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Sony Explains "14m PSN" Claim
Following he news Edge posted last week about Sony’s confident claim that there are “14 million active PSN accounts” – and indeed following the general reaction in our comments section which asserted “no there isn’t” – Sony has clarified its original statement.
Sony says that the 14 million active PSN accounts does indeed combine figures of PSP and PS3 owners. This concession was carried with the confident assertion that one person using the same login for both is still treated as a single account.
"Seeing as PSP does include PSN services, yes those numbers do include all PlayStation Network registrations," a Sony spokesperson explained to GameSpot. As with the Xbox Live statistics, the figure includes multiple accounts used on the same console, the spokesperson added.
Though the company has clarified its position, it is still unknown how many PSN users are logging on via the PS3. Edge has contacted Sony regarding this matter.
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Sony knew they overstepped their ground with this BIG LIE that was so overwhelmingly obvious that NOBODY believed it!
My coworkers and I were making fun of Sony by pointing out that this time next year Sony would be bragging that the PS3 and the PSN had SURPASSED the number of people on Xbox Live and the number of Xbox 360 owners, even though that wouldn't even be close to happening!
Sony needs to stop talking to shareholders dumb enough to believe their lies. If Sony were to tell the truth, they would be a lot better off.
First of all, why does it even matter? Why would you be talking about it and laughing about it with a coworker that's just silly.
Second of all, Microsoft uses the same way to measure number of Live accounts. I don't really see how that's a lie, unless Microsoft is lying, too.
I think what a lot of people on these message boards fail to understand is that these news releases aren't targeted to us, they're targeted to shareholders. Sony is going with the strategy that if they have a critical mass of free subscribers they can better attract content providers and secure lucrative contracts (exclusive movies, etc.). MS is appealing directly to the shareholders with how much profit they are bringing in from subscriptions, regardless of content.
Fortunately for MS, they can appeal to both shareholders and content providers given the large base and the added argument that people paying for a service are more likely to use it and thus buy content (downloadable games/movies/etc.). This may be a factor in why Netflix went with 360.
For gamers, the only real incentive to which system has a larger active user base is added confidence that the games you like to play online will remain viable longer.
Maybe, Sony are being deliberatly ambigeous because the don't want MickeySoft to jump all over the "We've got more players on Live" bandwagon. Honestly, who amongst the PS3 faternity actually cares how many users we have? Do we even care that Xbox has more users? As long as we can play with family and friends it's of little consequence other than bragging rights !!
We know Xbox is the more popular system, we have done for sometime, the real question is surely "Why do Xbox owners constantly need reminding that they're the most popular ?" it makes no difference what so ever, in the grand scheme of things!!
I'd be more than happy with fewer PSN subscribers if it meant I missed out on phrases like, "sh#t, c#n# and m#th#r f#ck#er" during a game of Uno. Or even people who will keep playing even if they are losing!
Brian
www.brianwoods.com
Xbots, dont sleep, or care to stop!
Spin, spin, spin. Until Sony is willing to indicate the number of concurrent users at a particular time and/or for a particular title on PS3. I'm not believing any of this. You would think Sony would have realized by now that it's precisely these types of things which created such bad will towards the company this generation.
There's a very good reason Sony hasn't released those numbers (which MS has done numerous times) - they're embarrasingly low. Michael Pachter recently estimated (based on his sources) that there are actually less than 1 million active online PS3 players. Based on my experiences with PSN that is much more believable.
Sony should have established a firm set of minimum guidelines at launch (standardized functions and interface) and bundled a headset with every PS3 if they were serious about online. Even if the 14 million claim was true it is far more impressive that MS manages to charge $50 per year to over 7 million customers. Shareholders are far more impressed with profit than giving things away free, and the fact that MS still has a significant market share advantage with a premium service is not a very positive reflection on the state of PSN.
Why does a headset equate a commitment to online play for you? If I wanted to talk to people while I am playing a game, I'd be at that person's hour or they would be at mine, or I would use a telephone. Personally, the headset for the 360, plus the continued dying systems are why I hardly ever play mine anymore.
I don't understand your trying to compare Live and PSN market share, either. They are closed environments. What other company can have an online service for the Xbox? Who are they competing with for online subscribers? No one. The fact that every Xbox comes with a free Live subscription makes MS's numbers as potentially funny as Sony's since PSN is free, every PSP and PS3 is a subscriber.
Brian
www.brianwoods.com
What is so hard to believe the amount of active ID's for the PSN? Do you not believe Microsoft's number of total Live accounts? Maybe I have missed the numbers but can you point me in the direction that I can obtain the actual figure for those that play online? I've only read that out of Microsoft's active users 60% play online while for Sony 50% play online.
Honestly, I don't know why so many get upset about things like this. PSN user base is growing, Sony is generating a profit from the service and in the end improvements to the service only benefits the consumer. I am always at a lost as to why people hate to see positive news, no matter the angle, come from a competitor of their preferred console.
I think 14 million accounts (if that meant 1 account per system which it doesn't) would be difficult considering there are only 16 million PS3s sold worldwide. I think the other concern is that from what seems the general concensus is that there's not a lot of people online at any given time. If there's 14 million accounts floating around, there should be plenty of people online to get into matches with. I personally don't have a PS3 so I can't say from experience. In comparison I never have a hard time finding an online match on my 360, and that's all I really care about.
It's not difficult to imagine 1 account per system. It makes a lot of sense considering to download anything off the PSN store you have to have an account even for the free items. So it really benefits everyone with an internet connection to have an account. And it's free so all the user has to do is take the time to make a password and userid.
You have to account for people who are more casual players who may not have the desire to hook up their PS3 to an internet connection or know what all the benefits are of having their PS3 online. The two of my friends which own PS3s, neither of them has gone online once with their respective PS3.
Even with the 360s seamless integration of creating a silver account during the Profile creation process (if it's hooked up to a network connection), I'm certain there isn't anywhere close to 87.5% of all 360s sold having at least one Gold/Silver account used on the machine.
It's real easy to confuse the status quo in the hardcore gaming community with the status quo of gaming console owners.
I don't know how to set up an account on a PS3, but as far as the 360, its fairly a pain-in-the-ass. You have to have an email account to link to it and you can only have 1 gamertag linked to 1 email account. You can't have multiple gamertags linked to the same email. So every time you want to make a new account you better have another email account ready or you have to make one. It is a pain, but it makes the experience better in the long haul and makes it harder for jerks to just keep making new accounts since they got banned for cheating/swearing/racism/etc.
As someone else mentioned the live experience isn't always a good one (plenty of jerks online), but there is great experiences to be had as well. Especially co-op.
I guess it is a bit more complicated, oversight on my part since I've been on XBL since the beta and I've had my .Net MS Passport account linked to my gamertag from day one that it was available.
Also another oversight, in Canada, MSN IM is the more popular IM client, so most Canadians already have an active Passport account they can use to sign up.
As for the jerks, I highly recommend using the private party feature to avoid having to listen to the pricks on XBL, it's worked out well for myself and the friends I'm playing Gears with.
I think they are pretty much similar. PSN id's are linked to email but NOT the console. I have 3 PSN id's, all with different email addresses. I have 3 Live accounts all with different email addresses. Just like with either service it is best to have one main account and I do as I receive all my beta invites, and special promotions through it.
It means 1 unique account. They do not count multiple accounts on a single system and they do not count accounts used on the PSP and PS3. It is PSN accounts in total so there is a mix of PS3 and PSP accounts but various factors can come into place determining which are exclusively PS3 and which are PSP.
I own a PS3, and just like my 360, I do not have any issues finding matches with people to play online especially considering how rarely I play an online multi-player match (Live has tainted my experience).