Although PlayStation 3 is still third in worldwide sales, behind the Xbox 360 by about 5-million units, the PS3 community services now have as many online gamers as Xbox 360 says Sony. Sony posted on their blog saying, “with 14 million active accounts and 273 million pieces of content downloaded, we know that you’re thirsting for this digital entertainment.”
Although US sales of the 360 are killing the PS3, the community membership does give gamers a reason to get online with the PS3. Nobody wants to buy into a console that has very few active online games or an easy way to find friends (*cough* Wii). Having 14-million users helps them bridge the sales gap by building gamer confidence. Social networking is the new term; gamers want to socialize with each other online and with their consoles.
Microsoft recently announced their 14-million subscriber base and continue to update folks when they hit big milestones. The main difference, LIVE is a subscription system — those 14-million gamers are also paying for the service (we’re not sure if silver memberships count in that figure) and this means income for Microsoft while Sony does their service for free.
Although Microsoft is making money on their service, no doubt Sony will bypass their total membership because it has no cost barriers to play. The biggest cost barrier to get on Sony’s network is the PS3 itself and many gamers hold out for price drops which aren’t coming anytime soon (so says Sony). However, building a larger community on a free network allows Sony to siphon gamers to buy downloadable content, games, music, movies and all the goodies that go with these services.
It seems a better idea to triple your audience with a free service knowing a large amount of “hardcore gamers” attach themselves to the easy to buy content on said service. So, is it better to make US $50.00 a year on half the population or give triple that population an opportunity to spend more money on content?
“Thanks to all of you, PS3’s momentum is stronger than ever. There are nearly 17 million PS3 systems around the world, and in the United States, PS3 hardware sales are up nearly 100 percent from where we were at this time last year. Software sales have tripled from a year ago. Yes, we’re proud about everything we’ve accomplished, and we’re even more psyched about where we’re going with our holiday software lineup” (playstation.com)
Eventually gamers may have access to Sony’s Home project, which could raise the community figures and give Xbox 360 something less to brag about. Although, we’re sure Sony would rather be boasting “number one” console again, at least they’ve finally got a win on their side because 14-million users is only the beginning for them.
Plus, it’s hard to argue free.
Activision and Sony
You missed a MAJOR part of Archon. The squares are white or black, and some cycle from light to dark. If you’re playing light, your unit becomes more powerful on light squares, and if you’re playing dark, the reverse is true. The point of the game was to capture all the power squares, most of which were cycling between light and dark.
Archon was super-addictive, especially against friends. It was there with MULE as a staple for most machines.
PS. The sorceress isn’t evil, she’s the dark, the night.
Lolz i like Chess, me and my friend daniel had games that went for like 3 lunch breaks back @ skw =p
It’s been a few weeks since I have replied to the QoTW due to moving house and then a change of ISP (finally I’m paying less than £40 a month for 8Mb/s broadband!).
Over the last two or three days I have downloaded and listened to 5 weeks worth of your podcasts and enjoyed all of them immensely, as per usual.
On to the question of the week; any, and all, of the Halo games.I have played the original three games but not ODST and the /abomination/ that is Halo Wars (Real Time Strategy should never, I repeat; NEVER be ported to consoles). I have never felt the need to replay any of the Halo games because, apart from the feeling of ‘meh’ that they make you feel after playing, they did something I hate… They released the first game on the PC with a decent port, but then the Halo 2 port to the PC was, and I’m being as kind as I can here, totally diabolical. First of all, you needed Vista… Need I say more?
Halo 3 was pretty good… But entirely predictable and again left me with a feeling of ‘meh’. I am the only true PC Gamer in a fairly large group of Xbox 360 owners… And they don’t understand my pain! I tried to show them how FPS’s /should/ be played in terms of Multiplayer (i.e. in a 32 player server with some decent admins) but they still do not see the light!
The only other games that I have played and then decided never to play again are usually games that I just hate, like the new Wolfenstein game (awful awful game) and… Well Mario Galaxy was terrible as well. Other than that I cannot think of anything else!
Cheers, and peace 🙂
In regaurds to the question of the week.
i would not want AC2 cuz i preordered the special edition of the game in September. i would want an alienware gaming laptop =]