PS3 Home to Sell Third-Party Products?
Sony is looking for partners to build out the PS3's virtual world, Home. A Sony spokesman confirmed that alongside virtual items sales for users' avatars and homes, Sony is considering selling physical, third-party products for delivery. Home is already set to be ad-supported, but it looks like Sony isn't satisfied. Purchasing will be linked to the Sony PlayStation Network, and it seems like right now Sony is focusing on reaching out to fashion retailers through partnerships and tie-ins. [via MarketingWeek]
It seems like clothing partnerships, along with entertainment and celebrity tie-ins, have been the easiest way for youth-oriented worlds to reach out. Habbo launched Traxmachine, a music mixer, and consistently brings in celebrity DJs to judge contests, Doppelganger partnered with Kitson and Rocawear to set up virtual stores, and There.com brings in a slew of musicians through its partnership with CMG.
But with the PS3 still being beat out by the Wii and Xbox 360 for an install base (even after a price cut), it seems like it's attracting mostly hard core gamers. A recent study showed that few console owners are interested in using the multimedia capability that all next-gen systems come with. (74 percent will watch physical DVDs, but only 24 percent are using the online network for multimedia downloads.) It remains to be seen if they're interested in using their console to buy t-shirts.
Joey Seiler
www.VirtualWorldsNews.com
joey (at) showinitiative.com
(512) 535-8650
skype: joey.seiler.vwnews
Agree that the focus may skew toward the hard core, which could be interesting. I've seen enough music and fashion tie-ins to last a while. Bring on the sports equipment folks, automotive aftermarket parts companies, and all the rest.
Posted by: csven | July 20, 2007 at 09:08 AM