With around 113 million active users each month, the PlayStation online service (also known as PSN) has undoubtedly been an important part of any gamer’s life since its inception more than fourteen years ago. Now, however, it appears that changes may be on the horizon as one of Sony’s top executives who was responsible for this feature is due to leave by the end of the fiscal year.
Tsuyoshi Kodera is said to be stepping down from his role at the start of April, but will be remaining at Sony. The former CEO has played a crucial part in the implementation of the PlayStation online network, which include such services as the PlayStation Store, PlayStation Plus and the cloud gaming service PlayStation Now. Such key features for the console have been instrumental in driving Sony revenues up over the years with around 40 million paid subscriptions for PlayStation Plus alone as of May last year. Kodera is something of a business veteran with thirty years of experience in the industry, more than seven of them as president of the Sony Network Entertainment group.
Sony itself have been under scrutiny over the years after reports emerged which suggested the company was looking to pull focus away from the Japanese market. However, Sony Interactive Europe has since denied these allegations. The recent PS5 console has also come under fire recently, when sales figures showed it had the worst launch of any PlayStation console in Japan. With customers still scrabbling to get their hands on a PS5, stores are selling out fast despite getting hold of stock recently.
Beginning life in 2006, the PlayStation online service actually started out on the PS2, but Sony never fully provided a unified service for the console. However, once it began work on its third home console several years later, it sought to implement this feature which allowed people to stay connected with PlayStation and other gamers from across the world. The service has remained a staple of the console industry ever since, even supporting its handheld device, the largely-forgotten PlayStation Portable (or PSP), although it recently started trending on Twitter.
Despite the ongoing support and popularity of their online feature, both the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live have suffered disruption from hackers in the past. On Christmas Day in 2014, Sony and Microsoft experienced what’s known as a “denial-of-service” attack in which millions of inauthentic connection requests were sent to the consoles, causing mass disruptions throughout. Even today, the PlayStation online service is not fully immune to hacks both on and offline as last summer, a new hack emerged which enabled PS1 games to be played on the PS4 using an emulator.
Source: Video Games Chronicle
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