PS4 online multiplayer to require PS Plus subscription

Playing online multiplayer on the PlayStation 4 is going to require players to have a PlayStation Plus subscription, according to the fine print in...

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Playing online multiplayer on the PlayStation 4 is going to require players to have a PlayStation Plus subscription. The policy is similar to the what Microsoft uses for Xbox 360 and Xbox One for Xbox Live Gold.

"PS4 multiplayer online access requires PSN account & PS Plus subscription," fine print says in the bottom of this Sony-released video (via Polygon). A PS+ membership runs $49.99 a year, or $17.99 if you can choose to pay for three months. Xbox Live Gold costs $59.99 a year.

You won't need a new membership for the PS4 if you already have one for Vita or PlayStation 3.

Contributing Editor
From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 10, 2013 9:02 PM

    John Keefer posted a new article, PS4 online multiplayer to require PS Plus subscription.

    Playing online multiplayer on the PlayStation 4 is going to require players to have a PlayStation Plus subscription, according to the fine print in...

    • reply
      June 10, 2013 9:15 PM

      The PS+ service is so worth it, I'm totally fine with it.

      And you'll get Drive Club for free at launch with PS+? Makes it pretty easy to swallow.

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        June 10, 2013 10:57 PM

        Correction: Drive Club: Playstation+ Edition...whatever that means

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      June 10, 2013 9:15 PM

      Which is why PC is still where it's at.

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        June 10, 2013 9:19 PM

        hey now you'll have that cash for a couple hotdogs and slurpee from 7-11!

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        June 10, 2013 10:50 PM

        I need an account to play almost every online PC game. Either a steam account, and origin account, or an individual game account. This isn't a big deal.

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      June 10, 2013 9:17 PM

      [deleted]

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      June 10, 2013 9:19 PM

      Personally, I hate this, but if they keep giving free games away then.. it's totally worth it. PS+ for my PS3 has been awesome and I don't really play multiplayer games. I'll definitely be in for that.

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        June 10, 2013 9:28 PM

        Honestly the one upside from it is they can probably use it to improve their infrastructure.

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      June 10, 2013 9:19 PM

      What a letdown...

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      June 10, 2013 9:21 PM

      PS Plus seems pretty worth it with how much shit they give you.

      http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1dlqok/what_does_one_full_year_50_of_playstation_plus/

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      June 10, 2013 9:23 PM

      given that i've gotten hundreds in free games for $50 a year i say bring it on

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      June 10, 2013 9:25 PM

      This is the single let down from their showing and I think it sucks. I even have a PS plus subscription, but I just don't think you should have to subscribe to a service to use half of the game you just brought. It's just wrong.

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      June 10, 2013 9:27 PM

      Kinda sucks, but it's not a terrible compromise, and Plus is a damn good service anyway. Also worth noting that you only need it for online MP, not to use media services like Netflix, etc.

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      June 10, 2013 9:27 PM

      They should really reconsider this strategy.

      I know that they did this in an effort to keep the price of the console down,but I would rather pay the same amount as the XBox One and have PSN free for multiplayer game than this business model.

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      June 10, 2013 9:38 PM

      And you also get Driveclub with it, a $60 dollar game. It's worth it just for that.

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        June 10, 2013 9:40 PM

        But what if Drive Club sucks and you only play it for a day or two?

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        June 10, 2013 9:40 PM

        well every game was at one time a $60 game. how good will it be?

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      June 10, 2013 9:55 PM

      Well that blows. Why not make vanilla mp online free and offer incentives(leaderboards, discounts, games, etc) to make PS Plus and XBL Gold valuable in and of themselves?

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      June 10, 2013 9:57 PM

      Nobody cares that you've had to pay for XBLG this entire time.

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        June 10, 2013 10:00 PM

        but people did care about having to have XBLG to watch netflix, which sony has taken care of

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          June 10, 2013 10:06 PM

          My friend stopped using his 360 long ago for that very reason.

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      June 10, 2013 10:08 PM

      I know some of you have gotten great value out of PS+, but it still seems like a bad move to me, particularly if they follow suit with XBL Gold and limit the streaming services to paying accounts as well. It basically means that multi-console warriors will be paying ~$100 a year for both services and even more casual people who'd like to play a little MP once in a while will be screwed. Pay $50, get games you may or may not want just for the privilege of playing some CoD or Battlefield MP (which you bought) with your buddies once in a while.

      Not every gamer fits the mold where $50/year is "well worth it." I know people who have an X360 and they only have like 3 games and primarily use it for Netflix. The XBL subscription really sucks for them, and it's totally extortion too since there's no service being offered by MS in that situation. Yeah, we don't know all of the details yet but this smacks of "MS got away with it in the last go around, we want subscription-based cash too!"

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        June 10, 2013 10:12 PM

        They stated in the presentation that all the streaming services work without a subscription to PS+

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        June 10, 2013 10:20 PM

        If you want to play a little MP for a month or two when a particular game comes out, you can certainly pay for a month or two of service. I'm saddened that there's no free MP any longer and do see that as a loss for the consumer, but for me personally, there aren't going to be so many online titles exclusive to MS that I see any sort of long term MP plan need for. I'm OK with paying for one service, which I did for years with LIVE and now will pay Sony for instead.

        I think if the general public created as huge of a hue and cry about paid multiplayer as they did over the restrictive DRM, Sony would likely consider some further incentives, since single player games are still their 1st party bread and butter, at least for now.

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      June 10, 2013 10:10 PM

      [deleted]

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        June 10, 2013 10:18 PM

        its absolutely amazing for vita.

        Gravity Rush is worth it alone.

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      June 10, 2013 10:16 PM

      MS announcing XBLIve will go free would be a pretty hilarious twist at this point.

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      June 10, 2013 10:35 PM

      Sony gave up the only online advantage they had which was free online multiplayer. Now they to compare services, content and UI and its no question Xbox live is number one. Not a good move Sony

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        June 10, 2013 10:36 PM

        but now, Live gold is offering free games, imitating ps+ in that regard.

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          June 10, 2013 10:42 PM

          Only until the XB1 comes out. Sony seems committed to keep it going on the PS4 and into the future, MS just threw it out there as a bonus for a few months for some reason.

          And it's hard to say if PS4's online services are the same or better or worse as none of us have actually used it yet, except for finalSpart4n. We pretty much know what to expect from MS, more of the same and a 1000 friends list upgrade, but all we can say for Sony is they'd be idiots to not improve it, especially since they want to charge for it now.

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            June 11, 2013 6:21 AM

            I don't think they are giving free games "only until XB1 comes out"... I think they keep giving free games after that, and use it as a way to entice people to upgrade by not giving out many 360 games after the XB1 launch.

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            June 11, 2013 7:46 AM

            Actually it states free 360 games until December 31st, at which time I would guess they switch to Xbox One titles to entice people to switch.

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        June 10, 2013 10:38 PM

        This Gaikai shit is expensive. If they want to have comparable online they kind of have to. I'm more concerned about games and having good will towards customers.

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        June 10, 2013 10:41 PM

        the fact they allow all their apps/streaming w/o a subscription means they still have the superior service, I give no shits about multiplayer so I don't have to pay to watch netflix, not the case with MS

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        June 10, 2013 10:43 PM

        Agreed. I stand with you. We few; we band of Final Spartans.

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        June 10, 2013 10:44 PM

        Dude you're the best idiot we have, never change!

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          June 11, 2013 7:49 AM

          Can we bring back RuskiSnajper so that these two can square off? Please??

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        June 11, 2013 1:57 AM

        [deleted]

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        June 11, 2013 1:58 AM

        I fucking love this guy ♥

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          June 11, 2013 2:11 AM

          haha genuine coincidence.

          • reply
            June 11, 2013 2:15 AM

            The best thing is he's either a great troll or he really believes it - I love it when people bring a crazy atittude here. I miss the crazy nintendo guys, they are awesome.

            • reply
              June 11, 2013 2:25 AM

              Yep it takes me back a little. He's so adamant it goes past irritating in to cute.

              • reply
                June 11, 2013 2:35 AM

                I'm still waiting for him to use terms like 'gaystation' and '$ony'

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        June 11, 2013 2:11 AM

        I love this guy.

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        June 11, 2013 3:00 AM

        Ive paid for PSN+ for 2-3 years, I have over 50 games for free. And i will continue to pay for it. What did your measly xbox gold give you for the last 5?


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        June 11, 2013 5:12 AM

        ok Fred

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        June 11, 2013 9:33 AM

        Just rollin the hate train.

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      June 10, 2013 10:53 PM

      As someone who's been kicking myself for not subscribing sooner (just subbed two weeks ago) I couldn't care less.

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      June 11, 2013 12:25 AM

      I wouldn't be surprised if Sony felt they could get away with charging for multiplayer precisely because of the utter failings of their rivals over at Microsoft.

      We pay a price for lack of competition. If the Xbone is a disaster, don't be surprised if Sony regains some of that infamous arrogance that hobbled the PS3. Be careful what you wish for.

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        June 11, 2013 9:42 AM

        No doubt if they bury the Xbone the PS5 will be absolute trash. It seems like everytime a console maker has a huge success (PS2 and Wii come immediately to mind) their follow up is not nearly as good or successful.

    • reply
      June 11, 2013 1:47 AM

      [deleted]

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        June 11, 2013 9:44 AM

        They should really make people want to get PS+ by adding value, not by taking away functionality. Make everyone want it because it's awesome and a great value, don't make it mandatory to play your games.

        That being said, you get free games, so $60/year isn't outrageous.

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        June 11, 2013 9:44 AM

        [deleted]

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      June 11, 2013 2:13 AM

      Kind of sad, but then again if this is what it took to get the other stuff right, then so be it.

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      June 11, 2013 5:45 AM

      Well that's not good. No matter how worthwhile a subscription is, I don't like the idea of being forced to subscribe to unlock what is a major feature on games I have already purchased.

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      June 11, 2013 5:56 AM

      That's lame. Getting free games on Plus does look cool though. And overall... no question Sony has trumped the living crap out of MS and Nintendo.

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      June 11, 2013 6:57 AM

      This sucks but if its one or the other of the same this is better.

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      June 11, 2013 7:13 AM

      I wonder how this will affect self-published games on the platform and future cross-platform stuff like portal 2. I wonder if PSN+ is only required to access the MMOs considering that consoles do the subscription a little different than whats on PC. Didn't DCUO require PSN+ before it went Free2Play.

      I have a feeling we might be confusing MMO PSN+ and normal multiplayer. I wonder if they will clarify this.

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      June 11, 2013 7:41 AM

      HIJACK - I've been an Xbox Live Gold subscriber and Xbox owner since day 1. The Xbox Live network to me is bar none the best, while all I've heard from PS3 gamers is how lackluster the PSN is. I remember the whole "each developer sets up their own friends list" and such. There was nothing cohesive about it.

      Has it gotten better? That's one of my major 'on the fence' things about going PS4 this generation. I don't have a PS3, so I don't know, but I hear from all of you and others.

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        June 11, 2013 7:49 AM

        I've been in the same boat as you, but as I get older I've been playing multi less. XBL has been less and less of a good deal when all of its perks are assumed. PSN has come a long way. I'd say for friends and multi it doesn't match XBL, but on value and making paid subscription worth it, it rules. They may have a rough patch at launch, but I think PSN will be comparable.

        If you are a sports fan who watches a ton of tv, XBL is the way to go.

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        June 11, 2013 8:20 AM

        Live Gold = PSN Plus. This is the pay for service.
        Live = PSN. This is the free service.

        The multiplayer friends list thing you're talking about was an issue when the two systems launched. I only play Call of Duty online, but that series uses the PS3 friends list. Off the top of my head I don't know any games from the past few years that haven't done the same.

    • reply
      June 12, 2013 4:37 PM

      Will i have to pay for the PS+ to use the NETFLIX app?

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