http://www.joystiq.com/2013/06/12/playstation-plus-price-not-changing-video-services-dont-requir/

Another smart and consumer friendly move from Sony, they do mention that publishers could put it behind the PS+ paywall but I don't see why they would. With Microsofts continuous policy of keeping arbitrary content behind the XBL paywall (Netflix) I doubt they'll follow suit. Another gold star for Sony, I guess.

- Update - Microsoft's Position

News just in from Microsoft, World of Tanks, Xbox's first "F2P" game will come with a trial for non-gold members. No solid details on this trial period beyond the fact it's a trial.

"Microsoft has their own rules [for] membership subscriptions, so [there are] certain things we could not break" - Wargaming.net CEO Victor Kislyi

Just as expected free-to-play games will not be free-to-play on Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Source

With all the gold stars Sony's been earning, Kaz is going to look like one of those ridiculous generals you see on TV shows.

Maybe he can append them all to his RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDGE RACER car.

Wow. That's amazing.

@dot: Is it amazing? They're called free-to-play for a reason.

Someone in E3 chat was saying that a developer they knew suspected Sony was only putting certain kinds of multiplayer behind Plus (which makes that whole attribution pretty much hearsay); I'm glad to see that there's some truth to that. It doesn't really matter to me, since I love my PS+ sub, but it's nice to see that there's some sort of leeway here.

Patrick's interview with Sony guy mentioned that it would be up to the game to decide if Plus is required or not for free to play titles.

That's a really consumer friendly decision. Good job Sony.

True, but they are not widely available on home consoles. (Unless you hook your PC up to your TV) There are two options for free-to-play games for me:

• Buy an Xbox One or Xbox 360
• Buy a Gold Subscription
• Play World of Tanks or Planetside 2 etc.

Or

• Buy a PS4 or PS3
• Play Plannetside 2 etc.

Microsoft say they will have new business models and support F2P but in all honesty, on Xbox One, I will have to pay to play. The amazing thing is Sony could have put it behind the paywall but decided to do the reasonable, consumer friendly thing. Sony are once again benefiting from Microsoft's bad policy.

@theht

I mentioned this in the initial post, I really don't see how this would benefit the games using the free-to-play model.

This is such a non-dickish move that I'm actually slightly disappointed.

Sad that this isn't expected. What I'm more interested in knowing though is if these F2P games that are also on PC are cross-platform. I'd doubt a newly released console can have n F2P games that is both large and active enough to sustain itself past it's launch if it's only PS4 users filling the servers.

The only reason it's not expected is because Microsoft does the opposite.

It's actually expected because Sony will be taking a cut of all transactions made through these free to play games, just like Steam does, and XBL will for the One.

MS just loves to double dip on everything. But, that whole monetize the hell out of everything because they have no other choice is now coming back to hurt them if Sony can really make PSN equivalent to XBL in every way, that's probably more likely since you have to pay for it.

Once again it's 4 fucking dollars a month. Get over it..................

Man, Sony sure are cool as fuck these days. Sure, this should be expected, but sadly, it's not.

No. It's zero dollars per month. Subscription isn't required for free-to-play games. You've misunderstood this thread.

Great news for F2P publishers and developers.

Sony has learned a lot.

News just in from Microsoft, World of Tanks, Xbox's first "F2P" game will come with a trial for non-gold members. No solid details on this trial period beyond the fact it's a trial.

"Microsoft has their own rules [for] membership subscriptions, so [there are] certain things we could not break" - Wargaming.net CEO Victor Kislyi

Just as expected free-to-play games will not be free-to-play on Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Source

Sony totally didn't need to do this; they had already won a lot of gamers over who seemed OK with needing PS+ to play PS4 games online. Good stuff, Sony.

Thing is they kinda sneaked out the you pay for multiplayer thing.

Not really. They even apologized for that and told journalists the reason. for that.

Does anybody have a list of the F2P games that will be available in the launch window for PS4? If I can afford to buy the system (which is not looking likely, as I have no job), there's no way I'll be able to afford new games as well.

I've seen Warframe, PS2, and DCUO. Are there others?

@jrinswand: Well there is Blacklight Retribution. Which I believe they have confirmed for not needing plus to play.

Have they said if Planetside 2 is cross platform yet?

This is important to me ;_;

So every announced FTP so far is not going to require plus. It's looking like "It's gonna be a publisher decision" is turning into you do not need plus to play. They might as well make it a mandate. Although that makes the rest of the games requiring plus for multiplayer that much more out of place. I kinda wonder why they don't just require plus for all the new features announced (streaming, cross game chat, and so on) and leave multiplayer free. Maybe they are switching to a more server based online system as opposed to a more peer to peer system.

@connerthekewlkid:

Do you mean hosting games between PC and PS4 players? If so, the answer is no. Revision3 had an interview with the Planetside devs that confirmed this.

Gold star for Sony. This is another smart decision on their behalf.