Sony Will Integrate All Sony Entertainment Services Under PlayStation Network

A logo of Sony Corp is pictured at an electronic store in Tokyo May 14, 2014. Reuters/Toru Hanai

The PlayStation brand is the most significant asset in Japanese electronics giant Sony's kitty at the moment. The brand has just got even more important now. The company has announced some significant changes to its digital entertainment strategy, the most striking of which is the amalgamation of all its digital audio and video services under the PlayStation marque.

According to a CNET report, Sony announced on Thursday that it intends to bring all digital video and audio services within the Sony Entertainment Network banner under the PlayStation Network brand. The audio and video services have accordingly been renamed PlayStation Video and PlayStation Music, respectively. Originally created as a gaming hub, the company announced its intention to make PSN the single point of distribution for all digital media such as movies, TV and music.

"We are very excited to offer our wide array of network services including games, TV, videos and music, under the PlayStation brand," said Andrew House, who's the Group Chief Executive of the PlayStation business. "We look forward to bringing even more compelling experiences, and an unparalleled breadth and quality of digital entertainment services and content to our customers."

This development comes close on the heels of Wednesday's announcement of Sony teaming up with Spotify to create PlayStation Music service. Sony had recently killed its on-demand Music Unlimited service, which had been performing poorly and only sustained due to its limited appeal on the PlayStation Network. It's no surprise that integrating the service into PSN is a logical choice for the company.

Gamespot notes that the changes now bring the follow services under the purview of the PlayStation Network's platform:

PlayStation Store: the digital distribution platform for video games PS3, PS4 and PlayStation Vita.
PlayStation Plus: the paid subscription service PSN users can tap for additional discounts, monthly updates of free games and online multiplayer capability.
PlayStation Video: meant as a replacement for Video Unlimited service. It allows PSN users to buy or rent titles from a library of 200,000 movies and TV shows. It's available across all Sony devices and PC.
PlayStation Music: the Spotify-powered music streaming service coming this spring.
PlayStation Now: a streaming service specifically meant for videogames. It also brings legacy PlayStation games to consoles and certain Sony products, in addition to some Samsung Smart TVs.
PlayStation Vue: cloud-based TV service for Sony's PS4 and PS3 console systems. Expected to launch in the first quarter of 2015, the service combines live TV with on-demand TV content.

Sony also took this opportunity to announce that the PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network have cumulatively reached the figure of 64 million active users as of December 2014. The company seems to be betting on strong sales of its PS4 console to drive these numbers even further upwards.

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