Yes, for those of you who don’t like the dull black of the PS3 that you’ll find in stores everywhere, there is now confirmation from many online retailers that Sony is expected to release the new finish this month for American buyers, with the rest of the world following suit later on.
The internet has been buzzing here and there about rumours that Sony might be in a position that’s going to affect a lot of people very shortly. Ahead of the release of their annual examination of the past business year, Sony warns that it might post a possible $6.4 billion in losses and much more woes for their employees.
We haven’t posted a rumour pertaining to next-next-gen hardware in at least 24 hours, so it’s a good thing this new batch of PlayStation 4 rumours just surfaced. Kotaku reports that it has the skinny on “important details” about Sony’s next console, which is supposedly called Orbis. The successor to the PlayStation 3 will hit during the holiday period in 2013, if Kotaku’s source is to be believed. Their source is, according to Kotaku, “not authorized to talk publicly about next-gen hardware but has shared correct information with us before.”
Apparently the name Orbis is important, and that’s thanks to Sony’s more recent hardware release, the PlayStation Vita. Putting the two names together gives you Orbis Vita which, as Kotaku points out, is Latin for “the circle of life”. Starting to have a slight conspiracy theory tone, isn’t it?
Names and supposed release dates aside, there are some concerning rumours that come bundled with this collection of “important details”. More specifically, rumours that claim things like the PlayStation 4 Orbis requiring an internet connection to activate games.
In case you weren’t paying attention, on 01 March, a hacking collective at Wololo.net announced that they’d managed to hack the new PlayStation Vita. Thanks to a loophole found in the code of downloadable PSP title Motorstorm: Arctic Edge, the group managed to get their homebrew loader working on Sony’s latest portable gaming unit. Sony responded to this by removing all copies of Motorstorm: Arctic Edge from the PlayStation Store – this has even blocked legitimate purchasers from ever downloading the title again.
Hackers being hackers however, the group at Wololo.net didn’t give up but found a similar loophole in the Japanese and European versions of downloadable PSP title Everybody’s Tennis. This happened over last weekend. Sony responded by hastily remove all copies of Everybody’s Tennis from the PlayStation Store before the new exploit could be released to the public.
It looks like Sony is approaching PSV hacking with a “treat the cause” kind of approach. Previously, with the PSP, Sony fought against hacks by treating the symptoms; this they did by releasing firmware update after firmware update in order to plug any exploitable holes.
This generation, like others before it, will eventually disappear into obscurity, only to be replaced with a new era of shiny hardware designed to slowly but surely obliterate your bank account. Some might be of the opinion that there’s still a lot of life left in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but others are all too keen to move onto something new and more powerful.
In the last few days, numerous developers have posted job openings for positions in teams working on games for “next generation” or “future generation” hardware. Those developers include Bethesda Game Studios (The Elder of Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout 3) and Ready at Dawn (PSP titles God of War: Chains of Olympus and God of War: Ghost of Sparta) – both explicitly requested for people to join teams working on unannounced titles for next gen hardware.
Once again, Sony enters the hand-held arena from the vantage of technological prowess and aesthetic desirability. Powerful and sleek, the PlayStation Vita represents a modern look at where Sony thinks portable gaming is headed.
Their first entry into the handheld gaming sector, the PlayStation Portable, was also a technological powerhouse. But a combination of factors (disc-based media, pricy low-quality movies, battery life, 3rd-party developers abandoning the system in favour of the Nintendo DS) all led to its early abandonment by Sony.
Have Sony learned their lesson, or are they doomed to repeat it? We unboxed the Vita last week but lacked games or a memory card. Those two problems, now solved, lead to this hands-on.
The PS Vita (Wi-Fi Edition) arrived on my doorstep this morning thanks to a ninja UPS delivery guy (never seen, never heard, just leaves presents on the porch). My copy of Wipeout 2048 and a 32GB memory card only arrive tomorrow, so there isn’t much to be done with the system other than fighting to keep dust and fingerprints from magically appearing on its ludicrously shiny surface.
Hit up the Read More below for some annotated photos of the unboxining of Sony’s new handheld.
Over at Fudzilla a story’s been picked up that Sony isn’t focusing on creating gadgets anymore, but rather pouring their efforts into content creation for their newly-renamed Sony Entertainment Network. It’s been a long time coming, but many are confused as to why they’re taking this path – let’s look at the facts first.
On 22 February, which is next week, the PlayStation Vita will officially release in South Africa. If, however, you’re still on the fence regarding whether or not you want to pick up one of Sony’s new toys, then allow the official PlayStation Blog’s twelve minute info clip to help you decide.
Sure, it’s the American info clip so there’s a ton of stuff on AT&T being the official 3G provider (which you can ignore) but it does a good job in summarising what to expect from the device.
Source: PlayStation.Blog
Hopefully you’re not sentimentally attached to the “PlayStation Network” because from tomorrow (07 February) it’ll be gone. In its place will be the exact same thing (yes!) except it’ll now be called the Sony Entertainment Network. It also gets a shiny new logo.
So why the change? Well, Sony is going through a bit of a shuffle up what with new CEOs and whatnot, so why not rebrand its online service as well? According to a press release, the rebranding is meant to aid Sony in reaching its goal of “establishing a global comprehensive network platform of services across games, movies, music and more, all accessible from one convenient account”. You won’t need to create a new account or change your password, things will just click over.
In related news: a recent maintenance session accidentally broke some people’s ability to access content they’d purchased off the PlayStation Network (sorry) the Sony Entertainment Network. Fortunately Sony is aware of “error 80023102” and the company has its top men working on fixing it. Top. Men.
