PlayStation 2 Celebrates One Year Online

Thanks to Yahoo! for hosting the Sony press release celebrating the first anniversary of the PlayStation 2 online adaptor, as well as new figures showing "more than 780,000 gamers with online connectivity." By comparison, a recent Taipei Times article says that Microsoft has 500,000 Xbox Live subscribers worldwide. The release stresses the differences between the PS2's 'open' philosophy and Xbox Live's more managed attitude, pointing out: "...the results of the open model approach include more than 20 publishers developing more than 50 titles for the PlayStation 2 platform by the year-end." Sony also trails the PS2 hard drive with regard to Final Fantasy XI, but hint at other uses, saying it "...further demonstrates the company's focus on extending the functionalities and capabilities of the PlayStation 2 for a total living room experience including games, movies and music."

Comments

Statistics can prove anything

[Locky]

The installed userbase for the PS2 is several times that of the Xbox. Pronouncing victory is quite foolish as per customer, Microsoft is having much more success with Xbox Live than Sony is with their online facility.

Re:Statistics can prove anything

[unclethursday]

Xbox Live has a better market penetration, percentage wise.....

But the fact also remains that the 500k mark for XBL has been touted for months, without changing. It looks like most of the people who wanted XBL have it; and with the dealy of Halo 2 until next year, the prospect of new people signing up for it before Halo 2's release is slim.

And when you also consider over half of the total subscriptions were from the North American launch (almost 300k from November 15 - December 31), and most of the rest are from the Japanese and European launches, it shows most XBL users are early adoptors, and the majority of the Xbox owning population either doesn't have the broadband capabilites, doesn't care about online games, or both.

XBL got a good start, but its ability to draw in new subscribers just doesn't seem to be there; at least until Halo 2 comes out.

Thursdae

"Online Connectivity"

[dafoomie]

"more than 780,000 gamers with online connectivity."

What does this mean? Is it that 780,000 people have signed up, or that 780,000 people own PS2 online adaptors? I could say that 100% of Xbox's have "online connectivity" because every Xbox has an ethernet port built in. I think these numbers are very deceptive.

Take this with a gigantic grain of salt. This is a press release written by Sony. Of course the numbers are skewed in Sony's favor. Just like how Microsoft press releases say that Windows is a stable and secure operating system.

Apples and Oranges

[MBraynard]

Forget the fact that PS2 has sold 5x as many consoles as Xbox.

All Xbox Live Subscribers are broadband users. It is a broadband service.

PS2 are probably mostly dialup. Broadband is the future; if you want good gaming without lag, you need broadband. And if you want a broadband platform where all your opponents have broadband, you must choose Xbox.

Not to be a fan, I'm selling my Xbox on ebay as we speak cause I outgrew it.

They haven't charged at all..?

[Anonymous Coward]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't it been less than a year since Xbox live launched? All Xbox live headsets come with at least a year's free access. They were undecided about what they were actually going to bill when the year ran out - it could be $0, it could be $5 a month.

Either way, it's a nice service. I have Xbox live (my brother bought it for me on my birthday), but besides from a couple of games I haven't really used it much. I figure Halo 2 will be the real killer app for it though.