New Xbox hits stores, launching holiday season console war

TOKYO— Microsoft's new Xbox console hit stores worldwide Tuesday, kicking off a holiday season battle with Sony's latest PlayStation model, as the coronavirus pandemic creates unprecedented gaming demand around the world.

The Xbox Series X launches just two days before Sony's next generation PlayStation 5, in a head-to-head likely to dominate the gaming sector this shopping season.

The launches are well-placed to capitalize on a massive spike in demand for gaming. Rising numbers of people around the world are seeking distraction during a pandemic that has killed 1.25 million people and left at least 3 billion more in some form of lockdown since the virus appeared in late December.

But while lockdowns and restrictions may have boosted sales, they have also forced companies to move their launch events online.

Xbox, famous for games such as Halo, Gears of War and Forza Horizon, held an online countdown to midnight for Australia and New Zealand.

Phil Spencer, executive vice-president of gaming at Microsoft, told gamers on a Facebook live event that they were taking "the first step into the next generation of gaming."

"And you will be the first in the world to experience it."

The pandemic also means no long lines of customers camped outside stores, with the pre-orders snapped up online instead more likely to be delivered to gamers' homes.

But demand has been brisk, and is expected to stay that way, Morris Garrard, analyst at specialist financial consultancy FutureSource, told AFP ahead of the launch.

"As soon as any stock is available, it is going to be bought out, within a few minutes even," he said.

He said some of that activity would be people attempting to buy up stock for resale, but that he expects "a high level of excess demand for these consoles, at least in the short term."

"So talking sort of three to six months, I think we'll see that a lot of people who want to get a console are unable to get a console."

SWAN SONG FOR PHYSICAL CONSOLES

Microsoft is hoping its next-generation offering will help close the gap with Sony, whose PlayStation 4 sold twice as well as the Xbox One since they both were released in 2013.

Unlike the PlayStation 5, whose release will be staggered in different countries from Thursday, the Xbox Series X hit the shelves worldwide on Tuesday.

Both Sony and Microsoft have lined up a roster of eagerly awaited games -- headlined by the latest edition of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed, an open-world Viking epic -- to launch with the consoles, which will offer much more powerful central and graphics processors than their predecessors.

In a competitive industry where focus is shifting to online play, this could be a swan song for physical consoles, with both firms betting on cloud servers to do the heavy processing lifting in the future.

But for now, the Xbox design team boasts that their product, which looks much like a PC, is "the fastest most powerful ever" console.

The kit, which has potential 8K video capabilities, has a faster graphics processor than the PS5, and superior data-crunching power.

The "premium" Xbox Series X costs $499 -- the same price as the PlayStation 5 -- but both companies are also offering cheaper, digital-only "mini" versions of the new machines. On these smaller consoles, gamers will be able to play titles as downloads only, not on disk.

Microsoft's slimmed-down console, the Xbox Series S, costs $299, $100 less than the digital-only PlayStation, a move analysts say Sony can afford as the market leader.

Agence France-Presse

US video game industry sees record April sales: survey

Spending on video games in the US jumped to a new April record as locked-down consumers sought refuge in play, industry figures released Friday showed.

A total of $1.5 billion was spent on video game hardware, software, accessories and game cards, eclipsing a previous April high of $1.2 billion spent in the US in 2008, according to NPD analyst Mat Piscatella.

April was the first full month of tight restrictions on people's movements in the US to prevent the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus.

Sales of video game software alone climbed 55 percent to $662 million, a new record high for the month, according to NPD.

"Final Fantasy VII: Remake" was the top-selling game during the month, setting a new sales record for the blockbuster vide game franchise, Piscatella's analysis showed.

"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" continued to be a hot seller, being the second most purchased title during April, followed by "Animal Crossing: New Horizons."

Animal Crossing has been the best-selling game for Nintendo Switch consoles during the past year, according to NPD.

In a sign that people stuck at home want to move a bit while sheltering-in-place, the latest edition of "Just Dance" from Ubisoft boogied its way onto the NPD list of top selling games.

US spending on video game hardware more than doubled to $420 million, the highest April total since 2008 and despite the fact that new PlayStation and Xbox consoles are due for release later this year.

Nintendo Switch was the most popular console among buyers.

"Year-to-date dollar sales of Nintendo Switch are the highest of any hardware platform in US history," Piscatella said in his analysis.

Meanwhile, sales of Xbox One and PlayStation 4 were each up 160 percent from the same month last year, according to NPD.

The news comes with several big tech firms moving deeper into gaming.

Google recently launched its streaming game service Stadia, and the new Apple Arcade platform offers titles for iOS-powered devices.

Facebook last month launched a stand-alone app allowing users to create and watch livestreams of games.

Amazon this week released its first big-budget gam Crucible from its Amazon Game Studios.

Agence France-Presse

Sony's PlayStation recognized as world's best-selling game console

TOKYO - Sony Corp.'s PlayStation has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's best-selling home video game console, having sold 450.19 million units over 25 years, its game business unit said Tuesday.

The first PlayStation device was launched in December 1994, when Nintendo Co.'s Super Nintendo console was dominant in the home video game market, and quickly gained popularity due to its 3-D graphics and lineup of software titles.

Its producer Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC introduced the PlayStation 2 in March 2000 and sold more than 150 million units of the second-generation console worldwide, followed by the PlayStation 3 released in November 2006 which adopted the Blu-ray disc format.

With the latest PlayStation 4 console, the Japanese entertainment conglomerate established a subscription business model for video games, providing online games at a fixed charge for 36.9 million registered users.

The company plans to introduce the next-generation PlayStation 5 console in the year-end shopping season of 2020.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Sony's PlayStation 5 launch set for late 2020

SAN FRANCISCO - Sony said Tuesday its next-generation PlayStation 5 console, with new immersive features giving players the tactile experience of virtual worlds, would launch for the 2020 holiday season.

The Japanese electronics firm, which had teased its new console earlier this year, said a major new feature of the updated console would be its immersive controller.

"One of our goals with the next generation is to deepen the feeling of immersion when you play games, and we had the opportunity with our new controller to reimagine how the sense of touch can add to that immersion," said Jim Ryan, president and chief executive of Sony Interactive Entertainment.

The new controller will offer "haptic feedback" that brings players closer to the action of games.

"With haptics, you truly feel a broader range of feedback, so crashing into a wall in a race car feels much different than making a tackle on the football field," Ryan said.

"You can even get a sense for a variety of textures when running through fields of grass or plodding through mud."

Another feature will be "adaptive triggers" incorporated into controls "so that you feel the tactile sensation of drawing a bow and arrow or accelerating an off-road vehicle through rocky terrain," he added.

Sony, which leads the console segment, announced the move as more gamers move away from these boxes to streaming games powered by the internet cloud on a variety of devices.

Google, Apple and others have launched game subscriptions which compete with Sony's PlayStation Now cloud video game service.

According to NPD Group, a market research firm, 73 percent of Americans ages two and older play video games, an increase of six percentage points since June 2018.

Mobile remains the most popular gaming platform, with mobile gaming appealing to gamers across all consumer segments, the NPD survey showed. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Cloud play on the horizon in changing video game world

LOS ANGELES -- Console makers long at the center of the video game universe are adapting to an exploding constellation of ways to play, with the cloud looming on the horizon.

Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony remained stars, with rival Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch gaming hardware respectively, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) show floor that opened in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

But the premier industry gathering was very much focused on games themselves, and the idea they can be played as a service hosted in the internet cloud using an array of devices from smartphones to personal computers.

The annual E3 event "occurs against a backdrop of disruption in the console market," according to IHS Markit games technology research director Piers Harding-Rolls.

"As the market becomes more digitally enabled and service based, console companies and publishers are starting to map out their longer-term strategies including the building out of subscription cloud gaming services," Harding-Rolls told AFP.

Companies interested in cloud gaming see it as a way to reach broader audiences, adding to console businesses instead of taking away from them, according to the analyst.

"I see consoles being around or the foreseeable future," Harding-Rolls said.

Shifting terrain

But the competitive landscape will tilt away from console-market leading PlayStation to terrain more favorable to Xbox, he reasoned.

Microsoft has built a powerful platform for hosting computing in the internet cloud, making such service a thriving part of its business.

“We commit and harness the full breadth of our resources at Microsoft to deliver on the future of play," Xbox team leader Phil Spencer said at an E3 briefing.

The Redmond, Washington-based technology veteran has also invested heavily in machine learning, naming its Cortana digital assistant after an artificial intelligence character in blockbuster Xbox video game "Halo."

Spencer also said that Microsoft is working on a cloud service for streaming console-quality games to internet-linked devices.

"If you agree that the eventual future of games consumption is through cloud gaming services, then those companies with a strong position in cloud are likely to be best placed to benefit from the transition," Harding-Rolls said.

"In this context, Microsoft's cloud division gives the company a natural advantage when trying to build a profitable business."

Sony and Microsoft have each put out word they are working on next-generation consoles, but planned capabilities have yet to be revealed.

PlayStation 4 has dominated the current console generation, briskly outselling Xbox One.

But if the video game world shifts to Microsoft's strengths, its new competition in play could become cloud and AI titans such as Amazon, Google, Tencent, and Alibaba, according to Harding-Rolls.

Learning from mobile

The video game industry is seeing its biggest investment ever, with the three big consoles "very healthy," according to Electronic Software Association chief executive Michael Gallagher.

The ESA trade group organizes E3, with 60,000 industry insiders and gamers from some 100 countries expected to attend the three-day gathering.

Video game industry revenue worldwide tallied about $116 billion last year, according to the ESA.

Console makers have been taking lessons from mobile games, building online communities of players who provide feedback; stream play; subscribe to services, and spend money on digital content such as dance moves or funky clothing for characters.

"Mobile has been a fantastic growth point for the industry," Gallagher said.


Console video game titan Bethesda is unabashedly bridging the divide between console and mobile play with versions of blockbusters "Fallout" and "Elder Scrolls" for play on smartphones or tablets.

"I can't wait to play it," Gallagher said of "Elder Scrolls: Blades" that will be available free for iPhones or Android-powered mobile devices when it is released later this year.

Another sign of console-quality play making its way to mobile devices came in the form of telecom giant AT&T showing off ultra high-speed 5G wireless data capabilities on the E3 show floor.

Super-fast internet service is seen as key to rich, seamless game play.

"Exponential increases in computing power, storage and speed will lead to the streaming of realistic, systemic, densely populated and persistent game worlds to any screen," said Yves Guillemot, chief executive of French video game powerhouse Ubisoft.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Sony virtual reality head gear set for 2016 release

SAN FRANCISCO - Sony was at a major game developers' gathering Wednesday showing off a prototype of "Morpheus" virtual reality head gear set for release next year.

The Japanese consumer electronics titan did not disclose how much it planned to charge for the virtual reality (VR) system synced to work with its popular PlayStation 4 video game consoles.

"With the technical specs achieved on the new prototype, we are one step closer to realizing our vision for making amazing VR experiences on PS4, and ultimately to deliver a real sense of presence to players," said Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida.

"We believe that the near-final technology of Morpheus, combined with the power of PS4, will provide a standard for game developers to target as they build on their creative ideas and turn them into VR games and experiences."

Sony is among several companies developing VR head gear and pitching their technology at a Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week.

Facebook-owned Oculus VR and Sony were each headlining Wednesday sessions likely to be packed with game makers.

A crowd was also expected at a session Wednesday featuring the head of the Xbox team at Microsoft, who is likely to tout gaming potential of HoloLens augmented reality visors that the US technology titan is developing.

Future of gaming

Sony billed VR as the future of gaming while introducing the latest prototype from Project Morpheus, which was unveiled in March of last year.

Sony said that, since then, it has been listening to feedback and making enhancements "that will further the capability of Morpheus to deliver a sense of presence and push the boundaries of play."

Prototype improvements included a screen with a larger field of view to remove blur and flicker, along with faster frame rates for smoother visuals, according to Sony.

Sony said it has sold more than 20.2 million PS4 consoles since they hit the market in late 2013.

As GDC got under way this week, Valve and Taiwan-based smartphone maker HTC announced they are working together on Vive virtual reality head gear on track for release by the end of this year.

"Vive creates an exciting opportunity for all developers and content creators, to help us bring virtual reality into the mainstream with an end-to-end solution that completely redefines how we entertain ourselves, communicate with each other, learn and, eventually, how we become more productive," HTC chairwoman Cher Wang said in a release.

"HTC Vive is real, it's here and it'll be ready to go before the start of 2016."

Targeting billions

Oculus chief technology officer John Carmack told a packed room of developers at GDC that the company is working with South Korean consumer electronics colossus Samsung on a next-generation Gear VR device likely to be released late this year.

"We've got a plan now; we've got a date," Carmack said while encouraging game makers to hop of the virtual reality band wagon.

"Oculus is going forward as hard as we can, trying to sell as many units as we can with the next Gear VR."

Carmack said he is most excited about the future of virtual reality that lets users unplug from personal computers and go mobile. He envisioned the future of virtual reality as running on mobile technology, but said the "headset of our dreams" remained years away.

Being acquired by Facebook last year in a $2 billion deal is turning out to be a good thing for the Oculus platform, bringing with it talent, resources and expertise at building infrastructure capable of serving people around the world, according to Carmack.

"I want to see a billion people in virtual reality; Zuck wants to see a billion people in virtual reality," Carmack said, referring to Facebook chief and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.

"There is not a step-by-step plan," he told the game makers. "But, we plan to sell enough units to make it worth your while."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Sony works to restore PlayStation after attack

BOSTON -- Sony Corp worked for a third day on Saturday to restore services to its PlayStation network as the FBI said it was looking into the disruption, which began on Christmas Day.

"We are aware of the reports and are investigating the Sony PlayStation matter," Federal Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Jenny Shearer said via email. She did not elaborate.

Meanwhile, Sony said on Saturday that the attack had prevented some people who received consoles for Christmas from using their new machines on the PlayStation network, which lets gamers compete with people around the world via the Internet.

"If you received a PlayStation console over the holidays and have been unable to log onto the network, know that this problem is temporary and is not caused by your game console," Sony executive Catherine Jensen said on the company's U.S. PlayStation blog.

Some customers posted complaints about the outage on the blog. "Three days without PSN. That's absurd," said one of them.

"We understand your frustration," Jensen responded early Saturday afternoon. "Our engineers are working to restore service as quickly as possible!"

Later in the day she said the company had restored access for some users and would keep bringing more back online. Sony declined to say how many of PSN's 56 millions users had been affected by the attack.

The blog said the problems were the result of "high levels of traffic designed to disrupt connectivity and online game play," which is widely known as a distributed denial-of-service attack.

It was Sony's second recent high-profile encounter with hackers after an unprecedented attack on its Hollywood studio, which the U.S. government attributed to North Korea and linked to the release of the low-brow comedy "The Interview."

A hacker activist group known as Lizard Squad said it was responsible for the PSN outage as well as delays on Microsoft's Corp's Xbox network; Microsoft quickly fixed the problem.

The group has claimed responsibility for previous attacks, including ones on PSN in early December and August.

The August attack coincided with a bomb scare in which Lizard Squad tweeted to American Airlines that it heard explosives were on board a Dallas-to-San Diego flight carrying an executive with Sony Online Entertainment.

Sony has been the victim of some of the most notorious cyberattacks in history. Besides the breach at its Hollywood studio, hackers stole data belonging to 77 million PlayStation Network users in 2011.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

How PlayStation changed gaming forever

Twenty years ago, a small grey box of electronic tricks made its debut in Japan, heralding the birth of the global gaming phenomenon that changed the entertainment landscape, launching titles that now outstrip sales from Hollywood's biggest franchises.

The original PlayStation, which hit stores in early December 1994, brought revolutionary graphics, engrossing gameplay and the kind of complex virtual worlds that had only previously been available in an arcade.

"When we arrived, the video game was seen as a niche hobby. One of our achievements is to have succeeded in making a legitimate cultural object, like music or cinema," Jim Ryan, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, told AFP.

The launch was Sony's first foray into computer games and pitted the company against the established giant of the sector, Nintendo, whose character-driven two-dimensional offerings like Super Mario had wowed children.

But unlike the 16-bit cartridges that powered the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Sony's PlayStation opted for cheap-to-produce CD-ROMs, a technology that allowed vast tracts of data to be stored.

The discs' convenience and powerful graphics in the original 32-bit machines lured game developers and players into a world where, suddenly, 3-D was in reach.

And it wasn't just the insides of the machines that Sony had re-imagined; they shunned the plain rectangle controllers of the SNES in favor of an ergonomic device that sat neatly in a player's hands.

Titles such as Tomb Raider, Gran Turismo and Final Fantasy spurred console sales and launched what became multi-billion dollar franchises with legions of loyal fans.

Global blockbusters like Grand Theft Auto joined the PlayStation world, as well as other platforms. The latest installment took $1 billion in its first three days of sales, putting even huge cinematic hits in the shade.

Sleek design

In March 2000, PlayStation 2 burst onto the market, leveraging the mega-capacity of DVDs before the format was standard storage.

The trademark controller remained, but with additional features like vibrations and a sleek new design featuring a black tower with clean lines that had the grace of a designer's touch.

The company shifted around 150 million units worldwide, and the PS2 remains the best-selling console of all time.

Although addicts got a handheld PSP in 2004, it would be another six years until the main console got an update with the PS3, a Blu-ray equipped and Internet-ready device that allowed gamers in different continents to play against each other.

Where gaming had once been largely a solitary activity or done among friends close to home, there was now a global community of like-minded players.

Unlike the ever-contracting windows of release for mobile phones and tablets, gaming consoles have retained their strung-out lives, with engineers packing as much hardware and spare capacity into them as they can.

"In every generation, Sony has tried to bring an innovation in its machines to make the difference," said Laurent Michaud, head of consumer electronics and digital entertainment practice at Digiworld Institute/IDATE.

Acolytes had to wait until 2013 for the PS4, an ultra-powerful machine with 4,000 times the memory of the original and processing capacity orders of an ever larger magnitude.

The 13.5 million units Sony has sold in the last year allow users to play games straight from the Cloud in a universe that now includes compatible smartphones, televisions and tablets.

Sony is now introducing a cable-style television service in the United States delivered through PlayStation3 and 4 consoles, called "PlayStation Vue."

The PS4 symbolizes Sony's strategic move for future growth, as the product positions itself for a Cloud-based future where consoles might even disappear, said Yu Okazaki, analyst at Nomura Securities.

"PlayStation4 is selling well. The product shows Sony is looking at five, 10 years down the road. The number of consoles sold and their network capacity make it extremely promising," Okazaki said.

To mark the 20th anniversary, Sony Computer Entertainment is releasing a special, limited edition PS4 in the original grey, which will be offered to 12,300 fans worldwide.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Battle lines drawn as Call of Duty goes on sale

SYDNEY -- Australian gamers Tuesday were among the world's first to get their hands on the latest installment of Call of Duty, as publisher Activision sought to boost the blockbuster franchise amid concerns about consumer fatigue.

While the video game has been one of the industry's bestsellers, with the 11-year-old series moving more than 100 million units and raking in billions of dollars in revenue, some analysts expect a drop-off in sales for this year's Advanced Warfare installment compared to 2013's Ghosts.

Activision Publishing is confident the newest title will continue to be its standard-bearer, and has brought in studio Sledgehammer Games and Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey to reload the franchise, which first launched in 2003.

"Three years ago we made some big decisions to invest in a three-year development cycle and to enlist Sledgehammer Games to be the first new lead studio for Call of Duty in a decade," Activision's chief executive Eric Hirshberg said in a statement.

"We believe that those decisions have paid off, resulting in a fantastic game."

EB Games, which is launching Call of Duty in Australia, said the latest installment was already the year's biggest pre-selling title.

"Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is off to a cracking start with tens of thousands of fans attending midnight and early morning launches at EB Games stores across the country," the firm's national brand manager Debra McGrath told AFP.

Parent company Activision Blizzard, a leading US video games publisher, in August reported a 8.22 percent rise in second-quarter net revenue to US$658 million from the previous year, driven by strong digital sales from games such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Diablo III: Reaper of Souls.

The games publisher is set to release its third-quarter results in the US later Tuesday.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Sony to charge fees for multiplayer games on PS4

Sony Corp plans to charge a monthly fee of $9.99 in the United States and 6.99 euros ($9.40) in Europe for playing multiplayer online games on its PlayStation 4 (PS4) console scheduled to debut this month, the Nikkei business daily reported without citing sources.

Multiplayer games can be played for free on PlayStation 3.

Sony plans to charge 500 yen ($5.00) a month for multiplayer games in Japan when the new console debuts in February, the Nikkei said.

Sony plans to make PS4 more attractive by including more social networking functions, such as the ability to chat with fellow players, the business daily reported.

Microsoft Corp's Xbox One will also launch this month.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Phones, tablets transform handheld game market

LOS ANGELES — Smartphones and tablet computers are expanding the market for handheld video games and challenging traditional devices, forcing game developers to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape.

Executives at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) held this week in Los Angeles said the industry — long focused on generating blockbuster titles for PlayStation, Wii or Xbox 360 — are taking a new look at portable platforms.

The new market includes not only die-hard gamers but more casual players, the kind who tap the touchscreens of their iPhones or Android devices while riding the train or waiting for the dentist.

Olivier Pierre, of the game publisher BulkyPix, said there is room for both segments to grow.

“Mobile is a new platform, as is Facebook. And these new platforms do not cover the same audience as console games,” he said.

“I don’t see a real competition between smartphones and consoles so far. Maybe in the future, but that’s not the case right now.”

But some analysts say the rise of smartphones and tablets is threatening to crowd out handheld consoles like Nintendo’s 3DS and the Sony Vita.

A survey by ABI Research shows some 38 million handheld gaming devices from Sony and Nintendo are expected to ship in 2013, down from a peak of 47 million in 2008.

The report said smartphone and tablet use for gaming continues to expand, providing increased competition in the handheld market.

“Mobile devices will compete with dedicated handheld gaming devices, but select consumer segments like core gamers and those individuals who do not want or have a smartphone or tablet will still provide some demand,” ABI analyst Michael Inouye said.

Jack Buser, senior director of PlayStation Digital Platforms for Sony, said growth in mobile games is good for the market.

“Because of the prevalence of digital devices, (users) are discovering that, yes, they are gamers,” he told AFP.

“This is a trend that is extremely healthy for the industry, and we will embrace it. We are all for the evangelization of electronic games to the broadest audience possible.”

Mobile gaming is a unique market, with games that are either free — financed by advertising — or costing just a few dollars.

This represents a change for classic developers, which invest millions of dollars in major franchises and sell games for around $60 apiece.

“The game should be designed for mobile,” said Eiji Araki, head of the social games studio GREE.

“The mobile player is different from the console game player. They are always online and they can play games all the time… so the game should be designed for three-minute sessions, for minimum times.”

Mobile is a hot topic at E3, a major gathering for the gaming industry.

New mobile game releases are coming from GREE, social games maker Zynga, and industry heavyweights like Electronic Arts.

A mobile version of the auto racing game “Need for Speed,” the arcade game “Tiny Troopers” and the romantic comedy “The Act” are all on display at E3.

Araki, whose company has seen rapid growth in recent years, said the mobile space is special: “The games are getting simpler and easier as the casual audience grows.”

source: interaksyon.com