| Alkibiádēs said: Sony and MS are definitely ripping people off for asking $60 a year just to play online games. |
If you can't afford $60 a year ($5 a month) on an online subscription (where WoW players pay $75 every 6 months to play a single game) that grants you access to online play, cloud features (share play, cloud saving), 4-6 free games a month and steep discounts on a weekly basis for popular games then you might be in the wrong market. We are a tech driven niche after all right? What's the point in pursuing the medium if no advancements are made? A lot of the innovation comes from the hardware side of things, but just as much has to do with software, and networking/infrastructure. Without the Ps+ requirement, which is driving profit for the division, we would very likely see a largely scaled back effort with AAA marketing rights, investment in first party IP/output and R&D spent on riskier ventures. Look at PSVR for example. First to console market, but it also has to forge a new path not yet traveled by anyone else and they surely weren't profitable out the gate. What allows such a product to exist? PS+ helps offset the cost of things like that. Hard to imagine how Sony would have looked this gen without the extra income generated by that service. I'll gladly contribute my $5 a month since it will be returned in spades with free games and the savings I get on PSN, besides the most obvious point of being allowed to play online.
