File this in the "hmm, interesting" folder of your mind's desktop. Sony's polling its customers in the Asian market for ways in which they can improve their PC/PSP PlayStation Store. One of the selectable responses is "Monthly subscription plan (1 price for unlimited download)". Interesting idea. Would you be happy paying a set amount each month, ala GameTap, for unlimited access to the store's PSP and PS1 games?
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I wouldn't have the time to get my money's worth out of unlimited downloads, anyway, so I like the idea of PSN remaining free, with the choice of whether you want to spend money on content or not.
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It all depends how much it would cost per month, and how much new content they could guarantee to offer each month. Also what if they started adding an expiry date to downloads, or a condition where they only work if you still have a valid and paid up subscription?

I do like the idea of a set monthly fee compared to paying for content per download. For those who play games a lot this could be very good indeed and save them a lot of money.
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Indeed, that's why it's rather difficult for me to choose as I don't play a lot. It would better imo if it stays free and you pay when you d/l content.
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I think the best solution would be to have levels of subscription. Having a free to access basic membership, but with each download having to be paid for, and then additional monthly subscription levels, with a budget one that includes so many downloads per month, and a premium one that costs more, but allows unlimited free downloads.

Xbox Live! used to do this with the original Xbox, with silver and gold membership levels. Do they still do that with the 360?
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I don't even know. I got free access to XBL for 1 month, and I also bought an XBL update card for 1 year, which I haven't used so far. Will update it as soon as I will use XBL again.
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PSN = Playstation network ? Is that it?

I think the maintenance costs should be supported by Playstation TM
People buy playstations to play games, but publicity (in Portugal and rest of the world i think) says that you can play offline (no internet, standart) and also on-line, it doens't say that you have to pay in present or in future. So i think it should remain free.
Pay to download a new game i agree, or new software, but pay for use something that you allready bought ....
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You have always had to pay to use the online features of the original Xbox and now the 360 though. But I do think that charging did put a lot of people off from joining the original Live! community when the first Xbox came out. I joined at the time as mine came with a free one year subscription to the gold service, and then I continued paying yearly, which I think cost about £30 a year at the time. I did however let that expire a couple of years ago when I stopped playing most Xbox games online.
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You still have the different accounts for XBL. I had a golden one for free for 1 month, it expired today, and took me back to a silver one. Now I can still use the online shop and such things, but I won't be able to play online until I update to a golden one again (I think). The update card costs approx. 55€ for 1 year.
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