PS3 Informer

Sony's PSN: Does "Free"dom Come With A Cost?

Accessing the PlayStation Network (PSN) for PlayStation 3 (PS3) owners is free of charge, unlike Microsoft's XBOX Live Gold annual membership at $49.99. So does PSN "free"dom come at a cost?

Stephen Totilo from MTV Multiplayer reveals prior to Sony's revised pricing policy in October 1, 2008, publishers could provide content to PSN at no cost. Now, 16-cents per gigabit (GB) bandwidth charges applies to all content uploaded by publishers. In detail, PSN's free content establishes a limited 60-day charge upon initial release, thereafter a publisher is not billed. Paid content maintains the 16-cents per GB indefinitely or until content is removed from PSN.

The effects of Sony's bandwidth charges are obvious as XBOX Live received exclusive content from Grand Theft Auto 4: The Lost and Damned add-on and "Call of Duty: World of War" demo. Tolito says, publishers already "spend six figures for creating a demo" and Sony's bandwidth pricing is costly. He calculates an example, "a demo sized exactly 1GB, downloaded one million times would add an extra $160,000" billed to the publisher. In our fragile economy with an already suffering gaming industry, this extra charge has publishers hesitant of what material to upload.

Theoretically, past, current, and future content could evade PSN due to Sony's bandwidth charges, excluding exclusive licensing and deals. Since Microsoft charges Gold Members annual fees, this may aid their technical up-maintenance and bandwidth finances. On the other-hand, Sony insistently presents the allure of "free" access to PSN, but at PS3 owners cost of content equivalent to XBOX Live. With "free"dom coming at a cost, we at GameFlavor admire Sony's ability for maintaining a free, accessible PSN; however, we wish PSN provided more demos, add-on content, and less wallpaper/themes.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on our forums or comment section. Does XBOX Live offer more content than PSN or are they equal? Do you prefer paying annual fees for online services or hell-no, no charge is the way to go?