PlayStation Network matches Xbox LIVE user base
by Andrew Yoon 
{ Nov 19th 2008 at 1:42PM }
Because PlayStation Network is free, people may be less hesitant to jump in and dive into online gaming and shopping. It also means that the numbers may be slightly inflated, as people may own more than one account per machine. Regardless, we're glad that Sony has been able to support such a large number of people on their console for free -- an impressive feat.
[Thanks, Cameron!]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
MATT @ Nov 19th 2008 1:46PM
As someone who doesn't absolutely LIVE (yes, pun) for online gaming, I love not worrying about getting my money's worth on PSN. I just pop in every few weeks for an online session of WipEout HD or Far Cry 2.
Devin @ Nov 19th 2008 2:03PM
I agree. Most of my time gaming is spent "offline", yet it's great to be able to jump online and game whenever I feel like it w/o having to pay for the seldom times I'm on there gaming....
SimbaDogg @ Nov 19th 2008 2:44PM
yeah jesus christ i'm so happy about it. i got let go from my job a while ago so i'm really having to cut back on purchases/lux items while i'm looking for work and while my savings is really starting to run thin. if i would had a xbox i would have had to cancel my live account for sure. but sweet thing about have a free PSN i "discovered" COD4 online and am loving it. Even though i got the game at launch i had never played online a single time.
ryan @ Nov 19th 2008 3:26PM
True, but $38 a year isn't so bad either. People need to pay for internet, electric, heating, transportation, water and food so 4 bucks a month doesn't seem so bad if you can afford all of the above.
But it's the principal of the matter and I understand that.
Devin @ Nov 19th 2008 4:20PM
@ryan
I agree that $4/mo isn't a big deal (for most gamers), but rather it's the moral of charging for a service that really you should be getting for free IMO.
Really I just see the subscription as another added, unnecessary revenue stream for MS rather than it being necessary for adding improvements. Don't get me wrong, IMO the service is great, but most of that being great has to do with the large online community/microphone support versus the actual service itself (when compared to PSN). Hell, how much profit has 360 brought to MS? How much of that was from Live? We will never know, but I think they make plenty of profit away from Live subscriptions and shouldn't need to depend on that revenue for necessary improvements.
ryan @ Nov 19th 2008 6:14PM
Yeah, it should be free, haha. But I'm not going to stop paying just to protest. I enjoy the time with my friends online too much, and it's couch change in my book. :D
-x.Red.x- @ Nov 19th 2008 1:48PM
YES!, hopefully by mid next year PSN will surpass XBL
vetosnipe @ Nov 19th 2008 2:57PM
Question, if you want to change your online gamertag dont you have to re-register with PSN? I had to. I love my PS3 but this is a false statement. I bet Half of those numbers
Hife @ Nov 19th 2008 3:19PM
@ Vetosnipe
I don't know the answer to your question, but my little brother has/had at least 3 XBox live accounts. Soooo... they're numbers are inflated too.
Hife @ Nov 19th 2008 3:20PM
woops *their*
zero @ Nov 19th 2008 8:11PM
@ vetosnipe
they are counting ACTIVE users that regularly sign in so if you haven't used your account for a month or more they are probably not counting it
matt @ Nov 19th 2008 1:50PM
numbers are definitely inflated, i've got four accounts on my PS3.
JAH75157 @ Nov 19th 2008 1:56PM
i've got 5. lol
Gillfigno @ Nov 19th 2008 2:02PM
I've got like, 7 accounts on Xbox Live and 4 on PS3, so I think everyone does it on both consoles.
Devin @ Nov 19th 2008 2:01PM
Possibly, yes. Yet, we don't know how they came up with these numbers. For all we know, they may have only accounted for Master Accounts rather than sub-accounts....either way the #'s are probably inflated, but still good to know....
Ott @ Nov 19th 2008 2:35PM
i have 7 lv 55's in cod4 and 1 55 10th prestige so ya..they should count how many households have a psn account
Tom @ Nov 19th 2008 3:06PM
I only have 1 PSN account, and they count any accounts that go online and play. I have another user on my PS3 but no online ID, so that is not counted.
If you have 6 PSN accounts all of which seem to be highly played for some reason, that means they're all active, so that still counts.
freeblue @ Nov 19th 2008 2:26PM
they might have to divide that number by 2 or 3 considering many of us have at least three account on one ps3. US, Europe, and Japan account. I have four :) additional one for my HK needs.
kmsrj2004 @ Nov 19th 2008 1:59PM
awesome.
by the way anyone one on LBP, please heart my levels by kmsrj2004, add me if you'd like too
brazenheaded @ Nov 19th 2008 2:18PM
Thank you for spamming a totally unrelated discussion with your "please please" post for LBP, I will make sure to give bad reviews for your levels..
drdre74 @ Nov 19th 2008 2:20PM
Always looking for someone to play LBP with and help me get 100% on all levels. add me drdre74 just leave LBP in the message so i'll know.
Rowdehaj @ Nov 19th 2008 2:00PM
Are we comparing to Live on general, or just Gold subscriptions? Either way it's an astounding feat.
CRAC69 @ Nov 19th 2008 2:01PM
i got 5 account on my ps3, that's not mean that i have 5 ps3
bombtrak @ Nov 19th 2008 2:03PM
@Matt: Agreed. It's more than adequate for my console online gaming needs. If I need more online features, there's always my PC, which also offers up the free online gaming goodness. I already pay for internet access, so I'm perfectly happy not paying more to play games I already paid to play.....or something.
jo @ Nov 19th 2008 2:07PM
same goes for xbox live you create many silver accounts
Jerses @ Nov 19th 2008 2:06PM
Numbers should be marked by IPs
Aaron @ Nov 19th 2008 2:59PM
Bad idea considering so many people have dynamic IP addresses from their ISPs.
Devin @ Nov 19th 2008 3:16PM
Agreed. One IP address could be representative of many due to NAT and all that jazz...
Fiddlesworth @ Nov 19th 2008 2:28PM
"It also means that the numbers may be slightly inflated, as people may own more than one account per machine."
This is crap because you're free to do the same with XBL silver accounts. I had America, Euro and Japanese accounts on XBL Silver, just the same as PSN.
Devin @ Nov 19th 2008 2:50PM
I thought that you had to pay for every Live account. Am I wrong? For instance, can I buy a Gold account ($50/yr) and then have other subaccounts that my brother/friends/etc. can have and still game online, too?
Devin @ Nov 19th 2008 2:51PM
I guess my real question is this: (sorry for the double post) Do you have to pay extra for Silver accounts? If not, are they considered the same as Gold accounts in terms of gaming online?
freeblue @ Nov 19th 2008 3:16PM
this is what i gather from LIVE..you automatically created a silver account.. which gives you everything except Online gaming.
you can then upgrade it to GOLD which give you online gaming and early preview of trailers, contents, demos and stuff.
i might be wrong, since i don't have a xbox yet.. maybe until black friday if i can find one for 150 :)
CL34N3R @ Nov 19th 2008 2:14PM
"Because PlayStation Network is free, people may be less hesitant to jump in and dive into online gaming and shopping."
For the record, "shopping" on xbox live does not require a paid subscription. Anyway, glad to see PSN is doing well, more people can only mean more games.
paul @ Nov 19th 2008 2:21PM
I think he meant that the 360s subscription might scare some people away completely from online services
my triangle tie @ Nov 19th 2008 2:15PM
You should have mentioned the fact that the 14 million PSN/Xbox Live number is representative of only two years of activity on PSN whereas Microsoft tallies Xbox Live subscriptions from its inception six years ago.
SirPoonga @ Nov 19th 2008 2:20PM
I have 4 PSN accounts. One as my main account and the others for specific games. I am separating clan members from real friends.
On the 360 I have 1 gold account and 4 silver accounts. I use the friends of friend to achieve the same goal.
drdre74 @ Nov 19th 2008 2:17PM
Well I know I have 3 accounts on my PS3 and I know people that have 3 or more accounts on their 360 so nobody has the right number on either system.
CelicaCrazed @ Nov 19th 2008 2:28PM
I'm assuming they're including PSN users on PSP. That may skew the results a bit.
Cameron @ Nov 19th 2008 2:32PM
I'm famous!
On my serious note for today i thought this was great news as it shows all the 360 kids wrong, although there is more units out there, alot of people object to paying for their online gaming i guess. Hence PSN prevails online - because everyone can do it out of the box.
Devin @ Nov 19th 2008 2:48PM
There are pluses and minuses for both consoles really. PS3 doesn't have the microphone capability out of the box like 360, but if these #'s are correct (somewhat) then PSN should exceed XBL in the near future which is only a good thing (to a point) for multiplayer games.
Also, is there a way on PSN to rate down a user like on Live? Like if someone's being an a$$hole, can you rate them down to the point they can kicked for being like that all the time?
Aaron @ Nov 19th 2008 3:03PM
I'm not sure I'm on board with the idea of voting down other PSN users to get them kicked. What's to stop some luser from voting you down just because you're kicking their butt in a game, and not because you are being a jerk about it?
Devin @ Nov 19th 2008 3:19PM
I'm talking about multiple users rating down one guy over multiple times and user's giving reasons for why....trust me...I have never met an a$$hole on PSN yet *knocks on wood* but just in case, it's nice to know. A buddy of mine asked me whether you could do that or not b/c he stated that PSN (because it's free) has more a$$holes on it than XBL b/c of this reason. He said people won't be that way on XBL b/c they may get banned for doing so....I told him I didn't know of such a feature on PSN....
Aaron @ Nov 19th 2008 4:01PM
I've never really had a bad experience with other people on PSN, either. But that doesn't necessarily mean that PSN doesn't have it's fair share of jerk offs. I think the 360 and PS3 attract different crowds. The 360 seems to attract the younger crowd with games like Halo, while the PS3 seems to attract the older crowd like myself because we have the brand loyalty from PS1 and PS2. That's not to say older people can't be jerk offs as well. But I think XBL's reputation for having a lot of pre-pubescent assholes is probably well grounded in reality.
magicfett @ Nov 19th 2008 2:55PM
That's interesting news isn't time M$ followed suit and put up live for free? That tired old fanboy argument of you get what you pay for is the same crap businesses use to make consumers buy into brand name loyalty. It doesn't hold water in this case the way PSN is slowly but surely catching up to live surely the xbots will see the err of their ways and demand equal rights for equal pay! lol.
Aaron @ Nov 19th 2008 3:06PM
They made Games For Windows LIVE free because no one was paying for it. I doubt Xbox LIVE will ever be free, because people are actually paying for it. It' bad a business model to give away a product that is making money.
Devin @ Nov 19th 2008 4:33PM
People will continue paying for it because their "friends" are on there playing, too, and they don't want to miss out on playing with their "friends" and MS knows this....
I put friends in quotes b/c I only laugh when I see people with 100 "friends" when really they only have a couple in real life
(no I'm not referring to myself in that weird outer-psychological kinda way, but people I know)....not that I'm trying to poke fun, it's just kinda sad actually....
Don't get me wrong, a lot of people do have a lot of actual friends/old buddies on Live, and not being able to play with them would suck so I see why people continue to pay...again it's the moral of being charged for something only b/c a company knows you will have to continue to pay that really gets me....
Vcize @ Nov 19th 2008 4:47PM
Whether they're real life friends, or "online gaming buddies", they're still more fun to play with than random people that either don't talk at all, or sing. For most people, I'd imagine it's a mix of people they know in real life and people they've met online.
But, it's not just being on the same system as your "friends" as it is actually being able to play games with them without headaches. I have plenty of "friends" on the PS3 but it's such a dang PITA to actually get into the same game with them without creating some huge freaking conference call or something that we don't even bother, and just use the PS3 as a machine for its single player exclusives and games that work better with the d-pad.
Devin @ Nov 20th 2008 12:15PM
Vcize,
Having played on XBL many a time, I can safely say that you can get just as many people not talking and randomly singing in-game in XBL as you do in PSN.....
Don't get me wrong though, XBL has more people actively talking due to mic support out of the box, but you can still have just as many who don't use it....
Also, how is harder to get a group of friends together to play a game? You can invite them into a game that you are playing, can't you (as long as they own the game, too)?
THE GUARDIAN @ Nov 19th 2008 3:08PM
It's pretty impressive that the PSN has come as far as it has in such a short amount of time, 14 million that's not too shabby!!!
Ty @ Nov 19th 2008 3:09PM
WOW! Sony, I am impressed. I never would've thought people would be going in droves to PlayStation Online in a populus matching XboX Live because of all the Microsoft and consumer hype. But when you really think about a next generation console and their online component, you'd think the ones with the install base would have it.
Clearly...
THAT IS NOT THE CASE!