Report: Sony Launching $70 PSN Premium at E3

It comes with some free games I guess so. I would wait a couple of months to see what kind of free games though. If its just Pacman or Qbert for free then I would say no.

How about lowering it a bit in order to stay competitive with XBOX Live?

lol

^^ lol

Maybe, but will need to know more about it. Where are some details! hopefully coming soon!

They should sell vouchers/cards in stores just like the XBL points. $5 gets you one month, $25 gets you 6 months, and $40 gets you 12 months.

That would encourage people to buy the cards in bulk.

This, I think 2 out of 4 games released on PSN are fairly good though, so if they offer a good selection I think it wouldn't be too bad. And if it takes up the services offered to a new level, it might make the ps3 at least play on a level close to Xbox Live, although that all depends on how they present themselves. Still competition is always good, so lets hope for the best! And if nothing else this gives more exposure to those downloadable games, and some of them really could use the attention.

$70 isn't all that much now days and for a once a year fee that isn't to bad. I like the free game idea which might pay it's self off depending on the title. I have spent more on ice cream.

I have all 3 consoles minus a modern pc that can run today's games(waiting for diablo III and starcraft 2 to come out before I play catch up and build a new rig). 2 are collecting dust and the ps3 is what I'm currently using religiously. When not at work I hop onto psn to play super street fighter iv online with my real life friends over psn.

And for all the hating amongst the platforms, there are games that are better tailored to certain platforms than others.

Would I pay 70$ for extra "premium" content on top of the default benefits I already get with my free PSN account? No

I'm betting those "free" games a month that Sony is offering are titles that no one would download or are "clearance" titles.

I'm a use the example of the game worms. Sure it was popular to some. It's personally not my type of game but it's no high end game blockbuster-title either. Games like those I'm betting will be the "free" games that sony will offer. Not high end games(i hope for psn user's sake that I'm proven wrong).

I'm hoping that the free downloadable games are of quality fun titles such as shatter(btw shatter is coming to PC as well i think or already has)which was a nice take on arkanoid-type games with a modern update and control scheme twist and excellent soundtrack by the way.

But yah until Sony offers improved mic support(on par with xbox live) on psn AND until Sony makes online play not-free(god forbid) I'll be sticking to my low-tier free psn account.

not for shovelware but its interesting to see Sony take Xbox on one step at a time in terms of online content

typically, charging a premium for hardcore users in order to offset the costs for everyone else is a fairly decent model... some added revenue 'should' help them improve the service... the fact that there is a free option will also prove attractive to most... even for those who choose to pay the $6 a month, the fact that it was their choice and was not forced upon them makes it more of a personal and prestigious upgrade to the network...

its hard not knowing what games will be offered. maybe at the start of the year they can release a list of games that will be offered, so that we will at least have an idea. or maybe offer the first 3 months for free, so we can see(experience) what we will be getting for $70

Or throw in exclusive beta keys(at least early beta keys for the premium members and then trickle those beta keys down to low tier accounts after x amount of days) or something like that.

They did the same with Qore which is PSN's online downloadable magazine that comes out once a month with which you could either buy 1 issue for a one-time fee or pay a subscription fee to get an issue each month.

Hrm...I wonder if this 70$ account will include Qore.

Guess we'll all have to wait till E3 to find out more about their new account tier.

Since I have complained the price on Xbox live... I will use the same standard on PSN premium. That means... I will not like it and it is definitely closer the distant between PSN and Xbox live.

However, as long as PSN will still keep the regular account free and all disk base games will never require PSN premium to play online... I will not scream at Sony for doing so.

If Sony really are going to push PSN premium, it'd better be at least as good as what Xbox live Gold have to offer.

Oh I am gonna pay it, I mean of course if it makes PSN faster. Besides I am sure there will be other exclusives too!

Sony's awsome! Keeping the free stuff is a good idea, it's a selling point I thought about when I bought one. Premium in a couple years will
be better then xbox. By then nintendo will get into it good. Soon xbox will be like sega. A playstation will be on top dog, nintendo for the kids and oldies 97 all over again minus the old farts and the dreamcast Rest in peace SEGA tv I mean Xbox live.

I'd pay $70 for the PSN if it didn't suck like the free version does. I would gladly, and I mean gladly, pay $50 a year to have Xbox Live for PS3. PSN is absolutely god awful.

im glad its not being forced down our throats, and their not "gimping" us

I have 0 problem with the free PSN. No lag or anything, but anyhow depending on what the premium offers, I might pay once to give it a try but until then, I am sticking with my free PSN.

oh yay, why would I want a brand new PSP that brings the hand held into this decade to spend money on, when I can spend money on some random subscription service that will force games on me...

They obviously aren't going to offer "High End" games that you can download for $40. It will definitely be the $5-15 games, which if you only download one every other month, that's still at least a refund of about half your money.

I'm not sure if Sony recognizes what is worth paying for to people.
How many people "buy" movies through their store, knowing it's hardware-bound and can't be redownloaded?

it's sony , go ahead and pay more for less. psn has been broken since the 3.21 firmware upgrade...other os still works tho .

it's sony, go ahead and pay more for less. I won't, they tried to force me to give up a feature(other os) so psn has been broke since they updated!one day i may buy a slim, but doubtful.4 usb to 2 usb, card reader to no card reader, other os to games only. next maybe wifi and bluray removed..since its for games and you can download them from psn??!!eesh

Thank god... I can't afford to pay for PSN. I don't have enough games on the PC to play online.

this just seems like a money grab...the only thing they are offering is games......seems shady to title it as a "PSN Premium" when all it is: buy some game for $70.......lol somebody said it would make it "faster" by paying...lol

As long as they don't charge for the regular psn I'm fine. I don't use it enough, but I like being able to play street fighter online when I feel like it.

I had to run all over town just find a single place that had PSN cards (for buying games for my PSPgo).

Patches used to include new content, but now it's all paid DLCs. Online servers were included, but now playing online is a extra charge.
It's expensive to be a gamer.

I am normally not for the "pay to play online" model, but if instead of free games you could use it as a credit to get whatever you wanted on the psn. Like after 6 months you could get a free movie download, or a free pixeljunk game. Maybe even free dlc. That might be enough to swing me to try it, but sony has to set it up right. I can't just throw away my money in this economy.

I'd hazard a guess there'll be pretty good game choices in the first few months, then steadily declining quality with a few bright spots. Will have to wait and see, there'd better be more than a bunch of games into this.

For anybody who says the PSN is bad, and you pay for xbox live instead... The best solution for you would be to stop paying for xbox live, use the $50 a month to get a better ISP and stop being a cheap internet user, and buy PS3 and in the long run you will be happy.. bottom line is.. its ur ISP not the psn network cause there are absolutely no problems with the psn... if you dont agree with me ask kevin butler, he could convince anybody.