September PS3 Launch, Online Service

Posted by Zonk on Wednesday February 15, 2006 @04:08AM from the that's-not-the-spring dept.

Next Generation (which has generally been fairly reliable regarding information of this nature) has a report indicating that the PlayStation 3 may be launching in September of this year. They also have information about the Sony online console service that has been rumoured for the last few weeks. Apparently called HUB, they theorize details about that aspect of the console will be made available in the next few weeks. From the article: "PlayStation HUB is being described to developers as a 'subscriber service' suggesting a monthly charge. We understand the service is being created by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, although this is unconfirmed. Sony boss Howard Stringer is pushing for all media content to be available for distribution over PlayStation HUB, such as music and movies, thus opening up a powerful iTunes-like distribution network for Sony."

1 of 93 comments (clear)

A proprietary HUB by EggyToast · 2006-02-15 04:24 · Score: 1, Troll

Movies and music... that only work on your Sony device. We are already familiar with the tiff Sony had with Apple regarding iTunes in Australia, and we know how loathe they are to open up their own formats.
So you can potentially buy movies and music, and apparently the thing also plays video games (which we haven't heard much about). The Xbox360 lets you plug your iPod in at least (and apparently does a pretty good job of handling it). Yet Sony wants people to not only pay a monthly fee, but also use their service to buy movies and music electronically, encumbered and weighed down with DRM, and which will almost assuredly work only with Sony devices.
"But it'll have Blu-Ray!" Yeah, big deal.