The Cut Scene: Xbox Live generates at least 5 times the revenue of PSN

by David Hinkle on Feb 26th 2009 1:40PM

Xbots, arm up! You've just received a new salvo of ammo for your ongoing crusade against those Sony Cronies: Xbox Live has generated a lot more money than PSN, according to The Cut Scene's math. (Of course, dear Xbox Fanboy, let us remind you that this victory comes at the expense of your wallet.) Variety did some quick estimations based on Sony's recent 20 million registrations announcement and Microsoft's reported earnings from Xbox Live. PSN has generated $180 million for Sony, whereas Xbox Live has made Microsoft a tidy sum in excess of $1 billion.

PSN, which includes both PS3 and PSP users, has been active for 40 percent of Xbox Live's current lifespan, however, Sony's service has only managed to generate 20 percent as much revenue. Of course, PSN is free, so registrations don't generate any revenue for Sony, unlike Xbox Live, which costs $50 per year for a premium, Gold subscription. It's not known how much of Xbox Live's total revenue is attributed to Gold subscribers' annual fees.

Source

Tags: earnings, microsoft, psn, revenue, sony, xblm, Xbox-360, xbox-live

Reader Comments (143)

Wow, a billion?

Hhm. I bet that money is going towards paying back that 3 year warranty extension. If I recall correctly, that cost $1 billion also.

I know I payed my share of Microsoft Points™.

Particularly on Rock Band songs...

careful you will be blasted into oblivion

I detect irony here.

you must not be on here alot. thats no Irony, thats the people that dont like me. lol I have quite a few haters on this bitch. Hell I got a comment below that was voted down for no reason at all other than people dont like me. doesnt bother me none tho

the fact that xbox live made more money that the playstation network doesnt really mean anything the money xbox live made consists of the subscriptions and the marketplace points also the marketplace points applys to the "games for windows". so all thought xbox live made 20million more money. sonys playstation network had also done pretty good being that playstation users were able to purchase stuff in 2006 and original xbox users such as myself had to pay to for xbox live starting in 2002. so in conclusion isnt xbox live that is doing bad and the playstation network thats doing there thing? dont get me wrong i respect microsoft for making all the money they did but still i must say.

*2009 will be the year of the PS3 and also windows 7 will be an epic fail.
**apple could build a better video game system then microsoft especially if they were to team up with either sony or nintendo.
***also to all 360 users sell you 360 because with the handful of ps3 exclusives that will release such as. inFamous, Killzone2(getting my copy tonight), Afrika, God of War 3, Uncharted2, Heavy Rain and many many more will have you wanting it more.

PS3 FANBOY TILL THE DAY WE DIE (UNLIKE THE 360 WITH RROD) YES WE HAVE YLOD BUT ITS RARE!!!

dude TELL me you DIDNT just say AFRIKA!?!?

I'm a PlayStation fanboy at hear too but Afrika aint shit...

In other news, iTunes generates 300 times more revenue than The Pirate Bay.

Not even close to a good analogy, unless there is absolutely nothing on PSN that costs money.

And the Pirate Bay isn't out to make money, so double fail.

I think maybe he's referring to the fact that PSN is free to play online, whilst XBL requires money.

But the analogy breaks down considering both of them are selling stuff on top of that.

So if I didn't pay $50 to buy PSN games, does that mean that I helped PSN fail?

Uhhmmm...His analogy was sarcastic folks, sorta like the "this just in: the sky is blue" tactic I used a few weeks ago.

no this is a great analogy, yes i know the pirate bay makes $0 while psn does make money, and itunes is free but costs to buy stuff, and XBL is not free, period, but it does make sense. It's an obvious statement saying something that is making money to simply to access it is making more money that something that only charges to purchase something from it, but still grants access. I enjoy not paying to play games like Warhawk online, and yes the XBL servers are better or more stable, but in most cases i dont have problems getting booted from ps3 servers anyways. If someone has had xbox live since the 360's launch it's been over 3 years, so that's $150 per person, most ppl that have tried xbl and have friends, dont stop their service.

dam!!! I need to make a arcade game and sale it on xbox marketplace and make me some money. 1 Bill? atleast all the money we spend don't hurt us as much as buying guns, drugs, woman, lol..

I'm in too deep on the XBLM purchases. However, I really like what PSN has to offer with their game offerings. I just wish I could afford a PS3.

Better watch out, before Master Chief shows up on your doorstep to break some kneecaps. Keep those vices in check! :)

@iFester

Just stop paying for XBox Live for like 8 years and you should have enough. They'll probably come down in price by then so maybe only 5 years.

Xbox Live = More Users and started in 2002.
PSN = Less Users, and started in 2006.

If anyone didn't think that Xbox Live was generating more money than PSN, is dumb or a fanboy(dumber).

I suppose anyone who can't decipher your incomplete thought is dumb as well.

PSN did not start in 2006. The PS2 had games that ran on the PS Network, it just wasn't set up like XBL v3 (aka Xbox 1 service) with added store until the PS3 launched. However, people have been able to sign up to the service since the PS2.

If your wanting to compare Xbox Live to the PSN of 2006, then the Xbox Live service that comes close is the one that launched with the Xbox 360 in 2005.

But in relation to the article, this isn't a surprise with the pay-for service of the Xbox. Sony only makes money really from Home and store with content and advertising deals (which MS make also)

@ DSK UK

I'm nearly sure that wasn't the playststion network as such.... The PSP online also isn't the "Playstation Network"... It's an online service and is very likely not included in theose figures... The best proof of this is the handles... You need a code included with a network adapter or psp system to set up a handle to play most first party games whilst third party games required there own registration which signals a non unified online infrastructue.

The important question is when they each started generating revenue.

@ DSK UK

The PS2 runs/ran on a network called DNAS (Dynamic Network Authentication System), it didn't run on PSN. The Xbox and the Xbox 360 both run on the same Xbox Live.

@ Edenmcl

The PSP runs on PSN, but it's downloads via DNAS, or something like that.

Doing really loose math they've generated somewhere around 698,250,000 off of payments...

Again, extremely loose math

360's purchased worldwide, divided by two, times 50...

Figured the divided by two lended to people who don't use it and the fact that there haven't been 27 mil xbox's out there since day 1...

You forgot to carry the 2.

You forget that it's $50 PER YEAR. So, if 10 milliion XBL users have gold accounts, and each of them has paid for 2 years, that's a billion dollars right there.

That can't be right!??! Seems like at $50 a year, MS should have made much more money by now. Maybe they aren't counting subscription fees into the 1 billion.

Or maybe they are counting all the sites now that offer 13 months of live for $30 or $38. ...I dunno. Just an FYI, I only pay $38 or below.

there was an article about this on X3F.
i think the total revenue just from subscriptions has been 4.5 hundred k.

mynk - I guarantee that that is not right. $450,000 of $38-50 XBL subscriptions would mean there were only 9000 users, plus or minus, giving them revenue (which I assume you mean is their profit). You can't seriously believe that.

and in other news iTunes Made $5 Billion last year and Zune Marketplace made $300 million.

Well Duh, $30-50 per person for Gold AND there are More 360's than PS3's so that will also help. Then there is the EXCLUSIVE DLC for games so that adds up. now how much of that Billion did they/will they spend to get MORE Exclusive DLC??

I really hope they keep the Zune Marketplace alive, I really like the subscription model. Although my zune is on its way back from repair.

I got the wife a Zune 16 for Christmas and Mid January the backlight dies. just got it back today after sending it off Feb 2. That of course is AFTER my Zune 30 Died but didnt come back like most peoples did. I mean I like it better than an iPod but hell at this rate I think I'd be better off waiting for a 120GB Memory stick for my PSP

Sounds like you guys got some bad luck with the Zunes--or I've had some good luck. Mine has been ticking along like a champ. I've got the 2nd generation 8GB model, though.

Mine is a 2nd gen 8 and the battery died, I think it has to do with the car kit. They were pretty fast about fixing it (sending a refurb) so Im not complaining.

The zune's a nicer piece of hardware and zune's marketplace subscription model is pretty cool, but you cant touch the ipod/itunes market share.... regradless of how awesome your device or store is.

I have had my 4 gb zune since it came out and so far best mp3 player i have owned.

iPods have notoriously bad batteries in them and Apple tells you to "throw it away". My friend found one in a rental car and the battery wouldn't hold a charge. I called Apple care for her (she is older and not tech savvy) a d the guy told me it would cost $160 to repair because it was out of warranty. Instead of throwing it away like Apple suggested I simply ordered a replacement battery and kit for around $30-$40 and replaced it for her. The only thing you can't really fix inexpensive is the logic board and if that gets fried it is worth it to just buy another one.

i've had my Zune80 since last May and i love this thing to death. only problems i've ever had with it was that glitch that came with the 3.0 firmware upgrade (Zune would freeze and require restart if you changed songs with 10 or less left), and then sometimes my playlists dont sync right (leave stuff off i tell it to put on). never owned an iPod but plenty of my friends have them, Zune just seemed like the better choice for me though.

yea I love my Zune too, but having 2 of them die on me(one conveniently out of warranty by the Z2K9 bug) makes me think twice about getting that 120GB Zune I was gonna get this summer.

I refuse to pay full price for anything. I haven't paid more than CAD$40 for 12 months of Live Gold (and even subsisted on 48 hour codes generated from a - what was it, McCain Juice - promo for about 6 months).

And if the MS points aren't 20% off, I leave them on the shelf!

If sony were to release PSN cards(everywhere not only US and Japan) then the revenue from PSN will rise (i know i will buy something if i have a PSN card)

Yes, yes, yes, a million times yes. I'd be tits deep in PS3 DLC and PSN games by now if I had been able to buy PSN cards.

Or better yet, let me buy tracks from other regions singstores like they promised.

I know, believing a sony promise, what was I thinking?

I use Youtube as my PSN demo if I'm not sure about a game. I just go on there and check out the gameplay to see if it's something I'm interested in. I buy lots of PSN games and truthfully have probably bought 30 or so (including Warhawk & Siren).

Personally, I've bought tons of games on XBLA, and only Echochrone on PSN. It would help if all PSN games had demos. I've been thinking about getting Cuboid and Magic Ball but without demos it's hard to take that leap.

you need a demo for a 5 - 10 dollar game? hell i used to pay 8 bucks for a demo back in the day (well for the magazine that contained the demo disc).

of course i'd love to see more demos, but watch some gameplay vids, most PSN titles are pretty darn good regardless.... my only dissapointment is with the PS Eye toys... but at 2 bucks a pop, i can't really complain.

yeahh you do need a fucking demo.. im not buying before a try it out. it says in the print. All sales are final no refund! I don't want to get stuck with a game that I don't like. I do like Heavy Weapon. that little tank is awesome. just don't have the $$$ right now.

Yes I do need a demo for a 5 - 10 dollar game. I don't want to spend my 10 dollars on Junk. Every arcade game on Xbox comes with a trial and for good reason.

"you need a demo for a 5 - 10 dollar game? hell i used to pay 8 bucks for a demo back in the day (well for the magazine that contained the demo disc)."

Said the man who invested his life savings in to Atari and bought the Jaguar on launch day because it was the "future".

Yep, demos. I get so pissed off that there are no demos on PSN, all the time. I would probably buy more if there were more demos. Hell, I know I've bought a lot of titles on LIVE that I definitely wouldn't have had there been demos. In fact, I've bought several, probably the majority, that I don't play anymore and didn't play for much longer than a week, but the demo got its hooks in and I made impulse buys that I would regret if they were bigger ticket items.

I'm scared to go through and see how much I've actually spent on LIVE arcade titles.

Whats the deal with the differing philosophies on demos between the two? Killzones pre-order demo thing is indicative of that. I wasn't going to buy the game, but now I'm going to go download the demo and hope I don't change my mind.

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The Cut Scene: Xbox Live generates at least 5 times the revenue of PSN

Reader Comments (143)

Posted: Feb 26th 2009 1:44PM Peter Moore said

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