PlayStation LifeStyle » PlayStation Network

Sony’s Welcome Back Package Could Hurt New Game Sales, Says Dev

Ray Conley — Fri, 20 May 2011 22:20:47 +0000

Many PSN users are itching to get their hands on Sony’s free Welcome Back package when the PlayStation Store is looking to make its resurrection this month. While the PlayStation founders may have been financially crippled by the disastrous PSN breach, they are forecasting further financial setbacks with their latest PSN grab-bag marketing.

One developer of the PSN hit Dead Nation, fears that free giveaways may steal the spotlight from some of newer titles that are set to release around the same time. Dead Nation‘s CEO, Ilari Kuittinen fears that their newest PSN title Outland will be “old news.”

The issue is that everyone now gets games for free, so people might just play the free games for a while. By the time they are ready to buy something, Outland is maybe old news.

Aside from that possible situation, it’s possible that many other titles will be feeling the same gamer neglect from the PSN freebies. Because of the PSN Store outage, many titles scheduled for release have been backlogged and are expected to be posted in four bi-weekly releases.

An unnamed source shared his sympathy for the devs of the backlogged content:

As a developer, I feel very sorry for those teams that did try to release their titles during the PSN outage window.
Beyond that, I feel sorry for those that are attempting to launch games in the days following the outage, as there will likely be such a backlog of traffic that it may be hard to be noticed in the flurry of ‘get everything back up and running’

Under Siege’s producer, Filipe Pina, shared his concerns, but also expressed some optimism in their upcoming title.

We are all concerned with the overall situation but we think that despite all the delays and the multiple releases Under Siege will still stand out on its own.

[Source]

“PlayStation Network” Tops Google’s Fastest Rising Searches

Corey Schwanz — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 20:40:23 +0000

The PlayStation Network has overtaken pop culture icons, reality TV stars, and the National Building Society in Google’s UK charts this past week, showing the service’s popularity.

Beating out such high societal names X-Factor contestant Chloe Mafia, judge Nicole Scherzinger, and even the returning BBC series Spooks this week, the term PlayStation Network has topped the charts. This is surely due in part to the scheduled maintenance this week as well as the 3.50 Firmware update bringing in 3D Blu-Ray integration. PS3 shows up in the middle of the list at number 12, with certainly an interesting term at the bottom of the list. The list for the tops searches is as follows:

1. playstation network
2. chloe mafia
3. great north run
4. nicole scherzinger
5. spooks
6. nationwide building society
7. minecraft
8. notw
9. telegraph fantasy football
10. x factor
11. wwe
12. ps3
13. messi
14. the mail
15. fantasy premier league
16. orange email
17. london fashion week
18. cne
19. iraq goals
20. eat

Eat? Eat what? Oh well. Good to know that the PlayStation name is abuzz all over the internet, if not also on the mouths of the British citizens.

[Source]

Demos Galore in This Week’s PlayStation Store Update

Anthony Severino — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 16:27:29 +0000

Who doesn’t love game demos? Am I right? We do, and we certainly know that you do, so we’re happy to report some great news for those of you who just love to try before you buy.

So far this week, the only confirmed demo releasing in the North American PlayStation Store is a demo for Ninja Theory’s Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. If that wasn’t enough to satisfy your craving for demos, a total of 7 demos will be available when the PlayStation Store updates this week.

In this week’s edition of the PlayStation Blog’s “PlayStation Around the Web: What We Read” a user left a comment asking if we’d be treated to any other demos aside from the aforementioned Enslaved demo. Jeff Rubenstein, Social Media Manager for SCEA replied with the good news:

“actually, yes. Looks like we’re getting – if I’m reading this right – something like 7 of them. Not bad!”

7 demos? That has to be some type of record.

If last week’s European PlayStation Store update is anything to go by, the majority of these demos will be for the freshly launched PS3 motion controller, the PlayStation Move.

For a look at what else is to come in this week’s PlayStation Store update, check out our PlayStation Store Preview.

PS3′s Internet Connection Rate is “Industry Leader”

Anthony Severino — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:53:57 +0000

Sony’s gamescom press conference is live right this moment, and plenty of juicy details about the company, their hardware, and their games is pouring in. This latest detail talks about just how many PS3 owners are connected to the internet thanks to the PSN’s free online.

Sony’s Andrew House claims that the PS3 is the “industry leader” in terms of internet connectivity. This means that roughly 70% of all PS3 owners are connected to the internet via the PlayStation Network. The fact hat PSN remains free certainly has helped with these numbers, and Sony is sure proud to let the world know about this amazing success.

Pachter: PlayStation Plus Needed for PSN Profits

Andrej Cilkov — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 01:21:43 +0000

Ever since the launch of Sony’s premium free online gaming and digital media service, the PlayStation Network always sets out the bring PS3 users the best content available. To step it up a notch Sony introduced the PlayStation Network Plus, a enhanced version of the PSN for which users paid a monthly or annual fee for some exclusive features and content. It now looks like Sony could procure profit from the PSN+, however they will require roughly 2-3 million subscribers, claims Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter.

Pachter recently released a video on his GameTrailers show, Pach Attack answering some fan questions regarding the PSN+ and whether it will turn in the cash cow to Sony. When questioned by one of the viewers “Do you think the PlayStation Plus is going to be profitable?”, Pachter replied:

“PlayStation Network is free, PlayStation Plus is a charge for a service and it is essentially the same service. Sony is already spending the money on PlayStation Network, so layering on a new group of users paying it for a service will be profitable”

He then continued about the amount of time it will take PlayStation Plus to become profitable like the Xbox Live service. Pachter expressed that Xbox Live only went profitable after the introduction of other services such as Netflix.

“PlayStation Plus will take a while to get up to the same level as Xbox Live and I think you will see around 1 million subscribers early on, which amounts to around $50 million in profit.”

Pachter carried on to say that the PlayStation Network as a whole will not become profitable as he assumes it costs Sony any where around 100 million a year to maintain, and the best they could hope for is that PlayStation Plus will actuate consumers to download more movies and games, thereupon bringing in more capital.

His final comment was his assumption on how many subscribers it will take to make PSN+ beneficial :

“I think for Sony to make a profit on the PlayStation Network, it will need at least 2-3 million PlayStation Plus subscribers within the next two years.”

Do you think Sony will profit? Let your thoughts be heard in the comment section below.

[Via]

Sony Working With ‘Big Hitters’ from Hollywood on PSN Exclusive Content

Anthony Severino — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:53:41 +0000

Since its launch alongside the PlayStation 3 back in November, 2006, the PlayStation Network has blossomed into a thriving platform for games and gamers, as well as a profitable business venture for Sony and their publishing partners. Over the years, the service has evolved in many ways. There’s now integration with Facebook, Trophy support, and the newly released PlayStation Plus, which brings a subscription-based premium service to the platform. Sony has also had success in delivering original video content with Pulse, Qore and The Tester.

The Tester was Sony’s stab at PlayStation meets reality TV, only available to download digitally via the PlayStation Network. It was so well received that Sony is currently casting for The Tester Season 2. Apparently, The Tester may have sparked some interest in the PlayStation Network, by some “big hitters in the Hollywood space”.

It seems as though Tinseltown has some “fun things cooking” for the PS3 and the PlayStation Network. In a recent interview with Sony’s Senior Director of PlayStation Network, Susan Panico, she reveals Sony’s long-term content strategy:

There is nothing I can announce, but original programming is a really important part of our long-term strategy. We need to create content you can’t get anywhere else. We started with Pulse and Qore, that are much more informational, but still entertaining. Then we moved into Tester. It totally makes sense for us to keep widening that content strategy for things that still appeal to a 90% male demographic in that 18 to 35 age range. There are some stuff in the pipe, but that is all I can say. I think there’s a lot of programming opportunities from some pretty big hitters in the Hollywood space, that want to take advantage of the PlayStation 3 platform and the PlayStation Network. There are some fun things cooking.

Panico continues:

We’re just trying to provide that total comprehensive entertainment experience in one place. And we’ve been doing a good job of keeping that momentum up.

Hopefully we’ll find out what these “fun things” Sony has in store for the PlayStation Network and us gamers, soon.

[Source]