Sony PlayStation network moves into reality TV Sony Computer Entertainment, the folks in charge of the PlayStation game console, are getting into the reality show business. As it attempts to transition from a gaming company to a full-blown media company, SCE hopes to expand its PlayStation Network online platform into an "actual" TV network not unlike the American premium …
They might actually succeed, I'll throw in a conspiracy theory here, but it is amazing how many film studios are now part of the Sony company, cant name any off the top of my head, Universal? Paramount maybe? I'm sure someone has a list.
But much like the whole X Factor crap, moving over to buy the Rage Against The Machine single is all well and good, but again, dont Sony own majority shares in both related record companies?
I guess you could view it as another route into your home, much like Sky own/rent the satellites, produce the news/Simpsons etc, it all becomes one conglomerate company where we again begin to loose choice before we even know it is happening.
Y'know, last night I was selling an iPod to a parent who confessed that he despised Apple, yet said that "All my music is on iTunes because I got into it years ago and now I can't get out."
It got me to thinking, what is the perfect word for the state which Apple, Sony, and (to a lesser extent) Microsoft wish to engender: that total dependancy upon only their products, to the point where you are not only so monetarily but emotionally invested in their technology that to switch would cause you so much hardship that you wouldn't even consider it?
Technoserfdom.
They aren't Apple or Microsoft or Sony fanboys, they're Apple or Microsoft or Sony technoserfs, so indebted to one company that trying to leave its products behind would disrupt their lives completely.
Now, of course all corporations dream of such a state in their darkest dystopian fantasies, where a person is born, lives, and dies with only their products in his hands, but the only companies that pursue the fantasy so actively are Apple, Microsoft, and Sony. Lately, however, Microsoft has begun to find the flaws in the technoserf model, which is why they are seeming to steer clearer of the ideal, but Apple and Sony are desirous of the dream still.
Proprietary formats, 'one solution' products, propaganda directly maligning competitor's products, and so many other little tactics all designed to create dependency are clear pointers of the technoserf business model; the only thing to say in Sony's favor is that they've been trying and failing at it longer than Apple and Microsoft, both of whom were simply in the right place at the right time with the right product.
Sony has, quite simply, never been lucky and has always been too blatant about their attempts, ever since missing the boat with Betamax versus VHS. Still, do not forget that their ultimate goal is to make you a technoserf to everything they make, and enjoy their products - but in moderation.
I just wish they'd realise their biggest successes have come from collaboration, not exclusion.
*starts up his PS2 attached to his Sony flatscreen to mock Paul Blart in Mallcop again*
... and I know how unfashionable that is around here...!
WRT music in iTunes, unless the person still has old DRMed purchases from the iTunes store, or has used Apple lossless, their music collection will be in either AAC or MP3 format and therefore not in a proprietary format at all. All the person needs is a new player that plays AAC as well as MP3, of which there are plenty these days. Or do a conversion job (which iTunes will do). Apple lossless can be converted to a lossy format by iTunes, or you can convert it to FLAC using third-party utilities as there is an open source version of the codec..
The proprietary stuff is the DRM, and even then with audio you can either upgrade tracks to iTunes Plus (non-DRMed, but costs - though you get higher quality for your money), or burn to CD and re-rip (with quality loss).
The situation with video is similar in that for your own video iTunes uses standard formats eg H.264 etc that other players can happily play. It's the DRMed stuff from the store that's locked down.
Apple have gone on record as saying that they don't like DRM, it's forced on them by the movie companies and they dumped it as soon as they were let on audio. I suspect they'd do the same for video if the movie companies would let them.
Other than that they use open formats, so while I don't doubt they'd like everyone to stick with Apple kit and software (after all that's how they make their money), it just isn't the case that they lock everyone in with proprietary formats.
Contrast Microsoft with Windows Media and Sony's abortive attempt to push ATRAC3, which really are proprietary.
But here's the full list. Note: MGM I believe is going out of business.
Corporate Fact Sheet
Sony Corporation of America (SCA)
Outline of Principal Operations
* Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE)
* Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group
o - Columbia Pictures
o - Sony Pictures Classics
o - Screen Gems
o - TriStar Pictures
* Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
* Sony Pictures Television Group
o - Sony Pictures Television
o - Sony Pictures Television International
* Sony Pictures Consumer Products
* Sony Pictures Digital Production
o - Sony Pictures Imageworks
o - Sony Pictures Animation
o - Sony Pictures Imageworks Interactive
* Sony Pictures Mobile
* Sony Pictures Studios
o - Sony Pictures Studios Post Production Facilities
o - DVD Authoring Center
o - Worldwide Product Fulfillment
* Crackle
* Game Show Network
* Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios
...... with Future SurReal Tales in Stranger Fact than Fiction.
Thanks for the Lead, El Reg, it is much appreciated. As you know, Global Operating Devices into the Beta Management of Human Perception with NEUKlearer HyperRadioProActive IT and NIRobotIQs is a Virtual Reality ProgramMING in AI Research and dDevelopment Perfectly Suited to Great Game Media Players with a Passionately Phormed House of the Rising Sun Fascination and Predilection, and Sony's Ambition and Novel Drive, Man*, is just what the Doctor Ordered ....... for Western Intelligence Brainwashing Circuses and Media BroadBandCasting is not up to the Fit for Future Purpose Mark in UltraSensitive Standard Issues. .......... and aint that the Glorious Unadulterated Truth.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandman_%28Vertigo%29
That we'll get some quality science fiction/fantasy style programming. God knows gamers tend to like it, and no-one else bothers.
HBO has made and aired an awful lot of extremely high quality series dealing with subjects that you just simply would not see anywhere else. I'd be happy to pay for something similar in genres I'm interested in.
Of course, that they've started with reality tv isn't exactly heartening...
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