lastinline said:
- Exclusive in-game DLC
That's just dumb. If you buy a game, you should be given access to all the DLC, no matter what PSN you have.
I generally agree. What I'm wondering though ... are they implying that some of the proceeds from subscriptions would actually be used to
create DLC, which you would then receive for free or only available to you? In that case, I don't see the problem. That means they are creating DLC that they may not have risked previously.
If it actually starts affecting DLC that would have been created anyways ... then that's where the problems would start. Without knowing these answers, I'm not sure we should call it a pro or a con just yet.
- 'First Hour' demos of retail titles - play the first hour for free, then purchase the full game if you wish
Demos are fine the way they are. An hour demo would just spoil the game for me.
This doesn't really sound like a traditional demo though. It sounds like you are actually playing the game for the first hour to see if you want it or not. How does that spoil anything? Since there is supposedly cloud game-saves, I assume this means you can actually transfer your save from the 'demo' to the real game ... since the demo actually is the real game.
- Exclusive access to cross-game chat
A console feature shouldn't be a paid feature.
- Access to auto/background patching of games
Same as cross-game chat. A console feature shouldn't be a paid feature.
Yeah, these moves will probably chap the most asses out of anything
I'd say all-and-all it's a nice feature set when taken at face value. The main questions become pricing, and whether there will be a ton of ire that certain features aren't part of the standard PSN/OS feature set.
Regarding the first question, I guess it matters what sort of discounts and DLC we receive. On the first page, Hanmik joked, "- pay money to get discounts? :lol" And initially, I too thought the same thing. Upon further inspection though, maybe it actually isn't a bad way to go. I suspect what they are doing may be similar to the Costco/B.J.'s/etc. business model. Offset the risk of selling at a very low average margin, by having a subscription membership. Depending on what is offered and what your normal gaming habits are, I suspect there will be plenty of people that may do well with this arrangement.
As to the second question, I think plenty of people will bitch about features that should be OS-level, and therefore should be offered to all. That said, this service appears to be entirely additive - not a one of its features are due to moving or gimping features that were previously free. It's all new or expanded features relative to standard PSN. That being the case, and since PS3 already has a fairly large free feature set versus the competitors, I feel any ire should be mitigated to a large degree.
