back to article PlayStation Network members top 20m

Sony has announced that over 20m accounts have been registered with the PlayStation Network since the free online service launched back in late 2006. The network’s subscriber figures compare to global PS3 sales of 21.3m units – as of December 2008 – and 50m PlayStation Portables (PSP) sales, as of last month. That may sound …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Gratis....

    ...you can't beat free beer....

  2. André Marques

    Easy to explain

    2 factors at play here:

    1st- He asks you for all info to make an ID on the 1st startup.

    2nd- Inbuilt Wifi. With the 360 you need a physical effort to connect, either by a network cable or by a wifi dongle you have to buy. On the PS3 your Wifi just pops up there to pick.

    So I'm guessing that most people with a PS3 will register, while only those that actively WANT to will on the X360.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Great comparison

    Another great piece of Sony PR!!

    At the very best you could say that they have 4million active users (i.e. those that took effort to download Home) against the 17million Xbox Live users who are active users as they have paid for service!

    Nice one Sony that showed them!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Interesting numbers...

    I would be interested to find out what the regular numbers are for users playing games whilst signed into the PSN service (single player would count, as long as the user was connected to PSN at the time). Then we could compare it to Microsofts numbers and see how Sony measure up.

    Most people I know with PS3's (including myself) use the thing as a media player and rarely - if ever - play games on it.

    So although I contribute towards Sony's numbers I don't really think I should, and I figure that will apply to many people.

    Should I really count as an active user just because I downloaded Home? I downloaded it and I tried it out to see what all the fuss was about. Frankly, I still don't understand what all the fuss is about. I've not logged into it since.

    Maybe they should concentrate more on getting some more decent game exclusives, and concentrate less on PR rubbish?

    Before anyone says it, I understand that the PS3 has a large selection of good games, however, most of those are multiplatform

    This must also work against the 360 then you say? Well yes, it does, sort of.

    ~slightly off topic here~

    I know a reasonable number of people who own both consoles, as do I. If a multiplatform game arrives it almost always gets purchased for the 360. Why? Not because Live is better (although I believe it is) but purely because I pay for Live, so I am going to use it. The only games I have purchased for my PS3 are exclusives. As a result, my 360 collection is approx 3 times the size of my PS3 collection. I haven't purchased a PS3 title since Drakes Fortune.

    On the other hand, I wouldn't ever watch a DVD or streamed movie on the 360 out of choice - it's too noisy. The PS3 is most often used for these things in my home, and is very good at it.

    I don't think that should make me count as an active PSN user though...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    @Great comparison

    'At the very best you could say' that you made that correlation up.

    Should I mention the free Bronze XBox Live subscription that gets given away at every opportunity? No, that wouldn't do. Come back when you've separated paid from from freebie accounts on XBL.

  6. Iain

    Multiple accounts?

    Since every PS3 I know has three accounts (necessary in order to access all of the free content on UK, US and JPN servers) I can believe there are still a fair few PS3s not connected to online.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Great comparison

    Fair point! We do noy know how many are gold members and by the way the free level is Silver not Bronze.

    But notice how Microsoft said 17million since Jan this year. PSN has not had a quarter of it's customers download, the killer app, Home. I would love to see an activity report on number of people that game while on PSN, either single player or multiplayer. Then compare that to the number who do the same on XBL. I would be AMAZED if PSN was anywhere near XBL.

    Perhaps there is a reason for this! I own both and purely use mine to play Blu Ray and sometimes a bit of Folding that is it maybe GT if it ever comes out!

  8. Matt

    What's the big deal?

    Is it really that much of an issue, that Sony are claiming 20 million users on their network? Even if it is PR spin, Microsoft do exactly the same with their products. I honestly can't see why people are getting wound up about this.

  9. PIB

    Rubbish

    Re: xbot facts

    There's no shortage of xbot fulls, it seems, who conjure 'facts' out of thin air, for their own manipulations. Or the ' I'm guessing' brigade who do all their guessing wearing their M$ shades.

    Like a bunch of schoolgirl playground gossips.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    only 9m online Xbox accounts...

    Leaked Microsoft report shows 50% of XboxLive accounts are the free cheapskate silver accounts, with no online play..

    20m online PS3 accounts.

    8m online 360 accounts...

    http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/161658.asp

    oh dear... Looks like Microsofts lies and deception has backfired yet again...

  11. Scott Mckenzie

    Online Play with XBL Silver

    Err... but you can't actually play games online with Xbox Live Silver (at least not to the best of my knowledge) it allows interactive play within a game etc.... so it's sort of like what you get with a PS3.

    I'll always go for quality not quantity thanks....

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    PSN numbers are deceiving

    Almost everyone I know who has a PS3 has at least 2-3 accounts, I guess that is because living in a PAL PSN store region, most of us have to source more up-to-date content from foreign shores. The only way to do that - to create multiple accounts for stores from different regions.

    For myself, I have 3 accounts, one for the PAL store, one for the US store, and one for the Asia store (singapore). I buy mostly cheaper imports, and some of these imports require download content from specific PSN stores. I used to use entropay, but since it stopped working, I've been buying PSN cards from gaminglue (they have the singapore cards available at times).

    I guess Sony is not going to crack down on users who enter fake information, as they need big numbers for advertising purposes.

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