Rumour – PlayStation Plus needed for Hulu Plus PS3

Seems over for ‘free’ PS3 services.

while that is disappointing im not particularly surprised. M$ is doing the same,
an im guessing sony is also trying to beef up PS+ so that more people will buy it

lol complete waste..
and i guess its not a rumor when its announced by the service itself?

What the fuck is HULU?!

The only obvious outcome really. I said yesterday that to actually be worth something, PS+ has to offer services basic PSN doesn’t. As long as they keep adding more stuff, PS+ could do well.

@4
i think its a substription for the ps3 so if u get online on your ps3 then u will have to pay (i only think)

if hulu was free with psn+ then it’d be ok

wait hulu is basicaly bbc i player on ps3 but with loads of other programs from different channels but its still shit

@1

That’s a bit harsh, considering they’ve just updated the firmware with a free video editing and uploading feature.

Not that I care since this isn’t available in the UK; maybe the standard version of Hulu is free but the ‘Hulu Plus’ is a charge service?

@1 All the free services prior to PSN+’s introduction remain free. They’ve clarified this countless times.

And whilst it seems a bit sucky, it would makes sense that they try to add as many ‘features’ to their subscription service as rapidly as possible.

I’m not saying everything that you already have will become Plus-only now, but this was how it started with Microsoft. One or two services were announced as being Gold-only, now absolutely everything new that turns up is. Sony have obviously noticed that this appears to be working out nicely for MS, sadly.

Y’now, the more I look at this, the more I feel that long term Live may prove to have been a bad thing for us consumers (stick with me an I’ll explain).

Initially it was a fairly small charge to cover MS hosting a very good online service for gamers. Fair enough.

Now, though, it’s morphed into a charge to get access to a closed, MS controlled experience, to other services that charge, too.

Sony is now of course following suit, although it actually looks better to me now as if you want to fore-go this stuff the actual online gaming remains (for now) free plus with the internet browser (which is okay but a bit clunky) Facebook, etc. remain available and free.

This is a slippery slope, but not just for PSN for us the consumer in general, and it started with Live when Facebook, etc. got added and you had to pay MS to get access to services that are otherwise free as well as services which then charge – i.e. when Live stopped being about paying for just your online gaming but access via your Xbox to online services free or otherwise.

This was not good in my view for consumers.

Taken at face value I see this:

on a PC I pay my ISP and then I get Facebook, etc. for free. If I want I can pay for other services, too

on a console, I have to pay my ISP, pay my console provider and then get access to free content as well as other paid services

Right now Live is the worst offender with PSN catching up and it seems that in the same way gamers gave Activision the okay to charge more for MW2 and then silly money for the map packs they are now giving companies MS and Sony cart blanche to insert an additional charge between us and other services.

Not a good trend and I blame all of you who’ve backed this over the years!

Note I like the idea of getting access via my PS3 or 360 to such services, but the idea MS and Sony should be able to put an additional charge on top of my ISP and any paid for services is just crazy.

@13
lots of good points there
but aslong as playing online on psn is free, for the life of me i cant understand why anyone would pay for Live.
PS+ atm is completely different to Live, atm psn+ is literally what it says. its just a service to get extra bits out of psn, but certainly not needed.
live is basically the whole online experience, and without it, you dont have an online experience from xbox?

imo Live has far too many dumb subscribers that happily throw their money away every month/year for pretty much no reason?

I think as long as Sony keep playing online free they’re ok. They really haven’t done a good job of advertising PSN+. If you’re not looking on sites such as this you probably know nothing about it. 4 people text me yesterday asking what is.

@6 You couldn’t be more wrong.

Hulu is an American thing similar to BBC iplayer except they have pretty much all the channels and programs. If you go on the website it looks pretty damn cool that Americans get to watch it all for free.

http://www.hulu.com/

Euro/UK needs something like this

Considering the entertainment industrie is scared shittles of THE INTERNET. It’s a small wonder a service like that ever launched in the US, let alone the rest of the world.
Movie and TV producers are too busy falling over each other trying to license stuff per country to ever embrace the internet properly.

@ 13. Totally agree man. TBH besides the actual online gaming itself, I can get all these “extra” services on my PC and most of the time for free.
So as long as that fundamental feature of being able to play my games online with other people remains free, then hell, Sony can do whatever they want.