Blog‎ > ‎

Social Media Battle: Xbox vs. PlayStation

posted Oct 20, 2010 7:33 AM by Kirsten Alvarez   [ updated Dec 2, 2010 7:54 AM ]
Last week's battle between Marvel and DC was won by a landslide, but this time around, the winner isn't so clear. In fact, I'm having a hard time choosing one because I'm a fan of both, as well as the Wii. Xbox and PlayStation have always been major competitors, at least since Microsoft first came on the scene with the Xbox in 2001. From what you'll see below, the competition is strong in their social media tactics as well.  

Facebook

  

When comparing the two system's fan pages on Facebook at first glance, they look pretty equal. They both have custom tabs, both link to their other social media outlets within their Facebook page and both have a ton of fans. PlayStation does have over 100,000 more fans, but considering the fact that PlayStation has been around longer and has a handheld component, 100,000 really isn't that much more. And, there are other factors to consider. 

To the left are two, yes two, additional official Xbox fan pages. 

The fact that these two fan pages are out there isn't necessarily a good thing, despite the additional fans it may add to Xbox's tally. Actually, I consider these two additional fan pages a huge mistake. 

It looks like one page is "for all" and the other is "for core," which I assume is short for hardcore. I would think "for all" would encompass, well, all. Apparently, though, hardcore gamers aren't included in that group of everyone. 

By the looks of each Facebook page, it seems that the folks behind Xbox assume those interested in Halo Reach aren't going to be interested in Xbox Kinect and vice verse. This assumption is absolutely ridiculous. I, for one, love Halo and am also excited for the Xbox Kinect. I also don't want to have to "like" three different fan pages in order to get different news 
stories, photos and updates. I'd much rather get everything 
lumped together.

I understand the "for all" actually means "for families and young children," but let's face it, even though Halo and other games have M ratings, there are plenty of young 
kids playing them daily. And most people playing Xbox (including kids, women and men) 
are into a variety of different types of video games. 
So why would they want to look at multiple pages when one page could tell all the news, show all the pictures and preview all the products for this console? 

PlayStation has another, better idea: one main Facebook page that includes all information. 

Because I have to assume that many of the nearly 140,000 fans of "Xbox for Core" and the 25,000+ fans of "Xbox for All" are also the same fans tallied for the main Xbox fan page, I can't count them separately. 

Though both have a relatively close number of fans and use Facebook properly by posting videos, photos, stories, updates and doing so on a regular basis, I have to give this round to PlayStation because they have more fans and one, concise, page for every PlayStation user. 








Twitter

  

By appearance alone, I was drawn to Xbox's Twitter page. It's bright and just more inviting. However, obviously, many many others are drawn to PlayStation's Twitter feed. At over 480,000 followers, they have nearly 10 times as many followers as Xbox, which only has around 50,000. A closer look at both pages tells me why. 

PlayStation tweets often, multiple times a day, while Xbox tweets once or twice a day and often goes two days without tweeting at all. Obviously, with more posts comes more retweets, replies and hashtags, which are all important tools to gain loyal followers. 

 

Xbox also has, again, decided to split up their followers based on assumption, with one page "for all" and one "for core." Both have around 3,000 followers and don't tweet very often. Maybe if they combined these accounts and tweeted ALL Xbox-related news, updates, pictures, videos, etc., they'd have many more fans on one, simplified page. 

This was no contest. By shear follower numbers alone, PlayStation wins this round. 

YouTube

 

Obviously, both Microsoft and Sony understand the value of YouTube, especially since interesting videos about new games are some of the most viewed and shared throughout social media. Both Xbox and PlayStation post videos frequently and have inviting, custom layouts. However, PlayStation has almost 115,000 subscribers and Xbox has only over 17,000. PlayStation has over 31.8 million upload views, while Xbox has over 3.7 million. 

The reason why the PlayStation YouTube page is so popular compared to Xbox? I'm not sure. It could be because the page has been around longer, it could be because PlayStation embeds videos in their blog (although, they've more recently been using Viddler instead of YouTube for those), but I'm guessing it's because of the amount of content they post and what they're posting. 

Although interviews, game trailers, demos, etc. are interesting and actually gain the most views, PlayStation has a lot more than that. Because Microsoft isn't Sony, they're not going to be able to keep up with PlayStation in some aspects. PlayStation has a good idea promoting new releases of Sony movies that can be downloaded through the PSP or PlayStation 3. 
PlayStation also promotes their own web reality show, The Testers, which is on its second season. Clips like these, along with the trailers, demos and interviews, are what make PlayStation's YouTube more popular over Xbox. 

What could Xbox do? Well, for starters, more videos. Both pages have a good amount of videos and post almost, if not, daily. But, it looks like PlayStation has more videos along with their wider array of content variety. Xbox needs to get creative. Sure, all systems have Netflix now, but that's no reason to not post previews of new TV shows and movies coming to Netflix streaming, if they can. Posting videos that players have created, like the ones we can make after we've played a great game in Halo Reach, could also boost some views. They may never be able to compete with Sony, but they can try. 

 

Although PlayStation has decided to split up its YouTube presence with two additional official pages (a dumb move), similar to what Xbox did on Facebook and Twitter, their fan numbers on their official page are enough to declare them the winners of this round. 

Web Sites
 
 

Finally, Xbox is on top in one aspect of this battle. I'm sure that the reason Xbox was able to gain such ground and almost tie PlayStation in fan numbers on Facebook is because they have promoted their Facebook fan page loud and clear on their web site home page. Not only that, they're also promoting the fact that Xbox includes the ability to easily view and update both Facebook and Twitter from the console itself. 

But wait ... it looks like since that screen shot was taken a few days ago, Xbox has changed their home page! 

The new site looks really nice, but where's the social media? It's nowhere. Not a link to their Facebook page, not information about the social aspect within the console, not even a link to their blog. They don't even have links to either of those things within the Xbox Community section of their site, and it's not there, it's nowhere. What happened, Xbox? 

I understand Xbox Live is, in a sense, its own social media platform. There are some people that play through Xbox live who think its the same as a 1998 AOL chat room. But, it's definitely not the only social media Xbox fans are using. 


PlayStation doesn't link to either of their social media pages from their web site home page. They do, though, link to their blog from the bottom of the page. 

 

As you can see, the Xbox Live Community Team blog doesn't have links to any Xbox affiliated social media account. They do have share links within each blog post, but that's not enough. 

PlayStation does, however, have links to many of their social media pages, including Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. It seems the folks there have decided to use Viddler rather than YouTube, and it's good they've at least listed one video site. 

While Xbox was on the verge of winning this round with their old home page, PlayStation stole the win again. 

Other: 


Although Xbox has lost the previous rounds, they do have something unique: the ability to access both Twitter and Facebook easily and quickly through the Xbox console. While it may be a pain to update anything without the $30+ keyboard remote add-on, the idea is still there. It looks good, functions well and is easy to use. I think with a little tweaking, this could be a more useful part of the Xbox. Having achievements or game snapshots and videos automatically uploadable to Twitter and Facebook would be an excellent enhancement, for instance. 

PlayStation doesn't have either of these things, but that's not to say you can't access Twitter and Facebook through a PlayStation3, because you can through their Internet. The PlayStation3 isn't as user-friendly, though, and again, going online is a pain without the keyboard attachment. 

 Xbox also has a Myspace group, something that, from what I could tell, PlayStation doesn't have. Myspace isn't as popular as it once was, but this group still looks to be pretty active and a lot of people still do use Myspace daily so it's good that Xbox is keeping this updated and reaching as many fans as possible through different social media means. 

As far as this round goes, Xbox has finally won one. 







Conclusion

Who wins this battle? Well, it looks like it was easier to choose a winner than I thought. PlayStation has clearly reached a wider audience via different social media platforms and, by updating daily with fresh, interesting content, they've managed to gain a large loyal fan base across the social web. 

Xbox isn't doing too bad job, though. They post often, just sometimes not often enough. Adding social media back on their web site in more ways than one may help them reach the more average "gamer," like myself. Many potential customers find out about new games, new products, etc., from friends recommendations through social media. 

Oh, and in case you were wondering where the Wii fits in with all of this ... they don't. Although I know there are a ton of Nintendo fans tweeting, posting and following throughout social media, Nintendo doesn't seem to have much of a presence. 

What do you think? 


 
  ← click "like" here if you like this