John-ShepardThe PlayStation Network has come a long way in the past few years, and although it remains free, some believe the $50 for Microsoft's Xbox Live service is worth the money because it remains a better experience.
However, according to what SCEA Senior Vice President of Publisher Relations, Rob Dyer, told Industry Gamers , the Network is the easier, more "egalitarian" service. His comments are interesting, because they relate to how third-party developers and publishers view the progress of the PSN, and why more are starting to side with the PS3's service. Also, because hardware sales continue to rise, this also helps the download numbers; after all, if the service is free, a PS3 owner only needs to hook up the machine, sign up for a free account, and go. Said Dyer:
“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. But PSN has come a long way in just a couple years. 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."
He went on to say that it doesn't take as much convincing to get publishers to put their content on the PSN these days, primarily due to the number of PS3s that are currently in consumers' homes. As of now, the total worldwide count is up to 33.5 million and that's the kind of number game makers aren't likely to ignore. Dyer ends by asking the rhetorical question, "So if I'm a developer, which system should I make the content for?"
