Sony confirms existence of the PlayStation Neo, but says it won’t be at E3

By Rob Thubron | Techspot

It may not come as huge shock to learn that Sony has finally confirmed its high-end version of the PlayStation 4, codenamed Neo, is real. But what is quite surprising is that the machine won’t be on show at next week’s E3 event.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Andrew House, president and group CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, said the updated PS4 is coming, but we’ll have to wait a while before it’s officially unveiled.

As predicted, the new console is designed to support 4K content, both in videos and games, though precise details have yet to be revealed.

House said that there will be no Neo exclusive titles, and that “all or a very large majority of games will also support the high-end PS4,” which presumably means not every game will take advantage of its advanced hardware. Adding full support for the console will require some “small but manageable” extra work from developers.

“It is intended to sit alongside and complement the standard PS4,” he said, “we will be selling both [versions] through the life cycle.”

Another piece of unsurprising information is that the Neo will cost more than the current PlayStation 4, though House didn’t say by how much. Moreover, it will be compatible with the upcoming PlayStation virtual reality headset, but it’s unclear if VR games could be designed to utilize the Neo’s powerful components.

The supported software is set to arrive this fall, suggesting that the new console will be released around the same time.

Microsoft is still expected to show off its updated version of the Xbox One, codenamed Scorpio, at E3. In all likelihood, both consoles will be competing to become the number one Christmas seller this year.

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Sony wants to make up for PSN outage, offers discounts, PS+ subscription extension

In an effort to make up for the recent PlayStation Network outage, Sony will be offering all PlayStation Plus members a five-day extension on their memberships. Terming it as an “appreciation for your patience,” the company said the extension will be available to all those who had an active membership or free trial on December 25th.

Sony said that if your membership or trial ends before the extension is available, you’ll still be eligible for it. The extension will be automatically applied.

In addition, Sony will offer a 10 percent discount code good for a one-time discount off a total cart purchase in the PlayStation Store. You can use it toward content available on the PS Store, including games, season passes, add-ons, TV series, or movies.

Like the membership extension, there’s no set date yet on when the discount will be made available though it’s expected to happen sometime this month.

Both, The PlayStation Network and Microsoft’s Xbox Live were targeted with a malicious distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on Christmas Eve. A hacker group named Lizard Squad, that had pledged to take down the services on Christmas Day, took credit for the attack which lasted for about three days.

via Sony wants to make up for PSN outage, offers discounts, PS+ subscription extension – TechSpot.

PlayStation 4 was the best selling next-gen console in November according to NPD

While we have already heard from both Sony and Microsoft when it comes to sales numbers of the two new gaming consoles, now official sales tracking firm NPD is ready to sound off on November’s numbers.

As we previously expected, PlayStation 4 was the highest selling console for the month of November. Xbox One, which came in second, was November’s “fastest selling” console according to NPD, with units flying of the shelves at a rate of 101K per day. We know that Sony has sold about 2.1 million new PS4s so far and Microsoft is closer to 2 million even, but NPD notes that when “looking at sales on an average per-week basis, Xbox One actually led PS4.” Even with the one week head start and a much broader number of regions where PS4 is available, Xbox One looks to be keeping things interesting.

NPD reports that last month was the best November for gaming hardware sales in the US due to the launch of the new consoles. Hardware sales generated $1.3 billion, a steady rise of 58% from the $839.1 million brought in this time last year.

NPD also dropped last month’s hottest selling titles saying that software sales in general were down 24% to $1.085 billion from $1.434 billion last year. The month’s top selling games across all platforms in order are as follows: Call Of Duty: Ghosts, Battlefield 4, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Madden NFL 25, and Grand Theft Auto V. The list accounts for collector, GOTY and bundle editions, but not those bundled with hardware.

“This is the fourth consecutive month for an increase in combined physical sales across hardware, software and accessories,” NPD analyst Liam Callahan said. \”Unlike the past three months where growth was driven by software, positive trends for both hardware and accessory sales drove on overall increase of 7%.”

via PlayStation 4 was the best selling next-gen console in November according to NPD – TechSpot.

The PlayStation 4 is officially here, some systems experiencing HDMI issues

The wait is finally over, Sony fans, the Playstation 4 is officially out. Many cities across the United States saw individuals flood midnight releases at a variety of retail locations to get their hands on the newest console. Pair that with all of the gamers picking up their secured pre-orders and you can imagine just how many people were burning the midnight oil in order to enter the next generation of gaming.

It has been quite the wait for those who lived in the current generation of Sony gaming for approximately seven years with the PS3. This is the longest that Sony fans have had to wait for a next-gen system, with prior releases coming only six years apart — 1994, 2000 and 2006. The next few months will be important in judging whether or not the wait was worth it, and hopefully there won\’t be a slew of bugs plaguing the console.

Sony is already well aware of one issue, however, which was spotted in a group of early release Playstation 4s. According to IGN, some players who received early access to the console are complaining of broken displays and unresponsive HDMI outputs. The systems are reported to turn on, accompanied by a pulsing, glowing blue light, but no display is available. Sony is sending out replacement units to these individuals, but it could take some time, which promptly negated the “play the PS4 before anyone else” prize that some of these gamers were promised with their pre-orders. This shouldn’t be a widespread issue though, and a Sony representative told IGN that the affected systems will equal only 0.4 percent of all the consoles shipped.

It\’s going to be interesting to see how the gaming community adopts the PS4 in the next couple months, and with the impending release of its rival, the Xbox One, things are going to get very heated, very quickly. If any of you TechSpot readers out there got your hands on a PS4, we\’d love to hear about your early experiences!

via The PlayStation 4 is officially here, some systems experiencing HDMI issues – TechSpot.