In the January issue of PSM, the President of Sony CEA made it clear that his company has an ambitious new online strategy. However, the exact details were under lock and key and there was no clear picture of what Sony intends to do… until now.

Incredible details after the jump…

As the yet-to-be-dated release of the Playstation 3 crawls closer, Sony has just delivered final developmental hardware to US game publishers. PSM has confirmed that developers have already begun meetings with Sony’s support teams to make sure their games are compatible with the still-unnamed PS3 online service. “It’s very real“, one source told PSM. “They [Sony] are dead serious about it. They’ve declared, and I quote, a ‘full-on assault’ on the latest version of Xbox Live.” Ok, you can now jump for joy…

The Sony team tasked with creating the new online service began work on it shortly after the release of the PS2 Network Adapter. “They realized pretty early that they had too little too late,” the source said. “PS3 is a different story entirely. They are committed to matching Xbox Live feature for feature and then some.” The source went on to confirm that the service is being designed to also work with the PSP and its library of games; think one, big Playstation network.

PSP & the Play (everything) Station 3

It seems that Sony’s mantra is ‘anything Microsoft can de, we can do better.’ A source revealed to PSM that the new online service will extend further beyond traditional gaming functions than Xbox Live does, utilizing the PSP and PS3 as the two key portals to all of your home (and away from home) entertainment.

PSP will continue to get plenty of new games, but, as was evident by Sony’s tech demonstrations at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, the company sees much more potential in the portable than simply blasting bad guys. “Right now, Sony CEA is focused entirely on PS3,” reports the source. “PSP is basically on auto-pilot from their standpoint. They have big plans for it down the road, but mainly as more of an accessory to the PS3 for right now.”

Sony knows that it has to hook hardcore early system buyers with the world’s best game console, so the PS3 should be 99.99% game focused from day one. “There are so many more Ps3 games being worked on in the US than people realize,” said the source. “We got our final development hardware in early January, and it’s even faster than we were expecting. We’re going to have a lot of fun just throwing stuff into our game world and trying to get the thing to slow down.”

Sony’s long-term plans extend beyond gaming and into the broader entertainment world. “DVR functionality is going to be a big push for this thing,” PSM was told. “We don’t know exactly how the video’s going to get onto the system, but it’s a top priority for Sony. High-def movie and TV episode downloads over the online service are a definite, kind of like the iTunes Music Store.”

Sony is planning to take the media center functionality that Microsoft built into the Xbox 360 a big step forward, according to sources and other people that are “in the know”. It will also allow the PS3 to stream all major video and audio formats over a home network. Location Free playback using the PSP is still planned to be in the final hardware, meaning that you’ll be able to use the portable to watch DVD’s and video files, view photos, and listen to music stored on your home network anywhere in the world via the internet. Taking things another step further, the PSP will be able to send data to the PS3 (for example, pop the Memory Stick from your digital camera into your PSP while on vacation and send the photos home). The PSP will also be able to control the DVR functions of the PS3.

“It’s something that will evolve to add new features over time,” one source pointed out, adding that frequent firmware upgrades will continue to add new functionality to the PSP and, eventually, the PS3 as well.

This all sounds incredible but there’s still one nagging question…When will we finally begin to see all of these promises come to be fact? Many developers are being told to get their games finished for a fall release of the PS3 in the US. As for when the ambitious online service will launch, that remains a closely guarded secret, but the fact that developers are making launch games online compatible should be a pretty big clue. All I can say is, stay tuned for more details as they are revealed. It’s going to be an interesting ride from here on out.