GameGuide » Blog Archive » Sony Leveraging PSN Services for Other Sony Electronics

At Sony’s CES press conference today, Sony Computer Entertainment chairman and group CEO Kaz Hirai announced that Sony will be using the base platform of the PlayStation Network to build a more company-wide service that will be available for their other consumer electronic platforms, starting with the premium video store next month.

Hirai described the announcement as “leveraging the PSN platform” for other Sony consumer electronic products, including internet-connected Bravia TVs and Blu-ray players, as well as VAIO and Windows PCs. As mentioned, the expansion starts next month with the availability of the PSN video store on these other devices, and Hirai explained they are constructing a mechanism to create a single user ID across the entire network (if you have a PSN account, it’s good to go on any other applicable Sony device, and if you create one on another device, it’ll work on PSN). And finally, Hirai also announced the formation of a new Sony division — called Sony Network Entertainment, Inc. — to drive this expansion of the PSN service into a Sony-wide network. 

For those with longer memories, perhaps you’ll recall a recently discovered Sony trademark filing for a service called “Qriosity,” which sounded a lot like a company-wide e-commerce platform that would include an “online shopping mall with links to the retail websites of others,” “file sharing and information portal in the field of e-commerce,” and “online distribution of music, image, or video.” This CES announcement certainly sounds like it could be the first step to this more expansive platform, but whether it actually has anything to do with this earlier trademark filing is purely our own conjecture at this point. [1up]