Let it not be said that Sony doesn't care about its PlayStation community. The company has announced that it will be stopping its music and video services to focus on serving the PlayStation group and their technical needs.

In the Sony offices in Los Angeles, employees were given word that about 20-plus jobs will be phased out as the current project winds down and closes. The eBooks division of the project will still be up and running since it will be providing services to the Sony Reader product.

The head of the Sony Connect division Steve Banfield will be leaving in the next few weeks while two members from Sony corporate, namely Tim Schaaff and Fumi Kanagwa will be running the remaining members of the Connect engineering team. The 80 other employees will be assigned to PlayStation support.

A couple of factors have yet been disclosed by Sony. First up, is whether the Sony Connect brand name will still be maintained by the company after this change. The second question is what happens to the SonicStage software? Will it just be junked and relegated to just disappear, or will Sony continue to support it?

It is unfortunate that Sony had to do this, but still, it looks to be a very good marketing move by Sony as the PlayStation community is by far one of the loyalest groups of Sony customers. Be sure to keep checking back here for more updates on the gaming industry.