One of the biggest announcements at E3 managed to slip under most people’s radars. Sony semi-secretly announced that the PS4 would require a PS Plus account for online play. But now that the E3 buzz has died down, a few gamers have been concerned about the news.
Well Sony has decided to be straight with us and tell us why: money. The new services they are offering such as streaming, sharing, remote game control, and more cost money to run, which means Sony has to make money by running them. Thus, PS Plus subscriptions will be required. Of course, Sony then went on to explain that if the service was free its quality would be lacking.
PS Plus subscriptions cost $50 a year, as opposed to $60/year Xbox Live subscriptions. They will continue to come with the benefits they currently come with, including the insta-game collection.
Sony Japan president Hiroshi Kawano said in a recent issue of Famitsu, that we, as gamers, shouldn’t feel pressured to immediately upgrade to the PS4. Sony certainly doesn’t plan to immediately shift all of their focus to the PS4. “With the 2014 launch of our cloud service in the US allowing users to play PS3 games on the PS4, some people may switch consoles from the PS3 to the PS4,” he added. “But that’ll be a gradual process, and to say ‘we’re releasing a new console, so trade in your old ones for it’ would be a maker’s ego talking, plain and simple.”
Source: Gamespot