All posts tagged: PlayStation

This bestselling gaming device is not a Nintendo or a PlayStation – and I highly recommend it

This bestselling gaming device is not a Nintendo or a PlayStation – and I highly recommend it

Published by skeptic

Alison DeNisco Rayome/ZDNET As a parent, I’m always looking for ways to keep my young kids entertained and expelling energy. The Nex Playground is a tiny gaming device that does both exceedingly well, using your body motion to play the games and effectively turning your living room into an arcade — with no controllers required.  I’ve watched the Nex Playground entertain groups of kids ranging from one to eight, and the adults in the room, too. It’s currently on sale at its lowest price of the year at $239 at Amazon, 20% off the usual price of $299. Also: The best mini gaming PCs of 2026: Expert tested and reviewed I’m the opposite of a gamer — I’m the person who tried Animal Crossing on my husband’s Switch in the early pandemic days, immediately got stung by virtual bees, and never picked it up again. So you can trust me when I say the Nex Playground is extremely easy to set up and operate, even for me.  The device itself connects to your TV via …

‘Saros’ Shows Off the PS5’s DualSense Tricks

‘Saros’ Shows Off the PS5’s DualSense Tricks

Published by skeptic

Spoiler for the very first thing you see in the upcoming game Saros: It’s a bunch of words. The letters type out one by one onto the screen, spelling out some world-building that gives context to kick off the game’s story. I don’t remember what any of it said, because I was so focused on the tactile vibrations coming from the controller in my hands. There is a sharp haptic buzz for every letter, and it immediately feels very clicky-clacky. From the very beginning, Saros makes its intentions clear—this is a story you’ve got to feel. Since the launch of the PlayStation 5, Sony’s DualSense controllers have enabled haptic feedback that developers can use to make the controller vibrate in just the right way to communicate the feel of what is happening on the screen. Maybe it’s letters typing across the screen, little patters of rainfall, or a big rumble when shooting a gun or whacking something with a melee weapon. Adaptive triggers add resistance to the main triggers, meaning the difference between feathering the …

Tinkerer transforms a filthy 1990s PlayStation into the ‘ultimate PS1’

Tinkerer transforms a filthy 1990s PlayStation into the ‘ultimate PS1’

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Older video game consoles from the ’90s might not have the same level of fancy graphics or perform as well as the expensive beasts of today.One advantage they do have—they were built with repairability in mind. That modularity means they tend to have a longer shelf life, and makes them ripe for tinkering and modding for those so inclined. Elliot Coll, a YouTuber who runs the channel Retro Future, is one of those  tinkerers. His most recent project: taking a trashed and neglected original PlayStation and upgrading it with an assortment of modern bells and whistles. It’s like the video game enthusiast version of restoring old muscle cars with modern parts that make them more drivable—and less likely to blow up in smoke. In this case, Coll outfitted a three-decade-old device with 1080p HDMI output, SD card game loading, a wireless controller, and USB-C charging. The end result, he says, is the “ultimate PS1.” I Built the Ultimate PlayStation …

Sony’s PS5 Price Hikes Prove This Console Generation Is Far From Over. Good.

Sony’s PS5 Price Hikes Prove This Console Generation Is Far From Over. Good.

Published by skeptic

If you’ve been holding off on picking up a PlayStation 5 in hopes of a price cut, bad news: the cost of every model of Sony’s all-conquering console has instead just gone up considerably. It’s a move that breaks with decades of tradition (or at least consumer expectations) and is undoubtedly a blow for anyone hoping for a discount, five years into the current console generation. However, it’s also a sign that the current generation is likely to stick around for a while yet—and that may be a good thing, for the industry and players alike. Historically, at this point in a console generation, incumbent hardware sees steep discounts. For example, the PS4, which launched for $400 in 2013, was retailing for $300 by 2018, a 25 percent decrease. Even if hardware is loss-leading, it’s a pricing trajectory that’s usually win-win for manufacturers and customers alike. Production and component costs will typically have dropped over that half-decade, allowing companies to drop the retail price, often alongside slimmed-down hardware revisions. At the same time, players who …

Playstation gamers could receive £2bn compensation if lawsuit succeeds | Science, Climate & Tech News

Playstation gamers could receive £2bn compensation if lawsuit succeeds | Science, Climate & Tech News

Published by skeptic

PlayStation gamers could be owed £2bn in compensation, according to a lawsuit launched today. If successful, the class action case brought by consumer champion Alex Neill could mean cheaper PlayStation games and UK gamers receiving around £162 each in compensation. The case hinges on how the digital PlayStation Store, run by the console’s manufacturer Sony, operates. Ms Neill argues Sony has been “exploiting its UK customers, by charging them too much” for digital games and in-game content. Image: Person picks a game on the PlayStation Store The lawsuit claims Sony broke competition law through its control of the PlayStation Store, meaning that “Sony has a near monopoly on the sale of digital games and add-on content”. Developers are charged around 30% commission for selling games in the store and Sony sets the price of games. Ms Neill says this has resulted in “excessive and unfair prices” for gamers, with the digital games allegedly costing around 20% more than physical copies. Image: A selection of physical PlayStation games The “class action” aspect of the lawsuit means …

Sony Reportedly Pulls the Plug on PlayStation Exclusive PC Ports

Sony Reportedly Pulls the Plug on PlayStation Exclusive PC Ports

Published by skeptic

PC gamers who had hopes of playing Ghost of Yotei sometime in the future will have to keep hoping. Sony is reportedly ending its plans to bring more PlayStation exclusives to PC, although it hasn’t yet given a reason why.  Sony will no longer port its PlayStation exclusives to PC, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. The company didn’t provide any reasons why it will stop releasing its games for PC, but the report says it could change its stance sometime in the future.  Sony didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.  Why did Sony change its mind on porting its games to PC?  A likely reason for the shift in strategy is the global memory shortage.  The surge in RAM prices has made hardware manufacturers rethink their strategies in recent months. Sony reportedly delayed the PlayStation 6 release to 2029 due to the shortage, meaning the PS5’s life cycle would last nine years instead of the seven-year cycles of the PS3 and PS4. A longer lifecycle would require Sony to sell more PS5 consoles, and console exclusives would help, especially …

Is it the best games console you can buy in 2026

Is it the best games console you can buy in 2026

Published by Sam Flores

What is the PlayStation 5 Slim? The PS5 celebrated its fifth anniversary at the end of 2025, which makes now the perfect time to reflect on the console generation to date, and whether it’s still worth buying a PS5 in 2026. The original interaction was redesigned as the PS5 Slim in 2023. Functionally the two consoles are largely identical, but the latter (now the default PS5) isn’t quite as big as its predecessor. There are a few niggling issues that I’ll get into in this review, but the PS5 is a fantastic console. It’s capable of pumping out stunning 4K HDR visuals and silky smooth frame rates, and has a controller that immerses you in your games. The PS5 is also easy to use, putting games at the forefront of its elegantly designed user interface. JUMP TO: I have been reviewing gaming hardware for many years and have been using the PS5 since the day it launched in 2020. I have also recently reviewed the newer PlayStation 5 Pro, so I know all about the …

Sony Pictures Revenue Down 12 Percent in Q3 2025

Sony Pictures Revenue Down 12 Percent in Q3 2025

Published by Daniella Wilson

Sony Pictures Entertainment’s operating income for its fiscal third quarter (ending December 31, 2025) was down 11 percent to $197 million from $223 million in dollar terms for the comparable period a year before, with Q3 sales down 12 percent to $2.295 billion from $2.619 billion. SPE comprises the motion pictures division, television productions and media networks. The motion pictures unit (which comprises sales from theatrical, home entertainment and streaming sales) saw Q3 revenue fall 7 percent to $792 million from $1.108 billion, for the comparable period a year before. SPE released five theatrical movies globally in the period, including Soul On Fire, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, Nuremberg, SISU: Road to Revenge and Anaconda. In the same period the year before SPE benefitted from the strong box office performance of Venom: The Last Dance, which brought in $478 million in Q3 2024. SPE’s TV unit saw Q3 revenue reach $718 million, down 10 percent from $797 million in the same period a year earlier. SPE’s major streaming television productions from the period …

Sony Bravia 5 Review: An Excellent Mid-Tier TV for Cinephiles

Sony Bravia 5 Review: An Excellent Mid-Tier TV for Cinephiles

Published by skeptic

Speaking of 4K Blu-rays, this TV really showed off its excellent processing when in Movie mode and watching a recently acquired copy of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. The gorgeous use of light and shadow was presented without aggressive blooming, and the colors looked deep and well-saturated. A scene where the two leads face the Golden Gate Bridge looks particularly like a painting on this screen, praise that belongs to the XR chip and Sony’s excellent use of multi-zone, mini-LED backlighting. Photograph: Parker Hall Streaming apps delivered still-great quality, and it also did well in darker scenes from Apple TV’s Pluribus, and in Sport mode when streaming F1. Colors were vivid, and the TV’s 120-Hz refresh rate was on full display, but not quite as heavily as when I plugged in Sony’s PlayStation 5 Pro. Gran Turismo looks smooth and realistic in Gaming mode, with the variable refresh rate helping everything stay smooth, even when doing hard-to-process things like wet races in shiny cars. This screen is available in a wide variety of sizes, from 55 inches …

The 6 best games consoles of 2026, tested by a gaming expert

The 6 best games consoles of 2026, tested by a gaming expert

Published by Sam Flores

Reviewing games consoles is different from assessing other technologies. Firstly, it’s just as much about the third-party software as the machine itself, and having the best hardware in the world won’t save a console if the games are underwhelming. Secondly, unlike the best smartphones, where new models arrive on an annual basis, games consoles are a longer-term investment, tending to last five years or more. Prospective console-buyers have never had so much choice. At the high end of the market, the most powerful PlayStation costs £700, but you can play many of the same games on the £300 Xbox Series S. The Nintendo Switch revolutionised the industry in 2017 by merging the handheld and home console, and its successor continues that trend. Then there’s the Steam Deck, which isn’t technically a console at all, but a mini PC optimised for handheld gaming. So, which one is right for you? The best games consoles of 2026: At a glance JUMP TO REVIEWS How to choose the best games console There’s a lot to consider when you’re …