153w ago - Yesterday at E3 2010 PlayStation Plus was officially
announced, and today Sony's PlayStation Network Sr. Director
Susan Panico has shared PlayStation Plus pricing and availability dates on the upcoming PSN service.
To quote: If you have been paying attention to all of the news coming out of E3, you probably heard that we introduced a new subscription service called PlayStation Plus, which will be available on June 29.
PlayStation Plus is a service that lives on top of the current PlayStation Network. So, while users will continue to have free access to PlayStation Network's unmatched and ever-growing suite of new and exclusive content, services, and community focused tools - just as they do today - PlayStation Plus subscribers will gain access to an exclusive set of features and content designed specifically for gamers.
When you subscribe to PlayStation Plus, you'll get free games and DLC (pretty sweet), frequent discounts on PlayStation Store, early invitations to select betas of popular games, and free monthly episodes of Qore - our high-definition, interactive gaming lifestyle show.
You'll also enjoy new functionality such as Full Game Trial where you can "try before you buy" - play a Blu-ray or PSN game for up to one hour and then you can buy the game, download it and keep your progress and trophies. Another cool feature is Automatic Downloads that will push select demos, game related videos, patches and firmware updates to your PS3 so you don't have to think about it.
Total it up and you'll get hundreds of dollars of value through the year with exclusive digital content from both our
World Wide Studios Group and our publishing partners.
And every month we'll be adding new content and continually adding new features, making PlayStation Plus an incredible value, time saver and ticket to front-of-the-line access.
At launch, PlayStation Plus will offer subscribers the full PlayStation Network game, WipEout HD, full game trial of inFAMOUS, PSP minis and PS One Classics such as
Fieldrunners, Age of Zombies and Rally Cross, as well as premium avatars, themes and DLC levels and map packs.
Additionally, subscribers will always have access to their virtual library of free games for as long as they keep their PlayStation Plus subscription. In all, subscribers will get an unprecedented amount of value, access and convenience and, in the first month alone, will receive more than $50 worth of content.
PlayStation Plus will be available for a yearly fee of $49.99. We are also running a "limited time offer" giving subscribers 3 free bonus months for signing up for a yearly subscription - so those who
sign up now will get 15-months of PlayStation Plus. Consumers also have the option to subscribe for 3 months for $17.99.
You can sign up on the PlayStation Store or learn more about the exclusive features at us.playstation.com.
Does anyone else have Iris manager make their PS3 go nuts? I'm on Rebug Rex 4.30.2 and it causes the PS3 to apparently heat up so badly the yellow lig...
At present, I can not enjoy normal PSN access, as Sony removed that option for me and for many others with downgrade 3.21, which we refused to install... which reminds me, I must get around to writing to the games manufacturers to encourage them to move away from restrictive PSN access and to use their own servers instead, so that their games can be played by all, since they will be losing money, as other OS people stop buying games that can only be played over the PSN, or paid for and downloaded via an inaccessible PSN store, they made a real mess of that one!
Sony don't own all of the PS3 network games either, so I find it a little hard to believe that all DLC fees for addons to games will stop if you pay a subscription fee to Sony. I know this one will be in the future, but What will happen to all of your virtual games (that you don't own) when Sony decides to stop supporting them and move on to supporting the PS4 instead ?, will they just shut them down like they did with most of the PS2 game network support ?
My thoughts are that this may just be the beginning, moving towards eventually having to pay a fee to play online.
you know i have a few friends who are amped about getting practically free DLC and get the game trial service so they can buy games that they like based on the hour of game-play... i will not be using it because i still use linux on my ps3 so im not using psn...
don't see the point of all the people complaining for sony giving people who are willing to pay access to content that you would otherwise pay more for depending on what games you play online... after 2 days of press conferences this seems to be one of the best features to hit the industry for a long time very steam esque.
Playstation Plus games are virtual and I have to pay again each year to play them!" True, but as your part of the program, you get more and more games, each month. Free DLCs and map packs.. This IS AWESOME. What I hate is buying a game and 1 month later, getting a stupid "OMG NEW CONTENT, BUY NOW ON PSN!". Is it really new content? NO. 90% of those DLCs are already on the disk and the "DLC" is just an unlock of that content. PSN discounts? Sweet also!
49.99$/year guys.. Think about it.. If you say that it's too expensive for what it gives, then you must be really poor and the PS3 you have.. well you probably just stole it. I'm not a fanboy or whatever, but I think they're trying their best, and they do it pretty good (besides removing OtherOS, which pissed me off A LOT). I'll definetely down for that. If you're not, then just keep enjoying normal PSN and play for free!.. Or else, go suck Bill Gate's tiny geek dick.