It’s hard to imagine a company with a greater influence on consumer electronics than Sony. You can trace a direct line from the Walkman -- the first portable media player -- to the smartphone. Today Sony is a massive force in gaming, making the PlayStation and publishing games for it and other platforms. Sony image sensors are in iPhones as well as its own mirrorless cameras. Not to mention the OLED TVs; smartphones; noise-canceling headphones; music, tv, and film publishing; and, yes, robot dogs.
The company is teasing its next launch, presumably the Xperia 1 VII, which it will reveal on May 13th (well, in Japan — it’ll be the evening of May 12th in the US). The teaser shows off a familiar design and some Alpha camera features.
Last’s year’s Xperia 1 VI never launched in the US, and with no US time zones mentioned, a repeat of that looks likely too.
Bloomberg reports that the tech conglomerate, which is looking to streamline its operation and recently began spinning off its financial arm, may list their semiconductor manufacturing arm as early as this year. This move would allow Sony, the maker of Playstation, to devote more resources to its gaming and entertainment businesses, though the plan may change due to market volatility caused by Donald Trump’s tariffs. (Sony denied the reports in a statement, calling them “speculation”.)
[bloomberg.com]
While we won’t be seeing more of the animated Miles Morales for another two years, Sony and Marvel announced at this year’s CinemaCon that the wait for Tom Holland’s live-action Spider-Man is going to be much shorter. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is set to hit theaters on July 31st, 2026, and both the movie’s logo and subtitle suggest some big changes are on the way.
Only 200 prototypes of the Nintendo PlayStation were ever made, and most were destroyed when the partnership fell through. What was believed to be the last remaining prototype in existence sold at auction for $360,000 in 2020, but Julian Domanski discovered that former Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Ken Kutaragi has had one stashed away in a closet, as spotted by Time Extension. Don’t expect it to hit the auction block any time soon.
The Walkman Blog has shared new details and leaked images of Sony’s upcoming WF-C710N earbuds — a follow-up to the budget-friendly Sony WF-C700N earbuds that added ANC when they debuted in 2023.
The leaks indicate the WF-C710N will arrive in late May with new features like Sony’s Quick Attention Mode, but more tempting are four color choices including a new glass blue option with the buds and charging case all sporting a transparent design.
The new Tick-Tock Shock level arrives today, while the remaining four will launch every Thursday at 9AM ET with new Special Bots to rescue. Astro Bot is also getting an update on PS5 Pros, allowing players “to enjoy an improved version of Astro Bot featuring a constant best resolution while still running at 60 frames per second.”
Sony sold 9.5 million PlayStation 5 consoles worldwide during the final three months of 2024, more than a million up on the previous year, bucking its downward trend. It’s now shipped over 75 million PS5 consoles since launch. Software sales and subscriber numbers are up too, with profits at the gaming division up by 37 percent overall.
Sony didn’t announce how many of those sales were the $699 PS5 Pro, which launched in November.
[sony.com]
Sony is making online multiplayer free from February 13th to the 15th. Existing PS Plus subscribers will also get five extra days for free following a PSN outage that lasted almost an entire day.
Following Sony’s announcement that it was officially ending production of recordable Blu-ray discs this month, Verbatim and I-O Data have pledged ongoing support and a stable supply of recordable optical media in a recent press release spotted by Tom’s Hardware.
However, while Verbatim did at one time produce recordable MiniDiscs, there was no mention by the company of resuming production of those or the other formats Sony is abandoning including MD-Data discs and MiniDV cassettes.
Sony sadly wasn’t kidding when it said the original PlayStation, PS2, PS3, and PS4 themes for the PS5 were a limited-time thing. According to the official PlayStation account on X, the themes are being removed tomorrow, January 31st, but will return “in the months ahead.”
Hopefully we’ll get even better themes so I can make my PS5 look and feel just like a PS2 — minus the disc read errors.
According to Bloomberg and user reports, T-Mobile’s list of eligible devices for beta testing Starlink direct-to-cell connections now includes iPhones. While only a few Samsung Galaxy devices were supported at first, now iPhone owners with the most recent update can reportedly connect, as well as some people with Android 15 devices.
That gives those owners an alternative to Apple’s Globalstar-connected service while off the grid that works without pointing their phone at the sky first.
As of April 1st, Hideaki Nishino will become the president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, the company behind the PlayStation brand. This comes nearly a year after he and Herman Hulst were appointed co-CEOs of the PlayStation business, splitting responsibilities for leading the platform business and games following the retirement of Jim Ryan.
Hulst will continue leading development of PlayStation content for consoles, PC, film, and TV but will now report to Nishino.
Nishino:
We will continue to grow the PlayStation community in new ways, such as IP expansion, while also delivering the best in technology innovation.
