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Sony Pushes for Broadband

Can Gamers Force Cheaper Broadband?
By Grant Gross
IDG News Service

Gaming console vendors need broadband providers and television manufacturers to lower prices on their products to help gaming grow on the Internet, says Kazuo Hirai, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America.

Hirai is calling on broadband providers to drop prices as a way to drive more U.S. residents to broadband and promote interest in console gaming online. And affordable high-definition television sets (HDTV) are a good place to start, he said. Hirai spoke at a Congressional Internet Caucus event here Tuesday.

RELEVANCE Few people realise what a powerful position cable and satellite providers currently find themselves in. Fewer still have noted that the hottest consumer electronic product today is controlled by cable & satellite. This hot product is the personal video recorder or PVR and the industry currently controls about 75% of this market. Both the computer industry and the consumer electronics industries would like a (huge) chunk of it.

However, there's no way they can currently compete at the cable and satellite level but they are hoping that broadband (land and wireless systems) will provide them with a new distribution system that they can more readily control and for which they can sell their products. Sony Computer Entertainment would like systems like its PSX and future PlayStation 3 to be the hardware that attaches to the fat broadband pipe while the Wintel camp is betting that both the PC and forthcoming ePC's (entertainment PC's) will.

Sony: Elusive Convergence

An interesting follow-up to our post on the Sony World expo in Paris via Panbo and the NYTimes.

To be fair, convergence has not been elusive only to Sony. The frustrating thing though is that Sony is one of the few companies that has all the pieces of the puzzle under one roof.

Sony brings its Dream World to Paris on September 6th and 7th

London, England - June 4, 2003 -- Sony is spending a weekend in Paris this autumn to stage its pioneering global entertainment event, Sony Dream World. This is the first time after Japan the public can see the Sony electronics and entertainment companies under one roof and it is the ultimate showcase for the highlights Sony has to offer in the broadband, connected era. Sony, along with Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications will come together for Dream World at Le Palais des Congrès, Paris, on Saturday and Sunday the 6th and 7th of September 2003.

Nobuyuki Idei, Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer, Sony Corporation, says of Dream World: "The Dream World concept is global and unique. We are the only global company that bridges the worlds of electronic products and entertainment on such a scale, and we are inviting everyone to experience for themselves how innovative, integrated and enjoyable Sony is."

Link to the official press release.

Link to the official Sony Dream World website.