Alliance to Bring AOL to Sony’s PlayStation2
"AOL features will be incorporated with the PlayStation2 Software Development Kits".
When? Who will use them?
Most alliances with an anti-Microsoft motivation failed, when their members realized integration between their offerings would cost more than just issuing a press release. A "shared corporate vision" a working team doesn’t make, if it’s not translated into real products. This alliance doesn’t make much sense if it’s limited to joint marketing, since AOL TW and Sony already independently have all the visibility and distribution they need.
Maybe AOL and Sony can really cooperate and avoid the pain of conflicting agendas, but somehow I doubt it. We’ll see what the E3 reports say, though it looks more like a preemptive strike against Xbox buzz.
05/18/01 update: A future for e-alliances.
