According to sources close to Sony, a premium PlayStation Network titled PSN+ is scheduled to be revealed at Sony’s E3 media briefing this year. Instead of charging players to play online, the premium service will instead charge players for additional features.
JoyStiq posted the rumor first.
The service will supposedly give consumers access to an always changing list of Minis and PSone Classics, discounts at the PlayStation Store, exclusive downloadable content, “first hour” access to downloadable games, and auto-patching – where the system will automatically download patches for recently played games.
“First hour” access means that players will be able to download the full game and play it for an hour before being prompted to purchase the full title.
PSN+ subscribers are also said to get console insurance under the recently announced PlayStation Protection Plan, as well as access to the much-awaited cross-game voice chat. Additional features said to launch after the premium service include cloud-based online saving.
A different source from earlier this month said that PlayStation Network’s premium service will offer players options different from the ones in this rumor. It also said that cross-game voice chat isn’t a premium feature being saved for PlayStation Network’s paying subscribers.
I like the name, PSN+, but other than using the cloud for game saves to shore up some HDD space I don’t see the advantage yet.
Hopefully they’ll have bigger things to announce at E3.
I’ve never been a big supporter of cross-game chat since it’s already distracting enough trying to play a game and talk to someone on a cell phone and cross-game chat won’t be any different.
Distracting and something I would most likely never use since I almost never have my headset on while I’m playing anything.