This is certainly the day for announcements made by Sony. In addition to revealing a video rental service designed for the PlayStation 3, the company is also launching a few other initiatives that are designed to make its gaming console more attractive to other demographics than the "hardcore" gamer. The social aspect of the PlayStation Network is brought into focus in an effort to compete with the Xbox Live service from Microsoft.

While mentioning that the PlayStation 3 has so far shipped more than 12 million units all over the world, Kaz Hirai, President of Sony Computer Entertainment, revealed that this number is past the critical stage at which the company begins to focus on providing more content to its users rather than on extending the installed base at an accelerated rate. Additional content is intended to create loyalty amongst the player base.

The Sony leadership says that 9.8 million people have registered for a PlayStation Network account, which means that there is a significant demographic that can be targeted for movie rental and potentially other digital distribution services. But apart from services which try and directly sell content to users, Sony thinks that the console can also support services which will help people socialize over the network.

Life with PlayStation is a service that appears, at first glance, to be very similar to the Nintendo Channel which is already launched for the Wii gaming console. The service will deliver local weather prognosis by allowing the user to focus on any area by using a virtual 3D globe while also allowing users to see what events are taking place in any area that the user selects. There are plans to allow users and interested third parties to add events and reminders on the 3D globe.

No timetable for the implementation of the above features has been announced by Sony, but with E3 coming up in a few weeks time, it's likely we'll hear more on the videogames show.