CES: Sony PS3 & PSP userbase breaches 61 million & other news

[xtop]

http://www.qj.net/CES-2009-PSP-and-P.../49/aid/127832

Sony's keynote at this year's Consumer Electronics Show at Las Vegas didn't have any big news about new software releases or hardware updates. Instead, it was filled with numbers. A lot of impressive numbers, at that.

According to figures given out by Sony Chairman and CEO, Howard Stringer, the combined user base for the PS3 and PSP have reached 61.3 million. Stringer didn't mention whether he was talking about individual user accounts or actual hardware units.

President Kaz Hirai was also on hand to give out some PSN numbers: 17 million accounts are on the network, with 2.1 million PSN accounts added in the last month alone. According to Hirai, 330 million pieces of content have been downloaded from the PSN so far.

Hirai also announced that EA is now a PlayStation Home partner. The game publishing giant is apparently working on a new space for Home. Home, which entered open beta last month, has been downloaded by 3.4 million people.

A demo of Life With PlayStation, Sony's weather and news service, was also shown. An update will supposedly be out this Spring.

As for software, LittleBigPlanet was the star of Hirai's speech. The game has reportedly sold 1.3 million units worldwide, and about 300,00 levels have been created for it.

Hirai also mentioned an SOE title called Free Realms, a free-to-play MMO for "tweens, teens, and families". Beta sign-ups for the PC version
have started, and a PS3 version is coming.

Gran Turismo 5 also got a mention, but it was restricted to a still image rendered in 3D. "You've never seen the game like that," said Stringer. Well actually, Sir Howard, we've never seen the game, period. Hopefully Polyphony Digital deems us worthy enough to finally release the game this year.