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'Cloudsurf' trademark joins wave of Sony cloud computing hints
Sony has filed a trademark notice here in the U.S. for the word "Cloudsurf," and the trademark relates to a number of different products and services, including everything from audio players to game consoles to video cameras, as well as online distribution of games, music and television. In other words, it could be for anything that Sony has made or sold, ever. Edge guesses that it could have something to do with online distribution or even storage via a subscription model, and you might remember that earlier last year, Sony trademarked "PS Cloud," then hinting at a "cloud computing" system to provide storage or processing over the Internet. Of course, companies file trademarks all the time, without any obligation to reveal or release whatever product they're working on. So right now, "Cloudsurf" is made up of nothing but thin air -- permeated, we'd imagine, by a floaty, visible mass of condensed water droplets.
Sony wants to say 'P.S. Thanks'
Yet another trademark has got the gaming community talking. SCEA filed a trademark application (#77794416) for a serviced called "P.S. Thanks." Considering this is a Sony trademark, we'll let you figure out what "P.S." could possibly stand for.According to the application, "P.S. Thanks" is meant to be an "incentive rewards program geared toward quantifying, identifying and motivating top consumer base with the goal of promotion and sale of video game hardware and software." In short, Sony wants to create a PlayStation loyalty program.IGN hypothesizes a few possibilities. The service could be a program akin to Club Nintendo that awards frequent buyers with rewards. (Most recently, top-tier Club Nintendo members were awarded an exclusive downloadable game, calendar, and Mario hat.) "P.S. Thanks" could also refer to a Trophy reward program, one that has been rumored since the inception of Trophies in the PS3 firmware. Certainly, that's something a-certain-someone would love to see. Update: SCEA offers a comment: "As you know, we have a long history of creating unique loyalty programs such as PlayStation Underground which started with the original PlayStation and has evolved into the Gamer Advisory Panel (GAP). We continue to look for ways to expand this program and simply are evaluating new naming conventions for this evolution."[Thanks, Jeff B.]
