Good night sweet online Playstation 2 prince

Now that people are moving on to “next-gen” (now current gen?) online servers for Playstation 2 games are closing left and right. Last week Sony shut down servers for Harmonix’s online music game, Amplitude. Konami announced that Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence goes offline on April 2nd, only one year after the game’s release, and the most recent news is Resident Evil: Outbreak is going dark on March 31st. The reason for this? Not having a central online network.  This isn’t to say that Microsoft got everything right with Xbox Live, but one thing for sure is people can still play Xbox titles like Dead or Alive Ultimate, Mechwarrior and Crimson Skies. The problem isn’t only an issue for Sony, but Nintendo has it too, sort of. The only online Gamecube games, Phantasy Star Online: Episode 1 & 2 and Phantasy Star Online: Episode III are also going offline in April. Meanwhile, Sega has not announced a shutdown date for the Xbox server. If there was centralized Playstation network maybe you would still be able to enjoy Amplitude or Metal Gear Solid 3 online. But that might require some nominal fee similar to Xbox Live. What would you prefer? Paying a small fee to play online and have less (if any?) servers shut down since everything would be on a central network. Or free online play not controlled by a central network, but risk having games shut down with little notice?