Posted: 25th Sep, 2003 By: MarkJ
Both Microsoft's X-Box (Live) and Sony's PlayStation2 game consoles have been criticised for being unable to attract more users to their broadband multiplayer services in Europe:
Live was attracting 25,000 new users a month at first, but this is now believed to be nearer 7,500. It's giving away 2m coupons offering a two-month free trial of Live as the service launches in six more European countries next month. It'll also roll out a new ad slogan, 'it's good to play together', developed by McCann-Erickson.
Sony says it wants to sign as many as 800,000 users to its PS2 Online service, but has had an even slower start. It was launched in early June but has just 30,000 users among the 15.6m PS2 consoles in Europe.
Live was launched on 14 March in eight European countries. After two months user numbers hit 50,000. Microsoft is refusing to say how many more have joined since then, but one firm developing Live-enabled games told NMA that the figure was now around 80,000. If correct, this would mean that only 30,000 had signed up in the past four months.
Unfortunately both systems are based off broadband, which the majority of consoles owners still don't own. More @ NewMediaZero.