News
PSN to remain subscription-free
Tim Ingham Jul 2 2008, 2:43pm
Comments (4)
This week’s update won’t change Sony’s anti-charging position, says Network boss
PlayStation Network director of operations Eric Lempel has reassured consumers that Sony isn’t about to start charging for its PS3 online service – despite continuing with a policy of continual software improvements.
Sony this week detailed its 2.40 Firmware update and the introduction of a new trophy system.
Lempel told Next-Gen in a wider interview:
“We’re happy with what we’re doing right now and we’re going to stick with it. I think being free is always an advantage.
“The fact that it’s free is nice for consumers who want to try out the online experience, those who may be new to it and may not be ready to commit to spending dollars, and that’s a really good message for us.
“Being free also gives them the opportunity to spend the money that they may have spent on a subscription on online items or online games instead.
We have a ton of games for the price of a subscription and offer a significant amount of great original content that you can’t get anywhere else.”
Lempel added that the firm would not shy away from making Firmware improvements if consumers called for it:
“There are a lot of features that are still part of our roadmap,” he commented. “When we release new features we want to make sure that we have a baseline set of features to put out there and that they work properly. We feel that these new features are ready and that they offer consumers a great advantage over what they have today.
“However, we’re not going to stop enhancing the features. Every time we do a firmware update we enhance old features as well as providing new features, so we’re taking a lot of the feedback very seriously. Going into this we knew there were some things that wouldn’t make it but there’s always time to fix those and get them in, but in the meantime this should keep consumers satisfied for some time.”
Comments
“PSN rules”
Posted by: Thorsten - Jul 3, 12:05pm
Yeah - this is Sony. They always know it better and are chosing the right direction with their online strategies.
Micrososfts live membership is not only out-dated but also offers less stylish products.
For me it was always clear, Sony will win the next-gen fight in the long run.
“Re: PSN rules”
Posted by: ka0znrky - Jul 3, 12:31pm
:(
Live is outdated?...you enjoying your Trophies? I think its great Sony are staying subscription-free and its good to see they have future plans for PSN because there's a lot they could do with it but lets not talk about winners of this so called next-gen war until atleast after xmas.
“TROPHIES!!!!”
Posted by: HazeFan - Jul 3, 4:32pm
Thorsten! YES! I love what you have to say and the way you say it!
"They always know it better and are chosing the right direction with their online strategies. "
Absolutely! Between Trophies and online Haze multiplayer, I think it's clear that Sony has already won this generation, the next generation and even several generations after that!
“Re: TROPHIES!!!!”
Posted by: ka0znrky - Jul 3, 4:41pm
o_O
i'm speechless...