Why doesnt Sony charge for PSN membership?

[Jay520]

Nem said:

man-bear-pig said:

I dont understand why Sony dosent charge for PSN membership. Microsoft gets away with charging £40 a year and is still hugely successful, so why dosent Sony begin to charge? If i was in charge of Sony i would undercut Microsoft and charge £30 a year, and this would have only positive effects;

1.) They would get higher revenue from it and it would cost them nearly nothing to administer.

2.) PS3 sales would likely increase because  it would be in direct competition with Microsoft and consumers would likely choose the PS3 as they want the best deal.

It seems like a no-brainer to me, so why dont they do it? Is there a reason why they dont do it that i dont know? Are they making a stupid mistake?

What matter of nonsense is that? That makes no sense whatsoever.

Here is the likely scenario: Present customers would be pissed off cause thats not the package they were promised and not as likely to jump on PS4. New customers would feel reluctant to buy the PS3 instead of the Wii U that offers free online. Again hurting PS4 sales aswell.

Cmon... how can you not see that?

I don't think you understand his logic. Imagine this scenario:

Let's say Bob has a severe medical condition, like violent diarrhea or something. So he goes to the pharmacy to get some pills. When he gets to the pharmacist, he is offered two options for pills: (1) Brand A, which is fairly trusted and costs about $50; and then there's (2) Brand B, which is free - no strings attached. If Bob is like like any sane person (and can afford it), he will buy the $50 pills nine times out of ten. There's no way he's taking the free pills. Something has to be wrong with them. Sure, they're free, but they could lead to worse diarrhea. The mere fact that they're free means they're worthless. So most people buy brand A. 

Now let's say the scenario is changed a bit. Let's say Bob is offered (1) Brand A, which is fairly trusted and costs about $50; and then there's (2) Brand B, which is slightly less trusted, but costs $30. Cool, a $20 dollar deal! Here, most people choose Brand B, because they believe they are getting an equal product at a lesser price; whereas with the free pills, they were afraid of worst diarrhea (or in PSN's case, stealing credit card info). Of course, this is an oversimplification, but the principle is still the same. The amount of customers gained from increasing the apparent value of the product will overwhelm the amount of customers lost who can't afford it.

This is actually a recorded fact in economics. The same applies to PSN. You will see the effect of this soon.