14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has been making a lot of marketing noise lately in relation to the coming update for the Xbox 360 home gaming console, which is set to introduce social services, like Facebook, Twitter, and Last.fm, to those who are paying for the Xbox Live Gold subscription. The company hopes that the introduction of the social tools will attract gamers who have been until now dependent on the PC for their communication needs.
And now it seems that Sony is also getting ready to jump on the social network bandwagon, with small but clear screenshots showing that Facebook will be integrated into the PlayStation Network, at some point in the near future. Scrawl has seen the images posted on the United Kingdom section of the PSN and they also seem to detail a new photo browser being used and the ability for users to change the user images in their profiles.
It appears that Sony is getting quite good at this cat-and-mouse game, which sees Microsoft announce or introduce a new feature to the Xbox Live service only for Sony to counter it and, after a short delay, also introduce it to the PlayStation 3. Recently the Japanese console manufacturer has confirmed that native XMB support for Netflix will be introduced though a firmware update at some point in 2010, thereby offering another service which has usually been restricted to the Xbox 360. Interested users should also keep in mind that both Facebook and Netflix are available to all PSN users, while on Xbox 360 the Gold subscription needs to be paid and active.
With Christmas shopping season in full swing, both Sony and Microsoft are eager to find new hooks to attract customers with, especially now that their consoles have the same price of 299 dollars and that Sony has the advantage of having just launched the new Slim version.