Sony are set to replace the current PlayStation Network with the Sony Entertainment Network or SEN on the 8th of this month, but what does that mean for gamers and the industry?
Sony seem to be laying the foundations for a major change by planning on how to provide consumers with an online experience as they plan to rebrand the PlayStation Network as the Sony Entertainment Network.
But before we get into all of the nitty-gritty details and speculation, it is important to get a bit of background information on the PlayStation Network and the position Sony is in at the moment.
The PlayStation Network
Launched on the 11th of November, all the way back in 2006, the PlayStation Network was Sony’s equivalent of Valve’s Steam and Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE, as it not only provided PlayStation 3 gamers with a place to play online games, but was also the company’s online digital distribution platform.
After growing to a consumer base of 77-milllion registered account, Sony introduced a premium service called, PlayStation Plus.
The PSN hacked and taken offline
In 2011, Sony had a huge crisis on its hands when it came to the PlayStation Network as a group of, as yet unknown, hackers breached the company’s online security measures and managed to obtain a significant chunk of personal details and passwords of the PSN’s registered user base.
Sony, upcoming discovering the breach, took the Network offline and hired a group of investigators to look into the breach and find out which details were stolen.
The PSN was offline for over three weeks and the move ended up costing Sony a walloping $172-million. However, it was put back online with improved security measures and a free month’s subscription to PlayStation Plus and the option to download two games for free from the PlayStation Store.
The effects of the outage are still being felt by Sony to this day, as they forecast a bleak fiscal quarter for the coming months.
Now that we have a brief history of the PlayStation Network it is important to take a look at how Sony’s management, or rather change in top management.
Sir Howard Stringer was the CEO and President of the Sony Corporation for the past few years and it was recently announced that he would be stepping down from the post to be replaced by the President of Sony Computer Entertainment, the division of Sony responsible for the PlayStation consoles, Kaz Hirai.
Hirai, although not responsible for the development of the PlayStation gaming consoles, Hirai was the person who branded the product and made it the number one choice for a large number of gamers during its early years and continued that trend even to this day.
One thing that everyone should note from all of this is a comment Sir Stringer made before handing the baton of leadership over to Mr. Hirai. He mentioned that one of the reasons the change was being made was due to Mr. Hirai’s experience in cloud technology and Sony’s digital portfolio.
Mr. Hirai also stated that one of his goals for the company in the future was to expand that very digital portfolio and provide users with an experience instead of just a product.
What does all of that mean? Read on in part 2 to find out.
Disclaimer: the views, opinions and speculation expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the editorial policy of Bettor.com.
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