With the advent of the new XMB and PlayStation Home, an improved PlayStation Network rivaling that of XBox Live has had me worried how long this continually improving service would remain free. Eric Lempel, the PlayStation Network Director of Operations, informs Next-Gen and all of us Sony faithful that PSN intends to, in fact, remain free of charge. In the article Lempel states:

I think being free is always an advantage. The fact that it’s free is nice for consumers who want to try out the online experience, those who may be new to it and may not be ready to commit to spending dollars, and that’s a really good message for us. Being free also gives them the opportunity to spend the money that they may have spent on a subscription on online items or online games instead.”

This is comforting news to PS3 owners as PSN becomes more and more relavant.