Sony Losing Money with Each Piece of PlayStation 4 Sold at the Launch

Sony is going to lose money on every piece of PS4 hardware sold at the launch, according to the company, but it has positioned itself to alleviate that loss with some common purchases.

News was revealed by Masayasu Ito from Sony Japan while interviewing with Eurogamer. He also pointed out that other purchases that Sony expects the average users to make with PlayStation 4 at the launch, like a game and a PS Plus membership, will let the company recover its losses. Restating what Andrew House from Sony told Reuters lately, Masayasu also said that even if the targeted purchases aren’t made by users, PlayStation 4 will start generating profits more rapidly than PS3. Due to the factors such as the Cell processor development, the ability of Sony to turn a profit on PlayStation 3 was delayed during first many years of availability of the console.

Sony, earlier this year, mentioned that it hadn’t expected PlayStation 4 launch to cause a great deal of loss. Masaru Kato, Chief financial officer Sony, said in May that the company is not anticipating a big loss to take place with the PS4 launch. As it was reported during August, the rate of Japanese yen could cause troubles for Sony.

The company is trying to encourage the PS 3 users to switch to PlayStation 4 at or some time after the launch, offering things like discounted price on several of PS4 games, etc. PlayStation 4 will be launched on February 22nd, 2014 in Japan, November 29th in Europe, and November 15th in North America.

Who Will Win The Console War; Sony or Microsoft?

The beginning of the year 2013 marks the era of the next generation of consoles. The gaming industry is highly geared up for new consoles to be released by two of the dominant companies in the market; Microsoft Corp and Sony Corp. Nintendo, the Japanese video game company has already introduced its own eighth generation of consoles the Wii U, which is also a successor of its popular console, the Wii. For months, there has been considerable speculation regarding the two upcoming consoles, the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox 720. Sony Corp conducted a press conference in February where it discussed the specifications of its new PlayStation.

This left Microsoft to make a move with its Xbox 720 and the American multinational has announced that it will be holding a press conference on May 21st. It is only a few months after Sony and people already have an idea about the next generation of Sony’s console. However, now it is a good time to decide the odds of both companies in winning the console war. Unless, a lot of work has been done by Microsoft undercover, Sony already holds an advantage over Microsoft as it will be the one releasing its console first.

Everyone is aware of what Sony is bringing in its new console, but it’s time to consider what Microsoft might introduce. The first thing that needs to be considered is the assertion that players will be required to be online constantly on the new Xbox, even when they are playing single player games. Nevertheless, this deal isn’t going to work any favors for Microsoft if they really undertake it. This is not considered a good idea at all by anyone, except for perhaps dusty old executives. This will prove to be inconvenient to a large number of users.

In addition, the console will also become inaccessible to many of those users. Microsoft needs to scrap this concept after having a look at the backlash that has been received by this particular idea. The backwards-on capability is a concept that can prove to be highly popular, but it is not offered by the PlayStation 4. Players will not be able to play any of their PlayStation 2 or PlayStation 3 games on the new console. Sure, they will have the option of downloading and streaming them, but why waste money?

By offering support for the games of Xbox 360 in its new console, Microsoft can get a step ahead of Sony. This will prove to be a very huge selling point for customers. People will not have to dig up their old console when they wish to play their favorite game. Lowering the cost of online play is another thing that can go a long way for Microsoft in the console wars. If the company starts charging less for their service, a large number of customers will be persuaded to join them. Sony is already a step ahead of Microsoft and the latter will have to make a few sacrifices if they wish to be successful in the console wars.

Unity Coming To PlayStation; Sony Computer Entertainment!

One of the most prominent names in the video game industry is that of Sony Computer Entertainment. This is a Japanese video game company, which became renowned worldwide because of its PlayStation home and handheld video game console. The company is also popular for developing and publishing a number of video game titles in the market. The company has been working on its latest console, PlayStation 4, for quite a while now and is expected to release it in the latter part of 2013. This will be the eighth generation of console and it was announced by Sony at a press conference on February 20th.

In the latest news about the company, it has come to light that Sony has entered into a ‘strategic partnership’ with Unity Technologies. The latter is well-known for creating Unity, which is basically a development platform and offers high performance and flexibility. Intelligent and creative interactive 2D and 3D experiences can be created with Unity. This partnership between the two companies means that optimized Unity development tools will be launched for Sony’s PlayStation consoles. The Japanese video game company has confirmed that it will be providing Unity for the PlayStation. Moreover, the company has said that these tools will be optimized for the most popular Sony platforms; mainly PS Mobile, PS Vita, PlayStation 3 and most importantly PlayStation 4.

As per Sony’s statement, developers will find Unity a boon because by offering Unity for its prominent PlayStation consoles, the company is giving developers the opportunity to port different versions of the Unity games to other devices of the company without having to write the code from the beginning. As for the control features of PlayStation Vita such as the rear touchpad, the Unity tools will be customized, which is a huge benefit. Sony consoles have previously supported games built on Unity. Escape Plan of PS Vita is the biggest example.

However, this  new arrangement will make it considerably easy for developers to introduce Unity titles with other problems without facing much trouble. Previously, Unity was usually used for making PC games, but with Sony’s move, even more studios can start making use of it in order to help games adapt to the consoles of the company. The CEO of Unity Technologies, David Helgason said that this move of Sony was for the purpose of dealing with independent studios. He mentioned that the Japanese company was aiming to make its platform accessible for all developers and this partnership would go a long way for both companies.

Helgason said that Sony really wanted to open its platforms for other developers and Unity was simply leading to make development easier for all studios. Sony said that by offering Unity on its consoles, the company was providing its customers with the opportunity of enjoying new and creative games from some of the highly talented developers of the industry. Several games are under development, which make use of Unity tools and that include titles like Breach and Clear of Robert Bowling and also Wasteland 2.

PlayStation 4 May Be Unveiled By Sony!

In the whole of the gaming industry, there is one prominent name; Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. This is a major video game industry that is a subsidiary of the Sony Group and it specializes in a variety of areas that are related to the video game industry. The company is responsible for handling the research and development, production as well as the sales of the popular video game console series called the PlayStation. This includes both home console and handheld systems. Various consoles have been launched by the company as part of the series. The last home console was the PlayStation 3 that was released in 2006. Since then, the company is rumored to be working on the eighth generation of video game console, the PlayStation 4.

The next generation hardware will be released by both Sony and rival Microsoft in 2013. The question is when. There has been considerable speculation about the launch date of the new console. Some rumors have predicted a March release, whereas others have voted a release in June at the E3. But, now the tables have been turned by Sony itself. On Friday, the company sent out invitations to journalists and invited them to a press conference it will be holding on 20^th of February. The company has dangled the possibility of the imminent release of the PlayStation 4 by saying the conference will discuss ‘the future of the PlayStation’.

This is the first major PlayStation meeting that the company has hosted in two years. This tantalizing prospect has sparked online speculation on gaming sites and blogs all over the web. Avid gamers are all keen to read about any update to the successor of the 70 million selling PlayStation 3. An analyst of Wedbuch Securities, Michael Pachter tweeted that the press conference meant the announcement of the console. When questioned, the company declined to make any comments regarding the rumor that there will be a console announcement at the New York press conference.

Masaki Tsukakoshi, spokesman of the company said that the PlayStation business will be discussed at the conference. More than 7 million hits were received for a Google search of ‘Sony Feb 20 PlayStation’. The company has said that after some years of losses, the PlayStation 3 has become profitable for the company, which is typical of gaming consoles. It was in January 2011 when Sony held a PlayStation event and the prototype of its current Vita console had been displayed then.

The PS 3 gaming console was launched six years before and it has been the longest gap ever between any of Sony’s consoles. Therefore, there is high anticipation that the company would unveil its next gaming concept. Moreover, since it was announced that the company has stopped making the PlayStation 2 consoles, there have been growing expectations that at least the specifications, if not the shape of the new console will be revealed by the company. Sony’s direct competitor, Microsoft, will also be launching its next generation console this year whereas Nintendo has already released its Wii U.