Sony appears to be taking a cue from cable companies for it's newest game console and plans to offer multiple levels of subscription, Sony President of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida told The Guardian. Yoshida stated that, "As more and more services and contents become available digitally, we'll have more of an option to create attractive packages. So hypothetically we can look at different models--like a cable TV company,"
"We could have gold, silver or platinum levels of membership, something like that. We can do subscription services when we have more content--especially now that we have the Gaikai technology available," he added. "With one subscription you have access to thousands of games--that's our dream."
This is interesting news for fans of Sony's free online services. While PS3 owners can subscribe to Playstation Plus, players can choose to play games online for free, which may no longer be the case for the PS4. However, the news that PS4 owners could have access to thousands of games at once is certainly exciting, if that is indeed the case.
While nothing is set in stone, it remains to be seen what Sony plans to do, especially if it follows through with the plan to make the system mostly digital. "We're shifting our platform more and more to the digital side--PS4 will be similar to PS Vita in that every game will be available as a digital download, and some will also be available as a disc," says Yoshida.
While discussing the launch title The Witness, Yoshida said "The Witness will be a digital release and because of the flexibility of the digital distribution scheme, we can have more small games that might be free or available for a couple of dollars, or different services like free-to-play or subscription models."
As we find out more about the PS4, we we see if Yoshida's dream of PS4 owners having access to thousands of games at once will become reality, or just a pipe dream. The PS4 is still a long ways from completed, and Sony has not even revealed what the system will look like yet, so put this news in the rumors pile...for now.