14 DAY TRIAL // Sony is one of the biggest companies in the gaming industry, but it also has a much more serious impact on the electronics market with its wide variety of devices, ranging from flat screen TVs to cameras or music players.
But without a doubt, the PlayStation 3 is its flagship product, encompassing a game console, Blu-ray player and many other features, including the PlayStation Network, which, according to the boss of the company, Howard Stringer, will become an integral part of all Sony products, as a lot of content will appear in it.
The PlayStation 3 will become a platform for web services, as the move to online delivery of games and other content will be made slowly but surely for the big black console, since it is already underway for the PlayStation Portable.
“We developed brand new, absolutely incredible technology for the PlayStation 3 (PS3), but the cost was high,” Stringer revealed to Nikkei Electronics Asia. “We've adopted a slightly different approach now, and are evolving the PS3 into a platform for web services. Sony has begun the transition from a closed system to an open one. Next we will be expanding the PlayStation Network to hardware other than the PS3, because the number of PS3 units sold puts a limit on the scale of the network possible. Sony has a vertical structure for each product line, an organizational structure that resists change, so it will take time to achieve this network growth. However, a large number of employees share my opinion on this.”
Stringer's statement might mean that we will get to see PS3 features, like the XMB and the PlayStation Network, being incorporated into devices such as HDTVs or cameras. Without a doubt this will be a risky maneuver but, if it works, Sony might gain the upper hand on all of its rivals.