Create new account
Forgot password?

NEWS

Sony: 20 Million Sign-ups for PSN

Rob Crossley's picture

By Rob Crossley

February 25, 2009

  • Login or register to post comments

See also:

Related Articles:

Sony’s PlayStation Network service has seen over 20 million user-registrations, according to the company.

Over 380 million pieces of digital content have been downloaded via PSN, adds Sony, with those goods at a combined value of around $180 million.

Sony also states that the PSN service is available in 55 countries and regions, and adds that the PS3’s Home service has amassed 4 million users since the open beta launched in December last year.

The Playstation Network went live in November 2006. Sony doesn’t remove duplicate entries and website registrations from its PSN figures, and it is unknown how large a proportion of the PSN userbase this accounts for. The company also combines PSP and PS3 registrations.

grognard66's picture
On February 25th grognard66 said:

I agree that it might be tricky to break down duplicate entries on a particular system, but it should be very easy to break it down between PSP, PS3 and website registrations. The fact they refuse to do so means they're embarrassed by the PS3 number - otherwise, why not put it out there?

illiniphase4's picture
On February 26th illiniphase4 said:

On the flip side... MS has refused to breakdown 360 vs Windows Live accounts, which is kind of a big deal considering the fact that PC gamers don't pay a dime for those accounts (because they are smart, let's face it... having to pay to play multiplayer in a non-MMO environment really is a lot of nonsense).

Alex Walker's picture
On February 26th Alex Walker said:

Because that number will be lower than Xbox Live memberships. It doesn't matter how much lower, just that it will be, so they release it as total PSN accounts.

AkIRA_22's picture
On February 25th AkIRA_22 said:

Let's face it, it's just easier to count EVERY account than trying to determine if they come from individual consoles. 20 million is still high, not a bad number, even if it is kind of misleading. With Live it's very easy to assume each person only has one account, realistically very few individuals would pay for more than one account per person. I personally have 6 logins for my PS3.

illiniphase4's picture
On February 25th illiniphase4 said:

Well, I know I'm not everyone, but I actually had two accounts, a silver and a gold, each paired to a separate Windows Live tag. Each of my roomates also went and started their own silver accounts on my machine, even though they didn't personally own a 360. They did the same on my PS3. I'm sure this kind of thing happens all the time.

ArronC07's picture
On February 25th ArronC07 said:

The thing is that MS don't break down between silver and gold accounts so it is quite possible that someone might have a couple of silver accounts and one gold account.

grognard66's picture
On February 25th grognard66 said:

The Seattle Post Intelligencer ran an article where they somehow got acces to a internal MS Excel spreadsheet dated 2/2008 which indicated the number worldwide at that point was 56% gold, and 60% gold in the US.

I'm too old and stupid to properly do links in this forum so I'll just copy it below for your reference:
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/161658.asp

NickgamertagO1's picture
On February 25th NickgamertagO1 said:

Arron,

One thing people may or may not realize is that it's somewhat a pain to set up an account on the xbox weather it'd be a silver or gold account. You have to have a windows live ID and you can only have one gamertag per windows live ID. So creating many multiple accounts is cumbersome, and essentially useless considering you'd be wasting any gamer score you've accrued.

ArronC07's picture
On February 25th ArronC07 said:

I've got two accounts (both silver) on my XBOX, one for me and one for my brother when he comes over.

NickgamertagO1's picture
On February 25th NickgamertagO1 said:

Man you and that other dude really whore out your box. I did say it's a pain to set up multiple accounts, but I didn't say I didn't set up a few accounts. I have two accounts on my box, O1 and rumjumplevelup (from my oblivion days when I walked around I would run and constantly jump and heal myself to level up my agility and heal ability lol). I have though set up about a total of, hmmm, 6-7 accounts since live launched on xbox 1 (oh shoot, counting xbox 1 I've probably set up over 10). But I did so for Halo 2 and Halo 3, you would get to a point rank-wise that you'd start running into cheaters so I'd make a new account (gotta love xbox 1's 1 month free cards) so I'd have a rank of 1 (plus sometimes we'd boost eachother with new accounts...shame on me I know). I would consider myself pretty harcore though, and I can't imagine most people setting up more than a few accounts per box (especially people with no roomates).

So, with all that being said, it seems MS and Sony both have inflated numbers. The question really is, is which console has the most active online members who participate in multiplayer games? My guess would be 360, if not for their fan's arguably more online mindset, their installed base lead alone should put them over the PS3 for acitve users (that says a lot considering you have to pay for multiplayer live...)\

edit: I meant to make the point that now there are achievements, creating and using multiple accounts kinda hinders your progress (if you care about achievements, and most 360 owners I know at least care somewhat about the score, even if just in the least).

greedo1980's picture
On February 25th greedo1980 said:

I imagine that each PSN account that gets created probably contains the serial number of the machine used to create the account in the first place.
Sony would just have to do an aggregate database query on their PSN accounts database to get the number of PS3's in use.
It is not hard to do in this day and age.