Even though I have a Plus membership already and I stay subscribed because I absolutely love the value Plus gives you as a consumer, this was a very disappointing move from Sony. It was even more disappointing because they stealth trolled everyone while explaining how they won't have DRM and didn't even mention this out loud for everyone to pick up on. At the very least they could have given a little statement as to why payment for regular MP is now required.
While all of that being said, for me just the instant game collection alone has validated this price for a long time now and Plus expands across PS4/PS3/Vita, so the value increased even more. I have a hunch that with all the cloud power they are adding, they needed to make sure more people took up Plus to be able to maintain servers.
Overall though, I have been paying for Live and Plus and I will continue on with Plus next gen given it definitely provides a lot of value outside just MP. At the very least it's not just a charge for slapped over free MP and there's a fair trade off in terms of free games and other services. So I appreciate that from Sony.
