July 30th Update: The content per month isn’t determined as day one content and is content that will be made available through the month.
If you have been paying attention to all of the news coming out of E3, you probably heard that we introduced a new subscription service called PlayStation Plus, which will be available on June 29.
PlayStation Plus is a service that lives on top of the current PlayStation Network. So, while users will continue to have free access to PlayStation Network’s unmatched and ever-growing suite of new and exclusive content, services, and community focused tools – just as they do today – PlayStation Plus subscribers will gain access to an exclusive set of features and content designed specifically for gamers.
When you subscribe to PlayStation Plus, you’ll get free games and DLC (pretty sweet), frequent discounts on PlayStation Store, early invitations to select betas of popular games, and free monthly episodes of Qore – our high-definition, interactive gaming lifestyle show. You’ll also enjoy new functionality such as Full Game Trial where you can “try before you buy” – play a Blu-ray or PSN game for up to one hour and then you can buy the game, download it and keep your progress and trophies. Another cool feature is Automatic Downloads that will push select demos, game related videos, patches and firmware updates to your PS3 so you don’t have to think about it. Total it up and you’ll get hundreds of dollars of value through the year with exclusive digital content from both our World Wide Studios Group and our publishing partners. And every month we’ll be adding new content and continually adding new features, making PlayStation Plus an incredible value, time saver and ticket to front-of-the-line access.
At launch, PlayStation Plus will offer subscribers the full PlayStation Network game, WipEout HD, full game trial of inFAMOUS, PSP minis and PS One Classics such as Fieldrunners, Age of Zombies and Rally Cross, as well as premium avatars, themes and DLC levels and map packs. Additionally, subscribers will always have access to their virtual library of free games for as long as they keep their PlayStation Plus subscription. In all, subscribers will get an unprecedented amount of value, access and convenience and, in the first month alone, will receive more than $50 worth of content.
PlayStation Plus will be available for a yearly fee of $49.99. We are also running a “limited time offer” giving subscribers 3 free bonus months for signing up for a yearly subscription – so those who
sign up now will get 15-months of PlayStation Plus. Consumers also have the option to subscribe for 3 months for $17.99.
You can sign up on the PlayStation Store or learn more about the exclusive features at us.playstation.com.
@ 94. Your bandwidth concerns is one of the reasons I believe Xbox no longer has the feature. Before the NXE launch, automatic downloads used to be available for Xbox Live Arcade games and would start whenever you turned on your console on Wednesdays when XBLA came out. It is going to be interesting to see how Sony deals with this concern.
so when does this go live?
With this subscription, no more playing around with updates. We want all the things that we have been asking for. Cause we have been waiting a long time now so please get on the ball and don’t disapoint us. Here is a hint, take a page from xbox.
@403
Sony has been listening for along time now, yet they still don’t give what the fans have been asking for. Or they just say they are still working on the Idea. One thing Sony does bad, is giving Features for the players.
I am going to laugh so hard if they announce XGC as a free service after this launches.
I will NOT be getting +.
XGVC should have been a free feature since it should have been out a long time ago. There is nothing else that Plus offers that I would like to have.
This move really irritated me and gave me the deciding blow to not put money down on Plus.
well i wonder how many is going to get this if cross gaming chat isn’t included. but i’m actually impressed over how much you are offering for 50$ a year XD. Sony you are ****** if you don’t add cross-game chat before launch of PSN+ I’m just warning you
i dont think it includes cross game chat
I think this isnt a bad move, although admit it we ALL wondered when this day whould come. Its sorta like XBL silver vs gold – PSN is silver but of corse PSN+ is gold. Its not bad though if the xtras are in fact full games, exclusive content, perhaps incentive for FREE DLC for popular games, and of corse more free avatars and premium content for FREE as a subscriber. but i can afford $50 a year (i play WoW at $15 a MONTH lol thats like $140 a year for that lol so ya) but im inline to try it, why not give it a shot ^_^
With the online play free, and me not caring too much about beta releases and “extra discounts”, I see no reason to pay any money to Sony.
My concern is it being the thin end of the wedge. MS is making the big bucks with XBL, there is no doubt in my mind that Sony wants a piece of the pie.
If the service isnt appealing enough to entice people to pay, Sony wont simply give up and make it all free. Likely online play will get moved into the pay category, possibly under the banner of “to increase reliability and stability” or “to keep up with growing demand”.
There position is this: What can you do about it? Pack it in, go spend hundreds to buy the other guys console and pay yearly for his online service? Not likley. They make the good stuff premium, and we’ll all just complain as we break out the credit card and oblige. No doubt it costs money to provide, and the other guys are making money on it. XBL is about 60 a year or more, WoW is profitable, Everquest before that, and other MMORPG’s. Even Battle.Net is expecting to be charging monthly subscriptions for futue Blizzard games.
Just remember, at the end of the day, Sony is business, and its bottom line is money, and keeping the shareholders happy.
I hope they can extend these methods suscribcion to PlayStation Home. My problem is simple: “In my country I am restricted for the amount of currency” per year “(to express my anger) I can use out of it, ie, I can only use $ 400 to buy out on any other currency different than mine. Therefore, for me, this suscribcion service is a blessing and the best idea that people of PlayStation might have for us. I hope you extend to all content which need to be purchased online, so it solves the problem of suscribcion pay, for me, and Venezuela, and so, we can be free of concern for a DLC or any other content that may be interesting. I hope you understand to me. Thanks!
Um so is this PS+ going to be like my Xbox Live only trying to drop the prices because a year on Xbox Live is $60.00 and 3 months is $20.00(I get that like any of you care) but yeah is it gonna be like Xbox cause that’d be sick if it is/will.
Sony needs to reply to these big announcements for gods sakes. What do they pay sony community workers for?? Arent there social ppl around? why tell us on the phone to checkout this stupid site if no one will reply to our damn questions
Ugh, this makes me sad. Not only will I not be able pay for +, but cross game chat isn’t free, AND I haven’t heard a SINGLE WORD about updating our super-cheap web browser, or BGM.
You know how Sony told all game creators “You must have trophys in your games.”? How come Sony can’t tell them “You must enable the option of BGM in your games?
I wonder how people just skip to the end…
Anyways, I love this idea of PS+. I will definitely be an early adopter. I’m looking into the details now. I want to support PSN, especially for giving me such awesome service for free all these years. I’m looking forward to everything PS3 has to offer in the next year or so, and I really don’t want to miss a thing. I dont care if XGC/XGVC is PART of PS+, as long as they add it (hopefully for free) I’m cool. I’m getting Move (and PSEye), and a 3DTV soon. This is going to be PS3’s year and I’m going to be experiencing EVERYTHING. If I get discounts, great!
Everyone here complains about the “what if, what if” I say eff that. IDK about the What Ifs, I only care about experiencing the very best. Name me 5 good reasons to skip this. I really want to hear them… well… read them…
Please sony give use background Downloading so I can watch a movie or play a game while a movie or game is Downloading with out this I will never use your movie rentals when blockbusters is only a 3 minute walk away.
Cross game video chat would be pretty nice, also with paid for sub, a cloud HDD would be nice not a must for me personally as
I stuck a 500GB in their but, it would still be cool, even if it was small.
how can I preorder O.o
Meh… Until I see save game cloud storage, no thanks.
This sounds interesting for those like myself that were already thinking of qcore (borderline)..
Additional Items that would make it “worth it” for me would be:
– Cloud Saved games (not there yet AFAIK). Had a unit die on me already with a backup that was too old to be of any real use…
– Selectable Background downloads (No mention of how/who will control what is automatically downloaded). On the PS3, drive space is not an issue. I Already repalced the stock drive with a 600GB drive
– Full Qriocity or at least “limited” access (one show/movie per day)
I don’t even chat with my online friends habitually unless we are playing MW2 or something else together. So cross game chat would be useless for me. If I want to talk to someone, I’ll call them lol.
when is it what day is it coming out im going crazy what spacific day lol
lol omg now ps has a payed service! gezz gives me all the more reasons to go pay for gold for my xbox 360! o man now i have to choose between ps and xbox. hmm i love my 360 and all my friends have a 360. halo reach, gears of war 3, crakedown 2, forza motor sport 3, dead rising 2…. i would rather play xbox online over ps 3. well hopefully sony makes the online experience better, i don’t complain because its FREE.
AND IM NOT A FANBOY!! cuz if that was the case i wouldnt have both systems and i wouldnt be on the site in the first place!
what about PlayStation Plus subscribers get LBP free? will that be for the US subscibers to?
Can you answer like the UK PS Blog did and tell us what will be available for the first two months?
I want to buy this. However, I just bought a subcription to Qore. If Sony pro-rates my Qore subsciption I will buy this the first day. If they do not, I think I will never buy anything on the Playstation Store again. It is unethical business practice to continue selling Qore Subscriptions and then turn around and sell PSN+ without providing some sort of system for a smooth transition from Qore to PSN+.
It would be very simple to do so simple prorate the amount of months left on the Qore Subsciption and deduct that amount from the cost of PSN+. However, Sony refeuses to answers everybodies questions about this.
I call to everybody who has purchased Qore to to boycot PSN+ until Sony agrees to Pro-rate.
No CHAT no $50.00 what is wrong with you sony are you that far behind the 360 and the wii that you can’t handle putting in a simple chat function for your users.I don’t need cross game chat i would be happy with in game private chat in game part chat this is exactly why i pay microsoft $50.00 a year and not psn.Keep this up and you will stay last place.
When will Canada get PlayStation Plus? We’re only just now getting movies and such. Dx
I wounding if i should buy the psn plus. And will the network run on it own server so i better connection for online playing?
OMG!!! i think im in love!!! lmao anyways i like to thank you sony for everything from when i first picked up my PS1 controller to now were i can do practically anything i want thanks for this big time!!! I LOVE SONY!!! :D
sony you fail on psn. You dissapoint me. I thought psn plus would be more like the xbox where you get new features like cross game chat and being able to listen to music during games. Actually being able to use the xmb whenever with no restrictions. I can’t believe the only thing plus is, is just a psn store discounts and free stuff. This is really disapointing.
all i want to know is why the playstation blog lied to everyone saying that Playstation Plus users buying the 1 year get LBP as an introductory item, and now its only the European users… they get more than the US does, WTF, they get everything we got plus LBP, Destruction Derby, Loco Roco Costume pack for LBP, God of War Level kit for LBP, Steel and Titanium Killzone 2 pack, Sackboy Dynamic Theme…. come on sony, you offered this to everyone not just the EU users… i regretting spending 53 dollars for absolutely nothing.
@ 431
Thanks for the warning, I’ll save the cash!
I’m glad someone was honest about this new rip off.
Thanks again.
Qore purchased shame on me, -Plus- shame on Sony,
Nice try seca….
Agree with 431, US based Plus gets almost nothing compared to UK guys! and where’s QORE as promised in the beginning of this blog?
The launch day had to be better than it is right now! Sony, any response to this?
how long is the 3 free months limited time offer going on for? 1 month? 1 week?
Uhm just a concern i have I purchased the 3month offer. But then later in the day purchased the 1year offer which came with an extra 3months. Does the 1year with 3months overlap the original 3months that i purchased?
ok if u add server back up for up to 2gbs of space for game saves ill sign up for plus if not im still gona play psn off and on and play my xbox live account that i spent about $2500 in DLC
suspended twice from live reported bothe times to th BBB MS apologized afterwards refunding me by iving 500 ms points of course they were 24hr suspensions yet to see problems with sony and PSN MS=4the money Sony=4 the gamers and ms tried banning my account perm it didnt go well when the better buisness bueru wanted me to take the case to court saying they would help me out the perm ban was from this admin called the pro cause i am a legit 10th presteige in MW2 still dont have all emblems and titles 15days 19hrs and 32min played some my friends told me the pro was fired hope it was true admins should never abuse there power PSN+ would be good if they hade a server for backing up ur game saves im using a flash drive to do it it sux when ur HDD corrupts Sony take note add game save back up and i garrentee u will get more ppl to buy your PSN+
add extra security like a 4digit pin when u sign in and a free premium theme or aracade game each month and sony u have got ur self a more dedicated customer cheers!!!!!
nice!
So will you get free dlc for disc-based games like call of duty black ops or something like that? where they charge u to download map packs but if u have playstation plus will u get it for freE?
Ok, so this is a cool idea. It’s kind of like a Gamefly subscription on speed, with the greatest benefit of a yearly fee instead of a monthly one and when I truly wanted to stop I will buy the games I wanted to keep. My only question is when one is strapped for cash and there account is closed, do they get all there stuff back when they pay again? I hope we do because I’m going to get the three months one to find out, lol.