sales2099 said:
True, it always made good business sense, but I imagine they held onto free online as a PR measure to their fans. Now, they did the impossible and are starting to convince fans that paywall is in their best interests. Must say, I am genuinely impressed with their marketing of it all, being able to do a complete shift and their audience loving them for it. |
I don't love Sony for it, but I am a rational person who understands that business is business. With rising costs on online infrastructure and game budgets, they gotta make their money somewhere. I'm not going to boycott it like some have stated, because I want to play games so I have to pay.
But then again, I am not one of the Sony fanboys that hated on MS for Live. Sure I thought PSN was a bargain (I really don't need cross chat and likely won't use it in the future), but I also understood that Live offered a more cohesive experience. I even had a subscription for 3+ years on my brother's 360 just to play Halo on my own account while he played his during multiplayer. We did use cross chat here and there, but more so because my brother is more of a social gamer than me.
I think a lot of Sony fans that are in the middle ground like me will be disappointed to have one more bill, but they will understand why and welcome the added value of the service instead of harp on Sony's shift. That doesn't make me (or any of them) a hypocrite. It makes me a realist. As for those fanboys who clearly hated on Live but had an about-face over PS4's policy changes, I don't give Sony's marketing credit. Fanboys are blind with fanboyism so they'd eat up anything their system of choice (PS3/4 or 360/1) shit out.
