Have you also asked MS and Nintendo to do the same?With Sony introducing new tiers to their PS plus subscription service, they should release online multiplayer from the paywall and make it free. It shouldn't be an exclusive feature or perk when subbing to PS plus, it should be available for everyone free of charge.
Now that Sony introduces new tiers, they have multiple compelling options for people paying for PS plus, in the form of cloud saving, streaming, game downloads, exclusive discounts and deals, demos and free games every month. People will pay for this and be happy. A majority of their fan base will still be subbed. But me, who only want to play some co-op multiplayer in Elden Ring/Souls or make a couple of runs in Returnal, it fucking sucks I need to shell out a lot of money every year for a service I barely use.
TLDR; It's fucking bullshit to keep online multiplayer behind a paywall.
I get that your intention is just to dump on Xbox Live but Xbox Live was much more reliable than PSN in the PS360 days, especially the first 4 years. It was also more consistent than PC online play because every PC game did online its own way and outside of a few big shooters it was hit and miss as to how good the experience would be. It's just how it was.Is Live reliable now 20 years later? They just had an outage that lasted almoust an entire day.
It's not like as if Sony wasn't going to get hacked in 2011 if they were charging for online back then.
Good luck for MS if they drop the paywall, it will probably have a big negative impact for Gamepass due to it being one of the main reasons people go for the Ultimate tier.
People were saying MS wanted to make Gold free last year and MS tried to raise the price instead.
Of course investment improves infrastructure. Sony seen how much they could make from PSN and invested accordingly. PSN during PS4 was leagues better and with more users. PS5 will be even better as more money is invested. MS laid the foundations of Xbox Live with the original Xbox and continued it with the 360.People have this perception that the money somehow makes it way into improving the service - it barely does. You merely pay for the service and "privilege" for them to be your preferred mediator. No matter how much some people shriek and shout about it, they're not going to change something that will take away from their cashflow stream.
As one dude already succinctly said in the thread - "we facilitated it", and then we validated it, and ultimately we adopted it as a new standard. Thank yourselves. Enjoy it. Its not going away.
It's nice to want things. I'd like to live in my place rent free.