Despite the fact that Microsoft's Xbox Live charges gamers $50 annually for online gameplay, most players today are still likely to tell you that Xbox Live is a superior experience. Sony, however, has certainly made numerous improvements to its PlayStation Network, which remains completely free. Wrapping up our conversation with Rob Dyer, SCEA Senior Vice President of Publisher Relations, we asked the executive about PSN's growth, and particularly how third parties feel about the network. 

“When I first started here [at SCEA] two years ago, it was slow and cumbersome and we were really struggling to put any kind of a dent into Xbox Live," Dyer admitted. But PSN has come a long way in just a couple years.  Dyer continued, "What we're now finding is we're at par and offering as good if not a better experience; and publishers are putting a lot of content on our system now that they can't put on Xbox Live. And having been a publisher on the other side, I can say that PSN is a lot more egalitarian. It's easier to get stuff up, it's easier to get it promoted and easier to get it to your consumer, versus what you have with Xbox Live. It's not as big a sales pitch as it once was, particularly when you saw the results we announced coming out of December. We're just going from strength to strength, especially with as many consoles as we're selling; people are hooking it up to the network and they're downloading stuff. It's simple math – the more you sell, the more people get online, the more PSN content you'll sell."

Downloadable content (DLC) is becoming a bigger and bigger component of the industry, as publishers look to bring in additional digital revenue and extend the lives of their retail games. This is one area where Dyer feels PSN definitely gives third parties an advantage of Xbox Live. "If you're making a game and you want to have DLC that you can send out to everybody on a system, if you're with Sony you can do that because everybody has a hard drive [with PS3]. Microsoft's consumer base, on the other hand, can't download everything. So if I'm a developer, which system should I make the content for? And look at the results for the GTA [episodic] pack... candidly, that's why it's coming out on disc, because a lot of people couldn't access it," he said. "So when people come to us, they can provide us with exclusive content and know that it's going to get to a lot more users because our machine has that hard drive. They don't have to create a lowest common denominator; they can do what they want it to do.”

http://www.industrygamers.com/news/sony-psn-is-a-lot-more-egalitarian-than-xbox-live/

psn and xbox live are like two water fountains that are identical

except one costs 50 bucks

in the beginning xbl had it, now theyre almost the same, and tbh i like the community on sony better. major nelson and the other xbl personalities turn me off big time.

Egalitarian

Lolwhut?

It means not ranked or more equal.

From my experience... no it's not equal. But meh... it's free.

Time for Live to change and let us play MP for free, there's very little difference. The only difference I can tell is that downloads are tons faster on XBL (both my 360 and PS3 are plugged into the same router too, BTW)

I see.

This was the first time in years that I came across an english word that I don't recognise.

So they are saying that PSN is more equal (in terms of equality) than Live?

To this day, the thing that still irks me most about the PSN is the lack of an included microphone. There are still too many silent gamers online.

Other than that, Sony has done a hell of a job improving the service... but I'll never, EVER understand the point of Home.

He means that XBL gives preference to certain publishers/developers in getting their content online faster and that the PSN is more fair about it.

Whether that is true or not, I have no idea.

@rocketpig

nothin wrong with silent gamers, it means you can hear less childrena