Alarm bells are ringing in more paranoid heads as another Sony executive has discussed the ongoing need for the PlayStation Network to, well, make cash.
This time around it's Sony Computer Entertainment's Masayuki Chatani, who heads up the technology platform division. He told Japanese outlet Nikkei the company isn't relying on "sell and forget" model.
Servers and the like have running costs. After we sell the hardware, though, we continue to sell products such as content and services
...
We expect to see considerable growth in digital content, such as game download services, avatar items and the like.
Pretty innocuous stuff, until Chatani started talking about how you could pay for it:
We can also accept payment in a growing number of ways. In addition to single-payment packaged software, there are also schemes like monthly fees or per-item charges. I think this variety of payment methods will bring about a diverse range of playing methods, too.
Monthly fees? Sony is just publicly throwing around ideas at present - possibly to soften people up and/or test the waters. The increasing vibe is a "premium" service will end up being made available for a subscription sooner or later. Just don't expect it to be called "PSN Gold".
PS3 owners shouldn't panic: SCE boss Kaz Hirai has already clarified once that the core PSN functionality - no charge to play games online - remains, the current semi-public brainstorming is for the extra stuff.
We
are wondering where Home fits into all this brave new financial world, though.
