Sony always puts on a show for the press at their annual CES Press Event, and this year was no exception. In addition to announcing their new products and covering previous years stats and sales figures, they always incorporate some Sony Entertainment into their press event. This year, they brought out Will Smith and Director Barry Sonnenfeld to show off Men In Black III in 3D to the crowd. It was the same trailer we have seen on TV recently, but with 3D incorporated in. They also had Kelly Clarkson come out and perform
The theme they were promoting all night was their slogan of “Play. Watch. Listen. Share.” The emphasis on Play was quickly evident, as they were promoting their integrated Sony Entertainment Network (think Microsoft’s Live system) which has a singular common ID and digital Wallet. So any connected device such as their Tablet S, Xperia phones, PlayStation Vita or PS3 (amongst others) will share the login and wallet for all content. Some of the other systems touted under “Play” was the Music and Video Unlimited services that will transcend all connected devices.
PlayMemories Online was new service introduced, which included PlayMemories Home, Mobile and Studio. PlayMemories Studio was interesting, as it was touted as using the PS3 to View, Share and Edit the images, claiming it was “almost like a game.”
Sony also pushed their tablets devices, as they showed off the Sony Tablet S, and the new clamshell style Sony Tablet P. Some of the best news is that both Sony Tablets (as well as Xperia phones) will be PlayStation Certified. These are the first devices that will have PlayStation content outside the dedicated PlayStation Hardware. They will also get their own dedicated PlayStation content within the PlayStation Suite. PlayStation Vita was talked about, including the sales figures in Japan. The biggest news (
as Chuck posted earlier) was that Netflix will be available on the Vita on Day One. The launch is February 22nd.
To lead off the talking about phones, it was announced that Sony Ericsson is no longer, as the new name will be Sony Mobile Communications. The new Xperia line of phones (Ion and S) look pretty slick, as all will be in HD.
Sony also announced that they will be expanding their Google TV integration. Also mentioned were new 3D glasses and a new Bravia engine. We are due to take a hands on look at the Sony gear via booth tour later in the week.
