Sony aims at gamers with new PlayStation 4 console

Sony unleashes its powerful new PlayStation 4 video game console on Friday, seeking to win over consumers with immersive, realistic game worlds and easy online sharing with friends. The successor to the PlayStation 3 makes its debut in North America, hitting Europe later in the month. "Millions of gamers are eagerly awaiting the launch of PlayStation 4," analyst Scott Steinberg at the consultancy TechSavvy told AFP. "It promises to define what the next generation of gaming and online connected titles will bring and help cement set-top devices' new position in a world increasingly defined by smartphones, tablets, free-to-play, social, online games and mobile devices." The PS4 comes seven years after its predecessor and a week ahead of the release of a new-generation Xbox One console by Sony rival Microsoft. The PS4 is priced at $399, while Xbox One will have a $499 price. "With the PS4, we wanted to make a high-performance machine at a low price to put one in every living room across the world," Sony Computer Entertainment America vice president Adam Boyes said while giving AFP an early look at the new console. "We created a box that is capable of amazing things." Along with building more powerful computing engines into consoles for cinematic graphics, engineers built in social features and took lessons from smartphone and tablet games that are making inroads. "Like a Swiss Army knife, we are taking the best of what we learn...

Read More........ → November 14, 2013

PlayStation 4 Will Stream Games

Not surprisingly, the PlayStation 4 rumors have been flowing as of late. With the expected reveal of the console coming this Wednesday, February 20 in New York City, it only makes sense that little bits of information would begin to emerge about what we’ll be seeing. The newest rumor is in regard to the next PlayStation’s ability to stream games. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that “Sony Corp. is planning to offer technology to stream games to its next videogame console,” according to its own sources. The new technology, to be unveiled Wednesday along with the new console, will allow users to play games delivered over the Internet, these people said. The streaming service, they added, is designed to use current PlayStation 3 titles on the new console; the new device is also expected to play new games stored on optical discs. As WSJ points out, such a move on Sony’s part would be unsurprising. Even when it was drowning in red ink, it still took a massive risk when it bought streaming service Gaikai for $380 million. There is absolutely no doubt that, with an investment that significant at such a difficult timefor Sony, Gaikai's technology will be poised to play an important role in Sony’s future. Streaming games to PlayStation 4 (and perhaps other Sony devices) would be significant, giving gamers access to a wide array of titles that they never had to purchase outright. This could suggest that Sony may have...

Read More........ → March 18, 2013

Steve Ballmer: hits and misses from the Microsoft chairman

Microsoft's former CEO and chairman will be remembered as much for his failures as his successes Microsoft's outgoing chairman Steve Ballmer once famously declared "I love this company". But as he departs the software giant, the question is, did Microsoft love him? The enthusiastic tech billionaire, renowned for his rousing speeches that earned him the internal nickname Mr Monkey Boy, leaves the company significantly diminished from its 1990s heyday, yet in an improving financial situation and with its digital fingers still in many pies. So should Ballmer's 14-year reign be seen as a success or a failure? And what will Bill Gates' successor's legacy be, as he takes up a new life as head of the US basketball franchise the Los Angeles Clippers? The various hits and misses from Ballmer's time at the top could end up defining his legacy. Miss – Smartphones: In 2007, when Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' unveiled the iPhone, Ballmer dismissed the new device as being "not a very good email machine", which would never do for business customers, because it lacked a physical keyboard, the BBC reports. Apple ended up cornering the exploding smartphone market while the Windows Phone, launched in 2010, had to make do with a small slice of the pie. Hit – Gaming consoles: Ballmer is widely credited with helping the growth of Xbox, one of Microsoft's biggest success stories of the past two decades and the jewel in the crown...

Read More........ → August 21, 2014