Sony's Online Service - Gaming not free?

[Blaze Lord]

Just thought I should echo something Major Nelson pointed out (http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2006/05/14/A-look-at-Sonys-Online-service.aspx). During one of Kaz Hirai's on-stage moments, he displays the attached picture on screen, and details all these features built into the new Sony society/community.

After explaining these features, he says "these basic features will be offered to PlayStation users free of charge." But.. Why, with of all the 'rankings' and 'lasting info', why doesn't 'multiplayer gaming' make its way onto the slide?

Major Nelson thinks we're being eased into an announcement of not-so-free online service.

Even though I usually don't listen to Nelson's guesswork at what other guys are doing (His own pet theory for why the PS3 had 3 Ethernet ports was that somehow the Cell processor had to use three Ethernet connections. *eyeroll*.), this one makes sense. Perhaps Sony's still sticking with its PS2 model, of letting individual publishers pick up the cost and hassle of online gaming infrastructure, and therefore also to option to charge PS2 users on an individual basis. Sort of how EA runs its own backend servers and so on for XBL. Though, presumably, Microsoft kicks some of their Xbox Live Gold fees back to that publisher. Sony won't have any fees to do so.

[Killer 57]

Nothing in this word is free.Nothing.

[Blaze Lord]

Maybe they're hoping to be advertising supported, but they don't have enough sponsors yet, and they realize they might need to charge something.

[JJBDude]

Nothing in this word is free.Nothing.

So true.

But I hope Sony fanboys do have to pay, I've had a lot of slack from friends who tease at the fact that PS3 will have free online service compared to having to pay subscriptions to Xbox Live. Would be great to laugh back at them if they do eventually need to pay. :D

[Killer 57]

Even if the servise turns out to be free, they are not going to get a servise comparable to Xbox Live.

[bingo83]

I have been more than happy with the few ££'s I spent on Xbox Live Gold. I dont think Sony will be able to match Live in the 1st few years, but they have a unique nack of taking someone elses product and tweeking it for the mass market.

[Blaze Lord]

Tweaks? Such as?

[bingo83]

They are rumoured to be working on a marketplace similar to iTunes, where you will be able to download music, movies, games etc for £, store them on the PS3 HDD and then be able to transfer them onto a memory stick or portable audio player via the USB port.

[Blaze Lord]

Well, I was hoping you can tell me past examples of this 'knack', after the release of the original PlayStation. As for what they'll do this time around, I'm skeptical. I remember hearing a lot of similar promises for the PS2. (Weren't we supposed to have online banking on that thing?)

[RiLu@]

It's bad when a big company like SONY comes out promising that is free and takes it back just like that!!!

[Blaze Lord]

They take a lot of things back. 1080p60 games, dual HDMI ports, no tiered release. That's why I'm ready to believe this.

[phatmuther]

i cant see sony making the service free to game on, never have, its sony, they think the ps3's too cheap, free isnt a word they understand, cheaper than xbox live? probably, but not by much. as good as xbox live? well we'll have to wait and see...........

[Outlaw]

i really doubt it will be better than xbox live, and if it is free that means they'll have no money to spend on making the service better, whereas microsoft will have the money to upgrade the xbox live experience

[Blaze Lord]

Well, Sony has in fact responded (http://www.ps3land.com/article-378.php), and come out saying that online gaming is free right out of the box. But as someone on Kotaku (http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/ps3/ps3-online-is-like-really-really-free-174650.php) said, online gaming for the PS2 is free. That doesn't make it good.

Still, maybe Sony really is ready to pay for all the expenses that Microsoft's $50/year/user fee covers.

[phatmuther]

Still, maybe Sony really is ready to pay for all the expenses that Microsoft's $50/year/user fee covers.
whoa well that is gonna cost sony some serious dollar!

[Blaze Lord]

I agree. Let's assume Microsoft turns a profit on that price. Say, $20, because of how the monthly and 90 payments are set up. (They do have some expenses. Imagine the broadband bill after this week's flurry of E3 content.) They claim to have a 57% attrach rate of silver+gold users. So let's assume Sony's online gets at least that, because gaming is free. Xbox Live apparently now has at least half of its numbers being Gold, so around 30% of those users are not only using online gaming, but willing to pay for it. I don't know how many like online gaming, but aren't willing to pay less than $5 a month at that rate, so let's say it's about half of the silver users. All the more reason to assume that almost all over Sony's online users will at least occasionally use onling gaming. And let's assume that some 360 owners have broadband and a router, and they would only set up Xbox Live if they could online game, but they aren't willing to pay for it. (Clearly a small percentage of users, given all of that.)

So more than 50% of Sony's early adopters should use their online service and do more than occasionally download stuff and send a message- play an online game. Let's guess at 10 million PS3s are sold in the first year. 5 million users that Microsoft would spend $30 a year on, and presumably Sony would have similar costs. $150 million dollars. Now to be fair, they're going to lose far more than that on the console hardware alone. But I'm still being conservative with these numbers, especially if I'm to believe Sony's own hype. And instead of the one-time loss of a console sale, being followed by slow profit with software licensing and accessory sales, the expenses of an online network steadily grow for each user, as they start to do more with a network.

[sharplayer]

It's just like Silver XBL account. All the cool features except the online gaming, just like Silver XBL. Same thing, nothing new...

[Blaze Lord]

Sony is saying it's just like the Gold account, but without the charge.