First details of Sony's PSN Premium Service?

A survey sent from IPSOS Online Research indicates that Sony is considering premium subscription plans for the PlayStation Network, detailing potential prices and premium services, including full hour game trials, free access to PSOne Classics, and cross-game voice chat.

Reader Brenna sent us PDF files containing the Sony survey, which begins with the following bit of text:

Sony is considering offering a premium PlayStation Network subscription in the future. The subscription offering would provide new premium features you could choose to pay for and are in addition to the features currently available for free such as access to online multiplayer gaming (current features would remain free).

Following the introduction is a series of definitions of terms such as Token Wagering - a set number of tokens given to subscribers per month that can be used to be on games and exchanged for PSN content - and Cloud Storage Space for Games, which would allow players to save their game online rather than on their hard disk, protecting their data.

Other notable services listed as potential premiums include loyalty reward programs, automatic updates, member-exclusive Facebook Connectivity, an online music service and music video service, Hulu TV catch-ups, member-only game content, discounts, demo-sharing (sharing exclusive member-only demos from your full games with friends), and Netflix without a disc.

By far the most attractive premiums are full title trials, which give the user one hour access to full PlayStation 3 games, and free access to PSOne Classics, PSP minis, and premium themes.

The list also indicates that some eagerly awaited features could be subscriber only, such as cross-game voice chat. Having waited so long for the feature, I doubt fans would be particularly happy to have to pay for it.

The chart below details four potential plans, with three costing $69.99 a year or $9.99 a month - more than an Xbox Live Gold subscription, and one running $4.99 a month and $29.99 a year.

We've contacted Sony for comment on the survey, but have yet to hear back as of press time. Just keep in mind that companies regularly test the waters by sending out questionnaires like these, and they by no means represent any concrete plans on Sony's behalf.

Hey, would anyone like to buy my 40GB PS3?

I quite like the idea of trialling actual PS3 games, not sure about the price though.

Member only in-game content?

strawberry float off. :fp:

Is anybody really that bothered though? I mean who here is going to sign-up for any of those options?

As long as gaming is good and you can still play online for free none of these options are necessary.

cooldawn wrote:Is anybody really that bothered though? I mean who here is going to sign-up for any of those options?

As long as gaming is good and you can still play online for free none of these options are necessary.

Maybe not for you, but I'd be willing to sign up for the 1hr trial of full PS3 titles, store discounts, Cloud storage space.

Not at those price though.

Well at about £6-7 a month I'd definitely go for one of them. The extended 3 year warranty would be worth it alone, not to mention netflix, hours trial etc. Probably fake but looks intresting. Isn't Live about £5 a month if you do the monthly thing?

Hugo Stiglitz wrote:
cooldawn wrote:Is anybody really that bothered though? I mean who here is going to sign-up for any of those options?

As long as gaming is good and you can still play online for free none of these options are necessary.

Maybe not for you, but I'd be willing to sign up for the 1hr trial of full PS3 titles, store discounts, Cloud storage space.

Not at those price though.

I think it would be much better if consumers could create there own package...rather than wanting an option that has most of what you want but missing out on a couple of features from another option. The more features you want...the more you pay.

cooldawn wrote:
Hugo Stiglitz wrote:
cooldawn wrote:Is anybody really that bothered though? I mean who here is going to sign-up for any of those options?

As long as gaming is good and you can still play online for free none of these options are necessary.

Maybe not for you, but I'd be willing to sign up for the 1hr trial of full PS3 titles, store discounts, Cloud storage space.

Not at those price though.

I think it would be much better if consumers could create there own package...rather than wanting an option that has most of what you want but missing out on a couple of features from another option. The more features you want...the more you pay.

Yup. If I ain't gonna use it, I don't wanna pay for it.
Some sort of price per component that gets cheaper the more options you take would be pimp.

Good job most of that isn't in Sony's plan for 2010 then. Cloud storage is true, membership trials true and the different bands of membership are true. This isn't just for PS3 you know, it's for PSN as a whole and Sony are pushing that through TVs, PCs and phones. We'll be paying for what we want, an option that suits a consumer over the PSN as a whole.

so no option for every thing, a kind of Platinum Premium Service if you will.

Yungstar 2006 wrote:so no option for every thing, a kind of Platinum Premium Service if you will.

Of course there will be. From what I have seen it's going to be about £50 per year which will give access to X number of downloads of games/movies/music, cloud storage(unlimited) etc.

suzzopher wrote:
Yungstar 2006 wrote:so no option for every thing, a kind of Platinum Premium Service if you will.

Of course there will be. From what I have seen it's going to be about £50 per year which will give access to X number of downloads of games/movies/music, cloud storage(unlimited) etc.

so EVERY thing for £50 a year?

and.......

:fp:

your supposed to be up/in when Postman Pat arrives.

suzzopher wrote:
Yungstar 2006 wrote:so no option for every thing, a kind of Platinum Premium Service if you will.

Of course there will be. From what I have seen it's going to be about £50 per year which will give access to X number of downloads of games/movies/music, cloud storage(unlimited) etc.

Hells yeah.

I don't see why this should get a facepalm.

£7 a month for Netflix + 3 Year Warranty is full of win.

£7 a month for unlimited access to minis and PSone classics is equally full of win, although if implemented in Europe I'd want at least 1 decent PSone game a month, something the ingrates at SCEE might not be able to manage.

Yeah, we probably won't get Netflix. (please prove me wrong, Sony/Netflix)

The rest is pure amaze though, definitely worth the £50 Suzz mentioned.

"Cross Game Chat" as a Premium service :lol:

Rik wrote:"Cross Game Chat" as a Premium service

It's also a premium service on the 360.

At least I think it is, haven't tried to invite a Silver user to a cross game chat.

Hugo Stiglitz wrote:
Rik wrote:"Cross Game Chat" as a Premium service

It's also a premium service on the 360.

At least I think it is, haven't tried to invite a Silver user to a cross game chat.

If it's not YET, it soon will be...

Edit: IIRC, Cross game invites are OK. But I don't know if you can invite silver users to parties.

Something Fishy

Can't blame them for trying to make some money out of PSN, they're not a charity after all.

Sounds like they will get closer to live but some the extra stuff like cross game will cost. They'll also do some new stuff for extra money. Seems OK.

First details of Sony's PSN Premium Service?

Who is online

Affiliates