How do console gamers justify having to pay for multiplayer?

do you like paying an additional fee to get access to multiplayer on consoles

  • yes

    Votes: 17 12.0%

  • no

    Votes: 52 36.6%

  • no but I have to

    Votes: 52 36.6%

  • something else (I will elaborate in my post)

    Votes: 21 14.8%
  • Total voters
    142
Elektro Demon

Elektro Demon

Banned
So to play multiplayer games you need to have ps plus. Which is insane in my opinion. You have to pay your isp and on top of that you have to pay sony.
Why? In the ps3 era this was free. It's not like they would go bancrupt if they went back to free online play.
I'm not bothered with this, I mostly game on pc and play single player games, I have little interest in multiplayer games.
Doesn't this bother you? How do you justify paying this?

You pay 60 usd for a game and that should cover single player and also multiplayer.
I don't know the exact number Sony takes through royalties, but let's say it's 10 percent. I believe it's in this ballpark, maybe even more.
Sony's online infrastructure costs should be covered through this royalty. Let's say you play Battlefield V. You're not playing on Sony's servers, you're playing on EA's servers.
It's a fee that is just there to take your money, imo.
 
Last edited:
My guess? The casual audience gravitates to consoles and only buy 2/3 games per year, generally COD and then FIFA or some other sports game. I imagine it's to get more ongoing revenue out of that audience which makes up an enormous part of their userbase.
 
"Do you like having to pay for X?" Oh, me! Me!

I answered Yes. I love it. I hope they raise the rates soon. All this money in my house is a major fire hazard.
 
Last edited:
1) Because otherwise you can't play online. And you want to play with your friends;

2) They add some games to the service to soften the blow;

3) Not having to deal with the thought of "THAT GUY IS A FUCKING CHEATER! IT HAS TO BE!!!" every time you die.
 
I don't mind, the price is fairly insignificant and the features that live comes with are decent. I'm sure PS and MS have expenses related to their offerings and I wouldn't expect it for free.
 
I don't necessarily like it? However I've been doing it for 15-16 years or so. So I don't think it's that big of a deal given we get free games every month nowadays. Also it's not this way in all games on PS4. I can play Fortnite without PS PLus. doesn't help that I don't like Fortnite...but still the option is there. Warframe would be a better example.
 
I only pay up when I play Souls or Bloodborne. It's the only multiplayer-games I find even remotely enjoyable. Other than that I don't see any reason spending money on these services.
 
They can't nor do they have a choice (beside quit gaming on consoles), but they'll follow the popular opinion in order to not be singled out.
That's just how society works, best part is they'll make up all sorts of excuses to justify their action/choices even.
As for companies, that's their work-around to keep the game prices at $60, add-ons, expansions, skins, whatever.
 
I only subscribe for the monthly selection of "free" games as well as the discounts that are given to subscribers.

I don't every play multiplayer games. If that was the only thing on offer, I definitely wouldn't subscribe.
 
I was a Xbox Live subscriber back at launch in 2002. I still have a PS+ subscription for the next week, I was actually thinking of not renewing as I just don't play many games online anymore.

I don't really mind to a degree, but I do wish they allowed basically like system link mode over the internet, basically instead of being lan based you could manual add in servers if desired, you basically would have to punch a wall in your router though. That way if the service is every shutdown you could still play the games online forever without a middleman, obviously this would not work with games that use host servers by the developer instead of clients for hosting.
 
Last edited:
I guess I actually don't mind too much, obviously I would rather it be free but I would also like it to be a good service.
Last gen I paid on xbox360 and ps3 was free and Microsoft where not giving free games each month I bas paid £40 each year just for street fighter 4 and a few other games I don't really play much online games.
This gen I have a ps4 and I don't have xbox, I paid for 2 years and dropped paying for a while I had paid it yearly but now I'm just paying monthly and I only play street fighter 5 online I like bloodborne being connected online the same way I enjoyed dark souls online I really could cancel it but I have got a load of games I would no longer have access to so I should start playing some of those.
The switch is only £17.99 for a year which is nothing really even although Nintendos online infrastructure is shit some games work OK like smash bros so it's nice to have the option to jump into an online game also enjoy having the nes and snes games as part of it.
Next gen if I end up with ps5 and Xbox I'll not pay for online for both, it will either be one or the other or pay monthly and chop and change which one I'm subscribing to.
 
Not currently on PS+. Currently on Switch's online thing but mainly because I was able to share with several friends and also for my kids to play the NES/SNES titles. I don't play multiplayer often so my decision has been based on the extra services. I liked PS+ because of the free games, the backup storage, the remote play, and the "share controller" feature. Since I have plenty of games and I don't need those other features as much anymore, I cancelled months ago.
 
We have two PS4's and two XBOX One's in my household. Being able to buy a single digital game and play it on two systems at the same time pays for my $40 per yer membership rather quickly. Besides the deals that are offered to Plus and Gold members are really, really good at times.
 
I don't play online. Ever. Well... Almost never. Rarely enough that I wouldn't miss it were online to disappear completely. But I've had a PS+ account for years and have actually paid it up until some time late 2021. Because of the free games and discounts. If those were to go away, I'd cancel.
 
I don't pay to play online on consoles, I am against it. I had some fun with Splatoon on Wii U, and ARMS before the subscription, but otherwise I don't play online because of the fee.
 
Last edited:
i stupidly bought 2 years worth of PS+ but haven't really touched my PS4 in a long time. it has now expired and i don't ever plan on subscribing again.

if i only played on PS4 and only played mp games then i'd feel forced to pay. but fortunately for me PC is my main platform where of course it's free to play online :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I rarely play online as it is, but I subscribe to Xbox Live because of free 360 and OG Xbox games that are permanently connected to my account. I will subscribe for three months at $15 and let it lapse until a new game arrives that I do not have. I'm building my 360 catalogue nicely for less and don't need to put them on my credit card.
 
If you like console exclusive games and want to play them online then there is no way around it. It is as simple as that.

Wether you like it or not.

Anything else?
 
I think they should consider dropping this requirement for next-gen. The two services offer enough without it, and MS would be better served by funneling people to GamePass and Sony to PS Now.
 
Quasicat said:
I rarely play online as it is, but I subscribe to Xbox Live because of free 360 and OG Xbox games that are permanently connected to my account. I will subscribe for three months at $15 and let it lapse until a new game arrives that I do not have. I'm building my 360 catalogue nicely for less and don't need to put them on my credit card.
Click to expand...
When you say permanently connected to your account do you mean even if drop paying the subscription, for example if you got ps5 next gen and no longer paid you could still fire up your xbox to play the free games you downloaded?
 
I don't like paying, but I feel that Sony gives me enough shit that it doesnt bother me. The service is great, it works great, I get "free games" and discounts.

Like a month ago I got a mail from sony, informing me that due to plus, I had saved $40 dollars this years...it pays by itself!
 
I wouldn't say I like it but I accept it. I was there for the Xbox Live beta and there was nothing like it before it. I accepted I had to pay for the privilege and what I got out of it was more than worth it. I still have friends from 2002!

So yeah, if you didn't play online PC before console, it was just the norm. And the price was nothing compared to what we had to fork out for broadband at the time (around £30 per month for 256mb, or something like that).

We subsidised the infrastructure to allow it to become what it is now and I'm ok with that. Should we still pay? Probably not. Will I stop paying out of protest? Definitely not.
 
I guess the way I rationalise it is that they give you the hardware for break even or a loss, then continue to update the OS software and stuff for 6+ years. So I see it as I'm kinda paying for all that. Plus I don't want to play multiplayer on PC vs keyboard and mouse.

I would prefer they just rolled it into one sub now though with gamepass being a thing. I won't ever pay for Sony's online so I can never main their console. It is what it is.
 
It's like 10 pence a day, but it doesnt stop people moaning about it like it's threatening their livelihood. Get over it. Pay it or don't.
 
PSPlus and Xbox Live Gold have put me off console gaming as well. If there's no cross-platform play for PS5 and Xbox Elite Series (or whatever it's called) then I'll just stick to PC gaming.
 
I hate it and want it to go away. Remember back when PSN was free and everyone would say "you get what you pay for!"

Well, you don't. You get a paywall that locks your cloud saves away and holds them ransom if you didn't think of copying them before your sub ran out.
 
I am fine with it. Keeping the infrastructure up and running costs money after the initial hardware sale. The games included each month with my subscription help to justify it more. Not a fan of games dropping their multiplayer component for current generation like the WWF and Sports games do with their iterative releases. But I bypass that by just not buying them.

It would be great to see them offer a reduced rate subscription with no subscription games included for the complainers.
 
I don't care about multiplayer these days, but it is a downright ridiculous thing, but I guess that's what you call greed. On the PC it was, and is free, and so should it be for consoles as well. From one day to the next Nintendo decided that it should cost the consumer money, and for a bad infrastructure nevertheless. So I voted "no".
 
Last edited:
I play exclusively single player games so it isn't an issue for me.

Death Stranding was closest thing to a multiplayer I recently tried and didn't cost me anything to connect online with.
 
NAI1210 said:
When you say permanently connected to your account do you mean even if drop paying the subscription, for example if you got ps5 next gen and no longer paid you could still fire up your xbox to play the free games you downloaded?
Click to expand...
Only for Xbox and 360 games, yes. Xbox One or anything PlayStation does not do this and you have to stay subscribed to play those titles.
 
I pay for my ISP. Sony comes along and says, hey we have these video games that need internet access to be played the way they were designed to be played, mind if we piggyback on your ISP? Sure no problem... and then they charge me for the privilege! I should not be paying Sony, if anything they should be paying me. They are making use my ISP that I pay for in order to make their games fully functional.
 
I'm of that rare breed that barely ever plays online. Last time was back in 2016 for a week when I became obsessed with Rocket League..but it didn't last. All offline gaming since.

I loved when GTA V and RDR 2 released, but all these online DLC's make me frustrated. I'd happily play some new offline content.
 
Companies tried how far they can go and consumers accepted it. All under the excuse that it will make "online gaming better".
 
I think sony had it best last gen. Online itself, but if you wanted to get "free" games, you could pay for the service. Now i don't pay for any, i don't need it, since i mostly play single player games anyway, and i'd rather pay for the games than have to keep a sub to have access to the "free" games we get with plus.
 
Haven't paid for PSN/Xbox Live in years. Don't miss it honestly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

  • Poll
Do you think Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will have a multiplayer mode?
7
161
Deerock71 replied
So how much are you willing to pay?
2 3
106
4K
vodka-bull replied
Multi-genre gamers - how do you make decisions on what to play?
43
1K
drganon replied
How do you select what to play?
18
188
Danjin44 replied
  • Locked
9/11 for gamers
10
205
Rush2112 replied
Top Bottom