Impatient punters trade PS3s for Xbox 360s

Retailers say PS3 consoles are being exchanged in record numbers as a result of the PlayStation Network outage. In an interview with Edge magazine, an unnamed store manager from a major UK retailer said: “In the first week of downtime we did not really see any major change in sales or trades... However from the second week …

[Elsie]

I'll scream and scream and scream ...

.... until I'm sick!

I can hear the bleats up and down the land as Konsole Kiddies can't sit in front of their TV's for hours getting meaningless "achievments" in video games. If this alleged run to change to Xbox doesn't prove that some are dangerously addicted to their games consoles, then I don't know what will.

Personally, I think the break is great and would hope that they use the time to attain a real life achievements, i.e. something to be proud of instead of gaming points?

Identity theft isn't a laughing matter but this console swapping malarky reminds me of the time we locked a horse racing addicts bike so he couldn't get to the bookies at dinner. Watching him hop around begging for the key or for someone to take him to the shop was hillarious.

[GeorgeTuk]

Or maybe some people just want to play online...

...after a few weeks.

Or maybe some other people think it might happen again.

Or maybe people are just fed up with an expensive kit not doing all it says.

Are you from the Daily Mail Elsie?

[Anonymous Coward]

@ George Tuk

Elsie's not from the Daily mail, she's just a PC fanboi as proved by this post on another topic here.

"This might be true for Konsole Kiddies but for real gamers, i.e. those on a PC playing online with a keyboard, mouse and a better field-of-view, BF3 is going win hands down."

[DPWDC]

@Norfolk 'n' Goode

Yup, reading his/her other posts makes interesting reading. Anyone would think spending £250 on a machine dedicated to the job of gaming was an idiot compared to someone spending £2000 on a PC to do the same job... Field of View entertained me as its identical.... Its the monitor that makes the difference not the PC/Console (which is just a gaming dedicated computer...)

[Anonymous Coward]

Unlike me

Like you, I have no pleasuring vices whatsoever. And if I do, they must be great, because, you know, I do this stuff. But anything that anyone else does, now that's bad.

My wife's friend told me that one day, the brother in law of her butcher's cousin once talk to someone who once saw the kid of the milkman of an acquaintance sell his lunch and chocolate bar during school recess to buy a game. If that's not proof that gaming is a leading cause of starvation in the world, then I don't know what is.

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe you should tease heroin addicts

I mean its all a good laugh isn't it. DT's all that

[Anonymous Coward]

@Elsie

I agree. Kids wasting countless hours of thier childhood, addicted and dedicating themselves to these meaningless and pointless "Trophies" and "Achievements" is now on a whole new level of sinsister.

I couldn't care less if an adult wants to waste their free time grinding away for a make believe trophy, but kids need protection against that shit.

[Anonymous Coward]

Elsie, Elsie, Elsie

Just because someone makes a different lifestyle choice to you it doesn't mean they are bad people.

I play games for about an hour a day, most days. I admit that. Add i extra funtime and I probably spend much of my life playing at taking over the world. But the question would be, "what do you tend to do with your evenings?"

I suspect that watching TV probably ranks as a large sink of your time - it certainly does for much of the population. I suppose the only real difference is that when I interact with my computer I get feedback, but when you interact with your TV you find no-one on the news or in the soaps actually seems to acknowledge your shouty advice.

[Anonymous Coward]

Lee, Lee, Lee

Re-read Elsie's post - she didn't say they were bad people. The point being made was that if you are so addicted to playing online games that you just HAVE to trade in your PS3 because you haven't been able to play online for a little while, then that is a problem. And a little bit sad really.

A more general point is that some of these people are spending an inordinate amount of time playing games, to the detriment of furthering other, arguably more important, skills and experiences.

For example, I used to play racing car games as my favourite sort of video game (starting with Acornsoft Revs). Now, having actually raced cars, I'm pretty sure I have a grasp on which is better for me as a person. It's not the video version btw, in case you were wondering.

[Bunker_Monkey]

RE: Lee, Lee, Lee

"For example, I used to play racing car games as my favourite sort of video game (starting with Acornsoft Revs). Now, having actually raced cars, I'm pretty sure I have a grasp on which is better for me as a person. It's not the video version btw, in case you were wondering."

Bang on :) I currently play rFactor but until I can afford the track-day fees and ARDS test fees... This is all I am stuck doing for the time being..

[MJI]

Gaming or watch TV

I think I would rather game - more fun anyway.

About 2 hours a night maximum.

[Loyal Commenter]

You're quite right

I mean, I'm 34, what am I doing innocently enjoying myself at home. I should be turning my console off and going down the local, getting pissed up on 8 pints of Stella and starting a fight instead. Or maybe, I should find someone who enjoys doing something that I don't, prevent them from doing that thing and then laughing at them like morally superior arsehole, as this eems to be what you are advocating as an alternative 'real life achievement'.

[Anonymous Coward]

RE: You're quite right

"I should be turning my console off and going down the local, getting pissed up on 8 pints of Stella and starting a fight instead."

It makes no difference to me but I would suggest this...

YES! You're thirty fucking four, switch off the fucking console and do something constructive with your free time. WARNING - this might take some time, thought and effort. DO NOT go down the pub, get shitfaced and get into a fight with some loser.

[Anonymous Coward]

Think of a title, any title, but don't tell me which one.

"It's painful enough having your backdoor broken into, then being publicly humiliated for allowing it happen, but Sony customers jumping ship to its archrival must really bring a sting to the tale."

Childish I know, but this gave me a right old giggle..

[Anonymous Coward]

same here.

ooh err

paris- well, obvious really :)

[Anonymous Coward]

oh dear

on the plus side, the saddo's who have nothing else in their lives now know about a big flaming ball of gas in the sky.

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed

As opposed to individuals anonymously posting comments online?

Besides, it clearly states "swap them for another game console", and as far as I know, the Xbox is not unlike a PS3 in that it is not an item specifically designed to be used outdoors.

[MJI]

Do we (PSN Gamers) care?

The only people doing this are addicts to multi platform shooters.

Will it actually have a bad effect?

I suspect not.

If you play Killzone or similar you will wait it out as you want to carry on with the game you like.

I have been playing single player campaigns.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not surprised

My PS3 is going to be on Blu Ray only duty from now on.

You were kind enough to e-mail me to let me know you lost my data, so where is my free credit check Sony?

[JDX]

@elsie

You realise loads of adults play games too? Many games are designed with multiplayer as the main mode of play and if you bought a PS3 for playing online this is a big deal.

When was the last time such a serious issue happened, that took a major service offline for so long?

[DPWDC]

CoD

The call of duty series is an 18+ game in the UK, not the PEGI advised rating either, propper 18. Which annoys me when there are so many kids playiing it.

Theres more to gaming than playing with yourself in a dark bedroom (oh er) as was the stereo-type, what, 20 years ago? My parents (late 50s) have a Wii, I (30) have an XBox, and when I play, I only play when my mates are on (dotted around the country), so we can have a chat online!

[Vladimir Plouzhnikov]

Trade

Disconnectedness for the ring of death...

I would like to see SONY hiring a team of hackers to bring down Xbox network, then joining with MS to attack Steam. Let the DRM wars begin. Let the suckers who pay them suffer...

[Thomas 4]

Alternative theory

Maybe its nothing at all to do with the network downtime and people are simply jumping ship because they don't trust Sony with their data anymore?

[Wize]

I wonder how many of them previously jumped ship...

...during the Xbox Christmas outage. Its all swings and roundabouts.

[asdf]

you mean?

Are you talking about the one that occurred in 2007 closer to when the console was released? Perhaps if Sony would have responded to the white hats that have been pointing out their security flaws for awhile now with engineers/software developers as opposed to lawyers writing threatening letters it would still be only M$ that had over a week of embarrassing downtime (woot we are now into the fourth week).

[Hooch181]

Maybe...

Sony will take away a lesson from this?

More likely, they will throw their toys out the pram again, which IMO is what led to this to begin with. If they had secured their servers/information correctly to begin with and not "Poked the hornet nest" they may not have this problem!

Way to fail Sony!

[Elmer Phud]

Unlikely

Sony are still looking for someone else to blame - nothing to do with thier 'security' it's all down to 'anonymous' or the Chinese or Russians or something.

[Hooch181]

Lol...

Aliens, Ghost in the Machine!

[Kevin 6]

They will

They will do like the RIAA, and.MPAA do blame the drastic decrease in sales on piracy to further prove they were right in suing geoshot, and others into the ground instead of blaming their cockups

[Cameron Colley]

Why all the hate for video gamers?

Should they be hanging out in the pub getting pissed every night, or do you mean they should be reading Shake Staff or climbing Everest every day? Or, perhaps, they should be watching telly?

I take it you video game haters are all up doing charity work all night with your adopted kids, or looking for the cure for cancer?

OK, so not all of us like video games, and some people take everything a little too far -- but I don't see how this is any worse than missing your local pub being shut and using another, or watching DVDs because the TV signal is off.

I know of a few people who have gone back to X-Box because their PS3 is useless for the games they play -- all are well-paid well-adjusted professionals with families and social lives. Why does everyone assume that a person who loves gaming a lot is an addicted 15 year old who needs to get out more?

[Dave Cradle]

Written before reading??

I could only see one post with a negative slant towards gamers in general, and even that one I wouldn't call "hate".

Did you read the article and then just post your standard "hate" response?

I hate too. Hate stock indignant posts.

[Cameron Colley]

RE: Written before reading??

Nope, I read two anti-gamer out of the few posts at that time (making up about 20% of the posts at that time) and didn't think I needed to name names. Though, as you say, it is also in response to those who have posted similar on similar threads.

[Fisher39]

Don't think so

After a few months the only people who this will affect will be rabid fanbois of both sides and investors who face a masive one-off hit to the bottom line.

Other than that this will dissappear in the wild blue yonder reappearing only in Business School case studies of how not to deal with a crisis.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hyperbole much?

The whole company? Sony *does* make other things, you know.

Also, thanks to the wonderful supreme court, they don't have to worry about class action - if their EULA says that problems go to arbitration, individuals will have to do it all themselves rather than band together.

So, no co-op multiplayer games, and no co-op multiplayer lawsuit.

[DrXym]

That makes a lot of sense

How desperate to play online do you have to be to dump all your trophies, saves, games and console to do it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Tragic

It's really quite sad that some people are so addicted to online shooters like Call of Duty that they'd rather switch consoles, buy the same game again, pay for an Xbox Live sub and start a new online profile, than wait a few more days for the PSN service to return.

I suppose at least if they all jump ship, it might make PSN a little less full of idiots than it was a few weeks ago. And yes, I'm sure they'll enjoy all those wonderful Kinect games Microsoft has got lined up...

[Anonymous Coward]

Idiots

Have you considered that it's the sane ones who'll leave and and the idiots who will stay.

[Arctic fox]

Re Idiots

"Have you considered that it's the sane ones who'll leave and and the idiots who will stay."

Not at all unlikely IMO. From the article:

".................In the first week of downtime we did not really see any major change in sales or trades... However from the second week................".

It was not until the end of the first week that the scale of Sony's eff-up became clear *and* that the nature of the info-theft was rather more serious than Sony were prepared to admit to. A significant proportion of those bailing out may indeed have done so for entirely sane reasons - like not wanting a risk that their bank ac could be emptied, now or at some time in the future if Sony screwed up again!

[MJI]

Perhaps we like the games we have?

And the ones we are getting.

I'd rather be able to play an Uncharted game than have online multiplayer, but both together.

[MJI]

I was thinking this

Might be a bit nicer.

But then there weren't that many anyway.

[TeeCee]

200 percent trade-in increase?

200 percent of what?

I wasn't aware of vast numbers of pre-loved PS3s knocking around (if there were, the secondhand price would be rather lower), so I guess that this moves the number from "perishingly close to bugger all" to "the odd few".

Rather interestingly, I noted last night on nipping out to buy a sub for the kids that XBOX live suddenly got a lot cheaper. Bog-loads of 12 month subs on the shelves at the new rate with a wodge of Live points now thrown in to boot. A dearth of 3 month ones though, probably not even worth the cost of stocking 'em. Now I'd hate to accuse MS of kicking a man while he's down, but.........

[Anonymous Coward]

precisely.

200% of what....

I can't believe that anything but a handful of people would be stupid enough to trade in a PS3 for a Xbox. You only have to look at the PS3's line-up this year to see that it's 1000x better than the Xbox offering, which is now increasingly looking like an end-of-line Kinect fire-sale...

Still why let reality get in the way of a sensational story....

Anyone remember when El-Reg used to post real news?

[Dante]

lol

hehe I wondered how long until the "exclusives" comment appeared.

[sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD]

200% of what?

Doesn't matter (at least for now).

Sony is getting bad press. That can only be good, imho.

Don't slack! Keep up the campaign! Deny Sony Sales!

(Anti-Sony for their behaviour in the past year or two, and nope, I have a PS3 booting linux and will not sell it).

[Luke McCarthy]

Well that's what happens

when you rely on a centralised network.

[Anonymous Coward]

200 percent increase!

"second week onwards we have seen an increase of over 200 per cent on PS3 consoles being traded in"

In the absence of any actual numbers I'll assume the store manager means that in the first week two people traded their PS3s and on the second week four people did, two of which opted for an XBox.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

[Anonymous Coward]

Depends

I use my Xbox almost exclusively for racing F1 2010 online. If I can't do that then it's no good to me.

If I were a PS3 owner I would certainly be tempted to do the do a swap, or at least buy a second-hand Xbox as an addition.

I do have some sympathy with Sony. Yes, they've screwed up many things, but so have every big company.

[Greg J Preece]

Keeping mine

Sure, PSN is down, and that sucks ass, but the console still works, the online play will come back, and I didn't pay for PSN in the first place. Was thinking of trialling PSN+, and now I get a free trial when it comes back online.

The data loss was what really pissed me off, but how would trading in the hardware that I enjoy using solve anything? And given MS' previous track record, I've seen no evidence that X-box Live is any more secure. That it's not been broken yet doesn't mean it doesn't have holes.

This attitude is granting three things:

1) I don't play all that many online games. I have no desire to play shitty FPS games with a shitty controller, while teenage morons call me a n00b and take every opportunity to show me their testicles.

2) If I do play online games, I'm generally playing them on the PC, which I regard as a platform superior to all others. </fanboy_baiting>

3) I have other consoles, and failing that, other things to do in my life.

Aaaaand...FLAME ON! :-)

[SuperTim]

Pay for PSN?

No, but the box your £250 PS3 came in has a big list of things the PS3 can do, including Online gaming (and in my case, other OS installation).

Currently getting neither and will never get one back

[Anonymous Coward]

OK then...

Is this make things up day?

OtherOS was never listed on the box. It was never sold or marketed as a feature either.

it was supported for a while, and there was even a website for the small userbase of OtherOS users, until they abused their gift by trying to hack it open to play pirate games. Once the community had proven they couldn't be trusted anymore it was taken away.

[P Zero]

Re:OK then...

"I'm going to let my kids play in the cabinet where I keep my cleaning products, but if they poison themselves it's their problem."

Seriously? Give a dog a bone.

[asdf]

broad brush

> until they abused their gift by trying to hack it open to play pirate games

Paint with that broad brush fanboi. Sony didn't provide the feature out of the goodness of their heart. They tried to claim PS3 was a computer to get the lower tariffs. When this ploy failed so did their interest in OtherOS. Then again the Cell Broadband was a such a dog architecture for general computing anyway it was a mercy killing (Apple took one look at and decided it was time to go with Intel, as well as lack of other customers or interest caused IBM to kill any future designs).

[TakeTheSkyRoad]

Re: Keeping mine

Completely agreed !!

Mine sees action in 3rd place behind work (boo) and going out down the pub so isn't used that much but I see the online play as a bonus rather than essential. During the break I've been working through completing Dragon Age Origins which has been neglected for a while.

I would quite like to update my trophies though and I'm missing being able to download trailers and demos. Also dabbled with the occasional movie rental but not enough to miss it.

Yes sony lost my card details but they are at risk as soon as you give them to ANYBODY and it just took a moment to cancel my card, no big deal. The junk mail I'll be getting when they flog on the email adress list will be more of a hassle but I registered an email address with "ps3" in the name so could always block that and switch to a new adress.

The xbox is much more of an online console anyway and in my view the ps3 does offline much better..... know some people who would be tearing the walls down if they were unable to play Gears for 3 weeks lol

[Darren Lovell]

@ Greg J Preece

"I didn't pay for PSN in the first place."

Don't you think that's a bit naive? Though you don't see an explicit and discrete charge for using PSN, I would put money on the PSN service being listed (and charged for) on the PS3's price breakdown.

[MJI]

Don't tar all FPS the same

I find waving a glowing red ball controller around a hell of a lot of fun. So easy to aim and shoot the other team.

KB & mouse too much like being at work!

[Anonymous Coward]

Stunned

I'm just stunned that it's still down after all this time. Amazing!

Luckily I have a Xbox... so not fussed - but still amazed.

[Anonymous Coward]

Lucky? or Forced?

The only people I know that still play Xbox, are those that are locked into a long Xbox Live subscription because Microsoft scared them with price hikes and the a lock-in deal, or have lots of games invested.

Everyone else is playing PS3, because it's got the best games.

It's as simple as that.

[b166er]

Tit le

This is surely a win for the game publishers?

Sell another set of licenses for the same game

[Anonymous Coward]

Just like the US

I know of 3 of my friends that did this about a week ago. Not being able to play Black Ops online was the deal breaker for them. At least now I can kick their ass on the 360. I have both consoles; but if I knew that I would be able to pick up a ps3 for half the price for one that was only used for 2-3 weeks, I would have waited.

[Lamont Cranston]

Kids today, eh?

Tsk.

[trackercanada]

Getting tired of big uncaring corporations ...

First my original PS2 (Hardware) /PS3 loses support for Linux. Never mind I said although I was thinking of trying it. Then during a game update (Dragon's Age - Origins) my system gets bricked. Never mind I said, I might be able to fix it later, I'll buy a new one. Then because it showed up and I am Canadian, I order the NHL app (it is like bright light to bugs and I think they all knew that), only to find out that I can't watch the playoffs or any games even remotely close to me. Now I get a kick in the ##!@# as my personal information is freely available (not to mention that most of the reasons I own one are now unavailable). They had better be kicking back some serious freebees or ...

[asdf]

RIP Sony

Your hardware was second to none until you became a whore and bought a movie studio (the iPod should have been the iWalkman but the media side won that fight). The company will live on but only as a seller of second rate me too DRM infested crap hardware.

[Anonymous Coward]

Confused.

As clearly the iPod is the DRM infested and locked-down crap.

the Walkman is actually very open, you can copy music to it whichever way you wish, it supports a decent amount of formats, and it sounds 10x better than anything Apple have ever made...

EPIC FAIL.

[JDX]

re: probably mean the end for the Sony Playstation line

Not a chance. It's an immensely strong and valuable brand which has a massive dedicated fan-base. A single outage won't affect that, Joe Public is more annoyed they lost online due to the actions of "evil hackers like in the movies", than concerned it means PS3 itself is flawed. The public believe hackers can break into the Pentagon, so the fact PSN got hacked mightn't even hurt the brand too much as people expect it to happen.