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Enter our contest to win 1-year of PlayStation Plus Premium

Sony’s PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium subscription tiers launch on June 13th, and both tiers will offer access to up to 400 first and third-party PS4 and PS5 games — you can check out the first tier of games here. 

However, PS Plus Premium will also give users access to classic original PlayStation and PSP games, classic and remastered games, PlayStation 3 titles via streaming and two-hour game trials.

A year’s membership of PlayStation Plus Premium costs $139.99, which is pretty pricey considering PlayStation players are used to paying only $69.99 for current PlayStation Plus (the current version of PlayStation Plus will be dubbed PS Plus Essential.)

MobileSyrup is offering five lucky contestants a full year of PlayStation Plus Premium codes. The winners will be selected on June 10th, so keep an eye out for an email that day. On the morning of June 13th, you’ll find the code in your inbox.

Subscribe to our newsletter using the form below for your chance to win 12-months of PlayStation Plus Premium.

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Sony to produce Horizon Series for Netflix, God of War Series for Amazon, and a Gran Turismo Show

Sony’s PlayStation Productions is moving forward on a number of new projects. The company has announced its plans to bring a Horizon series to Netflix, a God of War series to Amazon, and a show based on Gran Turismo for an unannounced platform.

PlayStation Productions is looking at a number of new adaptations. On top of The Last of Us, which is in production in Calgary, Ghost of Tsushima, and Uncharted, which was released earlier this year, Sony has big plans for its IP. In a recent business briefing, Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan announced the company’s plans.

During a Q&A, Ryan revealed that the PlayStation Productions is working alongside a number of platforms. These platforms will help distribute each of the projects ranging from Horizon, God of War, and Gran Turismo.

Horizon and God of War are two of Sony’s most lucrative and popular IPs. Horizon Forbidden West landed on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 earlier this year. It makes sense that Sony would capitalize on its popularity by producing a live-action series. Likewise, God of War Ragnarok is approaching its launch.

An interesting takeaway is Sony’s apparent willingness to work with a variety of platforms and models. Uncharted debuted in theatres as will the Ghost of Tsushima film. The Last of Us, however, is a series for HBO. The Twisted Metal series is a Peacock title. Sony plans to also work with Netflix, Amazon, and one other unannounced platform. Whether it’s Apple or any of the aforementioned streaming services, it remains to be seen where Gran Turismo lands.

It’s currently unclear whether Sony plans to tell stories based around the iconic characters in Horizon and God of War. It seems like a surefire bet that these stories will revolve around Aloy and Kratos respectively. Though, there’s no guarantee that the creative teams will want to tell stories regarding established characters.

Film and television adaptations aren’t the only way Sony is expanding its reach. During its business briefing, Ryan also spoke about the company’s plan to have roughly half its games available on PC and mobile by 2025.

Image credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Source: Sony Via: IGN

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Sony plans to have half its games on PC and mobile platforms by 2025

Sony is planning to launch half of its games on PC and mobile by 2025. In an effort to expand its current reach, the company is committing to service players outside of its console ecosystem.

In the company’s 2022 business briefing, Sony Interacting Entertainment’s president touched on the evolution of the company’s portfolio. Identifying that while Sony has historically delivered a number of “narrative rich, graphically beautiful single-player games,” Sony has only tapped a portion of the market.

“By expanding to PC and mobile, and it must be said… also to live services, we have the opportunity to move from a situation of being present in a very narrow segment of the overall gaming software market, to being present pretty much everywhere,” Ryan said (via VideoGamesChronical).

Sony aims to bring more of its titles to PC and mobile in the next few years. Ryan believes that the company can achieve “significant growth in the number of people who play our games, the number of people who enjoy our games, and the number of people who spend money on our games.”

The cogs of this expansion are already in motion on PC. SIE has brought the likes of Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone and recently, God of War to the platform. The company is reaching a brand new audience with each release. Sony has also seen growth in sales of PC. When compared to the $80 million USD (roughly $102 million CAD) in net sales from 2021, Sony’s seen growth reaching $300 million USD (about $383 million CAD) in 2022.

This upward trend is understandable quite the incentive for Sony to invest more into PC, bringing more of its first-party titles to the platform. In fact, recent reports point to what the next major Sony game to reach PC may be. For example, a SteamDB page hints that Returnal may arrive on PC.

On top of its goals for PC, mobile platforms are also a focus for Sony. The company states that it plans to release mobile games and will co-develop titles with existing mobile developers. However, there’s no indication when its plans for mobile will start to come to fruition.

Outside of platform expansion, SIE is also tapping further into live service titles. The company aims to have up to 12 live service franchises in operation by 2025. Including, MLB The Show 2022, Sony aims to have three live service games launch in its 2022 fiscal year. The remaining two are unannounced projects, however.

Image credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Source: Sony Via: The Verge

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Sony plans to scale up its PlayStation 5 production to meet the high demand

Demand for the PlayStation 5 continues to rise and Sony is committing to upscaling the production of the console. Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan says the company is ramping up production to levels “never achieved before.”

In its 2022 business briefing, Ryan discussed that Sony aims to close the gap between PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 sales this year. As COVID-19 greatly affected supply chains across the board, it has been difficult for many to get their hands on a PlayStation 5.

The demand for PlayStation 5 is rather unprecedented, albeit not surprising. Sony’s data shows that the company is able to sell 80,000 PlayStation 5 consoles in 82 minutes. Currently, it takes nine days to sell the same amount of PlayStation 4 units. As the company expects supply chain shortages to ease up throughout the year, Sony expects to be able to produce more units.

However, Sony is aware that the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine may affect the ability to secure parts and logistics. In order to avoid further disruptions, Sony is sourcing components from multiple suppliers. The company believes this will result in “greater agility in unstable market conditions.”

Within the briefing, Ryan states that Sony is “planning for heavy further increases in console production, taking [it] to production levels that [it has] never achieved before.” This will follow after an initial ramp-up this year. Earlier this year, Sony confirmed that it planned to produce more PlayStation 4 units as the PlayStation 5 shortage continued. At the time, the company announced a plan to produce roughly one million PlayStation 4 consoles.

The landscape of supply chains continues to fluctuate. Regions around the world continue to face lockdowns and other barriers due to COVID-19. It’s difficult to say how many PlayStation 5s will be made available this quarter and the rest of the year.

As this console generation continues, meeting the demand of players will be of the utmost importance for Sony. This is especially true if it hopes the PlayStation 5 will surpass the PlayStation 4’s 117.2 million units sold.

Source: Sony Via: Engadget

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Some of the new PlayStation Plus’ full-game trials are as long as five hours

The all-new PlayStation Plus just launched in Asia, which has been giving users around the world a bit more insight into individual aspects of the service.

First, it was PS Plus’ inferior emulation, and now, it’s some extra clarity on how game trials work. Essentially, those subscribed to PS Plus Premium ($21.99 CAD/month, $59.99/three months, $139.99/12 months) can get full-game, timed-limited trials for select games, which vary depending on the title.

Interestingly, PlayStation and its partners have given consideration to the fact that some games are bigger than others and are offering longer demos accordingly. For example, as spotted by Twitter user PSVortex, Horizon Forbidden West and Cyberpunk 2077 have five-hour trials, versus the two-hour demos offered for Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection and WWE 2K22.

This makes sense considering Horizon and Cyberpunk are both open-world games that take dozens of hours to complete. It’s currently unclear, though, if five hours is the max amount of time PS Plus trials will ever offer. On the flip side, all games over a certain price point (going forward, not retroactively) are reportedly required by Sony to offer a demo.

To further entice players, PlayStation is also allowing you retain all trophy and save game progress from the trial, so you can pick up where you left off should you buy the game.

The new PlayStation Plus is set to launch on June 13th in North America. More information can be found here.

Image credit: PlayStation

Via: Eurogamer

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New PlayStation Plus running inferior versions of classic PlayStation games

One of the big selling points of Sony’s all-new PlayStation Plus is that it offers retro games from the original PlayStation, as well as the PS2, PSP and PS3 eras.

However, following the expanded service’s launch in Japan, users have discovered that inferior versions of PS1 games are what’s actually being emulated.

As first spotted by random PS Plus subscribers and later confirmed by VideoGamesChronicle, games like Ape Escape are based on their “PAL” versions. PAL refers to a video format used in Europe and Australia that runs at 50Hz compared to the 60Hz offered in the “NTSC” versions in Canada and the U.S. The PAL versions suffered from slower speeds, reduced video quality and, in some cases, intrusive borders at the top and bottom of the screen. These issues will likely be even more pronounced now for many users, as TVs in the ’90s at least ran at 50Hz, while the refresh rate on modern displays is higher.

See the below video for how Ape Escape fares on both NTSC and PAL:

Interestingly, though, this issue doesn’t apply to every game in the PS Plus catalogue. While Ape Escape, Worms World Party and Worms Armageddon are the PAL versions, other titles, including Tekken 2, Syphon Filter and Abe’s Oddysee, are based on the NTSC versions.

In any event, this isn’t the first time that PlayStation has used the PAL versions for emulation. The company’s much-maligned PlayStation Classic also featured the PAL versions of games when it launched in 2018.

It should be noted, however, that PlayStation hasn’t confirmed the full list of retro games for PS Plus in North America. It’s not uncommon for services like this to have catalogues that vary slightly per region, so it’s possible that some titles that will be offered here will be both different and based on their NTSC versions.

For now, these are the confirmed original PlayStation games:

  • Ape Escape | Japan Studio, Original PlayStation
  • Hot Shots Golf | Japan Studio, Original PlayStation
  • I.Q. Intelligent Qube | Japan Studio, Original PlayStation
  • Jumping Flash! | Japan Studio, Original PlayStation
  • Mr. Driller | Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc., Original PlayStation
  • Syphon Filter | Bend Studio, Original PlayStation
  • Tekken 2 | Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc., Original PlayStation
  • Worms World Party | Team 17, Original PlayStation
  • Worms Armageddon | Team17, Original PlayStation

The full list of confirmed PS Plus games so far can be found here.

The expanded service is set to launch in Canada and the U.S. on June 13th. A full breakdown of pricing and membership tiers is available here.

Image credit: PlayStation

Via: VGC

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EA said to be in talks of acquisition as gaming industry consolidation continues

Electronic Arts (EA) is reportedly looking at potential acquisition deals. The publisher of Madden, FIFA, Battlefield, and more have sat down with the likes of NBCUniversal, Apple, Disney, and more.

According to a report from Puck, EA recently sat down with NBCUniversal to seek out a merger. Following in the footsteps of major publishers ZeniMax Media and Activision Blizzard, EA is on the hunt for a buyer.

The video game industry is in the throws of a consolidation period. In an age when Microsoft absorbed Zenimax Media’s Bethesda Softworks, Arkane Studio, id Software, and more, studios big and small are all being scooped up. Microsoft’s other notable deal with Activision Blizzard sees the likes of Infinity Ward, Blizzard Entertainment, and more join Xbox Game Studios in a potential $68.7 billion deal.

Sony Interactive Entertainment has also been doing its fair share of acquisitions. Recently, the company purchased Destiny 2 developers Bungie for $3.6 billion. Take-Two also announced its purchase of Zynga for $12.7 billion. Most recently, Embracer Group bought the western studios of Square Enix, including Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix Montreal, and Eidos Montreal for $300 million.

“Several sources familiar with these talks say EA has been persistent in pursuing a sale and has only grown more emboldened in the wake of the Microsoft-Activision deal,” Dylan Beyers wrote in his report. “Others say that EA is primarily interested in a merger arrangement that would allow Wilson to remain as chief executive of the combined company.”

With a persistent trend of consolidation, it’s hardly surprising to hear EA is in the search of an  acquisition. However, a deal with NBCUniversal is not currently in the works. Apparently, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts was interested in spinning off its entertainment company into a separate entity with EA. In one potential deal, EA CEO Andrew Wilson would be left in charge of the entity. Though, price negotiations marked the end of that discussion.

EA has provided a statement regarding the matter to Kotaku. “We don’t comment on rumours and speculation relating to M&A.” EA spokesperson John Reseburg continues, “We are proud to be operating from a position of strength and growth, with a portfolio of amazing games, built around powerful IP, made by incredibly talented teams, and a network of more than half a billion players. We see a very bright future ahead.”

While an acquisition with NBCUniversal may be off the table, there may still be a suiter out there for EA. With studios such as DICE, Respawn Entertainment, BioWare, and Motive, the latter of which are Canadian, EA is a valuable entity.

Acquisition season is far from over. The industry continues to consolidate. As it does, we’ll be sure to keep an eye on the major deals that happen in the coming months.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Puck Via: Kotaku

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B.C. supreme court validates class action against Sony and Huawei

British Columbia’s Supreme Court has certified a class-action lawsuit against Sony and Huawei.

The suit is on behalf of all Facebook users in Canada between January 1st, 2007 and December 31st, 2018. It’s alleged Facebook gave device manufacturers access to users’ personal information without their knowledge or consent.

A settlement with Huawei is based on cooperation and no funds will be distributed. While Sony’s settlement agreement includes the payment of $100,000, the money will be used to fight the remaining defendants and pay for costs counsel took on.

Neither Huawei nor Sony admits liability. Allegations against Facebook haven’t been proven in court. The social media giant denies all allegations.

All Facebook users in Canada between the stated timeframe are included in the class action. Those interested in opting out can find more information on Klein Lawyers LLP’s website, the firm representing the class action.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Klein Lawyers

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Sony releases gamer dictionary so you can brush up on your PlayStation A-Zs

Sony has released a gamer dictionary for PlayStation players, with over 100 video game-related terms.

Dubbed the ‘PlayStation Ultimate list of popular, gaming-related terms,’ Sony gives a run-through of some of the more commonly used phrases across the gaming community.

The kneejerk reaction is to expect a number of early 2000s phrases like “Noob.” However, Sony actually managed to create something more than that. The list features a comprehensive list of phrases that may help someone who feels overwhelmed when discussing games.

“Discover the definitions of some of gaming’s most popular words, terminology and slang phases,” Sony writes in the dictionary. The company continues and actually succeeds in providing useful definitions.

Across the full A-Z list, Sony includes a number of definitions for genre-specific terms. Here, we see details for genres like “ARPGs,” “RPGs,” “CRPGs,” etc. Sony also goes on to provide definitions for terms that many players may think are pretty standard. “Dungeons,” “party,” and skins” are terms many players are probably used to. However, casual gamers or those dipping their toes into specific genres may not have the slightest idea.

The list also includes some terms that are pretty in-depth for players. “Min-max,” “RNG,” “OP,” and “Kiting” are all among those that can really be a headscratcher for those unfamiliar with the terms.

This is a project you’d expect to see come from a group of passionate players within the community. There is some humour here seeing Sony publish this list on the official website. It covers a breadth of terms that are commonly found within gaming but doesn’t necessarily add much in terms of the PlayStation ecosystem or its hardcore player base.

Image credit: Sony

Source: PlayStation Via: Gamespot

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Sony reveals new colour options for PlayStation 5 faceplates are available in June

Sony has revealed a new line of PlayStation 5 console faceplate colours.

Expanding the current ‘Cosmic Red’ and ‘Midnight Black’ faceplates, players can soon pick up ‘Nova Pink,’ ‘Starlight Blue’ and ‘Galactic Purple’ options. Starting in June, Sony will begin selling the additional “galaxy-inspired” console faceplates in select regions.

The Nova Pink, Starlight Blue, and Galactic Purple faceplates are directly inspired by the DualSense controller colour options available. Slowly but surely, Sony has been adding new colour options to its lineup of PlayStation 5 covers. The introduction of colour variations gives players alternatives to the standard white covers that come with the PlayStation 5.

PlayStation Canada announced that the new faceplates will be available through “select retailers.” We are still waiting to confirm listings and will update this article when more information is available.

Sony says that early access for customers in US, UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg through direct.playstation.com begins June 17.

In Canada, the Cosmic Red and Midnight Black PlayStation 5 faceplates cost $69.99. It is safe to assume that the pricing of the new faceplates will match what’s been set by the company.

Image credit: PlayStation

Source: @PlayStation