PlayStation Vita

It's finally time to say farewell to PlayStation Vita, as Sony winds down production in Japan.

Sony has no plans for a Vita successor, it's said.

It doesn't sound like we'll get a PlayStation Vita successor anytime soon.

There's something new to play on PlayStation Vita - Twitch has launched an official Vita app.

Sony Computer Entertainment exec Masayasu Ito has reiterated PlayStation's stance on developing big budget Vita titles.

Don't hold your breath for a PlayStation Vita successor - so says Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios.

Sony will shut down PlayStation Mobile this July.

Sony has announced that it will end support for the PlayStation Vita's Maps and near features in a forthcoming system update.

The PSone turns 20 tomorrow, 3rd December 2014, and to mark the occasion Sony has re-released a raft of its PlayStation adverts.

Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition will finally be available to download from next Wednesday, 15th October, developer 4J Studios has announced.

That date applies to European Vita owners only, however. There's no word yet on when the game will be released in North America.

The Vita edition will be a Cross-Buy game for anyone who has already bought Minecraft on PlayStation 3. (The PS4 version is a separate entity, although you can upgrade to it from PS3/Vita at reduced cost.)

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A new PlayStation Vita update, available in the UK today, will add support for desktop themes.

Vita firmware v3.30 will let you customise your handheld's background wallpaper, application items and background music.

It's unknown what themes you'll get for free, but many more will soon be available to purchase from the PlayStation Store, Sony has said.

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You'd be forgiven for thinking Sony had given up on the Vita - at least in the west - after its no-show at the company's major press conferences this year. But according to Sony's UK boss the handheld console is here to stay.

It's been a fantastic year for Sony and the PlayStation 4, with a whopping 10m consoles sold. But there have been bumps along the road.

The Last Guardian remains missing in action years after it was announced. It's been in development for so long it's becoming a bit of a running joke.

There's also the issue of the delay to Evolution's racing game DriveClub. It was once due out alongside the PS4 in November 2013. Now, it'll launch almost a year later, going up against the likes of Forza Horizon 2, Project Cars and The Crew.

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UPDATE: Sony has issued Eurogamer the following statement, which does little to shed light on whether the PlayStation 4 / Vita Ultimate Player Edition bundle will be released in the UK.

UPDATE: Eurogamer YouTube Editor Ian Higton has taken the new PS4 update for a spin and made a video, below, of all the best bits.

ORIGINAL STORY: The next major update for the PlayStation 4 is available to download now.

The headline new addition is ShareFactory, Sony's new video editing app and answer to the Xbox One's Upload Studio.

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A fresh PlayStation Vita firmware update has raised the limit for the number of applications on your home screen - from 100 to 500.

System software update 3.10 also brings with it a new calendar app (and you can sync your Google Calendar) as well as parental controls and voice messages.

Users will be able to send voice memos to other PlayStation Vita owners and friends with a PlayStation 4.

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Vita TV got off to a slow start in Japan - but that hasn't put Sony off of releasing it in the west.

Sony has confirmed PlayStation 4 and Vita bundles, to go on sale at select shops from this evening for a little under £500.

Sony UK has worked with retailers to encourage what it calls a "soft bundle" that includes both consoles. Some shops won't be able to offer the deal because of PS4 stock availability, but the expectation is most will from tonight alongside the launch of the PS4 in Europe.

"We're working with our retail partners to put across that proposition as well as we can," Sony UK boss Fergal Gara told Eurogamer.

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PlayStation Vita's system software will be updated today with a fresh version that adds in PlayStation 4 support.

Firmware v3.0 includes a new PS4 Link app which will allow you to control your PS4 and use any game with second screen features.

Support for PlayStation 4 Trophies has also been added (the first set - for Battlefield 4 - was spotted on Sony's servers last night), and the Friends List app has been improved ahead of the PS4's expanded friends roster.

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Fancy picking up a cheap PlayStation Vita Wi-Fi and 3G model with two free games and an 8GB memory card for £139.99? Argos currently has you covered.

UPDATE: Sony told Eurogamer this morning it had no news on a UK price cut.

"The price cut announced today is for the SCE Japan region only," a spokesperson said. "We have nothing to announce at this time regarding pricing within the our own region."

ORIGINAL STORY: Sony Japan has announced a price cut for both models of its struggling PlayStation Vita handheld.

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A new PlayStation Vita advert has compared the handheld games console to a woman with four breasts - two on her front, two on her back.

European PlayStation Vita sales have settled into a slump since Sony's machine launched earlier this year.

That's according to new figures released by Nintendo as part of its financial report. The data reveals that in Europe weekly 3DS sales are regularly more than double that of the Vita - sometimes far more.

And, just like in Japan, Vita is being outstripped sales-wise by ageing predecessor the PSP.

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A new PlayStation 3 firmware update will allow you to view Trophies earned while playing PlayStation Vita games.

It's a feature familiar to Xbox 360 users, who have long been able to see Achievements earned across Microsoft devices such as Windows Mobile.

The update, due tomorrow, will bring Sony's PS3 firmware to version 4.30.

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Why would you want a Wii U when the PlayStation Vita and PS3 can do the same thing already? That's Sony's line of attack as Nintendo readies its new hardware for release.

A PlayStation Vita exploit has been discovered which may allow homebrew software to run.

Update #2: It sounds like there may still be a problem downloading Tomb Raider 4. Again, please let us know if any other PSone Classics aren't downloading to Vita properly for you. There's plenty of chat going on below.

There's a bonus feature for PlayStation Vita owners who have updated to the system's new firmware: Sony has locked memory cards to specific PlayStation Network accounts.

Gamers were previously able to switch PSN accounts via the slightly cumbersome process of "restoring" the system.

Now, those with content from multiple accounts or multiple regions will have to buy another memory card or lose their data.

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Sony's just-released v1.80 PlayStation Vita firmware update has finally added support for PSone games.

A huge list of titles are supported (see below) and will be made available to download from the EU PlayStation Store tomorrow, Sony has said.

Those who have already bought and installed the games on PlayStation 3 can transfer them over.

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UPDATE: We've just listened in to Sony's investor call, where shareholders have the chance to ask questions about the company's results. Sony refused to break down individual platform sales for PlayStation Vita when asked, despite having done so in the past.

The company also noted that its software sales report does not count digital downloads, which may have negatively affected overall totals.

ORIGINAL STORY: Sony has checked in with its quarterly sales report, which paints a moody picture of the company's Game division and business as a whole.

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The Japanese government will investigate reports of PlayStation Vitas burning up, according to a report by the Daily Yomiuri newspaper (via Andriasang).

David Cage's new game Beyond, live Last of Us stage demo, more.

PlayStation Vita players are due to receive three free apps, Sony has announced: Travel Bug, Ecolibrium and Imaginstruments.

The downloads will be available "very soon" from the PlayStation Store, according to Sony's official PS blog.

Travel Bug allows you to create a cheerful insect friend to take with you when you leave the house. You can place him in photos and track your progress in a map. Near functionality will allow you to compete with friends to reach destinations first.

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Sony's share price has fallen to a 31-year low following the announcement of the company's record 456.7 billion yen (£3.5bn) annual loss.

Sony's PlayStation Plus service could offer new releases free of charge, or access to Call of Duty Elite.

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Chatty video and voice app Skype will be available to download on PlayStation Vita from tomorrow.

Natter-loving Vita owners will be able to nab the software for free from the PlayStation Store.

Skype on Vita can run in the background while you play games and will alert you if you get a call. Answering the call then switches applications, pausing your current activity.

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UPDATE: Sony has now detailed a number of other minor changes in the latest update, listed below:

The [System Music] setting in Settings > [Sound & Display] now affects BGM in PS Store, near and Sign-Up screens as well as the Home menu.

When searching for location data, users now have the option to 'Retry' and 'Cancel' when a failure occurs.

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UPDATE: Sony has removed the PlayStation Vita firmware update from its servers due to it containing "a technical fault".

"For any customers who may have already downloaded the firmware, they can continue as normal," a statement on the EU PlayStation blog reads. "We will notify you once the latest system software update is available to download again."

ORIGINAL STORY: Sony has detailed a range of tweaks coming in the next PlayStation Vita firmware update, snappily named Version 1.65.

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Over 1.2 million PlayStation Vita consoles have been sold worldwide, Sony has revealed.

Worldwide software sales have passed the two million mark, meanwhile. That figure counts both retail purchases and digital downloads.

PlayStation Vita arrived in North America on 15th February, before European and Australian launches last week.

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PlayStation Vita launched in Europe last week. You probably noticed. Now, after a few days soaking up sales, we can report what we had always hoped: not only is Vita the handheld gamers deserve, but it is the one we need right now. In your face, Batman!

UK hardware sales figures are Chart Track's proprietary information, unfortunately, so until Sony talks about them publicly we can't say how many it sold in week one, but we can say it was healthier than some critics predicted, and the sight of two Vita games - Uncharted: Golden Abyss and FIFA Football - atop the UK charts is illustrative of lots of interest. Not only that, but Chart Track doesn't account for digital sales, and this is a fully digital console, so they are potentially a lot greater.

The Vita launch, our impressions of the European software line-up and general feeling about its prospects understandably form the backdrop to this week's 102nd-ever Eurogamer.net Podcast, "starring" host Tom Champion, myself and Oli Welsh.

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Sony has removed the Vita Facebook app from the Store after gamers reported error codes while trying to use the service.

PlayStation Vita finally launched in Europe this week, but despite tons of fanfare there's also a lot of scepticism about whether it will be the kind of success Sony needs or wants. You don't have to go far for lots of armchair punditry about the new handheld, of course, but there seems to be a lot of heart-versus-head debate surrounding it. On the one hand, it seems improbable that a £230 pure gaming handheld with no clear killer application will do much to upset the status quo. On the other hand, it's a wonderful piece of kit with tons of lovely software, which you would happily buy under most circumstances.

Struggling retailer GAME has admitted it is unable to stock all new titles.

A committed fan and some skin-tight cosplay were the main features of Sony's official PlayStation Vita launch event, which took place last night at GAME's London Oxford Street store.

Demand for the machine was steady, if not bustling - around a hundred customers lined up to get their hands on Sony's new hardware by midnight, although the queue only really took life within the last hour.

An exception to that was 21-year-old Zohaib Ali, who had been been waiting in line since Sunday and stood front of the queue. A hardcore gamer and veteran of midnight store launches, Ali had gone home to sleep each night, his place held by one of his carers before he duly returned each morning.

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UPDATE: Sony's PlayStation Vita store update is now officially live, a Tweet from the company's official account confirms.

Picking up a PlayStation Vita tonight? Already checked for the cheapest Vita retailer? You'll probably want some Vita games then.

The cheapest place to buy PlayStation Vita in the UK when it launches on Wednesday is at Asda. The supermarket will sell the Wi-Fi version online and in store for £197. The 3G version is £259.

GAME will hold a midnight launch event for PlayStation Vita at its flagship London's Oxford Street store next week.

Festivities begin at midnight on Tuesday, 21st February.

Pop along for the chance to meet WipEout 2048 developers Karl Jones and Ami Ledger. They'll be signing copies of their game, one of the Vita's launch line-up.

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Showing off what Sony's new handheld can do.

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Cliff Diver and Fireworks are both free downloads.

£17.99 for 4GB, £31.99 for 8GB, £44.99 for 16GB.

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The PlayStation Vita will this week be updated to version 1.6, which adds to new major features.

The first of these is a Map app, added to your Home screen. This map, according to Andriasang, can be viewed with satellite imagery turned on and off. You can also search for walking and driving directions, and view information about your current location.

The second addition is the ability to take videos from the Vita's photo app, currently limited to taking static photos.

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PlayStation Vita sold another 15,219 units in Japan last week, but that figure marks the handheld's lowest ever weekly total.

Sales fell from 22,538 the week before, according to Japanese chart company Media Create (via NeoGAF, although hardware numbers were largely down across the chart.

3DS sales shrank to 80,960, down almost 20,000 but still enough to outsell the rest of the hardware chart combined.

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Sony Computer Entertainment boss Andrew House has pointed to sales of Nintendo 3DS as proof that there's a market for dedicated gaming handhelds.

What a difference six months makes. In June last year Sony boss Kaz Hirai proudly took to the stage at E3 to announce that the Vita would retail for $250 (or $299 for the 3G version) - a figure that was generally greeted with enthusiasm by both press and gamers alike. Meanwhile, the considerably less powerful 3DS was floundering at around the same price, just a few months after its launch.

Better than football?

Handheld ships with six Wide AR cards.

Hello listener(s)! Welcome to an extra special edition of the Eurogamer.net Podcast, where we're delighted to welcome an amazing new guest: Eurogamer's own PlayStation Vita!

PlayStation Vita has sold over 500,000 units since launch, Sony has announced.

The milestone comes three weeks after Vita's 17th December arrival in Japan.

Sales for the device have been steady, but not spectacular. By the last count on New Year's Day, Vita had sold 439,986 units in Japan.

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When Sony gets hardware right, Sony really gets hardware right. Recent years have brought us a torrent of sleek, weighty iDevices from Apple, all unibody aluminium and smoky black glass, so perhaps it's timely for us to get a reminder of just how great Sony's industrial design is when it's firing on all cylinders. PlayStation Vita just feels right, in a way that few other hardware companies ever quite manage. It's got enough weight to feel expensive and yet it's perfectly balanced in your hands. The sense of holding something powerful, something premium, is your first impression of Vita. Sony does it again.

These days there are so many handheld devices available that allow you to play games on the move - small and large, cheap and expensive, buttons and touch - that it's a challenge to stand out from the crowd. Where do you put your focus? Judging by a fortnight with PlayStation Vita, even Sony's hardware designers couldn't make their minds up about that, because the initial impression is that they threw everything at the wall and everything stuck. The result is a handheld that can do pretty much anything. The good news for hardcore gamers is that in amongst all of that functionality are a few things that could - if the software follows - make this the best gaming portable ever.

PlayStation Vita isn't going to infest the world like iPad did two years ago, but it faces the same scepticism - that Sony is answering a question no one's asked. Apple's tablet quickly rose to that challenge by seeping into the gaps between other devices to become the best at things we forgot we wanted, and gamers may discover that Vita pulls a similar trick. Now you can sit on a train playing a new Uncharted adventure and it looks almost as good as the one at home, and crucially it feels the same.

"We need that second analogue stick - something that even Nintendo has belatedly acknowledged with its revisions to the 3DS - and it's here at last."

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EA footy behemoth headed to Sony handheld.

Sony has boosted its initial shipment of PlayStation Vita to 700,000 up from the original 500,000 units planned for Japanese shop shelves, according to a new report.

The PlayStation Vita is limited to one PlayStation Network account per unit, Sony has clarified.

Uncharted! Resistance! LBP! Virtua Tennis!

Remote play features detailed.

Plus more Uncharted: Golden Abyss in action.

PlayStation Vita will only support one PlayStation Network account per console, a new report suggests.

Sony and its studios make their pre-launch pitch.

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Whereas Sony might have confused some consumers with its PSP sales pitch, the platform holder reckons customers should have no problem figuring out what the Vita is for - namely, playing video games.

Do you follow?

Anything the 3DS can do, Vita can do better?

Sony's next-gen handheld out there 17th December.

Appsolutely fabulous.

Near! Trophies! Browser! Chat!

At Gamescom this year Sony focused squarely on Vita, its PlayStation Portable successor, and the games you'll be able to play on it when it launches early next year in Europe. But it also found the time to showcase the stunning Uncharted 3, and announce a nifty PlayStation 3 price cut.

Scan in your surroundings.

PS3 port has Trophies, new characters.

So much for pocket gaming. The first thing that strikes you about Sony's NGP (a name whose days are numbered, with a sexier and more practical alternative likely to be unveiled at E3) is its size. Larger by some measure than its competition, the NGP's closest comparison in handheld history is Atari's Lynx.

The PlayStation arm of Sony's empire performed better than ever during the year ended 31st March 2011.

A record 14.3 million PS3s were sold during those 12 months, taking the global PS3 tally to 50 million.

But Microsoft's worldwide Xbox 360 total is higher, standing at 53.6 million (as of January 2011).

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Sony demos artificial reality games.

Trinigy's tech demo for PSP successor.

Reports that the Japanese earthquake and tsunami will delay the Next Generation Portable launch were "wrong", Sony Japan has said.

The devastating earthquake that hit Japan last month may push back the NGP's launch, Sony exec Jack Tretton has announced.

Music Unlimited, Sony's cloud based music subscription service currently available on the PlayStation 3, will be available on the PlayStation Portable 2, codenamed the Next Generation Portable.

And it will be available on the PlayStation Portable "in a matter of weeks", Sony confirmed to Eurogamer this afternoon.

Music Unlimited has a whopping six million songs. Two options are available. The basic plan offers genre-specific and era-specific channels of non-stop music. The premium service adds on-demand access to all songs in the library and additional channels with new music. The basic plan costs £3.99 or €3.99 a month. Premium sets you back £9.99 or €9.99 a month.

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Digital versions of NGP games will launch on the same date as boxed retail copies, Sony has promised.

Sony Europe boss Andrew House told MCV that the strategy was a reaction to mistakes made during the PSP era.

"One thing we learnt from PSP, is that we want to have simultaneous delivery in digital and physical for NGP. Just to clarify that, all games that appear physically will be made available digitally," he pledged.

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The basic Next Generation Portable model will cost $250 and the 3G model $350, a Ubisoft survey suggests.

PlayStation 2 games will launch on Android devices, according to NVIDIA.

Sony's Next Generation Portable will launch in Europe this year, according to fresh reports.

Rumours floating around claim an exact release date: 11th November 2011.

Sources told MCV that development deadlines have been set to ensure key Western releases are finished before the end of the summer for deployment in the autumn.

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At a Game Developers Conference session, Sony has moved to dispel the myth that its Next Generation Portable could rival PS3 for processor performance.

For Sony, the Next Generation Portable's 3G functionality is one of its killer features, but for 3DS maker Nintendo, it expects having to pay for the service will put people off from buying it.

Sony will lower the American price of a PSP-3000 by forty dollars to $129.99 on 27th February.

During a presentation to around 20 UK developers at its headquarters in London yesterday, Sony shared a wide range of information about its new handheld platform, revealing significant new details on launch plans, hardware specifications, networking features and more.

One attendee, speaking to Eurogamer this morning under condition of anonymity, said: "NGP is a developer's dream – Sony is finally doing the things developers have been crying out for for years."

Studios had been expecting to collect development kits at the event, but were told "late shipments from Japan" meant SCEE would now be "prioritising". According to the source, for a kit to be delivered before April a studio must supply a "20-page concept document on a game they want to release at launch".

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Sony's initial goal with the NGP is to match the install base of its current PSP system, so says SEA CEO Kaz Hirai.

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Sony is asking PSP developers to release downloadable versions of their games so they can played on its new NGP handheld.

Sony's PlayStation Meeting took place on Wednesday in Tokyo to finally reveal the PSP's new incarnation, for now code-named the NGP (Next Generation Portable).

Published as part of our sister-site GamesIndustry.biz's widely-read weekly newsletter, the GamesIndustry.biz Editorial, is a weekly dissection of an issue weighing on the minds of the people at the top of the games business. It appears on Eurogamer after it goes out to GI.biz newsletter subscribers.

European gamers hoping to get their paws on Sony's NGP handheld before the year is out might want to measure their excitement. A simultaneous worldwide 2011 launch is not a foregone conclusion, according to Sony top brass.

Speaking in an interview with Engadget, SCEA chief Jack Tretton explained production logistics could mean not all territories will get to experience the new device this year.

"I think our goal is always to launch holidays when the majority of sales are done," he explained. "You want to have a worldwide simultaneous launch.

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The NGP lacks mass market appeal, according to a top industry analyst, and may fail to resonate with the mobile gaming generation, predicts another.

It's a couple of hours after today's momentous PlayStation Meeting, the Tokyo event at which Sony unveiled its lavishly-specced successor to PSP, codenamed Next Generation Portable, or NGP.

Sony's PSP2 announcement is only a few hours old, but game developers across the world have already taken to social networking site Twitter to voice their opinions on the eye-catching device.

Up-close, on-stage at PlayStation Meeting.

Social, location gaming imagined.

Games are the most important thing when it comes to the success of the PSP2 Next Generation Portable, Sony has said.

Update: Epic Games vice president Mark Rein has piped up on Twitter to validate what was shown on the Sony stage.

Activision has joined Sony's Next Generation Portable jamboree in Japan today to announce a Call of Duty game for the brand new handheld.

Senior VP Philip Earl represented the publisher on-stage at Sony's PlayStation Meeting event, promising that the NGP Call of Duty game would raise bars, do deep and immersive things and so on. He did not announce any specifics.

Call of Duty joins an already-illustrious list of games for the brand new handheld, due out this holiday season. Other confirmed shooters include Killzone and Resistance from Sony's partners.

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Sony detail the NGP's capabilities.

Sony's new PSP pictured.

The first batch of games announced for Sony's brand new NGP (Next Generation Portable - a.k.a PSP2) handheld are as follows.

Sony Computer Entertainment kingpin Kaz Hirai has unveiled the company's next generation portable device at a conference in Tokyo today – and it's currently codenamed NGP.

Sony has announced PlayStation Suite, a new service which will deliver classic PSone content to Android smartphone devices.

Speaking at a press event in Tokyo, Sony boss Kaz Hirai promised that the service, which launches later this year, will bring "Legendary original PlayStation content" to mobiles. No specific titles were announced, but a snowboarding game was briefly demoed, with a virtual D-pad and buttons clearly displayed on the phone screen.

A service called PlayStation Certified will help developers with testing and quality assurance.

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