PSN might start charging?

[hidekipooj]

source: Sony Brings Up Monthly Fees Again - Monthly Fees - Kotaku

During an interview with Nikkei Japan, Sony's CTO Masayuki Chatani touches on the growing number of ways the PlayStation 3 has to accept payment, including the dreaded "monthly fees."

Last month during a Sony investor presentation, the company made mention of a potential subscription service for the PlayStation Network. While there's still nothing to announce on that front, Chatani once again brings up the possibility of monthly fees while discussing the cost of maintaining the PlayStation Network.

Servers and the like have running costs, and we would face difficulties if our business depended solely on the sell-and-forget model. After we sell the hardware, though, we continue to sell products such as content and services. We expect to see considerable growth in digital content, such as game download services, avatar items and the like. We can also accept payment in a growing number of ways. In addition to single-payment packaged software, there are also schemes like monthly fees or per-item charges. I think this variety of payment methods will bring about a diverse range of playing methods, too.

It doesn't sound to me like Sony would be charging for the PlayStation Network as much as they would be offering additional services and content on top of what players already get for free on PSN. Of course that's merely speculation.

Would you be open to paying a small monthly fee for easy access to downloadable content and items, or would you prefer to pay as you go?

So.....what you guyz think? Personally I like the fact that when I sell ps3's to my customers I get to talk trash about the xbox live costing a fee. But if Sony does start charging I wouldn't mind anything around $20 every 3 months. What about you?

[jango]

Imo there's definitely more options available to them than charging monthly fees .. seems a bit of a lazy approach to solving a problem.

[ViddaXondi]

I hope not, was one of the reasons i went with ps3 over the 360.

[LiNuX]

They'll make a ton of money if they do. I'm sure they'll lose a LOT of fans a lot of traffic from the network but the profit they can make will probably cover up the loss in popularity and traffic like a pimple.

I don't own either the 360 or PS3 so it doesn't really affect me but I know plenty of people with the PS3 that would be mad if they had a monthly fee for this now.

[Kenoi]

wow, I was thinking about getting a ps3, but then I change my mind... I showed this to my friend, he went to a pawn shop and sold his ps3, he's NOW into PC gaming. haha.

[HamadaLFC8]

I think this is where the 360 will show that it owns ps3 =p hahaha xD
No but seriously I'm not sure what to think of it but I'm sure that PS3 owners won't be happy at all! Some of my friends have been bragging about how PSN is for free, wonder what they'll say now xD

[Kenoi]

my friend is pretty upset when he saw this, he doesn't want to spend anymore money on monthly fees. he says sony has to use sony playstation network cards to pay for the monthly fees... that way you WONT use your credit card.

[RaiDae]

Well... I'm not entirely sure of the implications of this. Does it mean that i'll have to pay if I wanna play co-op? or I only have to pay if i want the internet browser and demos and BBCi-player?
I really hope they don't introduce monthly charges...

[Samus-Fan]

If they want to charge, they should at least use to funds to make their online servers better, make them run better and such.
My brother has a PS3, so I can say the PSN sucks, and it wouldn't be worth paying like Live is.
They'd have to do a huge re-vamp of the whole thing to make it worth it.

[LemonRising]

Considering that i just got a ps3, this would suck balls.


Suck many balls.



idk.
Why can't everything be free.