The audience at Sony's press conference at E3 on Monday seemed pleased with the news that PlayStation Plus will carry over to the PlayStation 4 when the console comes out, and the even better news that one subscription will cover your PS4, PS3, and Vita consoles. But while that news was high on impact, it was low on detail, and we're learning more as time goes on about what the subscription will actually entail in the case of the PS4.
Some features will stay the same. The price, for instance, will not change, at least at launch, so a year's subscription will still cost $50. And that will still get you access to an Instant Game Collection of free games, though the only one we've heard about is DriveClub: PS Plus Edition, which sounds like it'll probably be some kind of free-to-play-esque version of the game in which you only get a selection of cars and have to pay if you want the rest.
But one major difference that brings PlayStation Plus closer to Xbox Live Gold is that you won't be able to play multiplayer games without it. That is, in most cases. Various outlets like Polygon have reported that some free-to-play games like DC Universe Online and PlanetSide 2 won't require PlayStation Plus to play online, presumably because that would negate the “free-to-play” part. However, it looks like it'll be up to the publishers whether they want to make PlayStation Plus a requirement. Considering that it seems unlikely any of them will get a cut from PlayStation Plus subscriptions, however, I doubt this will happen in many cases.
Will you be happy to pay to play online? What about in the case of a supposedly “free-to-play” game?
