Sony Rumored to Offer Premium PSN Service in Months Ahead

In today’s console war (wait, there’s still a console war?), one of the biggest arguments PlayStation fans make against the Xbox is that the latter charges a monthly (or yearly) fee to access its online service – or to be more specific, play online with friends. Given that this is fact, it’s hard to argue with. Both services offer pretty well the same overall service, but whichever you prefer depends mostly on your tastes, and not only with gaming.

Despite Sony itself making the same argument in the past, it looks like it’s going to backtrack just a wee bit, as VG247 reports that a “Premium” version of the PlayStation Network is in the works. PSN fans might not have much to worry about though, as Sony claims that it’s simply going to be an extension of the current service and will not affect the current PSN at all. Rather, it will just offer more for those who want to pay the monthly fee.

It doesn’t appear that the prices for the premium service are completely settled upon, but it should cost less than £50 ($72 USD) per year. By comparison, Xbox Live costs $60 USD per year, so the “Premium PSN” looks to cost a little bit more if USD prices are going to be in line with current conversions. But don’t fret… a potentially huge benefit for Premium subscribers is the ability to choose one of two-to-four PSN exclusive titles to buy for $0. Microsoft offers no such perk.

In addition to being able to play online with your friends, Microsoft currently offers these perks for those who opt to pay for Xbox Live: Photo Sharing, Netflix, Xbox Live Parties and Video Chat, Facebook, Twitter and Last.FM apps as well as early access to demos and discounts. The latter here Sony has in some form with its Qore monthly e-magazine, so it’s really hard to figure out what kind of goodies its going to implement in its premium service. And for the sake of current Qore subscribers, hopefully they’ll be able to opt into a discount if they’re interested in both Qore and PSN Premium. These nickel and dime services just keep adding up!

According to a highly-placed source, Sony will announce a large-scale monetizing scheme for PSN at the LA show, but we’re assured nothing planned will impact the service’s current free aspects.A string of features will be revealed, apparently costing “less than £50 per year”.Sony will confirm plans to give all subscribers one free PSN game per month, from a choice of “two to four” every month.”If you work it out, PSN games cost an average of £6-9 each, so over a year you’re basically going to be breaking even,” said our source.