Ben-DutkaConsider this a piece for PSXE community discussion.
It seems an article at PCMag is getting a lot of attention; it involves the perceived possibility that Sony may drop the PlayStation branding in the future. Cited reasons consist of the currently unnamed "Next Generation Portable" and the "PlayStation Phone" which is actually called the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves and pass along your own theories and ideas but for our part, none of this sounds realistic.
From a business standpoint, most companies would sell their souls to the devil to have a brand name like PlayStation. Indeed, the vast majority of CEOs spend 99% of their waking business lives devising ways of attaining such widespread recognition. To start over simply because we move to a new generation, or because there is the emergence of new partners, sounds utterly ludicrous. The PlayStation-inspired phone has the Sony branding and furthermore, Sony has mentioned time and time again how they need to distinguish that phone from the upcoming new portable. Furthermore, the portable world is very different for Sony; they continue to labor in Nintendo's shadow, despite the PSP's worldwide popularity.
Plus, the handheld realm now includes other mobile devices, which means names like Apple and Android must factor into the conversation. In that world of which we speak, the PlayStation brand name doesn't carry quite the same amount of force and impact. Therefore, if the NGP doesn't hold the PlayStation name, we'll be surprised, but not shocked. But ditching the PlayStation brand altogether within Sony Computer Entertainment? The idea that the next PlayStation won't even feature the name? Forgetting that hundreds of millions of consumers around the world have purchased something game-related with "PlayStation" on the box in the past 15 years? …no company with a rational train of thought would do this.
At least, that's our own personal take on the issue at hand. We just think the idea of Sony abandoning PlayStation is even more ludicrous than the idea of Microsoft abandoning Xbox. Some may say call Nintendo into the conversation but let's not forget that their legacy goes back over 25 years and indeed, the out-of-touch still refer to any video game system as a "Nintendo." So it just doesn't matter what Nintendo calls their hardware; it never really has, ever since the NES changed our world. But PlayStation is PlayStation; the very word itself is synonymous with interactive entertainment, and let's also not forget their new PlayStation Suite endeavor and the PlayStation Certified program, which will bring the PlayStation brand to as many different people as possible.
No, PlayStation isn't going anywhere. Not based on the evidence we have now, at any rate.