PS4 Sales Hit 5.3 Million While Xbox One Sits Pretty at 3.6 Million

Sony, after declaring that its PlayStation 4 was out-selling the Xbox One almost two-to-one in January, has confirmed that it has sold more than 5.3 million PS4s between its launch on November 15 and February 8. 

The Xbox One, by comparison, had sold 3 million units by the end of 2013. This is before the PS4 launches in its home country of Japan, too; once that occurs on February 22 we can expect the PS4 to surge even further ahead of the Xbox One.

See Also: Your Voice Will Drive the Xbox One Dashboard

The most interesting data only appears once we tally up both the raw sales figures and the two-to-one tidbit, however. We don’t have an updated sales figure from Microsoft — so, at the end of 2013, Sony had sold 4.2 million PS4s, and Microsoft had sold 3 million Xbox Ones. 

Then, in January, the PS4 “nearly doubled” the sales of the Xbox One, ending up at 5.3 million units by February 8. If we work backwards, this means that the Xbox One only sold around 600,000 units between January 1 and February 8, while the PS4 sold 1.1 million units.

for details:

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/176816-ps4-sales-hit-5-3-million-ahead-of-japan-launch-while-xbox-one-sits-pretty-at-3-6-million

5 in 1 Action Camera by Sony

The Sony HDR-AS100V is really 5 action cams in one, or a minimum of it may be. whereas the camera works simply fine mounted to a helmet or shoulder, it extremely levels-up the expertise after you have a bunch of all networked via an optional wrist controller.

Up to 5 cameras may be "meshed" during this means, letting the user alter the footage captured by every cam. The cameras themselves ar splash-proof, and may capture video at up to 1080p at 24 frames per second. At 720p, they'll record in film at a hundred and twenty Federal Protective Service or perhaps super-slow at 240 Federal Protective Service.

With multiple cameras and also the RM-LVR1 wrist controller, extreme videographers might mount cameras everywhere the body, or many bodies, to create some seriously artistic footage. The provided Play Memories software system has tools for merging material from multiple cams, creating split-screens straightforward. The footage even has time codes, though you will need a professional suite (such as Sony Vegas) to use them. The cameras' aboard GPS will integrate map views, too.

Built into the camera is Sony's Steady Shot image stabilization, which can adjust to the different kinds of vibration that goes hand in hand with action videography, whether it's gentle bumps on a ski run or the constant rumble of a motorcycle.

I got a little hands-on time with Sony's tiny but powerful action cam, as well as the wrist mount, and they're pretty fun. The camera itself is remarkably lightweight, and the white finish is pretty. Since the footage is relayed wirelessly, there's a slight but perceptible delay in the camera view on the wrist monitor, but it worked well with no dropouts.

The AS100V will be available in March. Each action cam costs $299.99, and a bundle with the wrist controller is $399.99, so a full five-camera system will set you back about $1,600. Steep, but if you get some friends in on the action, you can split the cost.

Sony gets hacked in three more countries; personal data stolen

By: Aseem Gaurav on May 25, 2011

Hackers have targeted Sony Corporation, yet again! This time they have breached a database at Sony Ericsson’s Eshop online store for mobile phones in Canada, extracting personal information of more than 2,000 customers. Records including names, email addresses and encrypted passwords were stolen but no additional personal or credit card details have been compromised, the company said.

The company has also suspended sites in Indonesia and Thailand because of a suspected attack.

The latest series of attack follows a breach of PlayStation Network (PSN) database and the Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) database, exposing personal data from more than 100 million accounts. Not surprisingly, the Sony PSN hacking and outage saga, took a hefty toll on Sony’s financial outlook. In a revised earnings report, the company said it expects outage costs to total $171 million.

"Sony is investigating whether the attacks discovered in the past week are related to each other. Sony hasn't found evidence to link those attacks to last month's intrusion into the Playstation Network," Sony spokesman Atsuo Omagari said.

Just a few days back, Sony said hackers breached its Greece servers, exposing the usernames, passwords, e-mails and phone numbers of 8,500 people. Following Greece, hackers attacked Sony Music Entertainment Japan and stolen information from thousands of accounts. Security firm Sophos said hackers used SQL injection attack on the Sony Music Japan website.

It seems like that despite such major security leaks, which has become an embarrassment for the company, it is still not able to get its acts right. It is high time that Sony should do something to control the damage or its reputation and make up for its losses from the continuous attacks. I think Sony definitely needs some sort of miracle to prevent more attacks.

Sony gets hacked for a second time, 25 million more at risk

By: Aseem Gaurav, May 3, 2011

Within days of Sony admitting of a huge security breach, in which a hacker allegedly stole information related to 77 million PlayStation users, the company has reported yet another hacking incident.

The security breach happened on April 18 wherein hackers accessed personal info from nearly 24.6 million Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) service – which hosts a variety of online PC games like EverQuest. Hackers stole the credit-card data for about 12,700 non-U.S. accounts and 10,700 bank-account numbers from a database of 2007.

Sony discovered the theft only on May 2 and subsequently took SOE offline.

The combined figures of both the thefts means that over 100million customer accounts have now been compromised.

Pressure is mounting on Sony to restore services and compensate players.

Sony Online Entertainment network allows users to play games played over the Internet on PCs with "EverQuest" being one of its most popular games.

Sony has drawn major flak for their inappropriate handling of the data protection incidents. The company is facing potentially severe legal and political consequences over its failure to protect customer information.

The company has apologised to customers for the breach and has said its PlayStation Network will be up-and-running as soon as possible.

Call of Duty Black Ops Escalation DLC arriving in May to Xbox 360

By: Aseem Gaurav, April 16, 2011 (New Delhi)

This is fantastic news for millions of fans of insanely popular “Call of Duty: Black Ops” game series as they are set to experience five new maps, including four multi-player maps and a unique surprise (any guesswork – well, there could be Zombies!).

Call of Duty: Black Ops series will now have an add-on titled "Escalation," which will be released for Xbox Live members on May 3.

The multi-player maps include: 

• Hotel – Takes place on the roof of a Cuban luxury hotel and casino in old Havana.
• Convoy – It delivers close-quarters combat at the scene of an ambushed US military convoy.
• Zoo – It happens in an abandoned Soviet Russian Zoo, with danger at every turn.
• Stockpile – It pits players in a remote Russian farm town housing secret WMD facilities.
• Call of the Dead – You may experience a unique Zombies experience with all-new playable characters.

There were no official details available on the Zombies experience but the developers said that the Call of the Dead takes it to a whole new level.

For those who are unaware about the game - Call of Duty: Black Ops is a first person shooter game wherein the player assumes control of military and espionage operatives. The player in the game was a part of various operations during the 30-year Cold War between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. 

The PlayStation 3 and PC versions of the add-on are expected later on. The pricing part was still not clear, however the last add-on was sold for $15.

Sony cuts PSP prices to Rs 7990 in India

By: Aseem Gaurav, April 8, 2011 (New Delhi)

Games console maker Sony has slashed the PlayStation Portable prices by 15 per cent to a retail price of Rs 7,990 from Rs 9450 in an effort to ward off competition from other mobile gaming companies.

Sony has also reduced European prices for its PlayStation Portable video-game player by 24 per cent. The company reduced the price of the PSP in the US earlier this year, with many presuming that the shift in strategy was in preparation for the arrival of its next-generation PlayStation Portable game machine, codenamed NGP, later this year.

The timing of Sony’s PSP price reduction in India is crucial as it comes at the onset of summer season wherein demand for gaming consoles usually sees an uptick.

Tokyo-based Sony is facing growing competition from Microsoft, maker of the Xbox, and Nintendo in the gaming market.