At Sony’s booth, I got a chance to speak with SCEC and Sony’s plans for the future of gaming. It has to be said that at every console maker’s conference, there are plenty of statistics being released to show their own company in the best light. One such statistic often used is the target demographic. But while the majority of the demographic falls into the 18-34 male group, a lot of newcomers into the market are children who many not know Mario or Spyro and will need new icons to identify with.

In Sony's world, the older crowd's gaming is fast becoming a social activity. You want to get together to play games with people you know and the penetration of broadband in North America as well as abroad is shaping games to uniquely fill this void. Persistent worlds like Final Fantasy XII will enable gamers to sink in as much time as they want. Titles like Ratchet and Clank: Up your Arsenal present lighter fare; single matches that can be completed within minutes.

This explains the popularity behind the EyeToy and why Sony is committed to integrating peripherals into the gaming experience. The EyeToy is basically a USB camera but it gives developers freedom and flexibility not seen before.

Despite those initiatives, the earth-shattering announcement at E3 for Sony has to go to the PSP. I got a chance to take a look at the PSP. The 16:9 perspective definitely makes the unit larger than you would imagine. The PSP is coming in different colors and you can fit decals on to the shell to customize it. Some of the accessories shown include a carry-on strap but the most interesting was a futuristic transparent number pad for the GPS add-on. This definitely looked like something pulled from a sci-fi movie.

One of my questions was obviously pre-empted by the release of the Vaio Pocket; a Sony audio-video player that is positioned to compete with Apple’s iPod. I commented briefly on whether the PSP was an iPod killer and the math certainly adds up: a DVD player is $299, a music player is $199 and a Game Boy Advance is $99. The PSP is sure to be priced less than all of these combined.

Throughout the E3 show, there was tremendous buzz on the future of mobile and handheld gaming. It’s a rapidly expanding market and competitors are aligning themselves to take advantage of that. I asked whether this renewed interest in conquering the handheld space is going to change Sony’s plans. But it won’t. Sony is the market leader and Sony will keep to the plan that made the Playstation a household name.

Finally, with all these devices being produced, there will be communication between all of the units. PSP with PSP. PSP with PS2. PSP with the PC. What types of synergies can Sony leverage? The most obvious thing is multiplayer gaming through Wi-Fi. One of the things proposed to me was the transfer of cars in Gran Turismo 4 from the PS2 to the PSP (you must own copies of the game for both platforms). This way you can take your car on the road, develop it a bit more and then transfer it back home to your console. With the USB 2.0 port on the PC, the sky is the limit for transfer of audio-video media.