Perhaps crucially in the long-run, this ability to play games online for free contrasts sharply with Microsoft's equivalent free service, Xbox Live Silver, which enables community features and content purchases, yet doesn't permit users to play multiplayer online games. As well as being able to play multiplayer online games for nothing, users of the free Sony service will also have access to voice and video chat, messaging, unique user IDs and handles, and matchmaking, ranking and data upload and download service for games.
But don't get too excited about the prospect of free online gaming just yet - Sony will be allowing game publishers far more control than Microsoft when it comes to running their own game servers, a factor that means, in theory, these publishers could still charge a fee for playing. And, while playing some games may still be free, there'll be plenty of content to extract cash from your wallet, thanks to the PlayStation Network Platform having an equivalent service to Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace.
Sony representatives in Japan have already stated how eager the company is to promote the sale of extra game content, with the PlayStation Network Platform set up to support a wide range of content sale and payment methods. There'll also be the chance for publishers to develop in-game stores in their titles, which will integrate with the main store infrastructure. Although Kutaragi-san didn't specify how users will be able to pay for all this extra content in his press briefing, it seems likely that Sony will run a credits system, whereby users pay for credits with a credit card.
Finally, it may not just be game-related content that's offered on the PlayStation Network Platform. Sony are marketing the PlayStation 3 as a multimedia centre, meaning it wouldn't be surprising to see downloadable movies or music available, for a price. The fact that Sony owns the rights to thousands of movies and music artists will help in this respect.
That's about it for now though - no doubt we'll learn a little more about this when E3 comes round. Stay tuned.
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