I'm a big fan of PlayStation Plus. I've had it since the start of 2011 and it won't expire till 2015. I have hundreds of games from the service, many I don't even have time to play. I've bought plenty of heavily discounted diigtal titles. I've used cross saves. I've played 1 hour trials. I've tested betas. I've done it. It's great.

This past generation one of the biggest divides for me was than PSN did not require a subscription to play online multiplayer. I was a fan of the original Xbox but their approach to XBL kept me far away from the 360. These companies should not be pay walling. The glory of PS+ is its optional status, without it users are still able to access the basic features of what has been standard in games. This includes online multiplayer.

PS+ has been expanding and fast. It's adoption rate is always going up. So why does Sony even need to pay wall online multiplayer. If they keep doing what they are with PS+ than practically every PS4 owner will have Plus. That is more than enough to subsidize a few free riders. Then need to know that they should stick to optional services for consumer and not optional consumers for services.

So got to twitter and push #PS4freeonlineplay and tell Sony that it doesn't have to be this way.

It's already started, keep it going, make it big. #PS4freeonlineplay

Don't forget to buy that Wii U like you promised ;)

It's just simply not possible for SONY to keep adding all these features to PSN _and_ not require pay to play online. When the feature list of PSN was simply playstation store, apps, and play online the costs were easily recouped by the residuals from licensing and such.

Now we will have video sharing, Gaikai, _cross game chat_ (finally!), and all the previous features. Something had to give, and in order to do that they decided to recoup all their costs for online gaming by requiring a fee for it.

People who say that online gaming doesn't cost Sony anything are just simply wrong.

EDIT: wrong thread... keep strong.

no

hmm, quite frankly I think the $400 is because it requires online for multiplayer now. So no.

Yeah, stuff like cross game chat and livestreaming should be on PS+ while keeping the core multiplayer aspect completely free

All the new features can be part of a service. It's the current existing ones that can be kept as basic access.

Don't agree. Sony is doing just fine with making PS Plus mandatory for online play.

I would like if they would keep the multiplayer free, but I totally support what dharh said. Specially since it will be tied to the PS+ so I'm okay with paying for Plus.