It might cost a lot for Sony to maintain, and if they are to focus on it truly they do need some return on it. Like Xbox Live it might not be the worst idea as long as they introduce great new features. Even Nintendo seems like they are introducing some sort of cash in with Wii pay and Play

No questions they will charge money for the service. Home will not be in the same league as MS XBox Live.

But it looks like a costly service with 3D graphics and and the like.May require an expensive server to maintain it.

I dont expect sony's online service to be great unless you are paying to play.

nahh,,they already said million times that it's free,,,however they will make money on the side .for example if you want to participate in a special league that's created by Sony and win a trophy for COD4 , you  have to pay 3 bucks or something,,so they will find a way to make money out of home which is more than reasonable,but the basic Home service is free of charge

Didn't they already say a while back it was going to be paid for by premium content. Like extra skins for your character and items to put in your home etc... The core Home experience will be free.

*EDIT*

http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/03/interview_sonys.html

WN: And speaking of that, one of the things I wanted to ask was how do you get one of those big houses?

PH: What we wanted to show today was the sense of progression: this is the basic one, this is a more advanced one -- not necessarily the most advanced one, because it'll continue to grow from there. But users will be able to upgrade by purchasing new items, by being gifted new items from games that they purchase, and from buying items that we provide into the network ourselves as the kind of benefactor of everybody in the world. So to get the best, biggest apartment users will most likely have to buy it through microtransactions. I'm not going to get to you on your next question, which is how much is that going to be?

yep... Also don't forget advertisements - there will be plenty of that from - games, movies and music - even products. Mana Potion anyone? :P

PSN = Home = FREE

BUT

Complete Home access / feature = PAY !

It's free and it'll remain that way even after Home launches.

Sony will make money through advertisements and microtransactions, not by charging people to make use of the console's community features.

I thought Home was going to be paid for by ads, trailers, etc, displayed in it. But considering that Nintendo is mulling over charging for online play on certain games it has to make one wonder what's in store for PSN. As more people join it and the cost of infrastructure and maintenance increases is Sony going to continue to eat the bill for it while it's competitors don't?