Displaying items by tag: Sony

Large developers like Crytek and CCP believe that Sony's support for free-to-play games will ultimately lead to the PlayStation's comeback to the top of the console market. Sony has recently released a free version of SingStar, in which users pay only music and the PS3 will soon have the first big Free2Play (f2p) title from CCP - Dust 514th. “If Sony embraces free-to-play as a major way for PlayStation, that could be the key console” Crytek's Cevat Yerli said. Crytek has also seriously dedicated themselves to the free-to-play model, and are currently working on an interesting FPS named Warface.

Sony recorded an operating profit during its second quarter, which is partly due to their mobile phone business which after the termination of the partnership with Ericsson is now fully owned by the Sony. After a loss of 5.7 billion dollars during the last year and a $312 million loss in the previous quarter, Sony started with a slight recovery and achieved an operating profit of $ 388 million.

How big is the Video Game Industry? About 10.5 Billion dollars a year (in 2009), according to the ESRB. Only .5 Billion or so came from computer game sales, leaving the other 10 Billion or so to come mostly from dedicated game consoles. This data accounts for both new and used video game purchases, as well as rentals. According to figures from September, 2012, about half of the video game market is digital, rental, or used sales.

Sony has taken another punch from the world crisis.  Today they announced they are planning to lay off around 2,000 workers by the end of the year. They will reduce the workforce in their Tokyo headquarters by 20%, and another 20% will be released from their Home Entertainment and Sound Business Group. This is the part of ongoing process Sony started earlier when they announced they will reduce 6% of their overall workforce.

Like it was not enough that they pretty much ruined the basic version of Android with their apps and add-ons like Walkman, now Sony has announced that some of their Xperia devices won’t even get a Jelly Bean upgrade. This will certainly be more than disappointing for their usersand they can’t do anything but hope that things will change later in 2013. However, until early 2013 no changes will be made. Some of the devices will not be getting the update at all.

Sony has decided to stop sales of their Xperia tablet as they have found certain defects in some units. They announced that their tablet is water resistant, and then they found a gap between the screen and the case of a tablet, I guess water can pass through the gaps. So after this ironic problem occurred Sony was quick to react and stop sales to prevent their users from being disappointed with this rather big flaw. The tablet went on sale September 8 in the North America and the launch in Japan, Europe and other countries followed in the days after that.

Today was a busy day at Sony; they announced new models of their old PS3 console. However, since no new console will be coming out soon they decided to boost the old model. Just to be clear, old doesn’t mean that it's bad. So users now will have a 250GB model bundled with Uncharted 3 for $270, and a 500GB model that comes with Assassin's Creed III later in October. The 250GB model will be available on September 25th. Besides the GOTY edition of Uncharted 3, buyers will also get a $30 voucher to spend on title Dust 514. The PAL version of the new PS3 will be a little bit different while 500GB model remains the same the 250GB will come as a 12GB flash memory model. Users that buy the 250GB model will be able to upgrade the console to HDD, but at the expense of losing 12GB of internal storage along the way.

So now that we are done with new iPhone let’s see what else Apple has got for us. Two things will be together for all of their products, new earphones called “Earpods” and a new connector. Lightning, the name of the new dock connector, will use an all-digital 8-signal design and will be able to be connected either side up. This means you won’t have to look for that squared symbol anymore on your cord. It is also 80% smaller than the old 30-pin connector and Apple has stated that it has improved durability. There will also be an adapter for the 30-pin connector. Apple said that one of the reasons for making this connector was to make more space inside the case.

According to Sony's reconstruction plan, there is no room for their optical disc drive business for the next year. Unconfirmed sources said that Sony Optiarc Inc., the Sony Subsidiary that makes CD and DVD drives used in PCs, will have to terminate all operations by March 2013. This move should be one of Sony's attempts to cut a few money-losing divisions. The bigger part of 400 employees in Japan and other countries will be let go through early retirement program as it was stated in Asahi Shimbun paper today.

Sony decided not to make the same move Nintendo made when their 3DS sales were going bad.  Instead of cutting their prices they will try to attract people to the Vita with cheap bundles, “At a certain point in the future we would like to address the pricing issue for some of the people who are waiting. But this year we are trying to add value by creating different types of bundles. We announced we will provide LittleBigPlanet PS Vita bundle pack. That’s affordable for people who are looking for a good deal.“ Sony Wordlwide Studioes president Shuhei Yoshida said.