Sony won’t charge you to access the PlayStation 4’s wealth of social features, despite what we predicted earlier in the year. Back in April, we pondered whether the platform holder would lock access to functionality such as the ‘Share’ button behind a paywall. But despite confirming that the company is to start charging for multiplayer, SCEUK executive Fergal Gara told Videogamer.com that that won’t be the case.
“The social features of the PS4 and PS4 games sit outside of the [PlayStation Plus] subscription service,” he said, furthering that functionality such as auto-update will also be available for free. “We're trying to be as balanced and as fair as we possibly can. If you choose not to subscribe, we are still gating relatively little in many senses, so access to online catch-up TV and online movie services sit outside of the gate.”
Gara added that PlayStation Plus will continue to offer outstanding value moving forwards. “A subscriber for the PS4 comes away with a hell of a lot," he said. "First of all, the subscription applies across all three platforms [PS4, PS3, and Vita], so if you have the three platforms, then you have an instant game collection on all three. So that's hugely powerful in its own right.”
Members will get a free copy of DriveClub for the PS4 on launch day, though this will be a basic version of the release without all of the cars and tracks included. It’s unclear if you’ll be able to purchase the missing content via microtransactions, but it definitely seems likely. Are you against the idea of stumping up an extra fee for multiplayer, or are you comfortable with the added cost? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source videogamer.com]
Comments 10
I already have PS+ so its a moot point. 90% of my friends list has PS+ too. If I didnt have PS+, id stump up the cash n subscribe. Hell I paid for Xbox Live for about 4 years for FAR LESS VALUE Its good to see Sony trying to keep as much as possible from being behind the paywall. Having a silver account on the 360 was probably the most useless thing ever created by man. Almost everything required Gold, so its good to see Sony has seen that n realised its not the way to go with free accounts.
Good guy sony only letting us pay for going online. All features free:D So voice chat is free:D I love talkingt to people when playing singleplayer.
I have Plus. It has great value, I don't even have the time to play all the games they offer! The only problem I had is that they offered some Vita games I had. I have some PS3 plus games that I would never bought like fps, indies etc!
This just blows my mind.....everyone thought the social features would cost money..........nope only thing that you pay for extra on the PS4 is multiplayer......and instant games collection......and cloud saves......and oh forget it just go pick up plus if you haven't already XCOM, LBPKR, and Uncharted 3 are already past the budget of the $50 for plus for a whole year.....its worth it dang it lol.
Not to mention Saints Row 3 and God's Eater Burst.....2 awesome games adding even more to the instant games awesomeness.
Psh.....what you were expecting Fable 3 and Halo 3 for free.....which is the price of xbox live for 1 month.....wwwwooooppppttttyyyy fricken do.
I still don't understand why you need auto update on PS3 to update.
Its kinda dumb and greedy but I'm glad to see this isn't the case.
This is good news. PushSquare has really become the place to be for up to date Sony news.
PlayStation Plus is a great service, even though I'm not currently subsribed as the instant game collection doesn't really have my kind of games. They had a fantastic start with LBP2, Motorstorm and Infamous 2, but now it's kind of meh IMHO.
That's great, their free online will still have class it looks like. The added cost for online does bother me, but the free games lessen thing enough and convinced me to get PS Plus recently.
My friend is gonna be happy to hear, he won't have to pay for Plus to get Auto-Update
"access to online catch-up TV"
Is that what they call Netflix, Hulu, Lovefilm et al - "online catch-up tv"? Only a brit could say that with a straight face.
Or Monty Python.
Dear, what's on the tv?
The telly tv or the online catch-up tv?
Catch-up? On the line? On who's line?
The tv dear, we can catch-up online now.
Well go catch it, get it off the line, and hang it back up on the telly were it belongs.
I'm shocked this is free. Heck, for $399 I'm shocked everything isn't PS+ Gold required. Sony's bringing it.
Thats great news but I will probably end up paying for it anyways. After all I have been paying MS to get that stuff on the Xbox 360 for the past six years.
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