Ever since the launch of the Game Boy in the 1980s, Nintendo has been a dominant force in the world of handheld gaming. A number of companies tried to challenge that dominance, and the one that best gave Nintendo a run for its money was likely Sony with the PSP and its follow up, the PS Vita. Earlier this year, Sony discontinued the final remaining PS Vita SKUs with no concrete plans for any kind of follow up.
It might be doing terribly on smartphones but Sony is, fortunately, doing well in most of its other businesses. Its PlayStation, under the Sony Interactive Entertainment company, remains one of the top two (or three) gaming systems in the world and it could get an infusion of new interest and profits with the expected launch of the PlayStation 5. That may not be the only thing that Sony is preparing for, however, as hints of a new gaming device may be on the way thanks to a patent for a gaming cartridge.
The writing has been on the wall for months but the ax has finally fallen. PS Vita mortuus est! Sony has officially ceased the production of its remaining gaming handheld console after months of winding down everything connected to it. And with no plans for a successor of any kind, Sony has practically surrendered that market to Nintendo as the Switch continues to outsell, or at least out-hype, both Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One.
With February just around the corner, Sony has detailed the next round of free games that will be offered through PlayStation Plus. As always, there are two games for each of the consoles currently supported by PlayStation Plus: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PS Vita. The two games headlining February's batch are particularly big names, so we can imagine many people putting bandwidth toward downloading PS Plus games in February.
At this point, Minecraft seems like one of those evergreen games that isn't going anywhere, but today the journey is coming to an end for some folks playing on older consoles. 4J Studios, which has handled porting and maintenance duties on Minecraft for a variety of platforms, has announced that work has wrapped on the Xbox 360, PS Vita, Wii U, and PlayStation 3 versions of the game.
Sony has sent an email to PlayStation Plus subscribers with a reminder many customers may have missed the first time around: it will stop offering PlayStation 3 and PS Vita games as part of its PS Plus monthly free games lineup. The change will take place after March 8, 2019, though users will get to keep the ones they've already acquired as long as they keep their subscription.
Sony has revealed its December 2018 free game lineup for PlayStation Plus subscribers. The company is offering up half a dozen titles for its console owners, offering something for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PS Vita. Most notable about the offerings is Soma, a science fiction horror game from the creators behind Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
If it wasn't before, it's clear now that the PS Vita is on the way out. Sony has revealed plans to wind down production in Japan soon, essentially condemning the handheld to death. There's no precise date for this halt to production yet, but the PS Vita's days are certainly numbered regardless.
Sony has revealed the games that will be offered for free through PlayStation Plus next month, and it seems that PS4 owners are in for a treat. The free PS4 games for September include Destiny 2 and God of War III: Remastered, which is particularly exciting because we don't always see big-name titles offered through PS Plus like this. Even better is that Destiny 2 is going live a little bit early.
With June 2018 wrapping up at the end of this week, it's time to start looking forward to July. That means another round of free PlayStation Plus games is coming up, and now Sony has revealed just what those games are. If you're ready for more from the mind of David Cage after Beyond: Two Souls was included in May's lineup, then you'll definitely want to have a look at what's on tap for July.
With the first day of June coming up at the end of this week, it's time to take a look at the free PlayStation Plus games for the next month. As always, there are two free games up for grabs for the PS4, PS3, and PS Vita. June's lineup is rather tame as far as big names go, but there's one game that strategy fans will definitely want to download while it's free.
Although the Nintendo Switch was long rumored, just like a new smartphone, its wild success was still a pleasant surprise, even to Nintendo itself. But no one was perhaps more surprised than Sony's PlayStation division, which didn't see a market for portable gaming. At least according to former PS chief Andrew House. Now the tables have turned and heads have changed and new chief John Kodera is singing a different tune, one that's more open to the possibility of yet another portable PlayStation to challenge the Switch's dominance.