PlayStation Network for "TV and Beyond"

Oct 16, 2007

Sony chief exec Sir Howard Stringer describes PlayStation Network as a platform that will eventually spread beyond game consoles.

Sony has big aspirations for its PlayStation Network, perhaps the least of which is catching up with Microsoft's Xbox Live and corresponding Marketplace, which already features loads of downloadable content.

"We are building a software infrastructure to distribute video and music, more particularly video, through the PlayStation Network," Stringer told the Financial Times. "That is a Japanese and American combined effort to build a platform around a common software architecture to distribute video via the PlayStation network into the [PSP handhelds] and beyond."

Sony has been stressing the importance of interconnectivity--PS3 to PS3, PS3 to PSP, PSP to PC, etc. Eventually, Stringer hopes that the network will expand beyond gaming devices.

"We are trying to get our devices to talk to each other efficiently. PlayStation Network should migrate from gadget to gadget. But initially it starts with PlayStation devices and then to TV and beyond. That's the goal," Stringer said.

"We won't know how effective [the effort] is until early next year."

Sony has some catching up to do in terms of hardware sales for next generation consoles, thanks to stiff competition from Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii.

But the firm hopes that its ace-in-the-hole will be the upcoming PlayStation Home virtual world, which will incorporate advertising, downloadable content and virtual living areas where the PlayStation community can interact. That service was recently delayed to spring 2008.

Meanwhile, Stringer said that he is still confident that the PS3 can move a previously forecast 11 million units this year.