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.”
More from Rob Dyer:
PSP to See 'Big, Big Titles' This Year, Promises Sony
PS3's Motion Control Approach: Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick
7 Comments
February 24, 2010
What are you talking about GTA episodes were available as disks and DLC, just because xbox 360 does not allow users to swap HDD to the highest capacity like PS3. Does not mean that Developers will not store their content on xbox 360. Remember the 250GB HDD is already out, so Devs can store content on the marketplace just that MS have an authorisation process.
I would rather have quality games/DLC on the console than sub par content. Does Sony even evaluate the content they have in their store? If it's better giving devs free reign on whatever they put up it better be good. Have a think about that and tell me if PSN again is better than Xbox Live. Just putting it out there
February 24, 2010
First of all, you're clearly a troll. Secondly, you are missing the point. You need a hard-drive to store most DLC on either PSN or XBL. Every single PS3 has a hard-drive. Not every 360 does: the Arcade model doesn't include any hard-drive at all. Therefore, the PSN has an advantage for selling DLC, as there are no compatibility issues.
I won't claim to have a 360, so I cannot speak towards the quality of the content. However, its clear that you don't have a PS3 either, so your opinion on the content of PSN means nothing. Troll somewhere else, toolbox.
February 25, 2010
I have both PSN and XBL and what am going is going to upset some people here but that what hater do so do your job but PSN and XBL are at the same level LOL the only different is one free and the other one have cross game chat and cost 50 bucks a year . I been on XBL on and off for two years as for PSN 3 years and there both the same , sure there are some games and movies that are one not the other but at the end of the day it's the same that why am done giving Microsoft mine 50 bucks a year and just play my games offline on my 360 because i have a PS3 there only a few games on the 360 i like anyway. don't get me wrong the new features they added on XBL are ok but to me not 50 bucks a year good for me.
February 25, 2010
ok guess ill jump on this as well ...i too had both systems but now only 360...the article somewhat true yes there a lot of 360 users who dont have a harddrive in case thas why the gta disc but what u didnt know was that u dont neeed the gta game when u go buy the disc versus dlc from xboxlive now as farwit psn being better than live well i beg to differ on that and finally we all kmow that MS will go the distance to get them exclusives on live quicker than sony ala "MW2" comes to mind.....we know sony is not gonna be agressive in gettn exclusives....true sony is bigger by the day.....so ask yourself if u want ya family to get the best things in life you will go out ya way right? well thas what MS is doing for us xboxlive users...... but sony is catching up and like to see them get better at it and maybe MS will lower the price per yr but sony is gonna start charging soon anyway for better content if i am not mistaking but we will see later this year
February 25, 2010
"but what u didnt know was that u dont need the gta game when u go buy the disc versus dlc from xboxlive now " this mean MS had answerd the call to put it on a disc for those who dont have a harddrive...but u think almost five years now u will think everybody would have a harddrive by now let be real here.....
February 25, 2010
I think I'm the only one here who can actually spell.
February 25, 2010
The quality of spelling and grammer in this comments section is making my brain hurt so much I may not even be able to provide my own opinion...
Jesse, I think what the other guy was trying to get at with Episodes from Liberty City is that one of the likely reasons they released them packaged together on a disc is because that way users can play these storylines WITHOUT having to still own GTAIV. The DLC on XBL only works if you still own GTAIV.
Also, disc offerings appeal to a different consumer group from DLC. Specifically, the user group that is NOT connected to live. I doubt Rockstar had any intention of preventing non-LIVE users from being able to experience their content, hence the reason for the disc.