(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Pachter on PS3 online play: Sony “isn’t so profitable that it can afford to be magnanimous forever”

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The rumours of a pricing structure for PSN, and exactly what that might entail, have been snaking around the internet for quite a while now – with no official word from Sony. Talking to Critical Gamer however, Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities seems to think that the death of free online play on PSN is inevitable.

In answer to our question regarding a paid – for PSN service, Pachter was quick to put in that he ‘really can’t say’ what Sony will do. Pachter being Pachter however he was happy to give us his educated guess, which amounted to a charge for online play on the PS3 being an inevitability:

It seems to me that online game play can bear a monthly subscription (something as affordable as $50/year)… Free online play is a good marketing tool, but I don’t often hear consumers say “I bought a PS3 because PSN is free”… more often, I hear people say “I bought a 360 because of Xbox Live”… Sony gives a ton of value for free, but the company isn’t so profitable that it can afford to be magnanimous forever.

These comments certainly allow for a ‘premium’ PSN service that complements, rather than replaces, the free one currently running. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised if a compulsory subscription is announced for online play on the PS3, however; Michael Pachter certainly wouldn’t be…

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I know this sounds like bad news to most of you out there but I see it as good news. Imagine being able to keep your PS3 with PSN being equal or better than Xbox Live. That I would definitely pay $50 a year for.

(post your opinions below)

If they do this I'm switching back to XboX. I only got PS3 for not-monthly fee.

If PSN adds new cool features it will be sick and everyone would pay for premium XBOX just dominates the psn online service

damn, thats ****ed up

I know I read somewhere that they - or so the claimed - had in mind to add premium features, but that the basic PSN would stay free.

Of course they might have changed their mind.

As I told my friends, I would probably buy a Premium PSN subscription if it's worth it.
However, if online play becomes a premium feature, I don't know if I will pay the subscription or sell my PS3s, for a simple reason: nowadays, PSN is not good enough to justify a 50+ dollar subscription.
So either they come up with a more reliable network and uber services, or I'm not paying a penny.

And even if they do, I will probably have to think about it, because even though I love the PS3 and I've bought all of their consoles in the past (minus the psp), one has to consider the fact that nowadays 360 gets almost all the cool exclusive games, it costs less and the online service seems to be much much more reliable and to have more features than the PSN.

Edit: and no I would never keep PS3 for single play. I don't even buy single player games only anymore (maybe one single player game per year).

They'll be a lot! Of dead puppies if everyone has to pay monthly =(
Cause ya know must people went from xbox to ps3 because its free.

i hope we dont have 2 pay coz ps3 wouldnt be awesome if we had 2 pay!

You realize though you will only have one account to use unless you were to buy another subscription for another account.

Why? IF there were to be two options, the basic free PSN and premium paid PSN, you can just "upgrade" your current free PSN account to premium. I don't think they would have much of a problem doing this.

Yeah I doubt they'll do that though, They may for the first month or two to see who all bought premium but then they'd probably take the free service off.