The last few months have certainly been interesting for Sony. On the good side of things, they have been introducing products that are really impressive such as their whole line of 3D TVs and cameras not to mention the so awaited PSP2 codenamed NGP. On the not so good news, Sony has also learned that its flagship gaming platform, the PS3 had been hacked and is now fighting the hackers in any front imaginable trying to do as much damage control as possible by filling lawsuits and releasing firmware updates.
What very few are paying attention to, however, is the shifting that Sony is displaying in their business model. We have not paid too much attention to the fact that Sony has announced their shifting on the PS3 to allow cloud storage, or the rumors that Sony is planning to make games on the PS3 (and possibly their next generation gaming platform) that can be somehow transferred to a portable device.
Sony has also announced the development of the Playstation Suite that allows users to enjoy Playstation games and will make PS content available to Android smartphones and tablets. This will also include a Playstation Store so Sony can deliver Playstation content — which many are saying will include PSOne original games — to Android phones and tablets.
What are all of these developments showing us? Well, that Sony is following suite with the gaming industry and is expanding its market even more to cather to mobile users. As far as the game industry is concerned, Sony is focusing more on its software, rather than on its hardware, opening it to be used on other platforms and on different media, while at the same time controlling it by tying all of its services to the Playstation Network.
We also see this change of business model as a beneficial for both Sony and the end user as well. For Sony, more ways of distribution would of course mean more revenue. For the users, it will mean more ways to get access to Playstation Network content, with more choices and devices to enjoy.
Sony is trying to get back into the mobile gaming market, and so far it looks like it's been successful at doing so. However is too early to tell if the NGP suffers the same fate of the PSP Go, or if the Playstation Suite will be able to complete with already stablished mobile game markets. We can only hope that these changes work out for better choice and the benefit of the end consumer ,
