Porn Industry Wants in on Video Game Consoles

Sony pushes the PlayStation 3 as far more than just a games machine. In fact, the latest round of Sony advertisements has the PS3 presenting the idea that "it does everything."

As a full-featured media hub able to entertain everyone in many ways, adult film company Vivid Entertainment figures that it'd be only fair if people would be able to enjoy titles such as Bad Wives, Seven Deadly Sins and Tristan Taramino's Expert Guide to Oral Sex 2 via the PlayStation Network.

"Our point is pretty simple," Vivid's CEO Steve Hirsch told Kotaku. "As long as age verification is in place that (Sony) feels comfortable with we see no reason why adults shouldn't be allowed to access adult movies on the Playstation 3."

Hirsch is also interested in putting adult films on the Xbox Live Marketplace, and perhaps even the Wii. But the PlayStation 3 gets the attention first as Sony is now allowing on-demand adult movies for the console service in Japan. Hirsch sees this as an opening for Vivid on the PS3 for the western market.

"They had made it clear in the past they were not interested," Hirsch said. "Now that they have agreed to in some way allow adult films on the Japanese platform we are going to move forward and make a formal request."

Given the impossibility of game developers getting ESRB rated "AO" for Adults Only games approved by platform holders such as Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, it seems unlikely that we'll be seeing Debbie Does Dallas on your favorite gaming console. But with parental controls at the best they've ever been, maybe it could happen.

Marcus Yam is a technology evangelist for Intel Corporation, the latest in a long line of tech-focused roles spanning a more than 20-year career in the industry. As Executive Editor, News on Tom's Guide and Tom's Hardware, Marcus was responsible for shaping the sites' news output, and he also spent a period as Editor of Outdoors & Sports at Digital Trends.