The PlayStation train is continuing to chug for Sony while pulling ahead of Microsoft in all different sectors. Despite being released a year after the Xbox 360 and always having a price difference of $100 or more, the PS3 continues to go strong and is now ahead of the Xbox 360 in worldwide sales by nearly 500,000 units. With newly-released titles like The Last of Us and upcoming exclusives like Beyond: Two Souls, Diablo 3 (new for consoles), Ratchet & Clank: Into The Nexus, and Gran Turismo 6 headed to the PS3, it’s easy to see why the PlayStation brand is as strong as ever.

Now, Andrew House, President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment has released some new stats for the PlayStation Network (PSN) which place it well ahead of Xbox Live with a 62 million user difference between the two services.

Speaking to The Guardian, House revealed that PSN now has a combined total of 110 million accounts.

 It was important that he was on stage: it’s a testament to how far we’ve come with PlayStation 3 in building a really substantial community of networked gamers, who are also interested in other forms of entertainment. Whereas I think you could have slightly accused Sony of a bit of forced synergy, if we’d been trying to enact this collaboration several years ago, the fact is now, with 110 million PlayStation Network (PSN) accounts worldwide, that’s a substantial business opportunity for Sony Pictures to reach a different audience.

So he was talking about two things. One is significant interest and work which is already under way to develop original TV-style programming content, which could be made available with some form of exclusivity to people on the PSN – essentially using PSN as a distribution network. The second point was to find ways to give earlier or exclusive access to other forms of content that Sony Pictures has – again, for people who are on PSN and particularly for members of PlayStation Plus. 

This number makes Xbox Live seem like a dwarf with a measly 48 million accounts which include Gold and Silver memberships. Of course, it would be noted that some PSN users like myself have multiple accounts like a US, European, and Japanese account in order to gain access to additional content, while this is not possible with Xbox Live. Equally, it remains unclear if the number provided includes accounts for SEN (Sony Entertainment Network) which PSN is a part of and is required for access to Sony services like Movies and Music Unlimited, which do not require a PlayStation device. With that said, if you already have a PSN account, it also means you have a SEN account so don’t think that the numbers are doubling up if you use both services unless you have two very separate logins.

Equally, PSN continues to be a fully free service to sign up for on the PS3 and PS Vita as is any SEN account, though monthly fees can apply. On a separate note, PlayStation Plus, the additional fee-based service of PSN, will be required for PS4 multiplayer gaming. With all that said and done, it remains to be seen if Sony can properly leverage all these accounts in order to bring more people into their other services like Music & Video Unlimited. Still, the strong number count is an encouraging sign for Sony that people still believe, trust, and see value in their brand.

Discuss:

Do you use your PSN account purely for PlayStation content or have you explored other Sony services with it?