Sony released the PS3′s Facebook integration a few weeks ago and Tim and I had a chance to check it out over the weekend. To be honest, this integration seems bare-bones at best.

Let’s take a look at the features on display here… Wait a second, where do we even find the Facebook icon on the XMB? It’s not under Network, PSN, or anywhere in Settings. After watching the 3.10 patch preview video we finally found it under PSN – then Account Managment.

I think buried is the proper term for the Facebook icon’s location. I mean when Sony added the PSN Store icons and the What’s New feature to the XMB, I assumed they learned that high visibility of system features correlates with spontaneous usage. Will the average consumer poke around enough to find this Facebook icon?

So back to the features of this FB integration:

• Post PSN Store purchases to your Facebook Page.
• Post Trophy acquisition to your Facebook Page.
• Post game specific events to your Facebook Page.

The PSN Store and Trophy postings are no-brainers for Sony. What better way to promote the brand than to have PlayStation messages show up all around Facebook. However, if these postings happen too often they can clog up our Facebook profiles. Just look at Uncharted 2‘s Twitter implementation. Besides, is anyone actually interested in reading about your Trophies and PSN Store purchases on Facebook?

The game specific postings have more potential, especially when compared to Microsoft’s strategy of encapsulated apps for the Xbox 360 that don’t interact with games. I can imagine some interesting possibilities for in game Facebook implementations. For example, you could take a screenshot and then post it directly to your Facebook wall. What about cross referencing my Facebook contacts list with my PSN friend’s list so I can find those closet gamer friends? Or how about integrating my Facebook contacts into games like how Facebook games already do? Perhaps my friends’ names and avatars could show up in my PS3 games. Here’s to hoping against odds that developers take this functionality further.

If we compare Sony and Microsoft’s Facebook implementations, we can see quite different strategies. It’s almost like comparing their motion controllers. Microsoft’s Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm applications seem to target casual users who, theoretically will use the Xbox 360 like a computer to access the web. On the other hand, Sony is building an API for developers to integrate Facebook into their PS3 games. We’ll have to wait and see which strategy manages to improve our experiences with these two consoles.