110 million Sony PlayStation 4 units sold to date
Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony has sold over 110 million units of PlayStation 4 since the launch of the fourth-generation gaming console. This includes all available models, including the PS4 Pro.
The company also revealed that sales of PlayStation 4 from January to March 31 this year stood at 1.5 million units.
The PlayStation 4 is now the fourth best-selling console ever, behind the Game Boy/Game Boy Color, which sold 118.69 million units.
It remains to be seen if the PlayStation 4 will overtake Nintendo’s handheld gaming device — Nintendo DS (154.02 million) and PlayStation 2 (155 million).
With the PlayStation 5 around the corner, it is now unlikely that the current 4 will break any records.
Sony is expected to launch its PlayStation 5 soon and unveiled the new wireless game controller for the same, calling it ‘DualSense’ to reflect its new capabilities.
The controller features all new colour theme and has some added functionalities, both inside and outside.
There is also an integrated microphone, a first for Sony’s controllers, along with a USB-C port and an overhauled design.
Sony says the new button will operate in the same way but will have more functions that it will reveal in the future.
Even as Sony has already confirmed that the company will be launching its next-generation gaming console ‘PlayStation 5’ soon, now a new patent has claimed that the upcoming console may feature a microphone on the controller for voice assistant on-board.
This new feature will make the device capable of interpreting commands and requests while it is in use, much like smart speakers such as Amazon’ Echo range, news portal Gizmochina reported on Thursday.
In Sony’s recently filed patent for a new PlayStation controller with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the latest model adds two new buttons to the design.
It looks remarkably similar to the current DualShock 4 but with a couple of extra buttons on the rear and one major omission – the PS button on the front.
On the other side, the back is exactly the same but includes two new configurable buttons, which means one can program them to perform the same function of another button.
The latest design also shows a USB Micro-B charger, suggesting that this new controller could work with the PlayStation 4.
Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced a ‘Play At Home’ initiative, which will give PS4 users two free games regardless of whether they are PlayStation Plus subscribers or not.
PS4 owners can claim both Journey and Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, which includes the first three entries in Nathan Drake’s adventure: Drake’s Fortune, Among Thieves, and Drake’s Deception.
This is part of Sony’s effort to help contain the spread of COVID-19, as it is encouraging people to continue with social distancing and stay at home playing video games
“During these days of physical distancing, fans have turned to gaming for moments of respite and enjoyment,” Jim Ryan CEO Sony Interactive Entertainment, said in a blog post.
“As a thank you to all who are doing their part to lessen the impact of this pandemic, Sony Interactive Entertainment is pleased to announce the Play At Home initiative,” Ryan added.
The selection of free titles is the same worldwide except in China and Germany. Those two countries will instead have access to Knack 2 and Journey.
Meanwhile, Sony has also started a $10 million fund to financially support its independent development partners, as they may be facing unexpected hardships during the pandemic.
Sony unveils new PlayStation 5 Specs & Controller
Even as Sony has confirmed that the company will be launching its next-generation gaming console ‘PlayStation 5’ soon now a latest patent has revealed that the upcoming console may feature wireless charging via the use of an attachable adaptor.
Sony filed a controller patent with the World Intellectual Property Organisation in the summer of last year, and the full document is now available for public viewing, complete with pictures and a detailed description of the product itself, news portal Gamesradar reported recently.
The patent describes Sony’s plans to develop “a wireless charging adapter that can snap onto a computer game controller can be inductively coupled to a charging base to wirelessly recharge a battery in the controller.”
Recently, a report claimed that the upcoming console may feature a microphone on the controller for voice assistant on-board.
This new feature will make the device capable of interpreting commands and requests while it is in use, much like smart speakers such as Amazon’ Echo range.
Additionally, the latest model is also expected to add two new buttons to the design.
It looks remarkably similar to the current DualShock 4 but with a couple of extra buttons on the rear and one major omission — the PS button on the front.
On the other side, the back is exactly the same, but includes two new configurable buttons, which means one can program them to perform the same function of another button.
The latest design also shows a USB Micro-B charger, suggesting that this new controller could work with the PlayStation 4.
Sony has finally revealed the specifications and hardware details of its next-generation home console, the PlayStation 5.
The PS5 will feature a custom eight-core AMD Zen 2 CPU clocked at 3.5GHz and a custom GPU based on AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture hardware that promises 10.28 teraflops and 36 compute units clocked at 2.23GHz.
Additional GPU power will allow for higher resolution in games, but a major new feature that benefits the visuals of games even further is ray tracing. Ray tracing simulates the way light moves in real life, and how it bounces off various surfaces.
It will also have 16GB of GDDR6 RAM and a custom 825GB SSD.
Where it took a PS4 around 20 seconds to load a single gigabyte of data, the goal with the PS5’s SSD is to enable loading five gigabytes of data in a single second, PlayStation hardware lead Mark Cerny detailed at the announcement.
It will also feature 4K Blu-ray drive and will still support discs, but those games will still require installation to the internal SSD.
The custom SSD inside uses a standard NVMe SSD, allowing for future upgrades, but one sill need an SSD that can meet Sony’s high-spec standards here — at least 5.5GB/s.
PS5 will also allow games to offer a much deeper sense of immersion through 3D audio.
The Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony has unveiled the new wireless game controller for PlayStation 5, calling it ‘DualSense’ to better reflect its new capabilities.
The controller features all new colour theme and also has some added functionality both inside and outside.
There is also an integrated microphone, a first for Sony’s controllers, along with a USB-C port and an overhauled design.
“The new controller, along with the many innovative features in PS5, will be transformative for games – continuing our mission at PlayStation to push the boundaries of play, now and in the future,” Jim Ryan, President and CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment said in a statement.
The DualShock 4’s share button, which allowed PlayStation 4 owners to quickly post screenshots and videos of their games, has been retained, but is now called the create button.
Sony says the new button will operate in the same way but will have more functions that it will reveal in the future.
Design-wise, the ‘DualSense’ has seen some notable changes. The two handles are less rectangular in shape and have a slight curve along the outer edge.
The touchpad is also no longer rectangular, and appears to be a bit bigger overall.
Both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are slated to be launched in November, though things could change in the light of the coronavirus global pandemic.
Xbox Series X specs unveiled, includes 1TB SSD expansion cards
Microsoft has revealed that 13 games are coming to its Xbox Series X console with its launch this winter.
The games will support the key technical features of the Xbox Series X such as 120-frames-per-second animation, real-time ray tracing and super-fast loading times.
The first 13 Xbox Series X Optimized titles are Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft), Bright Memory Infinite (Playism), Call of the Sea (Raw Fury), DiRT 5 (Codemasters), Madden NFL 21 (Electronic Arts), Scarlet Nexus (Bandai Namco Entertainment), Scorn (Ebb), Chorus (Deep Silver), Second Extinction (Systemic Reaction), The Ascent (Neon Giant/Curve Digital), The Medium (Bloober Team), Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 (Paradox Interactive) and Yakuza: Like a Dragon (SEGA).
“Hundreds of titles are already in development for Xbox Series X thanks to our amazing partner community. We’ll be sharing a lot more in the coming months in our Xbox 20/20 series, not only from those partners but from Xbox Game Studios as well,” Will Tuttle, Xbox Wire Editor in Chief said in a statement on Thursday.
Microsoft has announced that the Xbox Series X will use a custom AMD Zen 2 CPU with eight cores at 3.8GHz each and a custom AMD RNDA 2 GPU with 12 teraflops and 52 compute units at 1.825GHz each, coming with 16GB of GDDR6 RAM with a 1TB custom NVME SSD storage drive.
“So pumped to see our partners showing us a first look at Xbox Series X gameplay next week! Also know the Xbox Game Studios teams are hard at work on some big summer plans. More details soon,” said Aaron Greenberg, general manager of Xbox games marketing.
Tech giant is also using a solid-state drive on the Xbox Series X, and the focus is on speed and load times for next-gen games.
Microsoft has partnered with the HDMI forum and TV manufacturers to enable Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) on the Series X as part of its HDMI 2.1 support.
Fortnite VS Call of Duty Warzone
Epic Games has announced that its battle royale hit game Fortnite would be available on Microsofts Xbox Series X and Sonys PlayStation 5 consoles.
Next-gen consoles game will be able to run at higher framerates and resolutions. On PS4 Pro and Xbox Series X, Fortnite will run at 60 frames per second.
The news was revealed as part of the Unreal Engine 5 unveiling, which showcased footage running on PS5.
“We are excited to confirm that Fortnite will be headed to next-generation consoles at launch. This is the same Fortnite you know and love, ready to take full advantage of the newest consoles,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Epic announced last week that the title now has more than 350 million registered players.
“While we can’t share specifics at the moment, more powerful hardware will allow us to improve performance and visuals. At launch, the version of Fortnite we release on next-gen consoles will be built with Unreal Engine 4. We will migrate Fortnite to Unreal Engine 5 in mid-2021,” informed the company.
Last month, Epic Games released its Battle Royale game through the official Play Store on Android.
The game was available for Android 10 since mid-2019. However, Epic Games decided not to include the game in Google Play Store.
Just a month after launch of Warzone, Activisions new battle royal entry Call of Duty: Warzone has topped 50 million players.
“Over 50 million players. Thank you #Warzone players for dropping in with us. #FreeCallofDuty,” the company said in a tweet.
The 50 million-milestone makes Warzone one of the fastest-growing Battle Royale titles in gaming.
Earlier, within 24 hours of its launch, the game pulled in six million players, much more than the previous 2.5 million-player record held by Apex Legends. It then reached 15 million players within three days of its release and ten days to reach 30 million.
The number has been impacted due to work-from-home policies as people stay indoors during the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The company has announced the arrival of a solo mode to its battle royale shooter Call of Duty: Warzone. It is available for free on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
Meanwhile, Fortnite and Apex Legends has usual 100 per match. Apex Legends also introduced a limited time solo mode, but it is currently unavailable.
Call of Duty game developer Activision has banned over 50,000 cheaters since the launch of Warzone on March 10.
The banned players include those who used programmes to let them shoot impossible shots, known as aimbots and wall hacks that can let some shoot through walls.
“We take all forms of cheating very seriously, maintaining a level and fair playing field for everyone is among our highest priorities. This is an area we have been working on heavily, but it isn’t always something we discuss publicly,” the company said in a statement.
The company initially showed that 35,000 players were banned since launch, but that number was soon updated to 50,000 players as it’s currently listed on the site.
Call of Duty: Warzone has hit 30 million players milestone within 10 days of the game’s release across various platforms.
The game announced the arrival of a solo mode to its battle royale shooter Call of Duty: Warzone. It is available for free on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
At the launch, Warzone only supported squads of three players. The solo mode will support 150 players, just like the squads version, for a total of 50 squads per match.
Meanwhile, Fortnite and Apex Legends has usual 100 per match. Apex Legends also introduced a limited time solo mode, but it is currently unavailable.
The free-to-play and cross platform experience, Call of Duty: Warzone, is available to download for free.
One does not need to own the full version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to download, play and enjoy Warzone.