With the news that the PlayStation 4 will require users who want to play online multiplayer to subscribe to PlayStation Plus for around $50 a year, one of the primary selling points of the Playstation brand has met its demise. In order to compensate for this loss, Sony will offer a suite of services in exchange for your hard earned subscription fee.
Now that both Sony and Microsoft charge users for use of online multiplayer, the creators of the Playstation will have additional funds at their disposal to invest in Playstation Plus, giving the company the opportunity to offer complete feature parity with Xbox Live.
In the past, Xbox Live Gold memberships offered players the chance to play online multiplayer...and not much else. Though the service will now offer players the chance to play a selection of free games every month, PlayStation Plus has done so since the beginning, and with a wide variety of games from old school games such as Streets of Rage and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 to more modern games such as Saints Row the Third and Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Meanwhile, the offerings for Xbox Live Gold members are Assassin's Creed 2, Halo 3, and Fable 3. These are all good games, but are older and widely available, as opposed to the old-school game PlayStation Plus usually offers, which are arguably hard to find.
In addition, PlayStation Plus offers discounts on a huge amount of PlayStation Network titles by subscribing to the program, as well as early beta programs. Xbox Live Gold does not offer much in the way of bonuses, so gamers could be lured over to PlayStation Plus, especially if they were not impressed with the Xbox One. Plus, Sony charging for their online services means that Sony can improve the stability and security of their online services, thus adding more quality to the whole experience.
All these new features, though they mean the end of free online for Sony users, means that it could expand and deliver a new level of fan service for PlayStation 4 owners, and could spell the end of Xbox Live Gold membership dominance.