David Reeves, the President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) has admitted that online purchases and user subscriptions to it's PlayStation Network service have exceeded the company's expectations.
Speaking to trade website MCV UK, Reeves stated, “One thing that has surprised us is in the Network purchases and the general level of interest that has been shown around the Network business.”
“We’ve gone from zero to almost double-digit millions in terms of what people have purchased in euros.”
Enthused, Reeves also declared that roughly 40 per cent of PS3 owners in Europe have signed up for the online service, with around 33 million downloads recorded since launch.
“We’ve now got about two million PSN registrations”, he said. “
That’s about 40 per cent of users. We’ve also had around 33 million downloads, which is a huge number. And we’ve got 25 stores up and running across the PAL territories.”
For the latest additions to the PS Store, see our earlier news story here.
Source: MCV UK

Hopefully this means Sony is making some of their money back finally.
I find it amazing that they could be surprised in this day and age we live in. If anything, they should have realized that they should have focused more on the PSN service. While they are doing great for their first attempt at a truly online service, they need to step it up if they are going to surpass the LIVE service. I am not a MS fan even though I own two LIVE subscriptions for my son and I; however, they do have something good which is one of the MAJOR things about their system which is attracting people to buy it (DESPITE THEIR HUGE FAILURE RATE). The online component is the key to success. I admit I wasn't too fond of my PS2 when I had one, but I LUV my PS3 and have never regretted buying one at launch. Sony, bring the pain to LIVE....step up your online.
psn id: gingo.... this is great reading for the PSN maybe this will make SCEE sit up and realise that they could make even more money if they gave us decent updates every week with at least a gd demo and ps1 classic, none of the crap ones we want sum real classics sony like MGS1
makes you wonder why they dont put more decent stuff on there !
thats good news but they need to sort out the european store
This is only the beginning for PSN. I really think Home, and their attribute system will lead them as front runner by the end of 2008.
Ok...Now if you updated the damn thing we might be able to buy even more stuff!
Now, with this news, you'd think they'd throw their EU fanbase a f'n bone with content each week. I don't live in the EU region but the updates they've been getting each week have been poor (they seem to get more PS1 titles however) compared to what the NA and JP regions get..
Wonderful! So, Mr Reeves, just think how much you could make out of the UK/EU store if you brought us the same stuff as the US store in a timely fashion! :-)
How much of the other 60% are online but have yet to sign up, what are they doing, its free to sign up and play online, and the downloads are cheap.
lol wow they actually thought non of us had internet connections and that we did not know what a download was.
Surely....We rule!!
seriosly, the eu store coud be SO MUCH BETTER we mostly get some wallpapers and old demos that others have been enyoing for weeks
Ok, now they finally realize the interest we have in the PSN, hopefully they'll put more work into it and revamp the PS store.
SCEE has a lot of good news to sare this week! As mentioned many times before by many others: online network offering interest is HUGE, so start planning for it Sony!
BTW: Home somtime before Q3 would be nice!
hmm so if 2mil is 40% of the european users that makes 5 mil european users total. add other regions and we should be at about 10mil right? or dont all the other regions sell as much as our small european nations ^_^
Keep improving it and the people will come.