Quick Stat: Home Hits 6.5M Users, “Not Just Churn”

The last time Sony revealed PlayStation Home
downloads, in March, the number totaled five million. Today, the company upped
that figure to 6.5 million. Still, it's unclear how many of those millions remain
active users, though Peter Edward, director of the PlayStation Home Platform
Group, said in an interview the active user base was "very healthy" and
that "we're finding as well that people aren't just churning, they're
returning." Edward emphasized the virtual world initiative from Sony was
seeing an uptick in microtransactions, but community, not in-game
sales, is the division's primary focus today: "That's not to say that we
don't want to monetize the platform, and that we don't have plans to do so, but
it's definitely a kind of consequence of getting all the other factors right,
rather than being a driving force. We're not in it to make a quick buck…"

Edward said that long-term, the hope is that more and more
Home users will freely spend money on in-game items, though he is also clear he
doesn't expect all Home users to opt
in to an item-based economy. "[L]ike any market you don't expect all of
your users to pay for virtual items or whatever the goods are…[but] if only a small
percentage of the community is paying for items that still amounts to a lot of
money." Brands with a presence in Home include Diesel, Red Bull, Ligne
Roset, and Paramount Pictures.

[via GamesIndustry.biz]

This post originally appeared on our sister site, Virtual Worlds News.

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