That's a very good sign, an it relates to something I was talking about in another thread the other day.
The reason Nintendo has always successfully integrated new hardware and control schemes into their consoles is because their software leads work directly with their hardware designers. They included a joystick in the N64's controller expressly to enable easier movement in 3D, for example, while their competitors stuck with the simpler SNES controller template, only borrowing the idea from Nintendo later. Same thing with the DS and Wii.
That being said, I think this move by Sony will have more to do with making their next console more developer friendly, as well as probably getting a few OS ideas from the creative minds at SCEWWS - features that could improve the gampelay experience like cross game voice chat. Maybe clan support or something.
Hopefully with Sony's internal devs tossing around ideas, it'll lead to a more robust next gen offering that is also far more developer friendly.
