Gratis....
...you can't beat free beer....
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 …
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.
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...
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!
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...
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.