Good Design Awards per Sony

Press Release:
SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT?S SUPPORT FOR FOLDING@HOME? PROJECT
ON PLAYSTATION®3 RECEIVES
THIS YEAR?S ?GOOD DESIGN GOLD AWARD?

Tokyo, November 6, 2008 ? Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) announced that the company?s support for Stanford University?s Folding@home?　project on PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3®), including the Folding@home application developed and designed by SCEI specifically for PS3, received the ?Good Design Gold Award 2008? from the Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization today.

Through Folding@home for PS3, users are able to enjoy the fascinating visualization of the global map as it changes in appearance as time elapses. Users can also visually identify the PS3 Folding@home participants throughout the world through lit areas on the map that represent the place and number of people joining the project. This unique approach of visualizing the contribution that the company makes to the society and adding entertainment elements to it, successfully attracted many PS3 users to join Folding@home, and received the ?Good Design Gold Award? for suggesting the future possibilities of design work.

Folding@home is a distributed computing project which aims to understand protein folding and misfolding, and how they are related to diseases and many forms of cancer.

?It is a great honor to receive the ?Good Design Gold Award? for our support for the Folding@home project on PS3,? said Masayuki Chatani, Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Technology Platform, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. ?Over 1.5 million PS3 users have participated in the Folding@home project and I truly appreciate their contributions for making this project a success. We will continue our efforts in delivering compelling and original services only possible on the PS3 platform.?

In addition to the ?Good Design Gold Award? for the Folding@home project on PS3, the PlayStation®Network logo and PlayStation®Store user interface design have also received this year?s ?Good Design Award.?

SCEI will continue to create unique and sophisticated design and will develop content and services to further enrich the PlayStation experience.

※ The ?Good Design Award? is Japan?s only comprehensive design evaluation and commendation system. This system itself has its origin in the ?Good Design Selection System? instituted by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry in 1957. This year, over 3000 entries were made and as a result of first and second screening, 1067 items received ?Good Design Award.? Out of 1067 Good Design Award items, 15 entries received ?Good Design Award Best 15,? which includes 1 ?Good Design Grand Award? and 14 ?Good Design Gold Award.?