At this Leipzig Games Convention 2007, the president of Sony Online Entertainment John Smedley held a talk titled "Subscriptions vs Micro-transactions" in regards to MMO games. In his talk, Smedley indicated that Sony was looking at making their upcoming pc/ps3 spy-themed MMO a free play title, meaning there would be no subscription fee (unlike World of Warcraft). Instead, SOE would fund the title via micro-transactions and a ´velvet-rope policy´ where certain area are only available if people pay for access.

Smedley acknowledged that consumers are used to the subscription based model (as is SOE, considering their long history of subscription based MMOs), but said that they "believe very strongly that this is the future of MMO gaming, but we also know that it is something that players have an issue with... There´s going to be an aftermarket, and we want to control it so that players don´t get duped into having something switched out from them."

More Information Here: Sony wants The Agency to be free to play

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