At this week's Leipzig Games Convention, the president of Sony Online Entertainment John Smedley held a talk on "Subscriptions vs Micro-transactions" in regards to MMO games. During the briefing, he 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."

So instead of paying a gold farmer or a rare-item hunter to hook you up with in-game goodies, Sony wants to have you pay them for the loot in a controlled manner so you don't have to deal with shady dealers. Also, this way you don't have to pay a subscription fee -- you just pay for what you want, in an a la carte method. An interesting idea all around, but sure to be controversial. Which would you rather do, pay 15 dollars a month in subscription fees or pay 5-20 dollars a month (depending on what you buy) in micro-transaction fees?