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Sony follows Netflix and Amazon, comissions original TV series for PlayStation Network

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Sony’s PlayStation Network has followed online media giants Netflix and Amazon in commissioning its first original drama series, a spokesman said Thursday.

“Powers,” based on a comic book of the same name, combines the genres of superhero fantasy, crime noir and police procedural, and is produced by Sony Pictures, he said.

Sony, aiming to compete with its main video games console rival Microsoft’s Xbox Live in offering TV-style programing, has ordered 10 episodes of the show, according to CNN. The PlayStation Network spokesman, Dan Race, gave no further details.

Sony’s new show is described as a one-hour drama “set in a world full of people with superhuman abilities and where all of those powers are just another catalyst for mayhem and murder,” said a company statement.

A detective investigates cases “involving the God-like men and women, referred to as ‘powers,’ who glide through the sky on lightning bolts and fire and who clash above cities in epic battle, oblivious to the mortals below.”

Netflix was the first streaming service to commission its own original shows early last year with political drama “House of Cards,” followed by Amazon with character-driven political sitcom “Alpha House” in November.

Netflix made television history last year when House of Cards became the first online-only series nominated for a major Emmy award.

The popular streaming service won its first Golden Globe, with Robin Wright taking best drama actress for her role as the wife of Kevin Spacey’s scheming congressman Francis Underwood.

Netflix won its first Oscar nomination for “The Square,” a documentary about the 2011 revolution and ongoing strife in Egypt. It bought the streaming rights for “The Square” in November, after the documentary won critical acclaim on the festival circuit.

The film follows the revolution through the eyes of six different protestors, starting in the tents of Tahrir Square before Mubarak’s fall, according to the movie industry website IMDb.

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