Now that the PlayStation 4 has its feet under the gaming world's table, attention is beginning to turn towards PlayStation Now. The game streaming service which aims to bring popular titles from the PlayStation 3 and 2 library to PlayStation 4 consoles via the magic of the internet is touted for a release in the United States this Summer, but details are generally scarce beyond that.
Sony's VAIO computer business is to be sold off, the Japanese company has announced, citing the changing face of the global PC industry as the main factor behind its decision to offload the iconic brand to an investment firm. The news comes as the PlayStation maker reneged on its initial forecast of full-year profit to instead announce that it expects to make a $1.1 billion net loss in the year leading up to March 2014.
Backward compatibility is a big deal in the gaming world, and when Sony announced its PS4 console, much of the talk was about the lack of any ability to play those back catalogues of games that everyone had spent the last few years accumulating. Sony has since sought to rectify that by announcing PlayStation Now, the game streaming service that will see PS3 games streamed over the Internet, but there is no local support being added to consoles.
Whenever a new console hits the scene, it's almost a given that teething issues and early bugs will arise. However, while both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launched late last year without too much incident, the former seems to be suffering save-game errors with certain titles. Those encountering the "CE-34878-0" error will be somewhat pleased to learn that Sony has identified this coded error as being problematic, and is currently launching an investigation in order to find a solution.
Following on from its introduction of the Xperia Z1S and Xperia Z1 Compact smartphones at CES, Sony has introduced two additional devices to compliment the Xperia range. The Xperia T2 Ultra and the Xperia E1 are built with relatively modest specifications and look like they will be aimed at the lower entry level smartphone market rather than those looking for a powerhouse device to compete with the best of Android.
Sony may have just announced that it sold 4.2 million PS4s before the end of 2013, but that doesn't mean that there hasn't been the odd issue that gamers have with the new machine coming out of Japan. While it's clear that they have been buying new PS4s in their droves, gamers have also been vocal about the lack of support for PS3 games on the new console, with backward compatibility falling by the wayside.
CES always kicks the tech calendar off with a bang, and having already seen Pebble's Steel smartwatch, Samsung's curved television sets and other such niceties, Sony has come through with its own interesting product for the mobile scene. After a successful launch of the PlayStation 4, the Japanese company has refocused its attention on its smartphone endeavors, and the Xperia Z1 Compact is a device that brings typical high-end features and hardware, but on a smaller scale than the Xperia Z1.
Keeping up with the latest game technology sure isn't a cheap proposition. You go out, possibly lining up to get your hands on the latest and greatest gaming machine that money can buy - we'll let you argue over which one that is! - and then you're faced with the question of what software to get for that machine. The problem is that you've spent so much on that shiny new box of tricks that you want to be sure, really sure that you're choosing the right games. Especially when they're as expensive as the current generation of games seem to be.
The PlayStation 4 has just begun retailing in a further 16 additional countries atop the 32 that had already seen the release of the Sony machine, bringing the grand total of officially-selling nations up to 48. Although the inventory was rather scarce at launch, with the console selling out in many of its demographic hotspots, the Japanese company appears to be on top of the manufacturing process, or at least enough so to add so many new markets to the fold.
Sony and Microsoft have both attempted to continue the console roller-coaster by issuing separate statements about their hardware. The individual statements both take the opportunity to reflect on the sales and successes of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One during the first calendar month of availability. As you might expect, neither company is initially prepared to accept that they are playing catch-up with the other, and as a result have opted to put their own individual slant on November's sales figures with the intention of claiming an early victory.
