Microsoft has come under some pretty heavy fire recently, mostly surrounding issues with its “online check-in” system and its used games restrictions. For Sony, this has been nothing short of awesome news.

Sony has poked at Microsoft’s new restrictions more than once, and made it clear they aren’t planning any similar kind of move. This means no online check-in. No special DRM or trade-in policy either.

That said, there is no guarantee that there won’t be some PS4 games with DRM in place. According to Sony Computer Entertainment of America’s Jack Tretton, it is technically possible that a 3rd party developer COULDutilize such a system, if they so please.

“… we welcome publishers and business models to our platform. There’s going to be free-to-play, there’s going to be every potential business model on there. And again, that’s up to their relationship with the consumer…we’re not going to dictate that.”

“The DRM decision is going to have to be in the hands of third-parties. That’s not something we’re going to dictate, control, mandate or implement.”

Should you be alarmed? No, not really.

This is pretty much how DRM works on consoles right now. Technically it is possible for DRM restrictions for online multiplayer on console games even for the PS3 and 360, but most publishers don’t utilize such methods. This will continue with the PS4.

What this means is that a few occasional games might require some kind of one-time activation, but I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over it. Unlike Microsoft, Sony isn’t building its own DRM system or promoting the idea. Additionally, with all the backlash seen already with the Xbox One, most developers probably won’t be keen to anger gamers any more than they have to.

But is it really all sunshine and rainbows for the PS4? The PS4 has a lot of positives on its side right now, but there are some negative aspects that might annoy some customers. The biggest of these is the fact that a new promotional video for the PS4 uses small text to reveal something that Sony has otherwise not mentioned: playing online will require a Playstation+ subscription.

Still, that’s about the worst of it.

Considering Microsoft also requires you to have a paid Xbox Gold subscription for online multiplayer, this probably won’t be a huge deal for most gamers, especially those jumping ship from the Xbox 360 over the PS4.

What do you think of the PS4 compared to the Xbox One? Do you care about the DRM used games issue or the online-check-in requirements for the Xbox One?

[ source ]

The post Sony PS4: No DRM For Most Games, But 3rd Parties Can Technically Implement It appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

While Sony has always been known for reasonably high quality smartphones, they have never led the pack, in large part due to customer perception over problems like slow updates to the latest Android versions.

There has a been a lot of hype generated by Sony’s latest Xperia Z though, with many saying that the phone is exactly what the company needs to make a major comeback, both in the mobile world and in electronics in general. Now Sony has posted its year-end results, showing the company’s first profit in five years.

Sony reported revenue of $72.3 billion, with $7.8 billion of that for the mobile side of things. Now a lot of this profit was generated by favorable exchange rates and asset sales, but the big takeaway is that Sony managed to ship 33 million Xperia smartphones, with the company claiming that a vast majority of these were Xperia Z handsets.

Of course that was actually down from their projected 34 million, but a large part of that (according to Sony) is because demand and hype for the Xperia Z kept attention off their other handsets like the Xperia T and Xperia V.

Bottom-line is that 2012 was a good start for Sony. We’ll really see if the company can take the groundwork laid and run with it throughout 2013, though.

What do you think of Sony’s most recent efforts, including the Xperia Z and its upcoming Sony Playstation 4? Is the company on the right track? For more information about their fiscal results, head over to the Xperia Blog.

The post Sony Ships 8.1 Million Xperia Devices in Q1 of 2013 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

When rumors about the Xbox 360 containing a feature that could potentially block out 2nd hand games from the market was spread, it caused a wave of disappointment in many gamers. When the rumor grew to the PS4 having a similar feature as well, not only were a gamer’s current gaming habits at risk, but also some of the biggest console retailers and console manufacturer partners available, such as GameStop were at risk too.

When considering the lack of profit for publishers and developers when a second hand game is sold and resold, it’s understandable why Sony or Microsoft may consider integrating such a feature into their new systems, and because of this the spreading rumors were easily believable. However, the truth is a little less bleak than we may have expected, at least for the PlayStation 4 that is.

Sony’s Worldwide Studios President, Shuhei Yoshida has started to give a few more tidbits of information about some of the features of the upcoming console, including some information based on gaming and downloadable games. Similarly to the PS Vita, all boxed physical games will have a downloadable alternative on the PSN store, allowing players to pick between both a digital or physical copy of the game.

From a consumer’s standpoint, it makes a fair amount of sense to offer both digital and physical downloads, as it saves retail store space, and even cuts down on manufacturing costs. Let’s just hope that unlike the Xbox 360, the Sony PS4 has digital games with prices as good as their physical counterparts.

From a developer’s point of view, allowing digital downloads opens up more opportunities to reach their game to a bigger potential audience whilst spending less on production costs, and it even opens up bigger possibilities for indie developers that have little budgets and no publisher support.

Of course sitting from a desk at GameStop may be a little worrying, and as digital downloads increase, physical purchases will decline, and cut majorly into GameStop’s wallets. The good news at least is that Sony has confirmed its retail-sold disc games can be sold and bought used without any type of blocking technology in place.

[Source]

The post All Sony PS4 Games Will be Offered in Disc and Digital Download Format appeared first on Mobile Magazine.