Kaz Hirai: current PSN services will remain free
A lot of eyes were on Sony at the Media Investor Conference quite recently, where the company revealed their plans of world domination increasing profit in 2010. The interwebs got an unpleasant jolt of “WTF?!” yesterday when they spotted a line that read “new revenue stream from subscription” under PSN in the Sony presentation. SCE head Kaz Hirai quickly moves to soothe the angry mob, saying that the current PlayStation Network services will remain free.
A lot of eyes were on Sony at the Media Investor Conference quite recently, where the company revealed their plans of world domination increasing profit in 2010. The interwebs got an unpleasant jolt of “WTF?!” yesterday when they spotted a line that read “new revenue stream from subscription” under PSN in the Sony presentation.
SCE head Kaz Hirai quickly moves to soothe the angry mob, saying that the current PlayStation Network services will remain free.
“SCE will further increase sales by offering users new entertainment through the combination of hardware, software, peripheral and PlayStation Network,” Hirai explains. “Especially in the online area, we are studying the possibility of introducing a subscription model, offering premium content and services, in addition to the current free services.”
As such, you would still be able to play games online for free via PSN. The revenue stream in the presentation points to new “premium” services and content still to come to the online front, so there’s no reason to light the torches and grab the pitchforks…just yet. Hirai didn’t specify what kind of premium services are coming to PSN, but I figure we can expect price tags on future additions like *gulp* cross-game chat.
Thanks to Brian Burgess
More from the Sony presentation:
Via VG247