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In the midst of Playstation's impressive barrage of PR flak at Microsoft, they quietly announced that online gaming would be pay to play. Microsoft is meanwhile trying to mitigate that fact for themselves with free games- albeit older ones. Meanwhile, Steam boxes are quietly being developed by various companies which will hit the ground running with your whole library already in place- and no need for subscription fees.

Now I realize that the merits of the consoles are amorphous at this point, and the 'winner' of the console wars is being declared with each exclusive and press event. That's not really the focus of this thread. Perhaps free to play has spoiled me, but I don't see myself justifying a premium subscription fee for internet gaming. Because of that, I'm far less excited about the consoles than I should be. I view it as a yearly add-on. No one wants to know how much they actually spent on WoW... but if you were on X-box Live gold since the 360 was released, you put at least $400 into that service, effectively catapulting the price of the console above PS3's launch point by nearly $200. To further muddy the waters, many of the 'console' exclusives will still be available on Steam boxes.

So my question is this- how important is the presence or absence of free multiplayer to your choice of console?

If you are a keen online game player you need to support the robust network that allows playing such games.

If you just want to download games and stuff, you are paying for short time use of the network in the price of the downloads.

Either way, you end up paying.

That model has changed a bit, and changed for the worse for lightweight gamers.

I am not a huge multi-player game player. The online games I have played most were Team Fortress 2 and Journey. If I had had to pay £40 to play Journey, I don't think I would have bought it.

Maybe there will be a pricing model in which a light online game like Journey costs a bit more and allows online play with that game only.

I have to say that the fee for multi-player doesn't have a discernable impact on my choice of console. I've had an Xbox 360 for years and I've always paid for the multiplayer and I'm happy with the service that I've received.

XBL was a good service even before they handed out free games. Sony meanwhile has suffered an unreliable service that has had several high profile security breaches over the years. That they are now charging isn't a surprise to me, and I doubt it'll dissuade many people from the console since Xbox has the same thing.

Really what Sony did was destroy Microsoft's indecisiveness and lack of damage control with a concentrated assault of common sense

Maybe there will be a pricing model in which a light online game like Journey costs a bit more and allows online play with that game only.

I have always wondered why there isn't some sort of limited subscription option, granted I have no idea what form that would take. Maybe they should offer two options to consumer. An ongoing subscription that gives them everything for the fee, or an online pass that allows the use of a single game for a year or permanently at a lower cost that would be appropriate for people who don't really do too much multiplayer.

Luckily for me I am largely uninterested in online multiplayer so it doesn't affect my choice. There are far more pressing issuse for me when it comes to choosing the next console. The potential of requiring a permanent internet connection to even run the console, lack of backwards compatibiilty and the rubbish being put forward by AAA gaming.
Me personally, I plan on skipping the next console generation and building a gaming rig.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Maybe there will be a pricing model in which a light online game like Journey costs a bit more and allows online play with that game only.

That would be really cool.