Sony has always lacked the ability to create a marriage between its entertainment and electronic businesses. Despite ownership of media being one of the most important drivers of technology and Sony owning one of the largest movie and music studios, the tech giant has never been able to leverage its media assets to push any of its products in a meaningful way. Ironically Apple, which does not own a film or music label, has always been able to use media to drive forward its products like the iPod, Apple TV, and now Apple Music.

Just a few of Sony’s failed media services in the past five years include Music Unlimited, Movies Unlimited, and Qriocity but there are plenty more to be added to that list. Just think about how Sony backs the awful, terrible, and true garbage that is UltraViolet and Ultra, their new 4K streaming service that will likely lead nowhere. However, like PlayStation, which has bucked the trend of Sony products that at times lack greater worldwide appeal, PS Vue is another service that seems to be gaining meaningful traction by consumers.

Lucas Shaw writes for Bloomberg:

 PlayStation Vue, the web-TV service for owners of Sony Corp.’s video-game consoles, has signed up more than 100,000 subscribers since its March 2015 debut, people with knowledge of the matter said, good news for entertainment companies that are losing pay-TV subscribers.

The service has been adding customers at a faster rate since Sony began a nationwide rollout in the U.S. three months ago, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private figures. Sony, based in Tokyo, declined to comment on the number. One person put the total near 120,000. 

For a service that’s lacked nationwide availability till recently in the US and isn’t promoted heavily, those are some encouraging numbers. I’ve argued that the future of PlayStation is not in hardware-specific products but services like PlayStation Now and PS Vue further drives that narrative forward. If PS Vue was hardware focused, Sony would have to not only invest in creating a hardware for it, but it would then have to convince consumers to buy yet another box and connect it to their TV.

PS Vue instead is available on literally a billion+ devices (though the service is US-only for now) as it can be downloaded on:

• PlayStation
  • PS4
  • PS3
• Apple
  • iPhone
  • iPad
  • iPod Touch
• Amazon
  • Fire TV
  • Fire TV Stick
• Google
  • Android smartphones
  • Android tablets
  • Chromecast

No surprise that much like the success that PS4 has enjoyed which has been the brainchild of their Western teams and not a device created in Japan, PS Vue was also born in the US. One of the reasons Sony struggled so much in the 2000’s was its inability to transition from a hardware driven world to a software one with the Japanese culture of the past favoring hardware and specs. PlayStation Vue now goes in direct contrast of that mentality – a purely digital service – and you know what, things seem to be going fairly well.

Discuss:

Are you planning on giving PlayStation Vue a try?