Sony might not yet be ready to roll out its own Internet TV service for the PlayStation 3 but the company is launching an original interactive HD video show to be distributed through the game console’s online service.

Called “Qore”, the magazine-style show will feature “exclusive multimedia news, developer interviews, in-depth game previews and behind-the-scene looks at the hottest PlayStation games”, according to the press release. “Subscribers will also have special access to game demos, betas, add-ons and other downloadable and game-related content.”

In a rather surprising, and perhaps risky move, the show is not being made available for free. Instead, the first episode will be offered at an introductory price of $2.99, with an annual subscription costing $24.99 and comprising of 13 episodes. To sweeten the deal a little, for a limited-time-only, annual subscribers will also receive a copy of the PlayStation Network game “Calling All Cars”. Starting this week, new episodes of Qore will be made available the first Thursday of every month in coordination with the weekly PlayStation Store update.

Also see: How-to: Stream media from a Mac to PlayStation 3

Judging by comments left in a number of gaming forums, early reaction has been largely negative in light of Sony’s decision to charge access to what many are seeing as a glorified video podcast coupled with game demos that are currently offered for free. At the same time Sony is talking up the show’s ability to deliver brand and product tie-ins, saying that Qore “also provides advertisers with a new class of interactive advertising through rich media executions, video trailers, active ad pages and contextual branding”.

Qore is being produced in partnership with Future US, Inc., publisher of PlayStation: The Official Magazine, and will be presented by Veronica Belmont. It’s not clear if the show will be available to U.S.-based users only or offered worldwide. Moving forward, Sony says that Qore is the first in a series of planned original content for the PlayStation Network.

More over at the official PlayStation blog.

Other posts that may be of interest

• Weekly wrapup, 2-6 June 2008 (pre-WWDC 2008 special)
• PS3 update adds Vista media streaming and more
• Sony to open its PS3 and PSP video download service tonight (updated)
• Is Microsoft working on new HD-DVD Xbox?
• Sony introduces new PSP, teases with PS Home cell phone
• DivX playback coming to PS3

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 at 8:22 am and is filed under Net TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.