Press Release

Fifth of PlayStation 3 owners considering switch to Xbox 360

APRIL 2011

Further to what has been described as the world’s largest theft, affecting more than 77 million users, 21% of PlayStation 3 owners have admitted they are considering selling their console in order to switch to rival console, the Microsoft Xbox 360.

Millions of American video gamers have said that they will turn their backs on Sony’s PlayStation 3 console in favour of the Xbox 360, the system’s closest rival.

A nationwide survey of more than 2,100 American video gamers has found that the damage from the alleged hack has also affected Sony’s reputation amongst users.

Of the 2,132 people surveyed, 41% said that they owned a PlayStation 3.

When asked, ‘Will you continue as a PlayStation 3 user further to the security breach?’ more than a fifth of owners, 21%, said they were considering selling their console to switch to Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

The PlayStation Network, which experienced six days of downtime before Sony released information that admitted there was an ‘illegal and unauthorised’ intrusion on April 17-19, is a service that allows users to play video games online, as well as buy games, videos and other updates with registered card details.

The majority of respondents, 89% admitted that they were concerned for their personal data, with names, email addresses and more thought to have been stolen.

More than three fifths, 65%, of video gamers said their trust in Sony and the PlayStation Network had been ‘greatly affected’, while just fewer than 9% said it ‘hadn’t affected their trust at all’.

The survey was commissioned by one of America’s leading coupon code discount websites, www.CouponCodes4U.com, in order to assess gamer attitudes towards the affair.

Mark Pearson, chairman of CouponCodes4U.com had the following to say,

“As a video gamer myself, this data theft is especially worrying and I’m not altogether surprised that Sony are likely to see an exodus to console competitors.

“As hackers get more and more intelligent, companies simply have to keep up. Sony has a responsibility to its millions of customers to protect personal details and this data theft proves that they weren’t capable of doing so. It’s clear that gamers across the country have decided that this failing is enough to switch their allegiances to the console’s closest rival.”

ENDS

For more information, please contact Rich Leigh, 10 Yetis PR Agency by emailing rich@10yetis.co.uk

EDITORS NOTES

CouponCodes4u.com officially launched in November 2009

In pre-launch beta testing, the site managed to amass a following of over 300,000 unique users a month, with no formal marketing in place. Over 15,000 retailers are listed on the site, all of which provide discount coupons, which are redeemable at online checkout.

CouponCodes4U.com has over 100,000 coupon codes, deals and discounts live on the site.

SURVEY METHODOLOGY

Markco Media carried out the survey on behalf of CouponCodes4U.com on April 27th, 2011 via online questioning, interviewing a nationwide sample of 2,132 video gaming adults aged 18 years and older. The margin of sampling error for the complete set of weighted data is ±3.4 percentage points