Sony's aibo relaunch made ongoing ownership need a subscription

What happened

On 1 November 2017, Sony announced the return of its robotic companion under the aibo name in a release headlined 'Entertainment Robot “aibo” Announced', with the new model, ERS-1000, confirmed for release in Japan on 11 January 2018. The release describes a four-legged robot with 22 moving axes and OLED eyes designed to express emotion, built-in cameras and sensors for recognising people and its environment, and behaviour that Sony says develops uniquely depending on how an owner interacts with it. The original AIBO line the new product revives dates to 1999, though that earlier history is not part of the 2017 announcement itself.

What the documents show

The 2017 release states that aibo 'learns from interactions with its owners and develops a unique personality over time' using cloud-based processing shared across the wider base of aibo units, and it sets out a required 'aibo Basic Plan' subscription priced at 2,980 yen a month or 90,000 yen for three years. Sony's current product page, read as retrieved on 16 September 2026, still describes an 'AI cloud plan' as part of normal operation, showing the subscription structure the 2017 release announced has persisted rather than being a launch-only promotion.

The mechanism

Locating personality development in the cloud rather than entirely on the device changes what ownership means. A 1999 AIBO's behaviour lived on hardware the owner possessed outright; the 2018 aibo's stated learning depends on a paid, ongoing connection to Sony's servers, so the personality a family has 'raised' is contingent on continued payment and on Sony continuing to operate that service. The press release frames this as a benefit - shared learning across owners, richer growth over time - without describing it as a change in what the owner controls.

What it leaves open

The 2017 press release does not state what happens to a unit's accumulated personality or memory if the subscription lapses or if Sony discontinues the cloud service, and this record found no primary Sony document from 2017 addressing that scenario directly. Whether owners were made aware of that dependency at the point of purchase is a fair question the release itself does not answer.

• Is a device's memory or personality stored locally, in the cloud, or split between the two?
• What is stated about what happens to that memory if a subscription lapses or a service shuts down?
• Does 'ownership' of a companion device include control over the service it depends on?

A robot marketed as a companion animal was, from its own launch document, also a service contract, and the difference matters most to an owner only after they have already grown attached.