PlayStation Plus announced at E3: $50 / year

And here it is! PlayStation Plus has been announced. As we suspected, the PlayStation Network itself will not change, while power users can upgrade for $50 a year or $18 for three months. And to sweeten the deal, your first three months are free. And what do you get for your hard earned dough? Tons of premium content, including “hundreds of dollars of products” throughout the year, early access to betas, and Qore. Sony is also indicating that Plus subscribers will be able to send voice messages to other gamers to invite them to play, even if they’ve made the foolish decision to not subscribe to Plus. Naturally, though, they won’t be able to reply in kind unless they too pony up the cash.