Sony laid out plans for a new online gaming service that will debut alongside its PlayStation 3 console in early November. The basic level of the new service, called the PlayStation Network Platform, will be free to those who purchase a PS3, with small monthly subscription charges for certain games and other premium content. Gamers can meet online to chat, compete, and even buy games, a move that represents a major departure for the video game giant that will likely anger retailers. The retail strategy is more like Apple's iTunes as Sony also plans to make its music and film …

Apple Computer is naturally opposed to France's recent decision to open up the company's digital rights management on iTunes to competition. In fact, TechWeb, reports, the iPod maker is more likely to pull out of France altogether than bow to government pressure to open up iTunes. Some analysts believe this might be a smart move for Apple, especially since they say the legislation will likely have little impact on lawmakers in the U.S. or the rest of the EU. "There are some French-specific conditions," said one, referring to France's history of trying to get everything standardized, as well as its …

John Battelle, renowned search luminary and Google specialist, discusses his vision for the future of television, which he says will be impacted by social networking and search technology. In a bit of a rant, Battelle talks about being in a gym locker room watching the outcome of a murder trial live on Fox News. The judge was about to hand out his sentence to the accused man, and a split screen on the TV showed the faces of the judge, the man, and a room of several of his victims. The bottom headline said something about how a man was …

A Cold Stone Creamery store manager counts a game developed by her employer--designed to teach portion control and customer service--as one of her favorites. The 24-year-old grad student includes the game in a list of favorites alongside such classics as Halo and Tetris. The game she likes so much is a cartoon simulation of a Cold Stone Creamery store; players must scoop cones against the clock and try to avoid serving too much ice cream. "It's so much fun," she said. "I e-mailed it to everyone at work." According to the company, more than 8,000 employees voluntarily downloaded the game …

At the Game Developer Conference in San Jose, Redmond, Wash.-based game developer WildTangent announced a "new" way of selling online games to the public, based on a tested old method. Anyone remember how easy it was to lose a roll of quarters at the arcade? Well, I certainly do, but just think how about much easier and more enticing it would be to click to pay 25 cents in order to play a game instead of putting quarters in a machine. That's what WildTangent is proposing--a token payment system, which, if successful, could spark a change in the way casual …

To marketers, ROI means everything, and according to a surprising new survey, a greater number say e-mail--not search--generates the most added revenue per campaign. The MarketingProfs survey, which queried 1,033 marketers in the U.S. and Canada, finds that 40 percent of marketers say e-mail earns the highest ROI, followed by search (28 percent), and then direct mail (18 percent). Of course, some 35 percent do not use clear success metrics, and the metric systems used by the rest were not uniform. But it would seem that measurement and targeting are the reasons for e-mail's success. Between 50 and 70 percent …

There's no question about it: Google is aiming to become an all-purpose Web portal that tries to keep people on its pages for as long as possible. This is a definite departure from the company's original goal, which was to get people off its Google search engine as quickly as possible. The Associated Press says the company's new finance site is the last piece of the puzzle: Google now offers free e-mail, news, photo sharing, instant messaging, shopping, mapping services, online classifieds and a new finance site. But analysts aren't convinced the company's push toward online omnipresence is so wise. …

The Net neutrality debate has come to a boil, and telecom executives have had the chance to fight back this week at the TelecomNext trade show in Las Vegas. AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre dismissed fears that his and other companies might block traffic to certain Web sites on their networks as ludicrous. "Any provider that blocks access to content is inviting customers to find another provider," he said during his keynote speech. "And that's just bad business." Any provider that did that would simply be punished by the market, he said. Later, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin pointed out that existing …

France has passed a law that could challenge Apple's dominance of the online digital music market, by deeming it unlawful to keep its iTunes music store closed off from competitors' portable music players. French officials claim the law aims to prevent any media player, such as Apple's iTunes or Microsoft's Windows Media Player, from completely cornering the market. This means online music vendors would need to make the digital rights management codes that protect copyrighted material convertible from one format to another. In a statement, French officials said they hope these new clauses will be taken up by other countries, …

Media executives don't quite know what to do with YouTube, an online viral video outpost that already streams some 30 million videos per day. While a few marketers looking to create buzz go directly to the Web site and upload video about their brand, others, like NBC and CBS, have clamped down on YouTube for hosting copyright-infringing clips snatched from TV. However, it's what consumers want; while sites like Google Video plan to offer video at various pricing models, YouTube is completely free and completely viral. Even experts see a nice little niche developing for startups like YouTube, which they …