Survey Reveals PSN Subscription Details
12/20/2009 Written by Steven Garcia
We simply cannot convey how much we love surveys. Not only do they provide companies with in depth, statistical information imperative to designing and bringing to market our favorite games, gadgets, and gizmos, but once in a blue moon are we treated to unannounced product details that either make us want to jump for joy or ask ourselves “Wtf?”. While we don’t exactly have have on our hands an occurrence of the latter, we’re instead presented with a mixture of both which, depending on your perspective, could symbolize that holiday gift you’ve always wanted or a disappointing lump of coal.
A survey conducted by IPSOS Online Research has been circulating the internets regarding the paid PSN services we’ve been hearing so much about lately. Those lucky enough to receive the 3rd degree from Sony were asked to select between prepackaged tiers equipped with some of the most sought after and intriguing online features. Potential pricing was said to be $29.99/year on the low end for privileges such as cross-game voice chat and $69.99/year for access to a buffet of PSOne Classics, PSP minis, and premium themes. Below is a full rundown of all the proposed features as well a nice screen shot that, despite whether or not you embrace Sony’s new PSN strategy, should get you pretty darn excited for the decade to come as Sony seemingly wakes up on the right side of the bed.
- Customer Service Priority Access – Priority access to PlayStation’s customer service both online and via phone should you need technical help or have questions about your products. This feature gives you support with little to no waiting.
- Exclusive Experiences with Sony Brands – Get member-only access to attend exclusive Sony events and experiences throughout the year, including those offered by PlayStation, Sony Pictures, and Sony Music.
- Extended Console Warranty 3 Years – Get your PS3 warranty extended to 3 years as part of your overall subscription (requires you to keep your subscription active). The standard warranty on your PS3 is 1 year.
- Access to Beta Games – Get access to Betas of popular games not yet released at retail (Betas offer bigger experiences than typical game demos). You will have the ability to play these games before others do.
- Early Access to All Store Content – Get early access to select free and purchasable game related content on the PlayStation Store before it’s available to everyone else. This includes games, add-ons, themes, avatars, as well as free game demos.
- Member Demo Sharing of Full Game – Share a level of a game that you just purchased for your PS3 with a subscriber who doesn’t own the game. Your friends could do the same. This would be an exclusive demo not available otherwise to those who haven’t purchased the game.
- Cross-game Voice Chat Access – Get exclusive member-only access to cross-game voice chat. This is the ability to use your headset to voice chat with friends on your PS3 regardless of what they are doing on the PS3.
- Full Title Trial – 1st Hour Is Free – Download full versions of select Blu-ray and PSN game titles and have the chance to play the entire game (single or multiplayer) for free for the first hour. After that time you will have the option of purchasing the game to continue playing.
- Token Wagering – Get a fixed number of tokens per month you can wager with other players in competitive online games. These tokens could then be built up and redeemed for free PlayStation Network games and other content.
- User-to-user Challenges – Unlock developer-created challenges while playing games. Compete with your friends to see who can be the first to complete these challenges. The PS3 will automatically offer and track challenges and winners and would post results. An example of a challenge is ‘first to get 10 trophies’ in a particular game.
- Free Access to PSOne Classics, PSP Minis, and PS3/PSP Themes – Get a fixed number of PSOne Classic games, PSP Minis (bite-sized games), and PS3/PSP themes per month to keep for free for as long as you are a subscriber. The PlayStation Store offers these types of content for $2-6 each.
- Discounts on Store Content – Get weekly member-exclusive discounts on specific games, game add-ons and themes on the PlayStation Store. Discounts may range from 20-50% off regular retail prices.
- Member Only In-game Content – Get exclusive member-only in-game content for your PS3 or PSP such as new game play options, unlocked in-game weapons or player slots, exclusive levels, costumes/skins, and PlayStation Home spaces.
- Trophy Alerts – Get automated alerts on your PlayStation XrossMedia Bar, PlayStation.com, and via text message (if you so choose) that alert you when your friends get any trophy or a specific one. This feature is customizable – you can choose which friends to receive alerts from and what kinds of alerts.
- Cloud Storage Space for Games – Store your game saves on a virtual secure saver. This would allow you to access your game saves at any point in time, and from any PlayStation 3 or PSP console you are logged in on.
- Online Music Service – Get a streaming music service that allows you to choose your channel based on music style, artist type, etc. and listen to an unlimited number of tracks. This service would be for use outside of playing a game and similar to Pandora or a Last.fm.
- Online Music Video Service – Get a streaming music video service on your PlayStation 3 that lets you stream music videos from a continuously growing catalog of music and allows you to create a custom playlist to play back.
- Automatic Downloads and Updates – Customize the types of updates you want your PS3 to download automatically. These include game updates (patches) for games that you own, firmware updates, and game demos downloaded on your PS3 without manually having to select them and wait for them to finish downloading. Your PS3 can be set to automatically turn on for updates and turn off after completion.
- Loyalty Program Rewards – Get rewards the longer you are a subscriber and also earn rewards by engaging with PlayStation such as buying games, downloading movies, and rating products. Rewards can include full versions of PlayStation Network games and digital movie rentals from the PlayStation Store.
- Facebook Connectivity – Access to member-exclusive Facebook features on your PlayStation 3, such as viewing and linking your Facebook accounts with their PSN ID’s, updating your status, editing, uploading and sharing photos, and viewing photo albums of your friends on your TV.
- Catch-up TV – Get access to popular TV shows and movies through service providers such as Hulu, simply by clicking an icon on your PS3 XrossMedia navigation bar.
- Netflix Access Without Disc – Access the Netflix video streaming service on your PS3 without the need to insert a special disc into the drive each time to access the service. A separate Netflix subscription would also be needed to enjoy the service. Netflix offers over 17000 popular movies and TV shows for streaming on your laptop or a supported device such as a PS3.
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32 Responses to “Survey Reveals PSN Subscription Details”
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Hmm.. I would probaly pay for these services.
Yup, sounds good to me. I’d pay for it. See, nothing’s lost for those who don’t want to pay. For everyone else, there are extras. I would certainly get more PS1 classics than I have now. Especially since they work on my PSP as well. I never realized how much more could be added to the PS3, but I can’t think of anything they missed on the list.
Well I’m happy with what’s free. Discounts, crossgame chat and all that other bull is pointless. I can play online with friends for free, so I’m good. I’d pick up this service for a year if I didn’t have a life but I wouldn’t really use ALL that mess. I’m already a subscriber to Qore so paying twice is much as that for Ingame Chat and 1 hour free play is a game isn’t really appealing. And the make it seem like you can buy a whole Blu Ray based game on there, are you kidding me downloading that mess. Cause you know you’ll be downloading the whole game and then deleteing or keeping it after that ONE hour of play. A huge waste of time.
I’d pay for that stuff for sure. Depends on the fee though.
Free Access to PSOne Classics, PSP Minis is totally worth subscribing
@wtGp.
Not when you gaming one an HDTV, I’ll keep my fond memories of playing them on SDTVs. And if your firing up your PS3 on a SDTV you should just return your system so someone else can put it to good use. If your talking about firing those titles up on a PSP have at it.
i like the fact that they won’t penalize the people who do not want to pay. You can still play online without having to pay for it
I’d GLADY pay $69.99 a year for all of those features. I’d pay $99.99 for ALL of them.
As long as online gaming and the basic PSN services we have now stay free, no one should have any reason to complain.
Extra features above and beyond what we get now command a premium price. There will be some who will benefit greatly from advanced features and some who will think it’s a waste. Those who think it’s a waste can stick with basic service, and those like me who welcome the more features the better would be all for it.
I’d pay $120 dallors a year for all of that premium stuff.
Peace,
VG
sweeeeeet!!!!!!!
free minis and ps1 games.. thats all i am interested in.
When does this come out?
so cross chat wont be free after all…
and “Free Access to PSOne Classics, PSP Minis, and PS3/PSP Themes – Get a fixed number of PSOne Classic games, PSP Minis (bite-sized games), and PS3/PSP themes per month to keep for free for as long as you are a subscriber. The PlayStation Store offers these types of content for $2-6 each.”
is that mean if u stop subscribing u lose all the games/themes u downloaded from when u were still subscribed? that kinda sucks
as long as the regular service is free, its all right with me, since I rarely get on to PSN due to Dial-Up and I get on at least once every 2 months
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Hmm….I’d pay for some of those…of course question is price…and will there be different plan choices and such
I would pay for most of these things as long as it is priced reasonably (I couldn’t care less about cross game chat). All of you who are spitting out ridiculous numbers are just morons though. VG, would you really want to pay $120 for these trivial features??? You would never get that value back unless you downloaded every single piece of content that they provided to you. It’s idiots like you who give companies the ability to screw consumers over. Most people claim they know about supply and demand, but you have to realize that you can be a driving force in the market and if you quit being “stupid” you can drive some of these prices down.
one more thing, Natiej85 you are also a moron…I’m playing on an HDTV but the fact of the matter is that a $300 console isn’t nearly as big of a burden on a budget as a really good TV is for $1000. Not to mention some players are kids who really have no control over what TV their parents have in their homes. Quit being so ignorant, nobody enjoys it and you make yourself sound like a tool.
They should remove early access to Betas since nobody really knows what a beta is anymore. And since Betas require “Bug” reports about failures in the game many of those that would pay to get into the beta would only make the game worse since they would fail to report faults in the game since they don’t feel obligated to.
@SPD55
I couldn’t agree more. No one understands what the word Beta means or what you are in it for. Most gamers I know in the Betas that I have been a part of have thought of it as just early access to play the game, not help develop it. That’s the main reason I work during the private beta periods that I am in but when it goes to public beta testing i lose motivation to work because it’s too hard with everyone else not being serious.
hello …
i would gladly pay for the services, even a 35US$ / monthly fee (haha!) if SONY would consider extending all the actual existing free features & the added ones (great list btw) to other zones.
I want Video Streaming, audio streaming to MU. Hopefully last.fr & grooveshark & youtube works OK for me on PC (no other videos services), but would also like it on my PS3, for maybe soon i’ll get myself a great ampli with Digital IN & a 7.1 Speakers & hook it to my big behemoth.
the 3 years warranty would be one of the most welcome & certainly if i can get free PSN contents without the hassle of buying PSN cards every time.
still for me to use such services, SONY must allow the use of my credit card & support my country (Mauritius)…
cheers!
You see this works for me becasue i won’t pay for it but there’s nothing saying i still can’t enjoy myself on the PSN, i was afraid it’ll be a bit like the XBL with people who pay being able to do everything and people like me being left to just being able to use the PSN Store.
But this is good, it’s good enough to make me even consider paying for in the fututre though i proberly won’t as i only have around 10GB left so I wouldn’t benefit from stuff like being able to download stuff whenever i want and anyway all i want is the LBP and Resident evil 5 DLC. TO KEEPSIES! I’ll pay good money to keep that DLC.
I would pay on the small end.
I wonder if I will have to pay twice because I have a US and a Japanese account. Also, it’s kind of a rip off in Japan because they don’t have minis there.
I really don’t think I’d pay for any of these features. My experience is great without them, and none of them are worth money to me. The only feature I find interesting is being able to play a full title for an hour before deciding whether or not to purchase it, and I feel like that should be available anyway as a demo. so…. meh….
I would pay for all of those features, They need to come out with this soon. Having challenges with friends would be huge to get games off the store and free TV and music streaming and Cross Game chat is a big draw to me.
Where do I sign up for this? I want it. Sounds great to me.
I would pay for all that too!!!!!!!!!
None of these things are worth much money to me. Maybe the free access to games and minis, but would it be worth it to keep paying to get a selection of games.
Cross game chat??? I have that now, its called a phone. I can talk to any PS3 user I personally want to…I don’t need to talk to people I don’t know in real life.
Maybe a nice ala carte menu. I’ll take the Cloud save files for $1 a month and well, maybe that’s about it.
Looks good to me take 10 bucks of each price and run with it. Also if you pay for cross game chat does that mean you can only cross game chat with others who have paid for it?
@giese095
thats not true.. i have a 240hertz TV and ps1 games look like garbage same as some PS2 games. Do you really belive that a family will buy a subscription service for unlimited PS1 games? a family with a limited budget will choose a wii than a PS3. If anyone fires up there PS3 to play (only) PS1 games have serious issues.. can you game for HOURS on PS1 titles? BTW a really good TV will run you for 2000$ not 1000$.. 1000$ will get you a decent HDTV.
I would definitely pay $70 for all of those features.
However, if given the choice, I would still rather have the PSN remain free for everybody. You aren’t splitting the population with a subscription business model.
are you serious? I would not pay for this- most of those features are given to us now for FREE! In game content taken away because you’re not a member? c’mon! that’s insane. Sure it could just be DLC, but that’s like holding our wallets for ransom.
And think about Sony’s deliverance! they would have to start going crazy with updates to add all ps1 titles of interest into the mix, and all these new plans would have to come into full fruition before i would dream of paying. I love Sony, but i feel like I would pay for, let’s say user to user challenges, and one or two would be implemented on day one for the example of the category, but it would be lost, unsupported for 4 months and by that time, i’ve stopped caring.
I know sony needs money, but there are other methods.