN free, but I'm all for having more options, so we will see. 
 
EDIT: @immike: Sounds like Cross-Game chat is in too, if Joystiq is to be believed.  That makes it a bit more useful.  Interestingly, you can have a crossgame chat with free members as long as one participant is PS+

I can see that if I was a regular online game player, this may be a sweet deal. As I am not a regular game player as I’d like to be, not sure it is worth the cash-ola. Cross-game chatting sounds neat, yet confusing (i.e. mega multi-player games).

" @DriveByLawsuit said:

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

Umm... It's been "holding a candle" to Xbox Live for awhile now. Ever since it got Netflix streaming, it's basically had equal parody to Xbox Live (the only exception being cross-game voice chat.) I know Xbox Live fanboys love to argue that they still have superior matchmaking, and server stability, but that's just a load of BS. I regularly play online with friends, and it's smooth as silk, and never a hassle.Even the Giantbomb guys have said in previous podcasts that PSN offers for free what Xbox Live makes you pay for, and that Xbox Live needs to step it up to make that fee worth it, because right now it's not.  So... Never say "never" I guess, because they're basically equal. Anyone who tries to say that Live is "vastly superior" to PSN is a sensationalistic prat. It might be a little better, but the key phrase here is "a little." "

 Wait a second,sony said that cross-game chat would be free for all users,whether you got psn plus or not.That it would be for all ps3 users.WTF,did sont change their minds?!Please PM me if you understand what's going on here.

still better then the curent deal xbox has.
but still dont know if im in though 50 bucks= discount on psn games would be nice but ive allready bought 26 games so theres allmost no more space on the hdd

" You dudes need to stop whining. These features are pretty cool, and the trials thing is innovative; hopefully its not just old games but new releases too. I fail to see how XBL is any better. Ooh facebook/twitter, espn, cross party chat, who gives a shit? And the last time I checked party chat required a gold subscription too.  "

" @TonyBlue87 said:

" @louiedog:  
@louiedog said:

I'm not going to argue with you, because the price doesn't seem outrageous to me. However, think about some of the features. Early DLC? You're not getting early DLC. The're holding back DLC for non-subscribers. The content providers aren't going to suddenly start working harder to get it out earlier to you. You know those betas currently on PSN? Prepare to see some of them go away if you're not paying extra. Exclusive demos? Are you going to start seeing more demos than are currently on the service? I doubt it.  The real story here to me is that unless you start spend $50 a year, you're going to be seeing less content on your PS3. "

 Not to be confrontational here, but all you did was flip around my adjectives to make them seem a disadvantage to nonsubscribers.  I understand and respect your point, but I can't say I have such a pessimistic attitude about it.  Honestly, the real draw for me personally is the "free for a month" game service.  If you're playing a single game for more than a month, you're probably gonna buy it anyway.  If you lose interest in it a week into the game, you just saved a ton of cash.  All a matter of perspective, I suppose. =) "

What? It's not that the new features are something that non-subscribers will be unable to take advantage of. It's that CURRENT features will disappear for them. It's not a matter of perspective, you just ignored what I said. That's like your cable company adding a new tier above yours and seeding it with some of the channels that used to come in your package. Now you have to pay extra to get access to what you had before."

I think they need to modify it so you can keep your a free game if you sub for about a year. It would make it more of a tempting proposition.

"  discounts on items various items" 
 
Edit out that first items, guys. :)

Do not want. 

No. Only good thing is the cross-game chat, but that's why my consoles are next my PC. I think alot of the updates like the auto-DL and cross-game chat should have just been updates not Plus subscribe shit, but then again the price wouldn't be justified. Anyway they should of just done the updates for free and made you pay for Betas etc. Sony I thought you had changed : (

Mutliplayer is still free. That's all I care about.

pass

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. "

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.

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

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

wait n see i guess never know.

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

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.

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

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.

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 :/

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

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.

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

Yay! I love paying to get things for free!

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.

 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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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

it sounds good. im in 

"

 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. "

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
 

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.