The advantage of having it broken up and acting independently is the ”strong regional representation” the content receives, as opposed to a ‘one size fits all’ approach.
A large number of PS3 gamers in fact have 3 separate PlayStation Network IDs covering each of the regions, and Sony top executive Shuhei Yoshida is one of them.
”There are both positives and negatives in the current regional approach, and I admit I have 3 PSN IDs for Japan, US and Europe…,” said Yoshida-san, responding to asking why they don’t combine all regional networks into one.
”Managing multiple small countries with multiple languages is much more inefficient than managing a large single country,” he replied to another PS3 user. ”You should be careful what you wish for. If you want all regions managed by one perspective, one view of the largest country, then you are not in for a good ride.”
”Having strong regional representation with regional operation is a great thing to be able to cater to the needs of the market.” The biggest gripe for PlayStation Network users is the sometimes painful disparity between content released on US, EU or JP PSN. Some networks still don’t carry releases that others do, or endure lengthy delays.
One such affected title and community is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which has already landed on the US PlayStation Network two months back but has so far not appeared for EU gamers.