What do you think about having service charges for Playstation Network?

~Sony Computer Entertainment executive vice president and chief technology officer Masayuki Chatani again brought up the pay-to-play topic: “In addition to single-payment packaged software, there are also schemes like monthly fees or per-item charges,” ~ Game Informer Magazine

I understand that it requires money to maintain servers for this feature, but this is a main factor as to the reason why some people bought a PS3.

I can see how in some aspects this could be a good thing. For instance, take the game MAG into consideration. This game is totally based on a mass multiplayer online (MMO) system. It’s going to cost money to keep that game it’s self going, otherwise people will stop playing it if the service provided isn’t maintained.

On the other hand, if they do make it so you have to pay to even play any game multiplayer like XBL I think it’s a horrible idea. Although, Sony will probably make a big profit from doing so, I don’t see many people staying on PSN because XBL has so much better features and that’s why people accept paying for it. EG, the party system, which allows you to have conversations with anyone on your friend list at any given moment, while in two or three or how ever many are in the party different games at one time. Genius!

If PSN can come anywhere close to XBL’s standards than I guess it wouldn’t be any different that XBL except for exclusives. I’ve also been reading other links about how it could just be a different way of buying things. Like, instead of purchasing additional DLC, just paying a low monthly (or every 3 months I’ve read too) for full access, which doesn’t sound too bad.

Although, I’ve also read that the way it is now will stay free and the premium features will be the only thing that will cost a service charge.

Do you have any inside information?
What’s your opinion on this topic?