As PlayStation turns 20, Sony looks to future beyond games, It may be hard to believe, but the PlayStation made its debut in the U.S. 20 years ago this week. Since launching in the U.S. on September 9, 1995, the PlayStation has played a vital role in starting the video game revolution, an industry that generated more than $22 billion in revenue in 2014, according to the Entertainment Software Association.
Since 1995, Sony has released four versions of its PlayStation home console, selling over 350 million systems including 20 million units of the PlayStation 4, launched in 2013.
As the company looks ahead to the next 20 years, gaming has become just a piece of the larger battle for the living room, with consumer electronics makers like Apple, Amazon and Google fighting to be the device of choice in the living room.
Consumers also continue to look for more from their entertainment systems than just gaming. Devices now need to be able to stream live television, access Netflix, Hulu and HBO, and be ready to handle the future such as virtual reality headsets.
Sony has already begun working on both fronts, launching its cord-cutting Vue online television service earlier this year in seven major markets and preparing to release its Project Morpheus virtual reality headset during the first half of next year.
"Over the years of the evolution of our console, especially coming on 20 years now, we introduced a lot of new services to our consumers," says Eric Lempel, general manager of the PlayStation Network in the Americas and one of the creators of the Vue.
Similar to Dish Network's SlingTV, Vue lets users watch live broadcast and cable channels, as well as record shows on a virtual DVR, over the internet through a PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 or Apple iPad without needing to subscribe to a traditional cable package. Sony's packages start at $49.99 a month and include the traditional local channels as well as cable favorites like ESPN, Comedy Central and TNT. A $59.99 a month "Core" package offers additional channels plus access to local sports networks such as the YES network in New York or CSN in San Francisco.While its currently limited solely to those devices, Lempel says the company is looking to expanding to Google's Chromecast or Amazon's Fire TV devices in the future. "We're kind of saying to the consumer, 'here's a different way to get the TV that you love, it gets better as you use it and helps you find things after.'"
TV isn't the only area Sony is expanding its PlayStation brand. Available next year, Project Morpheus virtual reality headset is one of the company's most hotly anticipated devices in recent memory.
As with the streaming TV market, virtual reality is an equally crowded area. Google, HTC and Facebook-owned Oculus all planning to launch headsets next year.
Sony has been working on the Morpheus project since 2010, when it was working on the Move motion controllers for the PlayStation 3, and in the early stages of creating the PlayStation 4. Richard Marks, the director of Sony's PlayStation Magic Lab R&D division and one of the creators behind Morpheus, says the project came about as a result of several divisions of Sony messing around with Move.
"What happened was when the PlayStation Move became available to developers they could just put a PS Move on their head and have a tracking system that was pretty good," says Marks. "Good enough to do a 'VR startup' kind of starting point. All they would need to do was get a display, put it near their eyes and then put a PlayStation Move on their head and they would have a sort of 'poor man's' VR system."Marks says he doesn't necessarily envision a "winner or loser" in the forthcoming VR battle, instead comparing it to the current gaming industry. "We've had the exact same thing for a long time in the gaming world with PCs and consoles. They each have their strengths. Certain types of people want one and certain types of people want the other."
While the strong gaming and PS4 connections will help Morpheus standout amongst its initial competitors, like many others, the Magic Lab director is looking ahead to other ways the system can be used, including connecting online to other VR wearers for multiplayer experiences that will be as if the other person is in the room with you.And while he insists that Sony's initial priority will be on gaming, he can see how VR can expand into other realms like education, apps and entertainment. Sony has worked with NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab on a Morpheus demo to simulate repairs on the International Space Station for astronauts, and Marks sees apps for traveling and site seeing and even education, such as learning a new engineering tool with someone virtually beside you to have great potential.
"Our focus probably will be more on the games side of it, but for VR in general you will see where the social aspect kicks in and that feeling of being there with somebody else… Now that the hardware has become a lot lower cost, I think those applications will make more sense."
Looking toward the next 20 years, Marks envisions the space continuing to grow, yet he is keenly aware of how important it is to get the initial launch right. While he sees virtual reality expanding beyond games, he believes the gaming industry will set the tone for how other industries embrace the technology going forward.
"It has huge potential, we know that. For us though we are kind of the first step, our company and the companies doing games, so we have to really create a good, solid foundation."
Since 1995, Sony has released four versions of its PlayStation home console, selling over 350 million systems including 20 million units of the PlayStation 4, launched in 2013.
As the company looks ahead to the next 20 years, gaming has become just a piece of the larger battle for the living room, with consumer electronics makers like Apple, Amazon and Google fighting to be the device of choice in the living room.
Consumers also continue to look for more from their entertainment systems than just gaming. Devices now need to be able to stream live television, access Netflix, Hulu and HBO, and be ready to handle the future such as virtual reality headsets.
Sony has already begun working on both fronts, launching its cord-cutting Vue online television service earlier this year in seven major markets and preparing to release its Project Morpheus virtual reality headset during the first half of next year.
"Over the years of the evolution of our console, especially coming on 20 years now, we introduced a lot of new services to our consumers," says Eric Lempel, general manager of the PlayStation Network in the Americas and one of the creators of the Vue.
Similar to Dish Network's SlingTV, Vue lets users watch live broadcast and cable channels, as well as record shows on a virtual DVR, over the internet through a PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 or Apple iPad without needing to subscribe to a traditional cable package. Sony's packages start at $49.99 a month and include the traditional local channels as well as cable favorites like ESPN, Comedy Central and TNT. A $59.99 a month "Core" package offers additional channels plus access to local sports networks such as the YES network in New York or CSN in San Francisco.While its currently limited solely to those devices, Lempel says the company is looking to expanding to Google's Chromecast or Amazon's Fire TV devices in the future. "We're kind of saying to the consumer, 'here's a different way to get the TV that you love, it gets better as you use it and helps you find things after.'"
TV isn't the only area Sony is expanding its PlayStation brand. Available next year, Project Morpheus virtual reality headset is one of the company's most hotly anticipated devices in recent memory.
As with the streaming TV market, virtual reality is an equally crowded area. Google, HTC and Facebook-owned Oculus all planning to launch headsets next year.
Sony has been working on the Morpheus project since 2010, when it was working on the Move motion controllers for the PlayStation 3, and in the early stages of creating the PlayStation 4. Richard Marks, the director of Sony's PlayStation Magic Lab R&D division and one of the creators behind Morpheus, says the project came about as a result of several divisions of Sony messing around with Move.
"What happened was when the PlayStation Move became available to developers they could just put a PS Move on their head and have a tracking system that was pretty good," says Marks. "Good enough to do a 'VR startup' kind of starting point. All they would need to do was get a display, put it near their eyes and then put a PlayStation Move on their head and they would have a sort of 'poor man's' VR system."Marks says he doesn't necessarily envision a "winner or loser" in the forthcoming VR battle, instead comparing it to the current gaming industry. "We've had the exact same thing for a long time in the gaming world with PCs and consoles. They each have their strengths. Certain types of people want one and certain types of people want the other."
While the strong gaming and PS4 connections will help Morpheus standout amongst its initial competitors, like many others, the Magic Lab director is looking ahead to other ways the system can be used, including connecting online to other VR wearers for multiplayer experiences that will be as if the other person is in the room with you.And while he insists that Sony's initial priority will be on gaming, he can see how VR can expand into other realms like education, apps and entertainment. Sony has worked with NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab on a Morpheus demo to simulate repairs on the International Space Station for astronauts, and Marks sees apps for traveling and site seeing and even education, such as learning a new engineering tool with someone virtually beside you to have great potential.
"Our focus probably will be more on the games side of it, but for VR in general you will see where the social aspect kicks in and that feeling of being there with somebody else… Now that the hardware has become a lot lower cost, I think those applications will make more sense."
Looking toward the next 20 years, Marks envisions the space continuing to grow, yet he is keenly aware of how important it is to get the initial launch right. While he sees virtual reality expanding beyond games, he believes the gaming industry will set the tone for how other industries embrace the technology going forward.
"It has huge potential, we know that. For us though we are kind of the first step, our company and the companies doing games, so we have to really create a good, solid foundation."
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