PS2 Owners Choose Online Gaming Over Prime Time TV
Forget Everybody Loves Raymond – the majority of male PS2 online gamers are busy playing SOCOM II over the Net during prime time television hours.
Published: March 5, 2004
It's 7:00 PM on a Wednesday night - do you know where 65% of 18-34 year old males who own online-capable PlayStation 2's are? Sony Computer Entertainment America says they're busy gaming online during the traditional hours of prime time television. According to the first-ever analysis of online gaming, the audience of online gamers, which grew to an impressive 2.6 million this month, got most of its play time in from 5 to 11 PM during the month of Februrary. As its plain to see, online gaming with the PlayStation 2 is sweeping the nation by storm, with the audience up a whopping 239% since February 2003 – undoubtedly due to the 67,708 new gamers who registered last month.
"When people go looking for their favorite entertainment, some are turning to online gaming with PlayStation 2 instead of tuning into broadcast television," suggested Andrew House, executive vice president, Sony Computer Entertainment America. "We believe the compelling content we offer online gamers will continue to drive the growth of our online platform, far outpacing other online gaming destinations and potentially rivaling the popularity of more traditional entertainment mediums like television."
Television analysts suspect that electronic gaming has been yanking a good number of men 18 of 34 away from their TVs and submersing them instead into an online gaming world. Surprising? Not very, for 42 new PlayStation 2 titles have gone online in the last year, and according to SCEA, that number is expected to double by the end of 2004.
A prime example of how an online-capable PlayStation 2 has captivated gamers is SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs. Within a few short months, 1 million gamers picked up a copy of the title, and half of them played it online. SOCOM II players get in an average of 4.2 hours of online playtime in a day, and not surprisingly, 31.5 million player hours racked up in the first 100 days of the game's release.
"SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs is the most popular online console game, allowing consumers to interact with a huge community of players. It is setting the bar for online entertainment," House commented.
With the upcoming release of the Hard Disk Drive and the highly anticipated MMORPG Final Fantasy XI, the number of people to join the PlayStation 2 online audience will likely skyrocket. In the end, this begs one question in particular: Have you taken your PS2 online yet?
"When people go looking for their favorite entertainment, some are turning to online gaming with PlayStation 2 instead of tuning into broadcast television," suggested Andrew House, executive vice president, Sony Computer Entertainment America. "We believe the compelling content we offer online gamers will continue to drive the growth of our online platform, far outpacing other online gaming destinations and potentially rivaling the popularity of more traditional entertainment mediums like television."
Television analysts suspect that electronic gaming has been yanking a good number of men 18 of 34 away from their TVs and submersing them instead into an online gaming world. Surprising? Not very, for 42 new PlayStation 2 titles have gone online in the last year, and according to SCEA, that number is expected to double by the end of 2004.
A prime example of how an online-capable PlayStation 2 has captivated gamers is SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs. Within a few short months, 1 million gamers picked up a copy of the title, and half of them played it online. SOCOM II players get in an average of 4.2 hours of online playtime in a day, and not surprisingly, 31.5 million player hours racked up in the first 100 days of the game's release.
"SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs is the most popular online console game, allowing consumers to interact with a huge community of players. It is setting the bar for online entertainment," House commented.
With the upcoming release of the Hard Disk Drive and the highly anticipated MMORPG Final Fantasy XI, the number of people to join the PlayStation 2 online audience will likely skyrocket. In the end, this begs one question in particular: Have you taken your PS2 online yet?
