Two questions have been on everybody’s mind since the PS4 was announced:
- Will the PS4 force us to purchase an Xbox LIVE style membership?
- Will PlayStation Plus continue to offer free games and other promotions?
The answers to these questions appear to be yes and yes.
Shuhei Yoshida, boss of Sony Worldwide Studios, just can’t seem to stop talking about Sony’s plans for the PlayStation 4. He has revealed that Sony will be shifting their focus to digital distribution, much like they’ve already done with the PS Vita. Some games will have a hardcopy counterpart but every game will come out in digital format. Small indie games could be available for free or for a very small fee, and certain games will be free-to-play but include a microtransaction system.
Essentially, Yoshida is looking to run the PlayStation 4 Network like a Cable TV service. Different subscribers can have different levels of service that provide them with different perks. So the lowest level of service may simply give you access to the internet, while the highest level may give you “access to thousands of games.”
In fact it seems as if Yoshida is teasing the possibility that all of your game buying could be handled by a subscription service, which, in my opinion, is a double-edged sword. While it would be awesome to never have to purchase another game, and be given access to the entire PlayStation Library with a monthly fee, there is also something to be said for actually physically owning a product that you don’t have to continuously pay for every month.
Source: The Guardian