PlayStation Network, often abbreviated to
PSN (and sometimes called
PlayStation
Online), is an online
multiplayer gaming and digital media
delivery service provided by
Sony Computer Entertainment for
use with the
PlayStation 3 and
PlayStation Portable video game consoles, as well as
PlayStation.com. As of November 19, 2009, there are over 33 million
registered PlayStation Network accounts worldwide, and an average
of 5.4 million unique account sign-ins daily.
History
On May 15,
2006, Sony announced a unified online service for the PlayStation 3
system at the 2006 PlayStation Business Briefing meeting in
Tokyo
, tentatively named "PlayStation Network
Platform". Sony also confirmed that the service will always
be connected, free, and include multiplayer support. The full list
of features available at launch were announced at their
TGS 2006 press conference. When the network
launched, the registration interface could only be accessed through
the PS3 or PSP system interfaces. This has been changed since to
allow users to sign up from the PlayStation Network website.
At the
Tokyo Game Show on September
21, 2006, it was revealed that users will be able to download some
of the PlayStation and PSP titles from the PlayStation Network for
about US$5–$15, starting with those with the smallest game
data.
On May 8, 2007 Sony Computer Entertainment announced
PlayStation Network Cards, a form
of
electronic money that can be
used with the Store. PlayStation Network Tickets, available in
units of 1,000, 3,000, 5,000, and 10,000
yen,
can be purchased at
convenience
stores throughout Japan. Each ticket contains a 12
alphanumeric code which can be input on
the PlayStation Network to place credits in the virtual wallet. The
tickets are available through electronic kiosks at 26,000
convenience stores, including
Lawsons,
Family
Mart,
Daily Yamazaki,
Ministop and
Sunkus. They are
also available at 26,000
post office
ATMs, although registration
is required first at a special mobile website.
A similar
PlayStation Network card system based on actual cards instead of
tickets was introduced in South Korea, Hong Kong
and Taiwan in Summer 2007 and in Spring 2008 in
North America.
User registration
Registration is performed via the PlayStation 3 console, a
PlayStation Portable or a
PC. Two
types of accounts can be created; Master accounts and Sub accounts.
Master accounts allow full access to all settings, including
parental control, but the Master must be over the age of 18 to
create an account. Sub accounts can subsequently be created with
desired restrictions set by the master account holder.
Since Master/Sub accounts are not linked to the PlayStation 3
serial number, which allows users to buy and sell used consoles,
they can be used with different consoles as a guest user; therefore
a single console can have multiple Master accounts. Although
unregistered users can access and browse the PlayStation Store,
registration is required to purchase items. Once purchased, items
can be downloaded from the PlayStation Store to up to five
consoles, however, if all five owners are deleted, the content
becomes invalid and is locked.
PlayStation Network launched in November 2006
to coincide with the launch of the PlayStation 3 console in
North America and Japan
. Due
to the delay of the
European launch to March
2007, Sony allowed residents of Europe to pre-register their
PlayStation Network via
PC in
order to reserve their favored PSN ID, allowing them to quickly
retrieve their details on the day of release.
Services
The full list of current services for PlayStation Network are as
follows:
- Account
- Online Instruction Manuals
- Profiles, a user profile card similar in concept to a Gamercard
- Sign-in ID/Online-ID
- User Registration of Master/Sub accounts
- Communication/Community
- Commerce/Entertainment
- Features
- Block List, for blocking other users from contact
- Comments, for display on gamer profiles
- Parental Control, limiting
children's BD, DVD and Internet Browser access ("Security
Settings").
- Players Met, which lists the last 50 players a user has played
with.
- System Update- PS3
and PSP
- Trophy count, which is a total of a player's trophies.
- What's New
The full list of upcoming services for PlayStation Network are as
follows:
User information
Online ID
An online ID is the
player's
username on the PlayStation Network. An online ID used online
must be unique and can be up to 16 characters in length, including
numbers, letters, hyphens and underscores. Online IDs cannot be
changed and the system supports one PlayStation Network account per
user (of which there can be unlimited). Online IDs are not to be
confused with the system's usernames. Each user can be named (and
renamed), and the online ID is connected to that user.
Online IDs also contain avatars, often associated with certain
games or game characters. Downloadable avatars (including premium
ones) were made possible with firmware 3.0, but will be made
available on the PlayStation Store in time. These avatars are not
to be confused with the PlayStation Home avatars, which are 3D
representations of the user only used in Home, and are in no way
affiliated with any other PSN service or any PS3 game.
Sign-in ID
A sign-in ID is the
player's email on the
PlayStation Network and is used to sign into any PlayStation
Network-related service. Although the online ID is displayed
instead, users may only use their email addresses to sign in.
Verification is needed from the email address if the user registers
with a PC. The sign-in ID is also used by Sony to send updates and
promotional material and is attached to the user's online ID
automatically.
User profile
The PlayStation Network profile is an information panel used to
summarise certain PSN information. The information displayed on
these profiles includes the user's avatar and PSN name as well as
information such as languages, a comment and an "About me" section
if the user chooses to provide it. The profile also includes a
summary of the player's Trophy Level, the eight most recently
collected Trophies and the number of Trophies the player has
collected. A player's user profile can be viewed via the
XrossMediaBar, or online
through the PlayStation website.
PlayStation Store
PlayStation Store is an online shopping-based service for the
PlayStation Network. The store uses both physical currency and
PlayStation Network Cards.
The PlayStation Store updates every Thursday (save certain
exceptions) with content such as full games, game demos, game
add-ons, game trailers, movie trailers,
XMB wallpapers, XMB themes, movies and TV
shows.
Video download service
On April 15, 2008, Peter Dille,
SCE Senior Vice President of
Marketing & PlayStation Network, announced that a video
download service consisting of full-length TV shows and movies
would be launching on the network in 2008. Speaking at Sony’s
mid-term strategy meeting on 26 June, 2008,
SCE president
Kaz Hirai confirmed that the video download
service would launch on the PlayStation Network during the summer,
initially in
North America and then in
other countries at later dates. Further information was released
during the
E3 2008 press
conference, where
SCEA
CEO Jack Tretton
revealed that movies and TV shows would be available in full and/or
rental form, and would be situated in a separate section of the
PlayStation Store. Many major studios are participating in the
video download service, including
Sony
Pictures,
MGM,
Lions Gate Entertainment,
Warner Bros. Pictures,
Walt Disney Pictures and
Paramount Pictures. The service
officially launched in the United States on July 15, 2008, the same
day as Sony's E3 press conference.
The service was expanded to the UK, France, Germany and Spain on 19
November 2009. The service will be launched in other territories in
2010. The Service is currently unavailable in Canada.
Qore for the PlayStation Network
Qore/OPMHD
Qore ( "core"), presented by the PlayStation Network,
announced on June 3, 2008 by
SCEA, is a
subscription-based interactive
online
magazine for the PlayStation Network, which launched on the
PlayStation Store in North America on June 5, 2008. A similar
product,
Official PlayStation Magazine HD (or
OPMHD), is being produced by
Future Publishing for Europe. Weekly
episodes will be made available on the European PlayStation Store
from 2009.
PSOne Classics
PSOne Classics, launched on May 3, 2007, is a service
which allows PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable users to
download and play
PlayStation games.
This is done by downloading the game directly to the respective
storage device. If downloaded to the PS3, users can then copy the
game to the PSP as well.
PlayStation Home
PlayStation Home is a virtual community-based service for the
PlayStation Network, announced during the 2007
Game Developers Conference. Home
allows users to create a custom
avatar, which can be made to suit the
user's liking. Users can decorate their avatar's personal apartment
("HomeSpace") with default, bought, or won items. Users can shop
for new items to express themselves more through their avatars or
HomeSpace. Similar to
Second Life, users
interact and connect with friends and customise content in a
virtual world. Home also acts as a meeting place for users that
want to play multiplayer games with others.
A closed beta began in Europe from May 2007 and expanded to other
territories soon after. Home was delayed and expanded several times
before initially releasing. The Open Beta test was started on
December 11, 2008. Home is available directly from the PlayStation
3
XrossMediaBar.
Membership is free, and only requires a PSN account.
Home is the host to avatars, a virtual economy, personal spaces and
clubs. It features places to meet and interact, dedicated game
spaces, developer spaces, company spaces, and events. The service
undergoes a weekly maintenance and frequent updates.
Xi, a once notable feature in Home, is
the world's first console-based
Alternate Reality Game. Adventures,
puzzles and spaces were set up to continuously puzzle those who
participated in finding clues. The meaning of
Xi and the mysterious character "Jess" were
the objects of study in this game. At
TGS 2009, Kaz Hirai announced that Home has
been downloaded by 8 million users.
Room for PlayStation Portable
A screenshot of
Room.
Announced at
TGS 2009, a similar
service to
PlayStation Home, is being developed for the
PSP. Named
Room (officially spelled as
R∞M with
capital letters and the
infinity
symbol in place of the "oo"), it is currently being beta tested
in Japan. It will be added to the PSP in an upcoming update in Q4
2009 or Q1 2010 and can be launched directly from the PlayStation
Network section of the XMB. Just like in Home, PSP owners will be
able to invite other PSP owners into their rooms to "enjoy real
time communication." A closed beta test will begin in Q4 2009 in
Japan.
Netflix
In October 2009 following the expiration of an exclusivity deal
with Microsoft,
Netflix and Sony Computer
Entertainment announced that the service would also be available on
the PlayStation 3 from November 2009. The set-up will be similar to
that on the Xbox 360, allowing Netflix subscribers to stream movies
and TV shows from their Instant Queue to watch on the console.
Unlike on the Xbox 360, the Netflix application will be available
on a Blu-ray disc initially (available free to subscribers) and
will have to be used everytime to instantly view, but it is
expected that a downloadable application will be made available in
the future.
Facebook
On November 18, 2009, Sony released PS3 system update 3.10 which
incorporates
Facebook into the PS3. With
the update, users have the option to automatically update their
Facebook News Feeds with Trophy and PlayStation Store activity. The
update also allows developers to set specific criteria in their
titles to publish additional game information to the user's
Facebook News Feed.
What's New
The XMB's PSN section, depicting the
What's New screen.
What's New was announced at Gamescom 2009 and was released on
September 1, 2009, with PlayStation 3 system software 3.0. The
feature was to replace the existing [Information Board], which
displayed news from the PlayStation website associated with the
user's region. The concept was developed further into a major
PlayStation Network feature, which interacts with the [Status
Indicator] to display a ticker of all content, excluding recently
played content (currently in North America and Japan only).
The system displays the What's New screen by default instead of the
[Games] menu (or [Video] menu, if a movie was inserted) when
starting up. What's New has four sections: "Our Pick", "Recently
Played", latest information, and new content available in
PlayStation Store. There are four kinds of content the What's New
screen displays and links to, on the sections. "Recently Played"
displays the user's recently played games and online services only,
whereas, the other sections can contain website links, links to
play videos, and access to selected sections of the PlayStation
Store.
The PlayStation Store icons in the [Game] and [Video] section act
similarly to the What's New screen, except that they only display
and link to games and videos in the PlayStation Store,
respectively.
Trophies
- See List of
PlayStation 3 games and List of downloadable
PlayStation 3 games for a list of titles that support
PlayStation 3 Trophies.
"Trophies" are an achievement tracking system, introduced in the
PlayStation 3 system
software 2.40 update in July 2008.
The four different types of trophies; bronze, silver, gold and
platinum are awarded to players for making specific accomplishments
(eg. Completing a level or defeating a certain number of enemies)
or reaching certain milestones in games (eg. reaching a "pro" rank
online). A gold, silver or bronze trophy is normally awarded based
on the difficulty of the accomplishment with each trophy
contributing to a 'level' system linked to a player's PlayStation
Network profile, with gold trophies contributing more experience
level advancement than silver, and silver contributing more
experience than bronze. A platinum trophy is automatically awarded
to the player once they unlock all other trophies in a game,
excluding extra trophies that can only be obtained through
downloadable content. However, smaller games such as certain
PlayStation Network titles, lack a platinum trophy. Trophies are
displayed on a player's PlayStation Network profile screen, which
also shows their level.
On November 20, 2008, Sony announced that trophy support would be
mandatory for all games submitted to Sony for
certification from the beginning of
January 2009.
Portable IDs
A
Portable ID is a small, automatically-generated graphic
available to PlayStation Network users in Europe and North America
through their respective PlayStation websites. Intended for use as
forum signatures and the like, these graphics contain information
such as the user's trophy level, number of trophies and recently
obtained trophies. Each user is able to log into their PSN account
using a web browser to access and customize their personal
Portable ID and are then given a unique
URL for the graphic which they can
use to display their ID elsewhere on the internet. The graphic is
automatically updated regularly to display recent trophy
information. Several third-party websites offer similar graphics
(commonly referred to as "trophy cards") as both free and paid
services which either update the graphic automatically from the
user's official Portable ID, from the PlayStation Network or are
updated manually by the user.
Life with PlayStation
On 18 September, 2008 the PlayStation 3's
Folding@home application became
Life with PlayStation (which is still under the "Network"
XMB section).
Life with PlayStation shows
Earth's light at night in locations where it is night
time and shows cloud patterns to reflect recent weather patterns
(if zoomed out far enough). Along with the existing Folding@home
functionality, the application also provides the user with access
to three other information "channels", the first of which being the
Live Channel which offers news headlines and weather
through a
3D globe.
The user
can rotate and zoom in to any part of the world to access
information provided by Google News,
The Weather Channel, and the
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Space Science and Engineering Center, among other
sources. The second channel is the
World Heritage channel which offers
historical information about historical sites. The third channel is
the United Village channel. United Village is a project designed to
share information about communities and cultures worldwide.
PlayStation Network on other platforms
In May 2009, Sony announced their intention to make the PlayStation
Network an "open system". This change will facilitate the use of
the PSN in devices other than the PlayStation 3 but no specific
plans have yet been announced. Sony CEO,
Howard Stringer said that the PSN has a lot
of potential and that only having it available on the PlayStation 3
was limiting the scale of the service.
Availability
PlayStation Network is currently available in 59 countries:
PlayStation Network availability in
the world
Users
from the non-PSN countries (such as Morocco
and China
) are not
officially supported, although it is possible for them to access
PlayStation Network if they provide a real address (such as a
previous address), listing a country which supports the
service. However, it is against terms and conditions if the
address is fake or does not/never has belonged to them.
See also
References
- Sony: Video Rental Coming To PS3 Tonight
- PLAYSTATION Network’s Video Delivery Service to
Offer Movies and TV Shows for Purchase and TV Shows for Purchase
and Rental Through PLAYSTATION 3 and PSP | eHomeUpgrade
- Introducing Qore: Taking you behind the curtain
with PlayStation
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