Sony boss Kaz Hirai has revealed plans to expand the use of PlayStation Network IDs beyond just PS3 and PSP at CES in Las Vegas.
Speaking at the company's CES press conference, Hirai said that, as of February, you'll be able to use your PSN accounts to stream "100s" of PSN-available movies in HD and SD directly to Sony Bravia and Blu-ray devices, as well as their Vaios and Windows-enabled PCs, reports D'toid.
The initiative is said to only be available initially in six countries.
Less reason for many people to buy a XBox 360 or PS3 as a living room set top box solution. Quite damaging to Microsoft as they're the ones trying most to cut into Sony's living room space.
Not much of an initiative if only available in 6 countries.
I don't think that's fair. Many new business models and product line-ups are tested in limited capacity and often in smaller markets before being rolled out in larger territories/worldwide. Take mobile phone calling and SMS packages; those are often tested for a year or more in some of the countries with smaller populations in the European region before being made available to Europe at large. This appears to be a similar approach and it makes sense given the costs involved in launching a new model which is not guaranteed to prove successful. They are testing it first, likely to see what works, what needs improvement, what might need to be added, what can be dropped, etc.
Less reason for many people to buy a XBox 360 or PS3 as a living room set top box solution. Quite damaging to Microsoft as they're the ones trying most to cut into Sony's living room space.
We both know that MS has already succeeded on that count even if they were to stop selling any more Xbox 360s from today and onwards. The Xbox 360 sales still lead the PS3 sales in their millions though it is possible the PS3 can catch up depending on when and how the next "next gen" console cycle starts (if it starts, though I expect it will barring some sort of apocalyptic global event).
Of related interest, IMO, will be what sort of subscription scheme Sony comes up with for it's online services. Sony has stated that it will not charge for online gaming (yet). There was a memo leaked last month that CVG covered which was rumored to showcase some of the potential subscription packages. Nothing official has been announced that I'm aware of, but the signs are there.
Less reason for many people to buy a XBox 360 or PS3 as a living room set top box solution. Quite damaging to Microsoft as they're the ones trying most to cut into Sony's living room space.
We both know that MS has already succeeded on that count even if they were to stop selling any more Xbox 360s from today and onwards. The Xbox 360 sales still lead the PS3 sales in their millions though it is possible the PS3 can catch up depending on when and how the next "next gen" console cycle starts (if it starts, though I expect it will barring some sort of apocalyptic global event).
Of related interest, IMO, will be what sort of subscription scheme Sony comes up with for it's online services. Sony has stated that it will not charge for online gaming (yet). There was a memo leaked last month that CVG covered which was rumored to showcase some of the potential subscription packages. Nothing official has been announced that I'm aware of, but the signs are there.
Hmm, success is relative and I'd agree X360 sales have been successful compared to the XBox 1 but that's all. I don't dismiss Microsoft's sales, but I do question Microsoft's penetration into people's living rooms. Even if the X360 has sold more units than the PS3, I'd be surprised if the X360 has made it into half as many living rooms (~20M) as it has sold (39M).
The point I was trying to make is that it's not just about games, it's about entertainment, getting people to subscribe to entertainment and making money from it.
Point in case...
* If Mr.X - a movie lover, but not a gamer - decided to buy a brand new internet capable 3D Bravia TV with built in Blu-ray player. What incentive would he have to buy either a X360, PS3, XBox 3 or PS4? None!!! He could simply set up a PSN id on his TV and download movies and content direct.
* Lets say Mr.Y owns a Samsung TV, he doesn't want to buy a new Bravia... OK, that's fine too... He could just buy & use a cheap Sony Blu-ray player rather than a games / entertainment console because PSN will be available there too...
Mr.X and Mr.Y would have no need for movies from XBL (or netflix). Microsoft would need some other compelling reason for XBL besides movies. Facebook? Twitter? No. Games is all I can really think of - but then Sony and Nintendo are competing in that space as well...
So lets move forward to XBox 3... Microsoft is blowing its trumpet about digital. Well, in my opinion Microsoft simply MUST include Blu-ray (or another major physical format) not just for games but also to encourage people to buy into it as a platform for movies and other entertainment. If Microsoft decides to move to digital only via XBL it will fail completely against the widespread adoption that PSN will see. PSN already has 39M accounts and that count will explode in the next few years. Microsoft can only hope to gather as many XBL accounts as there are XBox 360's / XBox 3's. That means limited penetration.
The Sony subscriptions were quite well detailed, they're not changing the way things currently are. New services may be paid for, that's it basically. Online gaming will remain free for as long as specific games don't require a sub to play (and that would be up to the developer - e.g. WoW). EA are switching off servers for old games already like FIFA '07, Tiger '07, etc. You soon won't be able to play those games online on PC or PS3. Everyone pays Microsoft to host those titles through the XBL sub, but Microsoft may decide to use those servers for something else as well at some point. Why pay?
Yeh, these home hubs!! They break down twice a year and you’re left with nothing and receive an empty hard drive when the machine is returned. You then have to wait hour upon hour to load all your cyber space games back in and not to mention all the music and photos you may have on the device. How many vcr’s, dvd players / recorders have I had to replace or have mended in my lifetime. Zero. How many ps3’s, I’m on my 4th to date. How many xbox 360’s, I’m on my third to date. A joke in my books and these modern day consols are not up to this job until reliability not an issue. Of course sony and the like want all this downloadable media, it’s stops piracy and also stops the second hand market. I for one will never jump on this band wagon.
Obviously MS have less hardware options than Sony, but they'll be expanding Live to mobile devices in addition to their console/PC setup.
As for shutting down servers, the big difference is that EA weren't receiving money from subs to host them so it puts them at an immediate disadvantage. I'd imagine MS would only shut servers down if there were no users playing the games, Halo 2 is still there after all.
Obviously MS have less hardware options than Sony, but they'll be expanding Live to mobile devices in addition to their console/PC setup.
As for shutting down servers, the big difference is that EA weren't receiving money from subs to host them so it puts them at an immediate disadvantage. I'd imagine MS would only shut servers down if there were no users playing the games, Halo 2 is still there after all.
The high-end smart phone market war is being waged between Google, RIM and Apple. Microsoft hasn't had a product in that space for ages now, just the Zune HD and how's that selling?!! I suppose there's Win-Mob on HTC, but where's XBL...?
Sony Ericsson is more affordable and is scrapping with Samsung and Nokia for the mid-low end market. Microsoft's slice of the market is pretty thin, certainly not dominant.
XBL on PC would be good if only the PC could play XBox games, otherwise it's completely worthless. Twitter? Facebook? Netflix? Um, yes... They're already on the PC. Dare I say that Apple and Linux are both slowly eroding Microsoft's share of the O/S on PC market? It'll be interesting to see these new Apple tablet PC's that are being released in May...
Obviously MS have less hardware options than Sony, but they'll be expanding Live to mobile devices in addition to their console/PC setup.
As for shutting down servers, the big difference is that EA weren't receiving money from subs to host them so it puts them at an immediate disadvantage. I'd imagine MS would only shut servers down if there were no users playing the games, Halo 2 is still there after all.
The high-end smart phone market war is being waged between Google, RIM and Apple. Microsoft hasn't had a product in that space for ages now, just the Zune HD and how's that selling?!! I suppose there's Win-Mob on HTC, but where's XBL...?
Sony Ericsson is more affordable and is scrapping with Samsung and Nokia for the mid-low end market. Microsoft's slice of the market is pretty thin, certainly not dominant.
XBL on PC would be good if only the PC could play XBox games, otherwise it's completely worthless. Twitter? Facebook? Netflix? Um, yes... They're already on the PC. Dare I say that Apple and Linux are both slowly eroding Microsoft's share of the O/S on PC market? It'll be interesting to see these new Apple tablet PC's that are being released in May...
On server shut downs... Yep, I know.
I don't think MS would limit Live Mobile to their products only. They seem to have a close partnership with HTC and LG for example, so I'd imagine they could use their devices too.
As for OS market share. I read that MS still have around 90% of that market, so Apple and Linux will have to do better than slowly erode that piece of pie. Especially with the goodwill Windows 7 seems to have garnered with the public these days.
More challenging I suspect, is Google's challenge to MS's OS market share.
Obviously MS have less hardware options than Sony, but they'll be expanding Live to mobile devices in addition to their console/PC setup.
As for shutting down servers, the big difference is that EA weren't receiving money from subs to host them so it puts them at an immediate disadvantage. I'd imagine MS would only shut servers down if there were no users playing the games, Halo 2 is still there after all.
The high-end smart phone market war is being waged between Google, RIM and Apple. Microsoft hasn't had a product in that space for ages now, just the Zune HD and how's that selling?!! I suppose there's Win-Mob on HTC, but where's XBL...?
Sony Ericsson is more affordable and is scrapping with Samsung and Nokia for the mid-low end market. Microsoft's slice of the market is pretty thin, certainly not dominant.
XBL on PC would be good if only the PC could play XBox games, otherwise it's completely worthless. Twitter? Facebook? Netflix? Um, yes... They're already on the PC. Dare I say that Apple and Linux are both slowly eroding Microsoft's share of the O/S on PC market? It'll be interesting to see these new Apple tablet PC's that are being released in May...
On server shut downs... Yep, I know.
I don't think MS would limit Live Mobile to their products only. They seem to have a close partnership with HTC and LG for example, so I'd imagine they could use their devices too.
As for OS market share. I read that MS still have around 90% of that market, so Apple and Linux will have to do better than slowly erode that piece of pie. Especially with the goodwill Windows 7 seems to have garnered with the public these days.
More challenging I suspect, is Google's challenge to MS's OS market share.
I certainly don't see Chromium cracking Windows anytime soon - so I agree there. The question really is whether people start buying more iPhones and smart phones and so need less powerful (non-gaming) PC's. As I said, on PC - XBL is really about the games as Microsoft doesn't have movies or music as content to sell in the same way Sony does.
Microsoft doesn't really have any consumer platform hardware besides the XBox and Zune. While I know that of course Win-Mob is on other devices, it's not as straightforward for Microsoft to ensure those devices can run content direct from XBL as it is for Sony. Besides, who really wants to download movies over XBL / PSN on their mobile phone? Mobile games could be interesting but like most people, I prefer to transfer content from my PC to phone, iPod, etc rather than download it direct.
Yeh, these home hubs!! They break down twice a year and you’re left with nothing and receive an empty hard drive when the machine is returned. You then have to wait hour upon hour to load all your cyber space games back in and not to mention all the music and photos you may have on the device. How many vcr’s, dvd players / recorders have I had to replace or have mended in my lifetime. Zero. How many ps3’s, I’m on my 4th to date. How many xbox 360’s, I’m on my third to date. A joke in my books and these modern day consols are not up to this job until reliability not an issue. Of course sony and the like want all this downloadable media, it’s stops piracy and also stops the second hand market. I for one will never jump on this band wagon.
We are in complete agreement. While I have had no problems with my Xbox 360 partly because I waited until the Jasper chipset was incorporated, there clearly has been a massive problem with RRoD for many customers. While I doubt the PS3's reliability record has been the same, it does seem to me through the admittedly limited news I read and hear, that there are more YLoDs for the PS3 than many initially thought. I will oppose company micro-management and control of my online and gaming habits 'til the day I die. If need be I will quit the field and perhaps pick up fencing or another martial arts form, or rejoin a choir, etc. Heck, I may do those things regardless.
@Von: I agree with you that MS will likely have to adopt a different data-reading method in the future whether that be BR or something else. While prices are still quite high when dealing with SSDs, they have been decreasing and if the next iteration of the Xbox comes in 2013 perhaps SSD prices will be low enough that MS would be willing to absorb any console sales losses in the hopes of making them up with profits in attachment rates and user services.
In light of the fact that within a month - month and a half of its release, Windows 7 managed to claim 6-7% of the global OS market while the dominant market share holder still falls to XP Windows (don't recall the exact market share); that's huge! I don't think MS has much to worry about from Linux nor Apple OS's anytime soon.
Arguably the best shot those other two OS providers had to really stick it to MS in the OS market was with Vista which was very poorly received. My father is delighted with Linux and while I have little familiarity with it, from what I have read and seen I tend to agree with one reviewer whom stated that while he really likes the idea behind Linux and wants them to succeed their main problem in his opinion, is that their OS needs to be more easily accessible to the man and woman on the street without them needing to read up on their IT skills. Linux can do a lot I'm sure, yet it does not strike me as an intuitively user friendly system. MS's OS's have certainly also suffered from this at times yet IMO Windows 7 is the smoothest and easiest OS I have ever dealt with. I find it a genuine joy to work with. MS isn't invincible (no company is), but they probably don't have to worry too much about their massively dominant position in the OS market now that they have corrected the mistakes of Vista with the release of Windows 7.
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