Stagnant sales of the PlayStation3 have forced Sony to shift its focus towards the delivery of music and movies, according to reports from the Financial Times today.

Sir Howard Stringer, Sony chairman and chief executive officer, said: "We are building a software infrastructure to distribute video and music, more particularly video, through the PlayStation Network," and continued, "That is a Japanese and American combined effort to build a platform around a common software architecture to distribute video via the PlayStation Network into the [PSP handhelds] and beyond."

Before commenting further on the future of PlayStation connectivity: "We are trying to get our devices to talk to each other efficiently. PlayStation Network should migrate from gadget to gadget. But initially it starts with PlayStation devices and then to TV and beyond. That's the goal."

Having previously talked about such a connected vision for the future of PS3 and PSP the announcement comes as little surprise, even though TVG feels the search for the all-conquering home entertainment box is spookily similar to the doomed "multimedia" concept during the 90s - SEGA MegaCD, Philips CD-i, Amiga CD32, 3DO??? Given previous announcements regarding a UK partnership with Sky Broadcasting video-on-demand service for the PSP, Sony's intent to deliver this option hardly seems surprising and should hopefully be implemented with greater success than the staggered approach adopted by Microsoft - exactly when Video Marketplace arrives in Europe is anybody's guess at present.

Additionally, speaking to the Financial Times, Sir Howard claims that Sony is standing by targets of 11m global PS3 sales this year.