During the Sony CES 2017 keynote, Kaz Hirai revealed an interesting statistic about PlayStation – during the holiday season, which ranges from November 20th through January 1st, over 6.2 million PS4s were sold worldwide, which has helped push total units sold to 53.4 million units.
The Verge has put together a list of “best things” you can do on differing VR headsets and as expected, PlayStation VR is part of that list. As Adi Robertson writes:
PlayStation VR had a reasonably good crop of launch titles, which we reviewed here, and some more interesting releases on the way. In particular, we’re fans of trippy rhythm games Rez Infinite and Thumper, both of which are also great outside VR. PlayStation VR Worlds might seem like just another minigame collection at first glance, but it’s got at least one very substantive action experience, the Guy Ritchie-influenced London Heist.
But those aren’t the only titles on his recommendation list.
One of the most informative parts of the PlayStation Experience was during The Last of Us: Part II panel when Creative Director Neil Druckmann took to stage to shed some light on their latest mo-cap tech that’s helping shape their games and bring them to life. Naughty Dog has been one of the leading proponents of using motion capture to better bring their characters to life and as you’ll see in the video below, the amount of detail they’re now able to capture alongside the extra power of the PS4 is quite remarkable. Druckmann in regards to their newly updated game engine:
So this is by far, within Sony’s group, this is the most advanced character model we’ve ever created.
I have no doubt that VR (and, lumped under that, AR) is going to play a big role in the future of technology, but like the arrival of smartphones, we still don’t realize how exactly they’ll impact us. Mid 2016 was full of hype about the thundering debut of VR, mainly due to the high expectations for PlayStation VR sales, but as the year nears its end, everyone is now revising their initial estimates downwards. Here is Chris Kerr from Gamasutra on the “sobering” debut VR has had thus far.
Regular readers of the site will know I’ve been putting together a collection of series which have been subtitled “the death of 4K Blu-ray” which falls in line with why I thought a lack of 4K Blu-ray on PS4 Pro was nothing but noise.
Netflix and Amazon already provide 4K HDR but now YouTube is getting into the HDR game as well. Matt Brian from Engadget writes:
According to Adi Robertson from The Verge, PlayStation VR has gained a big new way to consume VR and 360 content thanks to a new update from Google.
YouTube’s VR video collection just added a major new platform: Sony’s PlayStation VR. As spotted by UploadVR, users across Reddit, Twitter, and other sites say that Version 1.09 of YouTube adds PSVR support, although it’s apparently rolling out slowly. While we haven’t been able to confirm the change yet, it apparently lets users with headsets select the “normal version” or “PlayStation VR version” of the app at launch, then watch YouTube’s large collection of flatscreen and 360-degree videos inside PSVR.
There has been a lot of talk about Sony wanting to enter the mobile gaming market with titles from PlayStation. Till now, Sony has dipped its toes in the ever-growing market by releasing companion games and apps, including Uncharted: Fortune Hunter on iOS. On the other hand, for a company like Nintendo who can no longer compete in the dedicated console space and is being squeezed by mobile games in the handheld space, embracing mobile is their only path going forward. For Sony, PlayStation is in a period of tremendous success but as the above chart shows, it’s nothing compared to the mobile market.
Worth their weight in gold, Insomniac Studios is arguably one of the most important developers to Sony and the success PlayStation enjoys. No matter the cost of a game they produce, between the volume they ship and the awards they bring home, Naughty Dog is the studio that delivers. During the late 90s when working on the Crash Bandicoot series, ND was not yet a party of Sony and functioned like Insomniac Games by creating exclusive games for PlayStation and operating independently. As Jason Dunning writes for PlayStation LifeStyle, all of that would change, thanks to the success of the series and a conversation between co-founder Jason Rubin and then Sony executive Kelly Flock:
In 2001, Rubin and Gavin decided to sell the studio to Sony following the success of Crash Bandicoot. After admitting that they “definitely agonized” over the decision, Rubin recalled a moment where former Sony executive Kelly Flock said Naughty Dog was at the top of the world before the sale and Crash was the #1 franchise out there – ahead of Tomb Raider and Gran Turismo in terms of dollar amount and units sold – and the company would never be bigger than the biggest in the world, so they “should think about safe harbor.
As I mentioned, ND is a studio that rightfully gets what it wants – from elaborate motion capture equipment to early access to hardware and why wouldn’t they? Creating games like Uncharted and The Last of Us requires pushing everything – from the studio’s own creative boundaries to the hardware that they’re developing for. Jason Rubin, who now leads the Head of Content at Oculus, also realized this:
The reality of Sony shifting from being purely a hardware company to one that incorporates software and services can be seen with their efforts in PlayStation Vue. Now available nationwide, PS Vue, their cloud-based TV streaming service has just added a plethora of local channels from ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and others to further beef up their offerings. Available on all the tiers, the added channels include:
I’ve written extensively about a transformation that’s been happening at PlayStation where a division that was once responsible for just one console every few years is now one of the biggest pillars of Sony. One key reason for it is that PlayStation is shifting from just a hardware vendor – though this year alone, they’ve released more hardware than ever before, PS4 slim, PS4 Pro, and PS VR – to a company that’s rich with services. They include PlayStation Now, which gives you the ability to stream PS3 games on numerous devices, including PS4, PC, and countless 4K TVs and PlayStation Vue, Sony’s vision of what the future of TV looks like. And one key advantage that services have over hardware is the recurring revenue they produce. Where with a PS4 purchase, you only once plunk down $299 or $399 once and purchase a handful of games a year, with PS Now or PS Vue, you’re continuously generating revenue for Sony and investors are beginning to take note of that.
PlayStation already sells the well received and modestly priced Gold Wireless Headset. Coming in at just $99, the Gold series is a must own for anybody who is serious about gaming or seriously doesn’t want to piss off their significant other when gaming late at night. Now Sony is following up with another addition to the family, the Platinum Wireless Headset.
If you’ve been wanting PS VR and live in the UK, hopefully you’ve already bought one or somebody has bought one for you because as it stands, there won’t be any more units till 2017. Chris Mawson for Power Up Gaming:
Sony’s PlayStation VR is now completely sold out in the UK until 2017.
Those hoping to pick up Sony’s virtual reality headset as a late Christmas present have had to instead turn to resellers or foreign retailers for their system, after the vast majority of online retailers sent out emails to their customers earlier today informing them that no stock was expected until early in the new year.
Sony is different things to different folks – for some, they’re the company who makes their TV while to others, they are the makers of their previous laptop. But more and more, especially this last decade, Sony has become an entertainment company with PlayStation and Sony Pictures being big drivers of profits and growth. However, in the last few years, Sony Pictures has been dragging compared to the past, leading them to cut out a deal with Marvel which now has creative control over Spider-Man films. Interestingly, that might have just been a sign of things to come with Sony now mulling over the merger of Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Interactive Entertainment.
You guys know by now how much I love analysts and their ability to tell the future like the demise of PlayStation with no PS4 to think of. The past has been a bit of mixed bag in regards to PlayStation VR. On one hand, PS VR is killing the competition and on the other hand, sales forecasts have been dramatically cut. So is there a silver lining? Tiernan Ray from Barron’s thinks so.
When you head to a show like PSX, certain things are sure to be ‘winners’ from it – Uncharted 4: The Lost Legacy or The Last of Us: Part 2 (I’d been sitting on this for some time so I’m so glad everybody now knows about it) to name a few. Then there are always games that receive all the hype in the world and end up not really delivering (only time will tell which of the announced games this will apply to) – and lastly you have the gems. The games that went under the radar and have been under-reported, and I’m here to tell you that Dreadnought is one such game.
