Sony America launches blog News

Sony Computer Entertainment America has unveiled PlayStation.Blog, where Sony staff will share their thoughts and opinions on a range of topics related to Sony's American arm, PlayStation, and the industry as a whole.

"At the moment, we're thinking about sharing all sorts of things here, ranging from product news and title announcements to developer updates and industry opinion posts - all of which will come straight from the people here inside SCEA who are working, thinking and playing with this stuff every day," the headlining post, by senior PR manager Patrick Seybold, explains. "Look to the categories on the sidebar for some initial thoughts we have on future post themes."

And so we do, and initially there are sections for developers, hardware, PlayStation Network, industry outlook, statements, titles under the spotlight, and "Find Us".

The initial response from bloggers has been largely positive. Fellow bloggers Kotaku called it "fantastic news" and highlighted "how very transparent it is". "Not only do they have everyone's names next to the posts, they have their official SCEA title, so there's no forgetting that you're reading an official and not a fan blog," Brian Crecente wrote. Indeed - and we won't have to look up their names on the "About" page when we're ripping off what they say for news items, either. Score!

Meanwhile, Microsoft's own bloggers - perhaps the yardstick for how company's can successfully interface with their users on this level - sounded a merry welcome. "Our friends at Sony are now blogging," Xbox Live's Larry Hryb - aka Major Nelson - wrote in a post called "Welcome Sony!" Elsewhere, Gamerscoreblog said: "It's always good to have more authentic voices adding to the discussion," advising its readers to check it out if they hadn't already.

Finally, PlayStation.Blog itself is encouraging its users - of which there already appear to be dozens - to sign up and comment on the things they say. You can do that, subscribe to RSS feeds, and take part in Sony-based polls, over at blog.us.playstation.com.