MAY 11, 2009 • In an interview with Nikkei Electronics Asia, Sony Corp. chairman and chief executive Howard Stringer framed the future of the PlayStation 3 in novel terms: as in evolving the system into web services platform. Stringer noted the PlayStation Network’s DRM is based on Marlin, an open scheme developed by consumer electronics companies. “Next we will be expanding the PlayStation Network to hardware other than the PS3, because the number of PS3 units sold puts a limit on the scale of the network possible,” Stringer outlined.

Impact: Sony started investing in entertainment content in the 1980s when they began to realize that hardware would increasingly become a commodity. For the past twenty years, Sony’s overall strategy has been to develop a service platform that can pump content to multiple devices. The problem Sony has faced is that the world, and Sony, is still very dependent on exclusive hardware systems. The monkey wrench in the plan is that, even in today’s world, success is largely based on a single dedicated system like the PS3.