PSN outage affects retail players (majority being CoD players)

[Lørd Tøny]

It seems that the PSN outage is beginning to have a damaging affect outside of the online realm, with retail beginning to suffer, as the patience of PS3 gamers wears increasingly thin. Sources have told Edge that there's a growing trend of PS3 consoles being traded in for cash or an Xbox 360, among other things, such as a steep decline in sales of PSN vouchers.

“In the first week of downtime we did not really see any major change in sales or trades,” states one source, an anonymous store manager for a major UK retailer. “However from the second week onwards we have seen an increase of over 200 per cent on PS3 consoles being traded in, split almost 50/50 between those trading for cash and those taking a 360 instead.”

This isn't the only testimony noting a “massive increase” in the volume of PS3s traded in over recent weeks, as another source for an independent retailer in the South West of the UK also claims that a lot of customers have been trading their PS3 in for an Xbox 360. Said source notes that it's primarily “the hardcore online shooter crowd” doing trades, just to get back online with Call of Duty: Black Ops or Modern Warfare 2.

Tom Mestdagh, of Belgian indie game store Gameswap also observed that "in every case it is because of Black Ops and or Modern Warfare 2." He also noted the sharp rise in PS3 trade-ins: “We’re just ten days into the month and already we have an increase of 200 per cent in PS3s coming into the store compared to all of March. Normally we sell them really fast, but not this time. We’ve only sold 30 to 40 per cent of our inventory right now.”

Xbox 360 versions of games are also being favoured over PS3 versions of the same game, with some consumers even cancelling PS3 pre-orders to switch to 360. For instance, for the week ending April 30th, Black Ops sales were divided 59/30 per cent in Xbox 360’s favour, whereas last week that margin grew to 66 percent of sales for the Xbox 360 version compared to a relatively paltry 24 percent for the PS3. A similar pattern also applies to sales of FIFA 11.

Customer satisfaction has also taken a massive hit due to the outage, with one such retailer claiming that “a lot of people have been phoning asking us about personal details on PSN as they are struggling to get a response from Sony themselves. Overall, people that have traded with us seem annoyed at how Sony has handled all of this, and say they would not trust them with details again in the future.”

Naturally, this only a small slice of the overall PS3 user base, consisting mainly of players craving an online fix, who have taken drastic steps to get reconnected to their favourite online games. The majority of PS3 owners remain loyal to their preferred console, and remain patient as Sony strives to restore its PlayStation Network services.

[Ad Bot]

[Nickelob Ultra]

IMHO, Sony still should've had more security measures.  It's really awful how they actually got broken into.

[Joekirk]

This is one of the many reasons way PC gaming > console gaming.

[Lørd Tøny]

This is one of the many reasons way PC gaming > console gaming.

pc gaming has way more hackers online than console gaming ever did. There were a few games I tried to play with other people online on PC and they kept using exploits.


Most developers are moving to console because their games would get pirated on the day of their release (some before release) all over PC.

[Scream.]

I WANT TO PLAY MORTAL KOMBAT ONLINE OVER PSN
SO loving BAD

[ßoltster]

pc gaming has way more hackers online than console gaming ever did.

[Citation needed]

[Lørd Tøny]

[Citation needed]

All CoD games, wolfenstein, doom3 or basically every first person shooter.

[ßoltster]

All CoD games, wolfenstein, doom3 or basically every first person shooter.

That is not citation

Consoles will never be up to pc standard, and if anything I think they're slowing progress in terms of the utilization of new graphical technology in games. If the games you play are riddled with hackers, it is a reflection of the game, not computers.

[Aphtonites]

Durr! sony won't let us put hacked gam-, i mean "homebrews" on our consoles! TIME TO ATTACK!

And this happens.

[Feep]

I still have my ps3.

For some reason I can live without going online.

It's kind of sad...

[Tokthree]

pc gaming has way more hackers online than console gaming ever did. There were a few games I tried to play with other people online on PC and they kept using exploits.


Most developers are moving to console because their games would get pirated on the day of their release (some before release) all over PC.

I don't know about you, but a wallhacker in CS:S or someone who pirated Minecraft never caused any of my personal data be at risk.

[Deus Ex]

I admit, at first, I was one of those cigarettes that would say "HAHA MICROSOFT HACKED PSN!" or some stuff. But as this progresses, I realize now how serious this is. It sucks to see one of the gaming industry's greatest works struggling with it's arm's cut off.

[viper30000]

I am just pissed at how X Box fanboys are using the security breach as a excuse that  X BAWKS IT BETAR!!1!1

And I have been fine without online. I have been on my computer more though but still, nothing to rage about.

[Amaya]

 X BAWKS IS BETAR!!1!1

[brickybob]

pc gaming has way more hackers online than console gaming ever did. There were a few games I tried to play with other people online on PC and they kept using exploits.


Most developers are moving to console because their games would get pirated on the day of their release (some before release) all over PC.

Because Ps3 has no hackers at all.

I've played PC for a while, and I see less hackers on it than XBL.