Sony's PS2 Online Lays Claim To TV Generation

Thanks to Yahoo for reprinting a Sony press release in which they claim online gaming using the PlayStation 2 is taking away viewers from the TV, noting that "...the audience for online gaming with the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system grew to 2.6 million this month" - though that figure seems to be the number of PS2 systems with online adapters, not the amount actually online. Elsewhere, Sony notes that online play is "...up 239 percent when compared to February of last year, with 67,708 new gamers registering during the 29 day month", and that some games have extremely committed players: "SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs players spend an average of 4.2 hours a day playing the game online." This comes shortly after news that 25 million PS2s have been sold in North America, a figure "contributing to overall worldwide shipments of more than 70 million units" - meanwhile, GI.Biz notes that Xbox Live "has been celebrating having 750,000 Xbox Live users [in the States], with a target of a million by June."

Comments

XBL 750K....

[unclethursday]

meanwhile, GI.Biz notes that Xbox Live "has been celebrating having 750,000 Xbox Live users [in the States], with a target of a million by June."

Actually, the 750K users is worldiwde, not just in the US. Europe has around 100K subscribers, and so does Japan, with the remaining ~550K in the US and Canada.

The 1 million subscribers by June also reflects worldwide subscribers, not just the US.

The actual quote from GI.Biz: In other words, this is Sony's distinctly unconcerned response to recent announcements from Nintendo (which stated this week that the GameCube has sold out in many retailers in the USA, with emergency supplies being shipped in from overseas) and Microsoft (which has been celebrating having 750,000 Xbox Live users, with a target of a million by June).