(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida has promised that the surprise decision to charge for online multiplayer with PlayStation 4 is not a money-grabbing scheme and the money gained from it will be reinvested into the system to fund improvements.

When CVG asked him about the decision he replied, ”That’s [was] a big decision, what we internally discussed and decided is that we will continue the free access to online play on PS3 and Vita, so that’s clear. But because on PS4 the online connectivity features such as second screen, auto downloads and share features – these are one big pillar of the PS4 experience and we will continue to invest in this area to expand and improve these online features and services.

“If we keep giving away online access for free, the natural pressure is that we have to cut down on the cost to provide this free service. But that’s conflicting with our goal of being able to provide very robust and great online services going forward. So we decided that on PS4, because we want to continue to invest and improve our new services, we’ve asked the most engaged consumers in the online activities to share the burden with us so that we can continue to invest.”

It was revealed during Sony’s E3 press conference that players will require PlayStation Plus to access the online features of games on PlayStation 4 similar to Xbox Live’s Gold subscription, however it will only cost $5 and includes access to Plus on PlayStation 3 and Vita, as well as numerous bonuses.

“To make the pain a little bit less we will continue to offer free content with instant game collections, discounts and early access to betas on PS4 as well,” Yoshida added.

“So at the beginning we typically picked from older games for the instant game collection on Vita and PS3, but because everything is new on PS4 we decided to make a smaller version of Drive Club with all the online features open, included in that instant game collection on day one.

“In addition to that we add one digital game every month, so they get high quality indie games as well on top of what they get on PS3 and Vita. So hopefully that makes people’s decision easy to join PS Plus.”

SCE America VP of Publisher & Developer Relations Adam Boyes has confirmed to Joystiq that free-to-play games on PlayStation 4 will not require PlayStation Plus to play online, ”As far as free-to-play games are concerned, it’s the publisher’s decision whether they put it inside or outside of PS Plus.”

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There you have guys. What I've been thinking and saying for all those people that complain (with multiple threads about it) the PS+ only Multiplayer Access. It was logical they would do something like this so the numbers are not in red and they can give us the best service as possible.
Another advantage is that now if it is not working we will be able to complain with certain degree of authority to do it as we will pay for these services.
I love this measure, I will proudly and be pleased to pay for PS+ every year and can't be more happy with Sony postures with this upcoming Next-Gen.

What do you think about?

I'd rather pay $5 monthly and have access to free games and exclusive benefits than paying for Xbox.

I am actually happy instead that they implemented this .

Yep, me too. This will limit the amount of kids online in some way, and we will see improvements in the Online features such as streaming, Multiplayer, etc.

I actually don't mind a few of the kids being able to play games like COD online. It's hilarious when I hear them rage every moment and then with their squeaky voices, haha.

That's why I play Battlefield. This time I will not even buy CoD. I will stick with BF4.

I pay for Ps+ already so to me it makes no difference, its a shame we can't have it free online but to be honest the way Sony have announced it as part of Ps+ and the fact you can still get your free games and stuff means i'm sure there will be many many MANY more people investing in Ps+ as its damn awesome anyway, all i hope is that they keep the option to pay £40 a year as i hate paying monthly. Kudos to Sony for not going down the route of charging for both, it will also promote Ps+ for Ps3 gamers too as they'll get tonnes of free stuff.

Read about this somewhere, they are funding the online service for better improvements for the gaming community.

I cannot believe there are still people that don't have PS+.