Yesterday during a press conference, Kaz Hirai, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, announced that North American residents will be given access to a new PlayStation 3 movie download service starting this summer. The background for the statement was provided by the Sony Group Corporate Strategy Update FY2008-FY2010 presentation.

However, details concerning the upcoming PS3 feature have been kept to a minimum, as the company is probably building up momentum for Sony's E3 Media and Business Summit conference next month. Once North America is taken care of, Japan and Europe are next on the list.

Users will be given the chance to rent HD movies available through Sony’s library. Sony’s move follows that made by Microsoft back in 2006, when the former launched its Xbox Live Marketplace Video Store service.

Within the same conference, Mr. Kaz Hirai also mentioned how well the gaming console has done in the recently ended fiscal year. According to company records, PS3 sales have gone up 200 percent, with PSP sales reaching an increase of 146 percent.

Besides movies, users of Sony products will also gain access to another service called Life with PlayStation. Gamers will get a global view of the current weather conditions by looking at a satellite picture of the Earth, on which the most important cities are also represented. When clicking onto a city, a list of upcoming or current local events and news pops up.

Again, this is not an original service, as one could say it resembles that offered by Nintento.