Good question but I think where Sony is currently at they need to to make some extra money, assuming the console is actually a decent price.

if they continue what they're currently doing with ps+ but locking online functionality behind it then hey, great. but I doubt that will be the case.

Never have i heard so many features of new consoles i hate. Blocking used games, persistent internet connection needed, online behind paywalls. Makes you wonder what isn't revealed/leaked as they never annouced that things like online passes were supported this generation.

I could really care less. So long as they provide a service of equal quality with microsoft I think it's fine.

Persistent internet connection is going to be in every game a few years from now. The MMO path of DRM looks to make life a bit worse for pirates at the cost of some convenience for legitimate owners. When you constantly have to communicate with a server, perhaps some files are accessed from the server entirely, and your save games aren't stored locally will make it more complicated to crack. Like some guys said on here a while ago, if they can buy themselves a week or two, it'll do wonders for the number of sales.

I already refuse to pay for Xbox Live, the same policy will be applied to PSN if they put multiplayer behind a pay wall. Especially since, for me, "multiplayer" is only the major component of two games in existence: Battlefield 3 and the variations of Counter Strike. For everything else, multiplayer is a side thing that you play around with after beating the campaign.

So, for me, it's a terrible idea. For Sony? It all depends on how many people they can sucker into paying for it. This is quite a gamble, though. If a decent number of people decide to pay for it, but not enough people pay for it, then they may have to remove it, which will piss off the people that did pay for it in the first place no matter their compensation. And afterwards, people may have already just moved on to the Xbox or maybe even taken the dive into PC gaming.

They should just expand on PS+ because right now its really cool. IMO it would be a fantastic place to push games with a similar business models to DotA and TF2.

I hope not but if they do, oh well. I'll probably just stop playing games online on it much like I did with the 360. Maybe I'll switch to PC gaming...

Hey EA make NHL 14 for the PC so I don't have to deal with this shit. Thanks.

The article doesn't really specify that online play will be behind a paywall; I'm under the impression that stuff like cross-game chat will be premium features. I think Sony is aware that offering online multiplayer for free is an advantage they have, and they are even more aware that locking that away would not go over well.

They kinda have to do it, by this point.

It was inevitable and I don't blame Sony, hell they can't do much worse than Microsoft where Gold is an absolute rip-off. Even if they continue to build this new service from the ground works of Playstation Plus they'll be offering a better service unless Microsoft get their act together.

I wouldn't be surprised if they did cuz then MS no longer has to change. Also I'll probably be done with consoles because after canceling my Gold recently I'm sure that I'm done with paying anyone to play online.

Fixed: Eurogamer picked up a Kotaku article that refers to a "reliable" source somewhere that made some claims that may or may not turn out true.

And as for the paywall: Sony is in a unique position to force Microsoft to go for feature parity. Following the XBL model might be a profitable decision, but giving the impression that they're playing catch-up / aping the competition is going do nothing for them to distinguish themselves.

Free online gaming was one of the few things Sony did right with current gen. I would not be super bummed if it is combined with PSN+ perks that we get now. If it is "pay for online pay" -only, screw that, I got PC.

Being mostly a PC gamer at this point, I hope they don't charge for it, and they keep it free... which really would put stress on Microsoft to go free as well, and then we've got everybody with free online!

It would be funny if Sony starts charging and MS stops. Switcheroo.

I think it makes sense for Sony to charge for online since Microsoft would be foolish getting rid of it, since everyone in the console market basically expects to pay for it these days, but I expect there to be value adds to it from today's proceedings (some new hooks along the lines of Playstation+ or whatever the Gaikai aquisition was about).

Edit: or maybe you don't bring up the "you gotta pay for this" aspect of it til a later event.

Console multiplayer will never be as good as PC multiplayer, so I'll never pay for it.

I don't play console multiplayer as it is so I guess I don't care much, it did kind of piss me off with ME3 though.

If they don't stick with the free online, they done fucked up. I think it's a massive step backwards regardless of how good it is. Consoles need less barrier to entry. Not more.

The free online was one of the big selling points of the ps3 to me. Although, I never really play console multiplayer anymore, so I guess it doesn't really matter to me.