Sony dont be greedy! Jeff dont be a tool!

Sony’s free online service is fine to me. Sure I would like more things out of it, but does that mean I would be willing to pay for it AND Xbox Live? No.

Many times, companies just pocket this additional money they receive from charging us to access what should be a free service. We paid for the console, we paid for the game, we pay electricity, we pay for internet, and now we have to pay to play the game we already paid for?

If the online fee covered DLC, I would understand, but the reality is that it does not and will not. We will still be gouged for DLC that should have been included with the game on day one. I hate to see a game come out, and then two weeks later read announcements about upcoming DLC in the following weeks. That means the DLC already existed and they chose to serve us an incomplete game to just take more money from us. Yoda/Vader ($5) in SC IV is a perfect example.

Hell, I still pay for Live and I don’t even use it. If Sony tries to charge for their service, I’ll cancel Live as well and stick to NO ONLINE SERVICE. Because for me, the reality is I have no idea what I am getting out of Live that I “need”. The only reason I have not canceled it after all these years is that I was one of the beta testers for Live.

2) Paid for services brings about better online gaming? Hmmm.. I guess Valve and the like to START charging. PC gamers have been getting and continue to get FAAAAARRRR better service for online gaming then console gamers. Xbox LIVE 1st gen. was a fee to activate the NIC card. Thats like paying a monthly charge for breathing. but hay… you pay to breath, be my guest.

3) There are models where paid services work well WITH free services. Some MMORPGs have figured this out. A balance will work when these service provider offer a PREMIUM tier of service.

XBL free
——

15 Player Friends list
Peer-to-Peer gaming
Advertisement infused Dashboard
Base community options

XBL Premium
___________

50 Player Friends list
Peer-to-Peer w/ packet optimization and Microsoft housed private servers
Advertisement free Dashboard and freebies
Premium community options

Sony is already offering excellent FREE service comparable in in some cases better then XBL.

I.E. … WarHawk
Peer-to-Peer and Standalone Servers
PSN Chat with (6)multiple user access
and with Playstation Home developer designed Home spaces like the Warkhawk room, the players can put coordinate better, plan better, execute better.

- Game System (One time fee)
- Game (One time fee)
- Internet (Monthly fee)
- Electricity (Monthly fee)

and in these struggling economic times. We consumers can’t handle anymore fee’s.

I can see where this poster is coming from though. If you were to buy a lot of MMO’s and instead of paying a per game model on these you pay one fee. The thing to me though is if I start an MMO I would really like to make sure it’s a good one before I bought it and I just can’t see myself or many others going crazy with the MMO’s and buying more then one. Also remember that MMO’s have DLC just in big chunks and they call those expansion packs. Speaking of DLC…

The other thing you mention about getting the DLC given to us instead of charging us for it. While a nice thought, it would never happen, Like you said their a Business they will charge you for anything and everything. Trust me leave the free things alone. Now I am reading about how they are going to start to create alternate endings to games and try to charge for those. THAT IS RIDICULOS!!! Sony just started to charge for Premium themes like Microsoft which really sucks but at least Sony still provides free ones alongside the Premium ones and allows users to create their own.

Now also you have remember one thing Sony is trying to get a lot of User Created content on their system espically with the game that just came out called LittleBigPlanet. If users had to pay to play online that would significantly cut the User Generated content down.

I really think Sony is doing the right thing by keeping the PSN free. I really hope Sony doesn’t get greedy and start charging for the PSN because they will only be shooting themselves in the foot. I mean what better way to get great content then from your fellow creative gamers.

I pay my ISP, I paid for the PS3, I paid for the damn game, I pay for the electricity…

I shouldn’t have to pay more to play the fucking game I already paid for.

Thats not quite correct about playing games downloaded from LIVE. What you are actually referring to is when a 360 HDD is placed on a DIFFERENT 360 console than the one on which said content was purchased. That happens because the DRM info is saved on the actual console. Having you sign-in when on a different console is MS’ way of knowing you are OK to play the content. If you are playing on your 360 that you purchased the content on, you dont need an internet connection whatsoever, but you DO have to sign-in to your profile locally (not online, just on your 360)

Sorry for the boring and long-winded response, just want peoples to be clear about that one.

Even if I bought a 360 first, there is no way in HELL I’d pay for online service.