The next PlayStation 4 and PS5 system update will add a handful of new accessibility and quality of life features to Sony’s consoles. Among the additions is support for voice commands on PlayStation 5. Sony’s previous-generation console has had that feature since launching in 2013, but it’s now making its way to the company’s latest console too.

Starting with a beta Sony will make available to English-speaking users in the US and UK first, the company is adding a system option that will make the console respond to “Hey PlayStation.” It’s a feature you can turn off, but leaving it on will allow you to use your voice to launch games and other apps, as well as open the system menu and control media playback. The update will bring other new accessibility features, including one that makes headphones output mono sound. Sony notes that’s something that should be particularly helpful to players with unilateral hearing loss.

As part of the same update, Sony is also tweaking how group chats work. Moving forward, they’ll be known as parties, and you’ll have the option to decide whether they’re private or open to the public. Should you leave your party open, not only can your friends join without an invite, but so can their friends as well.

Another new PS5 feature will allow you to filter your games by genre, as well as keep up to five of them to your console’s home screen for quick access. Sony has also updated the design of trophy cards and added support for more screen reader languages, among other changes.

You can help Sony beta test the update by signing up to do so on the company’s website. Look for an email in your inbox on Wednesday to find out if you’ve been selected to take part. Sony will release both PlayStation 4 and PS5 system updates later this year.

Sony might not have locked down PlayStation VR2 specifications despite providing some details at CES 2022. Tobii says it's in talks to provide eye tracking technology for the next-gen VR headset. It noted the discussions were "ongoing" and that it couldn't share the potential financial impact of the deal. The firm is required to divulge the negotiations to honor EU market regulations.

We've asked Sony for comment. The company previously confirmed the PlayStation VR2 would use eye tracking, but didn't name a tech supplier or explain in detail how the feature would work. The headset will also use camera-based "inside-out" tracking to detect head and controller movement.

The revelation suggests PlayStation VR2 might not arrive for a while. Game console makers typically need to solidify hardware specs well in advance, both for the sake of manufacturing and to give developers time to produce games optimized for new devices. If Sony still hasn't chosen a provider for a key feature like eye tracking, a launch is still a long ways off.

Not that this would be a complete surprise. Sony first teased PlayStation VR2 in early 2021, and warned there was "a lot" of work left on the project. The electronics firm ruled out any release that year, and still hasn't given a general timeframe for the wearable's debut. Tobii's claim might just temper expectations for PlayStation 5 owners eager to try Sony's latest take on VR.

As part of the lead-up to the February 8th release of Sifu, developer Sloclap offered a digital deluxe version of the game through the PlayStation Store that included early access to the title. If you preordered the bundle, the studio said you would have two days to play Sifu before its official release date.

However, when the early access period began earlier today, PlayStation 4 and PS5 owners found out they couldn't download the game. In a tweet spotted by Eurogamer, developer Sloclap acknowledged the issue and said it was working with Sony to fix it quickly.

“We are aware that there are issues preventing the download of Sifu through the early access on the PlayStation Store, and are very sorry for the inconvenience,” the studio said. “We’re looking into it with PlayStation to fix it as soon as possible, and will update you on the situation very soon.”

A few hours later, Sloclap shared the promised update, noting Sony was actively investigating the issue. “We hope to have it resolved shortly,” the studio said at the time. As of the writing of this article, Sony and Sloclap have yet to fix things. It’s certainly not a good look for either party, but the studio at least promised to do what it could to make it up to its fans.

Sony is still struggling to make enough PlayStation 5 consoles to keep up with demand. During its key holiday fiscal quarter, it shipped 3.3 million units for a total of 17.3 million since launch, the company said in its earnings report. That's considerably behind the 20.2 million units the PS4 had managed at the same point in its life cycle.

Because of that, Sony reported 813.3 billion yen ($7.09 billion) in revenue for its gaming division, down from 883.2 billion yen ($7.703 billion) over the same quarter last year. However, operating profit rose 12.1 percent to $810 million, because Sony actually loses money on each PS5 console sold. 

Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki said in an analyst webcast that people want to buy PS5 consoles, but partners can't supply components due to the ongoing chip shortage. Sony expects that situation to continue during the coming year, meaning PS5s may not be any easier to find, particularly in the first half of 2022. 

Sony lowered its forecast for PS5 shipments for the fiscal year to 11.5 million units, down from 14.8 million. As such, it dropped its full year revenue estimate for its Game & Network Services (G&NS) division by 170 million yen ($1.48 billion). At the same time, it expects 6 percent more profit despite lower game sales, thanks to the aforementioned unprofitable consoles.

Sony's gaming division is its biggest money maker, accounting for around a quarter of its overall revenue and profits this quarter. However, its imaging division also fared well in fiscal Q3, with a 22 percent increase in revenue year-over-year, thanks to sales of its premium smartphone image sensors. Its movie division, meanwhile, saw a large jump in revenue to $4.02 billion due in large part to the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home. 

Starting today, PS4 and PS5 players can connect their PSN account to Discord. At the outset, that means you'll be able to display your PlayStation game activity on your Discord profile and let friends there see what you're playing — something Xbox players have been able to do since 2018. If you like, you can display your PSN ID on your Discord profile to make it easy for folks to add you as a friend there.

To get started, open the Discord app or website on PC or mobile, then go to the Connections section of the User Settings. If you can connect your PSN account, you'll see a PlayStation icon. Discord is gradually rolling out the feature to everyone, starting with folks in the US, so you might not have access right away.

These are useful features, especially with crossplay becoming more commonplace and friends playing games together on different platforms. If you're an Xbox owner, for instance, you'd be able to hop on Discord and see if your friends are playing Destiny 2 or Rainbow Six Extraction on PC or PlayStation, and hop in to play with them.

Discord

We're starting to see the results of a partnership Sony and Discord announced last May. "Our goal is to bring the Discord and PlayStation experiences closer together on console and mobile starting early next year, allowing friends, groups, and communities to hang out, have fun, and communicate more easily while playing games together," Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan said at the time. SIE also made a minority investment in the messaging and voice and video chat platform.

Microsoft was previously said to be in talks to buy Discord for at least $10 billion. Other suitors were reportedly interested, though Discord remains an independent company. Still, with so many enormousgamingdeals being agreed already this year, who knows what the future holds?

In the meantime, Discord and Sony are looking at other ways to collaborate. "We’re excited to continue our partnership with PlayStation and explore how we can collectively create great shared experiences for your friends and communities," Discord wrote in a blog post.

Gran Turismo 7, finally coming to the PS4 and PS5 on March 4th 2022 after significant delays, will be the focus of Sony's first State of Play in 2022. The event is set to stream at 5PM ET this Wednesday (February 2) and will feature "just over 30 minutes of new [GT7] PS5 footage and gameplay details," Sony announced. 

In a tweet (above) Sony teased a mix of GT7 gameplay and cinematics showcasing a variety of vehicles, tracks and more. Much as it did with Deathloop last July ahead of its September launch, Sony appears to be dedicating this State of Play mainly to Gran Turismo 7. 

Developer Polyphony Digital has only revealed tidbits about the PlayStation exclusive game, saying it would bring back many familiar modes. The game was first unveiled in June of 2020, seven years after series creator Kazunori Yamauchi said "we don't want to take too long on Gran Turismo 7."

Guerilla Games has shared some short video clips of Horizon Forbidden West gameplay captured on a PS4 Pro. Unfortunately, the developer didn't include lengthy trailers or teaser videos — and gameplay footage captured on a standard PS4 — with its post on the PlayStation blog. But this is at least some form of assurance from Guerilla that the game works on a previous-gen console a couple of weeks before it's released.

Some gamers may have become wary of titles made for the PS5 and released for older consoles after what happened to Cyberpunk 2077. The CD Projekt Red game was plagued with glitches and graphical issues, among other problems, when played on a PS4. Things had gotten so bad, Sony had to pull the PS4 version from its digital store and offer refunds for those who'd purchased it.  

The GIFs Guerilla shared show Aloy in different situations, such as walking across a village and quickly running around while shooting arrows at her enemies. In the latter, the animation looked smooth despite the explosions and the character's quick movements — hopefully, that's true for the entire game when played on a previous-gen console. Sony reportedly had to cut its production forecast for the PS5, after all, and it's still not easy finding one for purchase. Horizon Forbidden West will be available for the PS5 and the PS4 starting on February 18th.

If you've been trying to buy a next-gen console, you're no doubt aware that it's been quite a challenge due to component shortages. However, Microsoft has done a great job making the Xbox Series S model available over the past few months, and now we're starting to see our first real discounts. It's on sale at Woot for $280, which is $20 or 7 percent off the regular $300 price. That's not a lot, but given that they haven't been available at all until recently, any discount is appreciated. 

We said that the Xbox Series S was a "formidable next-gen console wrapped up in an adorable package" in our Engadget review, while also noting that it was an "incredible value." That's thanks to the compact design (looking at you, Sony PS5), improved game performance and the huge backward-compatible library. 

More specifically, the console can handle games at up to 1440p and hit variable refresh rates up to 120fps, though not many games can do both at the same time. It can't handle 4K like the Xbox Series X or PS5, but refresh rate is a more important issue for most gamers. You also get dramatically faster load times thanks to Microsoft's new Xbox Velocity architecture and custom 512GB SSD, though the relatively paltry storage might be an issue for some users. 

Lack of storage aside, the Xbox Series S is already one of the best console deals out there, and even more so at the discounted $280 price. You'd better act quickly if you want one, however, as the deal is likely to disappear soon. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Sony has at last flipped the switch on its PlayStation 2021 Wrap-Up, allowing players to delve into their PlayStation 4 and PS5 stats for 2021. After you log into your PSN account, you'll be able to see how many hours you spent on PlayStation games last year, the five titles you played the most and how a breakdown of the trophies you scooped up.

The tool breaks down your playtime by PS4 and PS5 games, how long you spent playing on a console vs. Remote Play and how many hours you used PlayStation VR. You'll also see the number of games you played and get a code for four avatars as a bonus.

Sony took the opportunity to promote some of its games by highlighting some global community stats. In Death Stranding Director's Cut, for instance, players collectively traveled more than 45 million kilometers and delivered more than 9.4 million packages. They played more than 12 million hours of Returnal in total, while 34.6 percent of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart players unlocked all of the weapons.

Users need to be aged 18 or over and have played at least 10 hours of games on PS4 or PS5 to access their Wrap-Up. It may not work for PS5 players who haven't enabled full data collection and those who haven't consented to "Additional Data" collection on PS4 in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australasia, India and Russia.

While the PlayStation's year-end wrap-up feature is emerging much later than ones for other platforms and services, at least it takes the entire year into account. Spotify Wrapped, for instance, only covers listening data from between January and October. The latest edition of PlayStation Wrap-Up is actually arriving a little earlier than the one for 2020, which arrived last February. The tool will be available until February 20th.

It was cute at first. When Xbox head Phil Spencer took the stage at E3 2018 and announced the acquisition of five notable studios – Undead Labs, Playground Games, Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games and The Initiative – the air inside the Microsoft Theater turned electric. It felt like the company was righting a wrong in its business plan and finally building an internal roster of exciting games that it could offer exclusively on Xbox platforms. You know, a few friends to keep Master Chief company.

Today’s announcement that Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard, the largest third-party publisher in the video game industry, doesn’t feel as harmless. Four years on and numerous acquisitions later, the Activision Blizzard deal feels like an extreme escalation of Microsoft’s plans, and it could mark a turning point in the video game industry as a whole, with negative consequences for both players and developers.

So far, public reaction to the acquisition has been mixed, which makes sense for a few reasons: first, Activision Blizzard's sheer size is daunting, and this purchase represents more money and industry power than Microsoft's previous gaming acquisitions combined. Second, Activision Blizzard is currently the subject of multiple investigations into allegations of sexual harassment and gender discrimination at the studio, where CEO Bobby Kotick has been in charge and largely unchecked for the past 30 years. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Kotick is poised to leave the company in a golden parachute once the Microsoft deal goes through.

This is the first time Microsoft has received a confused response to acquisition news, rather than outright praise, and that's because this isn't a standard transaction. It's the clearest sign yet that we're in the video game industry's era of consolidation.

Back in 2017, Microsoft was badly losing the first-party IP fight to Sony and Nintendo. By the end of that year, Xbox had shut down two of its internal studios, Lionhead and Press Play, it had killed a few hotly anticipated projects, and even with the Xbox Series X right around the corner, there wasn’t much to look forward to in the company’s software reserves. The acquisition announcement at E3 2018 was a sigh of relief for anxious Xbox fans.

By February 2019, Microsoft had 13 studios and publishing organizations under the banner of Xbox Game Studios.

Microsoft

And then in September 2020, Microsoft revealed it was buying ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda, id Software, Arkane Studios and Tango Gameworks. The gaming world generally rejoiced, but a few folks also started glancing around, suspicious. These studios were a big deal – the stewards of Fallout, Doom, Dishonored, Wolfenstein, Deathloop, Starfield and Elder Scrolls – and they were being added to Microsoft’s substantial pile of medium-sized companies, more names in a growing list. That alone was cause for pause.

For most fans, the main question was, what did the acquisition mean for games like The Elder Scrolls VI, which was part of a series that historically hit PlayStation and Xbox platforms alike? Basically, would Elder Scrolls VI come to PS4 and PS5?

Turns out, probably not.

One year after Microsoft’s purchase of Bethesda, Spencer told GQ that he believed the Xbox ecosystem was the best place for all of the franchises in the studio’s repertoire, including The Elder Scrolls VI. He all but confirmed it would be exclusive to Xbox.

“It’s not about punishing any other platform, like I fundamentally believe all of the platforms can continue to grow,” Spencer told GQ. “But in order to be on Xbox, I want us to be able to bring the full complete package of what we have. And that would be true when I think about Elder Scrolls VI. That would be true when I think about any of our franchises.”

Starfield, Bethesda’s sci-fi RPG built for the ninth console generation, will definitely be exclusive to Xbox Series X/S and PC, skipping PS5 entirely. Spencer’s comments make it clear that Xbox is eyeing exclusivity for its franchises, and after today’s $69 billion deal goes through, that’s going to include Activision Blizzard games.

Microsoft

Activision Blizzard is the largest third-party publisher in gaming, and it’s the owner of massive franchises including Call of Duty, Overwatch, Diablo, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone and Candy Crush. As a third-party studio, Activision Blizzard has been able to negotiate with the main platform holders to get its software on the consoles and devices it wants. This doesn’t always equate to same-day launches or in-game item equity, but generally speaking, this position has helped ensure Activision Blizzard games reach as many players on as many platforms as possible. Exclusivity agreements and distribution deals are the main source of competition in the industry at this point, allowing outside developers to advocate for their games without feeling beholden to any console owner in particular.

When a platform holder becomes the largest publisher in gaming, it flips the script completely. It jams the script into a shredder, burns the scraps to ash, condenses the ash into stone, and then throws that to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Let’s take Call of Duty, a series with predictable annual installments, for example. Over the years, Activision has shifted allegiances between Microsoft and Sony, offering early access and exclusive game modes to Xbox platforms, then PlayStation, and mixing it up along the way. Among all the backroom talks, bad blood and better offers, it’s always been up to Activision to cut the best deal for Call of Duty, console holders be damned.

After the acquisition, that negotiation looks entirely different, if it even exists at all. As the owner of Call of Duty, Microsoft can tell Sony to screw off, keeping one of the industry’s biggest franchises exclusive to Xbox platforms.

This likely won’t happen right away, but it’s certainly a possibility down the line. In his blog post about the acquisition, Xbox’s Spencer didn’t address Sony or Nintendo platforms specifically, but he alluded to the possibility of cross-platform support for Activision Blizzard’s franchises. 

“Activision Blizzard games are enjoyed on a variety of platforms and we plan to continue to support those communities moving forward,” he said, without detailing what he meant by “platforms” or “support.” Keep in mind, this was the messaging around Elder Scrolls VI at first, too.

Microsoft isn’t the only company in the midst of a studio-hoarding spree: Sony picked up its 13th internal studio, Housemarque, in June 2021, while Tencent is chugging along with ownership of Riot Games, financial stakes in a handful of massive studios, and the purchase of LittleBigPlanet 3 developer Sumo Group in July 2021. Even Valve has scooped up a handful of independent creators in recent years, including the team behind Firewatch and some members of Kerbal Space Program.

MARK RALSTON via Getty Images

Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard simply feels like the final push into a new era for the video game industry: consolidation.

While exclusivity deals may be the short-term concern, this trend has a longer and more tragic tail. It’s highly likely that there will be more acquisitions by Microsoft, Sony and other major names in gaming, and these deals and subsequent companies will only get bigger with time. With just a few massive studios controlling a huge chunk of the software pipeline, it could instill a sense of homogeneity among new titles, killing innovation as each developer attempts to conform to the corporate environment around them, actively or subconsciously.

Even with “creative freedom” built into their contracts, the acquired studios will all use the same QA process, funding arrangement, marketing plan, management structure and editing cycle; they’ll have the same bosses and face the same oversight. And when all new products are the result of a singular perspective, they’re bound to feel familiar. Stale, even. Boring.

Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is an escalation of the exclusivity scheme, and it represents a new way of doing business. Now and for years to come, consolidation is the name of the game.

Maybe one day we’ll get Consolidation 2: Blow It All Up And Make Everything Indie Again, but that one might have trouble finding a publisher.