PS2 online users pass 1.4 million mark in North America

Sony has over 1.4 million users of the PlayStation 2's online services in North America, according to SCEA executive VP Andrew House, with the number growing by around 50,000 every month.

That figure represents around 14 per cent of Sony Computer Entertainment America's PS2 user-base, according to House - a huge step ahead of the 100,000 unit targets originally set by the company for the launch of the PS2 network adapter.

"The trend is a nice, long, steady rise," House told US website IGN in an interview. "What I think is particularly interesting is, not only are we seeing a lot of the numbers being driven off the Network Adapter bundle, but consistently there are sales of the standalone Network Adapter."

The figures make Sony's online service into easily the most popular console online gaming system in North America, well ahead of Microsoft's much-lauded Xbox Live system. However, House believes that the real move into the mass-market is yet to come.

"I think that once we start to get into that area that's more than two million - and we talked before about a million units being critical mass - two million then starts to trend us outside of the pure core gamer proposition and probably argues for some very interesting content additions to the library," he explained.

"I think Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal from ourselves will prove to be very interesting," he continued, "and I think really has the potential to bring in a different kind of user that is perhaps conventionally viewed as beyond the console gamer."