For a while now, Sony have publicly measured the sign-up rate of the PlayStation Network by the number of individual accounts. Which looks good on paper, but it's not very realistic, is it?
So we're much happier now we have a real statement on the number of people making the most of the PlayStation Network. During Sony's quarterly earnings report, there was a little Q&A held between Sony executives and market analysts, during which Robert Wiesenthal - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Sony America - revealed:
I think right now close to half of our users have opted to sign up to the [PlayStation] network, and I think it's running on track, and we are expecting really great things this year from it.
Not an exact statistic, sure, but it gives us a rough idea. There are 23 million PS3 consoles out there. If "close to half" of all PS3 users have signed up, that gives us around 11 million people actually signed up to the PSN on their PS3's. Not sure whether he also included the PSP in that statement, but seeing as online use hasn't been as important for that system to date, we'd say he's not.
All in all, that's a pretty healthy number! It's OK to tell the truth sometimes, guys. We appreciate it when you do.