Playstation Plus coming June 29th

You can stop holding your breath the Playstation Network still holds its roots in the free realm. Playstation Plus is like something that you can stack on top of the Playstation Network to make it the service that it was always meant to be. Again, this is not saying that your PSN experience will not be everything it once was, this is saying that those willing to pay will be greatly rewarded.

With a pay service comes a hefty amount of exclusive offers and features. Here is what Playstation Plus has to offer:

• discounts on randomly selected DLC (much like Microsoft's Deal of the Week)
• free DLC (that cost's money for non-subscribers)
• exclusive early access to demos and betas
• the digital Qore magazine - free
• free full game trials for any game up to one hour before you have to make a purchasing decision
• auto downloading (which downloads patches, select demos and game videos, etc. all without ever having to think about it

To me it seems as though Playstation's service is worth the asking price because it brings a lot of the oft requested features (that Xbox already has). Perhaps cross game invites and party chat will become Playstation Plus features, should they ever come down the pipe.

Playstation Plus is 50 dollars a year and if you purchase a subscription at the outset you get 15 months for the same price. Seperate three month packs are available for 18 dollars.