14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft and Sony have long said that the multimedia possibilities of the gaming consoles that they offer make them ideal to play movies, watch TV shows and get content until now only available on the PC or on the TV. And, given the fact that the former’s sales seems to grow month by month, Sony is decided to make sure that it offers more than its rival when it comes to multimedia.
This means that the Japanese company is set to deliver a new service, which builds on the capabilities of the PlayStation Network before the summer of 2010. The service will be centered around non gaming content, but the firm would not elaborate at the moment.
Kaz Hirai, Chief Executive Officer, Sony, talked to Forbes and declared that “It's now a matter of what all the services need to look like for each device, and coming up with a rollout plan. It's like city planning here, and we can start small. We don't need to build New York City overnight.” Another official, Robert Wiesenthal, the company’s chief of strategy, entertainment businesses, indicated that integrated full television services with the PlayStation 3 and the PSN was a priority.
The Japanese company also has plans to make the PlayStation Network available on other devices than the PlayStation 3, which at the moment has a limited install base. The PSP already gets its special version of the Store and some mobile devices, like those coming from Sony Ericsson, might be next in line to get access to the PlayStation Network and the ability to download paid and free content from it.
This might make the PlayStation Network a sort of App Store for the Sony Ericsson world but Sony will have quite some work to do to turn it into reality, introducing enough applications to keep users interested in it and offering a solid network infrastructure.