Still wild to me that paying for multiplayer was normalized on consoles.
Yup, when that became mandatory on all consoles, I stopped buying consoles.
The PS3 offered free online multiplayer with no subscription required, and at the time it seemed unlikely that players would ever accept paying simply to access online gaming. Then Xbox introduced Xbox Live subscriptions, and the industry shifted in that direction. Looking back, I underestimated how willing the gaming community would be to normalize recurring fees for online access and now paid online services have become the standard across the industry.
Xbox Live was $49.99 per year in 2002. The PS3 didnt release until 2006.
Xbox Live included extra services not included on the PS2’s attempt at networked play. On the PS2, developers had to manage their own game networking infrastructure via their own private servers. Nothing was built into the PS2 console, and it did not have support for anything that game developers did not implement into their own games themselves. This would ultimate result in each developer “reinventing the wheel” with their own implementation of basic online features.
With Xbox Live, Microsoft provided developers with a universal networking framework and API, including built in features like a friends list and DLC support. That extra infrastructure Microsoft provided costs money, so a subscription was introduced. You were paying for the extra features and infrastructure that PS2 developers and publishers handled on their own (and thus was baked into the cost of the game).
As a user of both when they were new, I will also add anecdotally that Xbox Live was significantly more stable than PS2 networking. Nintendo also had a free online service in the mid 2000s, and it was horrible. Very poor connection stability, very susceptible to cheating and immense latency as almost every game was basically P2P.
Yeah my point exactly PS was giving us free access to online 4+ years after xbox started charging for it. The anti gaming console!
*play multi-player over the internet connection you provide.
Seriously, they are already getting a cut on every single game sold due to licensing. They discontinue services very early too for tons of games because the companies making the games are the actual hosts anyway.
So I guess we pay for shitty voice chat and some updates? and the privilege of them unlocking the ability of playing multiplayer. Imagine if microsoft charged a subscription for updates for normal users, or they charged a subscription to connect to a network connection.
It used to be way better than what you got for free, because they put up the infrastructure to make it better for what you paid. But not long after Sony started charging for online, the way the wind was blowing in the industry meant you were, more often than not, playing on the publisher’s servers and not Sony’s. So what are you even paying for anymore? Friends lists, I guess?
Main reason I don"t even bother to turn on my PS4/5 anymore. I can’t justify a PS+ sub just to play one game online anymore.
You either pay or you don’t play. It’s not like console players have a choice.
I guess not buying a console is a way. Sure it’s cheaper than a pc but at some point you will have paid more in subscriptions and overpriced games than a pc would have cost.
PayStation
I did this awhile ago. Played like 3% of the games I got each month. Service wasn’t worth it for me. Switch to Steam, still only playing a fraction on my library but at least no monthly fees and free online play.
Well technically you pay your ISP for online play… Lol
No you pay the ISP for internet access in general, that is justified by the cost of infrastructure, which you ALSO have to pay when accessing it on playstation on top of ps+. It’s really not the same thing at all.
Btw I personally pay for ps+ because as someone that jumped into the ps5 after the last console I had be the ps2, I’ve found I’m never without something to play from all the back catalogue alone. Even just the 20 game pack they gave on release was worth it to me at the time. I just put away $3 a week and buy it on black Friday sales with change.
Spiderman 2 that they gave access to this year basically covered the price alone, and I don’t have to justify each game I buy, it’s just another annual bill like Netflix. Will I lose the whole thing if I stop paying or Sony changes things? Yeah. But I already knowingly factored that in. It’s a Netflix for games and I’m okay with that.
A few years ago I looked at what I spent on ps+ 2020-2025 vs steam 2015-2020, and ps+ was less. That’s enough for me to be happy.
Existing customers will have the increase next year once the noise dies down
Fucking hell. PS5 finally gets a few good exclusives and then they jack up other prices so high that the barrier to entry is still unjustifiable. Good luck fixing those slumping sales numbers, Sony.
With every one of these price increases, my chances of subscribing to PS plus drops lower and lower.
They don’t even give a competitive service when compared to Xbox… Like don’t get me wrong I think Gamepass is a scam as well but it’s less of a scam than PS plus… 11$/m vs gamepasses 10$/m and gamepass gives a handful of games, cloud backups, cloud gaming and multiplayer… PS plus just gives multiplayer and save backups and a couple free games a month that require ongoing subscription to play.
a couple free games a month that require ongoing subscription to play
You applied that qualifier to PS+ as if that’s not also true of Gamepass.
While there are a lot of multiplayer games on Gamepass, there are still tons of single player games on there that are worth playing.
Plague Tale, Psychonauts 2, I’m pretty sure most Elder Scrolls past Morrowind are available with GP too.
Right, but you can’t play them if you aren’t paying the subscription fee if Gamepass. Same as ps+.
I think you’re misunderstanding what he’s saying.
I think he’s saying ps+ only gives you a few multiplayer games that need multiplayer to play, and need ps+.
Whereas gamepass gives a few games per month, and while gamepass is still required to play them in single player, you don’t have to play multiplayer.
PS+ does have higher tiers with more benefits. The mid-tier one gives access to a ton of PS4 and PS5 games, and the top tier adds older games and cloud gaming.
And even base PS+ has SharePlay. That’s got to be my most-used feature, but I never see people talk about it.
Yea, I intentionally restricted my post to the base tiers as gamepass has a similar schema since they both show similar featuresets at higher tiers.
I made a basic breakdown:
- Basic
- ps essentials: 11$/m
- multiplayer
- shareplay
- save backups
- discounts on store
- monthly games selection valid for duration of subscription
- gamepass essential: 10$/m
- multiplayer
- free game catalog: 123 [81 of which supported on Windows as well]
- cloud gaming: 87
- in game benefits in select first party games
- rewards program
- ps essentials: 11$/m
- Mid Tier
- PS Extra: 15$/m
- previous tier
- free game catalog: 409
- ubisoft classics program: 59
- Gamepass Premium: 15$/m
- previous tier
- free game catalog: 572 [395 of which is supported on windows]
- cloud gaming: 412
- First party games promised to be on game catalog within 1 year of release (Call of Duty Excluded)
- semi-priority cloud play queue
- 2x reward points
- PS Extra: 15$/m
- Best Tier
- PS Premium: 18$/m
- previous tier
- classics catalog: 163
- game trial catalog: 260
- sony pictures catalog (a movie/media streaming service)
- cloud streaming
- Gamepass Ultimate: 23$/m
- previous tier
- free game catalog: 909 [587 of which are supported on windows]
- cloud gaming: 555
- day 1 first party releases on free game catalog (Call of Duty excluded)
- Free EA Play: 182 games + select DLC
- ubisoft classics: 120
- fortnite crew
- priority cloud gaming
- 4x reward points
- PS Premium: 18$/m
This was just a somewhat quick list of info found online when comparing the two. I can see each tier being useful to someone, but I personally find that Sonys offerings for PS+ don’t stack to Gamepass, and that’s from someone who has been loyal sony fan since the PS1.
sony’s classic catalogue is such a huge disappointment. i shouldnt have to keep a ps2 to play its games in the year 2026. maybe ill get it on my xbox 🤣
- Basic
Price increases will continue until morale improves.
…why are you offering a good time to these greedy leeches?
He didn’t say there would be lube.
Me buying 10 years worth of ps+ 4 years ago is turning out to be a solid investment.
Me playing online for free on PC turning out to be an even more solid investment.
I had a bank of 1 or 2 years and would grab a year of extra on black friday. Once that price shot up to like $135 or something and they stopped letting you buy sales if already a member I stopped buying. Which also made me prioritize my PC heavily, so I haven’t even been buying games on PS anymore.
@Itsamelemmy
stopped that when I figured that I was unable to cross play #D2R with friends on other platforms. since then I am not buying any ps-games which need the ps+ for multiplayer but try to use steam deck instead.
@tidderuuf
If you’re paying the cheapest $11/m for 5 years, that’s $660. PS6 rumored 2028. 8 years since PS5 2020, $1056. Console itself $500+ since 2020. Expensive now but before the ram and storage shortage, it has been the case of PC gaming being the best value as long as you don’t care to hit the max settings in every game. Couch gaming, my PC is hooked up to my TV, Steam Big Picture auto starts and I use a bunch of 8bitdo gamepads
Money saved on computer game sales is insane too, especially with humble monthly. Even new games almost always have 10-20% discounts on GMG or Humble! I haven’t paid full price for a game in forever.
The PC I built in like 2018 for like $650 is still playing all the games I want. Last year I upgraded the video card to an RTX 2070S for $210.
I can stream to every room in the house, I have saved wag more in game prices than the entire console would have cost me. Let alone those subscription prices.
8bitdo website is atrocious. I have always used dualsense and say someont suggest an untimate from them but the site layout made it so would have needed to know what it looked like first. All the tiles were animated and didnt display a name.
Not as crazy as i expected when clicking it. Still, gets harder and harder seeing places like this raise costs on stuff they could easily absorb the hit on yet rather pass the buck onto the consumer… for anyonr curious its a $1 increase to the 1 month and $3 increase to the 3 month, but nothing said about the annual plans.
So far i feel like i am super lucky. I set mine to autorenewal years ago and the extra years i brought before they changed the system and raised the prises got me by without worrying about the increase. They ended 2 years ago and i have only had to pay $80 a year for the full top tier subscription which i think is $150 a year. Just went through again a few months ago. I noticed if i cancel the auto renewal or try to pay for it outside this it will charge the full amount. So i will absolutely not change anything and happily accept this amazing glitch! From what i read online there are some others that had this happen as well and had to do with the extra years and services combined that made this somehow get stuck. Everyone says do not touch it! Maybe one day they will correct it, but here is hoping this lasts at least a few more years because i would not pay $150 anyway lol.
Inflation affects everyone. a $1 price increase is more in line with inflation of the past few years.
So single player games are only on PS5 now and then they raise the price of PlayStation Plus.
Sony can go fuck themselves.
I still can’t believe people pay for the opportunity to play online through Sony. Imagine having to pay Steam to be able to do multiplayer stuff online. Sure you get outdated games for free. I had PS+ for many years until about 5 years ago. I rarely ever played the free games I got.
Oh, then they also decided to throw a bunch of money on Marathon over Destiny 2. Marathon has a smaller player base, is a niche-market game who’s highest peak player count is only <90k on PC, which is the biggest platform for Marathon. Meanwhile they neglect Bungie’s cash cow completely and let it fade into oblivion.
Who the fuck is making these financial decisions at Sony? Are they actively trying to burn the company to the ground?
Didn’t Xbox just reduced their prices?
i think it was 19.99, then raised to 29.99, now they reduced it to 22.99
later on, theyre going to let people customize what they pay for, so it may get cheaper again depending on what you want
Good thing I never payed for Plus.
