PlayStation Home downloaded 6.5 million times

PlayStation Home director Peter Edward has revealed that the online social platform has been downloaded 6.5 million times since the open beta launched in December last year, adding that for the time being, profit is not the “driving priority."

Speaking to Gamesindustry.biz, Edward commented, "We do have a profit and loss on Home, and obviously revenue is an important part of it, just like with anything else. But our belief is that if you make the community happy, and get good content on to the platform - if you get a platform that people want to keep coming back to - then the monetisation aspect of it will almost take care of itself.”

"It's certainly not something that should be the driving force - not something that's the driving priority at this stage of development.”

That's not to say that we don't want to monetise the platform and that we don't have plans to do so," Edward continued. "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 from Home, and then move onto the next thing - Home is a strategic platform for PlayStation, and as such we're developing it."

Edward observed that Home has accumulated a ‘healthy’ user base following the launch of the open beta, and noted the service is at the "tipping point of where the platform starts to gain momentum".

"We went to open beta in December and since then we've had something like 6.5 million downloads. We've got a very healthy active user base, and we're finding as well that people aren't just churning, they're returning - which is obviously key for something like this," he explained.

"We're at the point now where we're starting to see our active user base go up, and we're getting more people coming back than are leaving, so we're at the tipping point of where the platform starts to gain momentum."

"That's really nice for us, because until that happens, you're hoping that it will happen, but you need the reassurance - so in that sense it's nice," added Edward.