It’s well documented – people went crazy over Sony’s placing of the SingStar trojan horse on the PlayStation 3’s XMB when they shoved it on us in a firmware update towards the end of last year, but for the publisher and the studio, it worked.
The project has netted Singstar 1.5 million new users [via] since the October change. In comparison, there were 2 million users in the preceding five years. You might not like having that icon there, but for Sony, it’s a success.
The game, which is now free to play (with users just buying the songs they want) has a conversion rate of around 6%, with the discussion (at Develop today) by London studio director Dave Ranyard indicating that some have bought over a thousand songs.
Ranyard says that the team added lots more points of purchase (after watching a video, for example) and streamlined the whole purchasing system from six clicks down to three, removing as many barriers to entry as possible.
bigbaldwolf
1.49 million accidental clicks on it lol
jimmy-google
I imagine that to record new users they’re looking at song sales or trophies rather than just starting the app.
bigbaldwolf
Wow.
Thanks for the insight. I’m pretty sure what I wrote was just a crap joke lol
RoadRunner
This really disappoints me.
I thought Playstation owners were grown up and mature, however it seems many of them are spotty 14yr olds that think having a Singstar icon on the XMB somehow makes them less of a man.
doomsday619
The app is on the other 2 PS3’s in my house but not on the one i use myself.
Flexxible
HMMM, am i the only one who doesn’t have that singstar icon on the XMB???? never had it
Maybe that’s because i skipped the update, as i didn’t have a lot time to play games on my PS3, i never installed that update and did the one after that update.
Anyway, i’m glad i don’t have that stupid icon xD
doomsday619
Nope i dont have it either.
Flexxible
hahahaha, typed the message at the same time, but i’m glad i don’t have that icon
hol
It’s on both my machines & i’d like rid of it. We should’ve always had the option to opt out.
dude90
I could’ve said the same thing about the Home icon, but then again I use Home but just forget Singstar is here.
hol
True but then the PS3 never booted straight onto the Home icon, this does & it’s really annoying :(
stormy
Never clicked it, would love to get rid of it….
BrendanCalls
So I guess with such success we can expect more of these types of icons. We have 1.5m people to thanks for this :-(
ArrebatoTarugo
People are simply stupid. We have what we deserve.
Bodachi
What?
DividSmythe
I wish they put this on PSblog as would be hilarious to see some of those replies.
Although I have used it, it doesn’t make me log in to it more often as I thought it would. It needs more songs the kids will love.
robotattack
I would suspect the core software now being free would be more of a contributor to new users using it. Obviously the icon would have helped draw attention to it of course. Also, referring to it as a “trojan horse” is a bit misleading; it’s an icon linking to software that does exactly what you’d expect it to.
hannes_truce
Having a way to get rid of it wouldn’t have affected these numbers, as the 1.5 million’s interaction with the icon was to click it, not to delete it.
So I’m happy for more of these to appear, as long as I have the option to remove them.
hannes_truce
Effected?