These were E3 2015’s best games
E3 is (thankfully) over, and that means the press that cover the event have recently cast their votes for what they thought were the best games from the show. You know those blurbs on box art saying “winner of over 90 awards” and the like? This is partly where they come from. Collectively known as The Game Critics Awards, the governing body for them is made up of staff from over 30 editorial outlets, including Engadget, that attended gaming’s Paris Fashion Week. For a game to even be up for consideration though, it has to be playable — a stage demo or non-interactive trailer won’t cut it. What’s it mean for you? In the end, a better idea about what it’s like to actually play the biggest games from E3, because we got to go hands-on with them. Without further adieu, the winners are in the gallery below. Spoiler: Fallout 4 was pretty successful.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo
Source: Game Critics Awards
Twitch game streaming comes to Sony’s smartphones
Sony is launching a new app that’ll let you broadcast streams of your Android gaming to the internet, straight from your smartphone. Screen Recorder has been built to connect to both Twitch and YouTube’s Twitch-like live service, letting everyone across the world watch as you play mobile Minecraft. The app works with the company’s Xperia Z3+, Z4 and Z4v, as well as the Xperia Z4 tablet that we reviewed last week. It’s certainly a big coup for Sony as it continues to revive its formerly-flagging mobile division, since Twitch’s spectator-only mobile app has nearly 35 million installs. Tempting even a small proportion of mobile gamers to buy a Sony smartphone would do some impressive things to the bottom line. Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Software, Sony
Source: Screen Recorder (Google Play)
Sony partners with Twitch to broadcast from Xperia devices
Gaming is a key part of Sony’s broader strategy and the company has been gradually integrating gaming features with its Xperia line-up of smartphones and tablets. The latest development sees Sony partner up with Twitch, a popular video streaming platform focused on gaming.
Sony has developed an app that brings in-device broadcasting to your Android device, allowing you to stream your Android games directly to your Twitch audience. With over 35 million Twitch mobile app installs alone, there are plenty of people watching out there.
However, the app will only be available for Sony’s latest handsets, the Xperia Z3+, Xperia Z4, Xperia Z4v and the Xperia Z4 Tablet. Unfortunately, we don’t know if Sony will be brining the service to other handsets in the future.
“By partnering with an innovator like Sony Mobile … we are able to ensure our community has more avenues to embrace their passion.” – Brooke Van Dusen, Director of Business Development, Twitch
This isn’t actually the first time that Sony has teamed up with a big video partner for live streaming. The same application already works with a Youtube account. Essentially, the app uploads your Xperia screen in real time to either Youtube or Twitch.
In a previous effort to win over gamers, Sony introduced WiFi network streaming to its Xperia flagship line-up, which it calls Remote Play. This allows Playstation 4 owners to stream and play their console games on their Sony Android device over their home WiFi network.
The Live Screen Streaming app is available to download from the Google Play Store for free. If you’re keen to see what Twitch is all about, be sure to check out the official Android Authority channel, hosted by our very own Joe Hindy.
Special ‘Destiny’ PS4 is another expensive bundle option
If you’re a hardcore Destiny fan, it’s been a rough couple weeks. First, Bungie announced the game’s next big expansion, then it revealed some of its content would be exclusive to a pricey $80 collector’s edition — even if you already owned the base game. There was anger, rebellion, Red Bull product tie-ins (no, really) and, eventually, a mea culpa that made the exclusive content available to everyone as separate DLC. Huzzah! Now Destiny players can get everything without buying content twice. Well, unless they want the limited edition Destiny PlayStation 4 — then they’re screwed again.
Okay, technically the Destiny: The Taken King PS4 bundle is already the complete package — buyers get a copy of Destiny, both of its initial expansions (The Dark Below and House of Wolves) and The Taken King, plus a digital upgrade to the collector’s edition and its formerly-exclusive content. As far as the game is concerned, that’s everything — but completionist collectors are still missing out on the physical aspects of The Taken King Collector’s Edition, including the set’s steel-book case, replica Strange Coin, modified Treasure Island Book and physical relics and artifacts.
A nitpick? Absolutely. An outrage? Not at all. A problem for Destiny super-fans who want all the collectibles and a 500GB custom white and silver PS4 emblazoned with a golden guardian’s crest? Oh yeah. Still, if you have to have everything (or just want a special PS4) this bundle will be available on September 15th.
Source: PlayStation Blog
Attacker who ruined your holiday gaming gets a slap on the wrist
If you were hoping that all of the Lizard Squad attackers who took down the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live last holiday would get their comeuppance… well, you’ll be disappointed. A Finnish court has convicted Julius Kivimäki (aka “Ryan” and “Zeekill”) of a whopping 50,700 charges related to various computer crimes, including data breaches, telecommunication-based harassment and swiping credit card data. It sounds good, but his penalty is limited to a suspended 2-year prison sentence and an order to help fight cybercrime — a trivial penalty in light of his overall damage. Even if you limit Kivimäki’s culpability to the gaming network outage, he was still partly responsible for days of downtime at Microsoft and Sony that frustrated millions of players. While he’ll theoretically stay on the straight and narrow for at least a while, the verdict isn’t exactly going to scare Lizard Squad’s other members into becoming model citizens.
[Image credit: Jean-Jacques Boujot, Flickr]
Filed under: Gaming, Internet, Sony, Microsoft
Via: Daily Dot, GameInformer
Source: Kaleva.fi (translated)
‘Journey’ comes to PS4 on July 21st
With stunning visuals and gameplay to match, Journey quickly became a platform favorite on the PlayStation 3. Now, Sony is bringing that adventurous experience over to the PlayStation 4, as was announced last year. Better yet, if you already own a digital copy of the title, designed by thatgamecompany, you’ll be able to download and play the new version for free. Journey’s scheduled to hit the PS4 a couple weeks from today, on July 21st, so you may want to start clearing some space on that hard drive of yours.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Sony
Source: PlayStation
PlayStation Now’s streaming app wants to be Netflix for games
PlayStation Now’s all-you-can-play game subscription service launched back in January on PlayStation 4, but the method for actually playing those games has been kind of a nightmare. Today’s news of a dedicated subscription app might change that. Before this, every time you wanted to stream a new game, you had to go through the PlayStation Store, sift through a handful of menus, pick something (much like you would to purchase a game) and then hope that it even launched the first try. A streaming app that minimizes menu fatigue and works along the lines of a Netflix or Hulu actually makes a lot of sense here.
“The current experience is a little bit transactional, it feels like, ‘Okay, I’ve gotta pop in and [then] back out [to play],’” Robert Stevenson of Gaikai, the outfit Sony bought for its streaming infrastructure, says. “You might join the subscription for a marquee title — God of War or something that you’ve never played and you want to go back and play it. Then there’s probably a dozen or two other games that you might like,” Stevenson says. “But actually finding and locating that content is a little tricky.”
The new application hopes to streamline the process. And perhaps what’s doing the brunt of the heavy lifting then is the simultaneously familiar and new interface. Codenamed Apollo, it takes cues from other streaming services in an effort to make it easier to find what you want to play among the current 125 or so games available for streaming. It’s dominated by rows of big, splashy images for each game and a minimal amount of clutter surrounding them. Take a look at the Batman: Arkham City screenshot below for an example.
“We built a new categorization for the games; the actual navigational paradigms are different, the product detail scene is different,” Stevenson says. Pick what you want to play and the bare essentials appear: a large image, user ratings and reviews. It looks a lot like Netflix. Stevenson says this reduced information density comes from some extensive user tests to learn what customers care about when they’re browsing digital catalogs and trying to figure out what they want to play next.
As the number of games on the subscription service grows, that kind of design and organization becomes much more important. Not only to help allay paralysis of choice, but for Sony to keep customers on the hook for between $15 and $20 per month. There’s a free 7-day trial for new subscribers if you want to check out the shiny UI first hand, and the app should be live by the time you’ve finished reading this post.
Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida reacts to the ‘Nintendo PlayStation’
Not long after our last intimate chat with Shuhei Yoshida, the President of Sony Computer Entertainment’s Worldwide Studios at E3, a Redditor managed to dig up a prototype of the never-released “Nintendo PlayStation” that eventually led to the birth of Sony’s very own gaming console. Naturally, when we caught up with Shuhei-san again at a Project Morpheus event in Hong Kong, we showed him our article on the priceless gem and asked for his thoughts. After some reminiscent giggles, the exec gave a brief account on the time he spent with a device with matching description, as you can see in our interview video after the break.
“When I joined Ken Kutaragi’s team [in 1993], there was a system called ‘Play Station’ that had both Super Nintendo cartridge support and some disc game support. Actually, I played some games [on it] as well.”
It’s worth pointing out that Shuhei joined Sony back in 1986, which was five years before Kutaragi’s division unveiled — and pretty much instantly canned — the SNES-CD add-on.
Alas, the exec made it very clear that he couldn’t confirm whether the recently surfaced “Nintendo PlayStation” device was legit, but he did give a cool reason.
“Somehow, I think it’s more fun to keep it kind of a mystery.”
Fair play, Shuhei-san, fair play.
Sony’s 1TB PS4 priced at £350 in the UK
Sony will soon launch its 1TB PS4 in Europe and now, we’ve got a price-tag for the UK: £349.99. That’s the same price as Microsoft’s 1TB Xbox One, which should make an interesting head-to-head this autumn. To sweeten the deal, Sony will be bundling its PlayStation TV microconsole with the new, larger capacity PS4 for a limited time, meaning you can easily stream your games to another room. It’s unclear, however, if this “Ultimate Player” will also include the revisions made to the 500GB PS4 in Japan. An internal redesign made that console 10 lighter and 8 percent more power efficient, which I’m sure PlayStation fans in Europe would appreciate too. Regardless, this is a hefty storage upgrade that should give you space for those free PS Plus games every month.
Sony vows to never abandon its smartphone business
Sony Mobile CEO and President Hiroki Totoki left some remarks in an interview with Arabian Business on Saturday that really demonstrates the dedication and dive he has towards the mobile sector of Sony’s business.
Practically waving a flag proudly and holding down the Sony ideal, Hiroki has gone on record stating he wants to make the mobile division succeed.
Hiroki describes how Sony has lost money buying 100% of the Ericsson division and went on to lose lots of money due to the purchase. During his time as CEO, he started initiating plans to cut costs by 30%, and to reduce the division’s headcount by 20%. Sony has already laid off 1,000 workers from its Swedish manufacturing and R&D centres in its first wave of cuts and plans to lay off 2,100 more workers by the end of 2015.
These key decisions are crucial to keeping the company afloat. Although tough, Hiroki does not seem to mind. Working with Sony for 30 years, he does not lack business sense. When Sony exited the PC business, which was its VAIO division, people speculated the same would happen to its mobile division.
“Before that rumour, we exited the VAIO business, which was the PC business. That led people to think that Sony would exit the smartphone business, as well. But the smartphone business is very different from PCs.
“Smartphones are completely connected to other devices, also connected to people’s lives — deeply. And the opportunity for diversification is huge. We’re heading to the IoT (Internet of Things) era and have to produce a number of new categories of products in this world, otherwise we could lose out on a very important business domain.
“In that sense we will never ever sell or exit from the current mobile business.”
Sony seems to have chosen a great leader for its mobile division, with the market becoming more and more competitive due to new up-and-coming Chinese companies. As well as shifting ideals in consumers minds that gravitate towards bang for your buck devices and wearables, only time will tell how well Sony does.
Source: Arabian Business
Via: Xperia Blog
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