Sony

Sony reveals the PlayStation 4

NEW YORK--Sony has unveiled the PlayStation 4. But, we still didn't get to see what it looked like.

The PlayStation 4 was formally announced at an event in New York City. At least we know the name is definite. As for its features, the details came out eventually. Here's what you need to know.

Hardware The PlayStation 4, as you'd expect for a seven-years-later follow-up, has impressively bumped specs:

An eight-core X86 AMD Jaguar CPU 1.84-teraflop AMD Radeon graphics engine (with "18 compute units") 8GB of GDDR5 memory Hard-drive storage (not SSD) Blu-ray drive … Read more

The 404 1,211: Where we're down with GDC (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- A what, where, and why primer on the Game Developer's Conference from guests Meggan Scavio and Simon Carless.

- The 15th annual Independent Games Festival opens its Audience Award voting window, now through March 1.

- Nominations open for 2013 Game Developers Choice Awards.

- Unity Engine coming to BlackBerry 10 smartphones, BlackBerry PlayBook.… Read more

Sony to launch PlayStation 4 in November at $429, $529 -- report

Sony's PlayStation 4 event is today, but that hasn't stopped the rumor mill from continuing to churn out details.

The console, which hasn't been officially named but is expected to be called the PlayStation 4, will be made available in November in the United States, gaming blog Kotaku is reporting, citing people who claim to have knowledge of the company's plans. Those same sources told Kotaku that the console will ship in two different versions and cost $429 and $529, respectively.

Sony is holding a special PlayStation event in New York City today. So far, the … Read more

Sony PlayStation event: Join us Wednesday (live blog)

Sony is widely expected to reveal the first details of its next game console later today.

The "PlayStation Meeting 2013" event will take place in New York at 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET. CNET will offer both a live blog, with live analysis from myself, Roger Cheng, Scott Stein, and Jeff Bakalar, as well as a live video stream, featuring commentary from Brian Tong and Donald Bell both before and after the event.

While the actual details of the PlayStation 4 (and even its name) are still under wraps, some widely reported possible features include … Read more

PlayStation 4 should go all-in on cloud-streaming games

Based on the steady stream of rumors about Sony's upcoming next-gen living-room console, it's widely expected that gamers will be spending at least part of their time playing games streamed directly over the Internet.

According to the Wall Street Journal and others, Sony's acquisition of streaming-game provider Gaikai in 2012 set the stage for streaming-game content, and the new Sony console, whatever it's called, will offer both streamed games and games played via traditional optical disc, purportedly older catalog titles for the former, and newer games via the latter.

Join CNET's live coverage of Sony's event on Wednesday at 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET

A move to streaming games is a far-thinking idea, and one that would reduce the need for large amounts of local storage for fully downloaded games, as well as the need to manufacture, transport, and store physical game discs -- with games joining music and movies as media types moving away from being distributed through retail stores on disc. … Read more

Apple grabs huge slice of 2012 consumer technology sales

Apple enjoyed a healthy gain in consumer technology sales last year amid a down market.

The iPhone maker took home 19.9 percent of all consumer technology sales in the U.S., up from 17.3 percent in 2011, according to stats released today by NPD Group.

Based on sales, Apple proved to be the top consumer brand for the year, outshining Samsung, HP, Sony, and Dell. Beyond Apple, only Samsung's cut of revenues rose among the five, reaching 9.3 percent from 7 percent the prior year.

Together, Apple and Samsung scooped up $6.5 billion in higher … Read more

Sony files patent for EyePad

Sony is eyeing its own EyePad via a patent, but it's not a gadget designed to compete with Apple's popular tablet.

Instead, the Sony device would act as an input control for an entertainment console and could wind up as a controller for the current and upcoming version of the PlayStation.

Published last week by the European Patent Office, Sony's patent describes a wireless controller that looks like a small tablet with a touch-sensitive surface. Motion sensors would be able to detect the movement and position of the controller. The device could also sport a couple of … Read more

AMD chip, touch controllers all head to next PlayStation -- report

Sony's next PlayStation, which is expected to be unveiled tomorrow, will come loaded with a host of improvements, a new report claims.

The device, which could be known as the PlayStation 4, will ditch the Cell processor that Sony, IBM, and Toshiba developed for the PlayStation 3 in favor of an AMD chip, The Wall Street Journal is reporting, citing people who claim to have knowledge of Sony's plans. The Journal's sources have also agreed with earlier reports, saying that the PlayStation 4's controller will come with touch features.

Sony is holding a special PlayStation event … Read more

Sony trims price of PlayStation Vita, adds new color

With a little less than 48 hours to go before the world gets a glimpse at the PlayStation 4, there's some news for the PS Vita coming out of Japan today.

Sony announced that the company lowered and equalized the price point for the Wi-Fi and 3G/Wi-Fi-versions of the PS Vita to 19,980 yen ($212) from 24,980 yen ($265) and 29,980 yen ($319), respectively. Sony didn't carry the announcement over to the U.S., but it's possible that the company may use a portion of its PlayStation event in New York on February 20 to announce a similar price cut. … Read more