Microsoft, Sony Compared in XBL, PSN Numbers

[mrstickball]

heruamon said:

mrstickball said:
I think the comparison in terms of registrants of XBL-PSN isn't even applicable. Sony requires signup for more services than MS does, AFAIK, so its not an apples-to-apples comparison.

Concurrent users would be a good metric. However, as the article says, Sony hasn't revealed that. And guess why? They won't because they have fewer users.

Heck, they could even publish usage data, like we get from Major Nelson...but they don't...why is that again?

There are 2 plausible reasons:

1. They do not care to publish the data. They either don't have the means or desire.
2. They don't want to publish it because it will make them look bad. Like any other PR release, most companies only give out information when it benefits them. If Sony believes that publishing PR like 'Hey, our one game just sold 300,000 copies on PSN!' they may fear that Microsoft will come back and say 'That is Sony's best game? Our best game sold 750,000 copies!'. In such a scenario, Sony would be doing more harm than good.

And unfortunately, that is the way it usually works. I'd imagine that Sony's data doesn't look too good. We can argue that a game like Modern Warfare 2 has ~700k more players on XBL than PSN and that is 'just because it sold better', but when you add all the other big 360 games like Halo 3, Left4Dead 2, and all the other smaller ones, you may get a picture that shows that MS is well ahead of Sony in terms of concurrent users. What other big games are there to drive up PSN usage right now? If MW2 can't push huge numbers on PSN, then I'd venture to guess that Sony isn't even pushing 1.5 million concurrent users.