Nintendo has revealed exactly when most remaining online services for the 3DS and Wii U will come to an end. After 7AM ET on April 8, it will no longer be possible to jump into a multiplayer match on the original Splatoon or check out other players' levels in Super Mario Maker. Online co-op play, leaderboards and data distribution are among the features that won't be available on either console (unless you find an adequate homebrew solution). The Badge Arcade feature, which allows players to customize their Nintendo 3DS home menu, is going away too.

Nintendo previously said that online services on the systems would end in early April, but hadn't shared a specific date until now. It also warned that it may "have to discontinue services earlier than planned" — some players had difficulty accessing them late last year.

Single-player games and modes will continue to work on both platforms. Nintendo said there will be some exceptions to the end of online services and suggests that players of third-party games contact publishers to check whether they'll keep servers running. The company also notes that Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter features will remain available for now, and you'll still be able to download updates and games you've previously purchased on either system for the foreseeable future. Nintendo shut down the eShop on both 3DS and Wii U last March.

One other feature that will remain is StreetPass on 3DS, since that connects to other 3DS units over local communication. SpotPass will be discontinued, however, as that requires an internet connection.

Meanwhile, the company says that 3DS and Wii U owners have until 1AM ET on March 12 to merge their Nintendo Network ID and Nintendo Account. If they do, they can spend any unused balance on either system's eShop on Nintendo Switch games, DLC and other digital content.

As it often does in Las Vegas, Sony focused its CES 2024 keynote on some of the company's more esoteric products. To start with, it rolled out the Afeela electric car first introduced last year at CES, but did it with some gaming panache by driving it using a PlayStation DualSense controller. Otherwise, it mostly talked about how the in-vehicle experience is getting smarter thanks to our old friend, artificial intelligence (AI). 

Sony also unveiled something else we weren't expecting, namely a new mixed reality headset. Unlike the PlayStation VR 2 consumer model, though, this one is designed for "spatial content creation," so it's designed more for developers, creators and artists than users. 

It's powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chip (so it doesn't need to be tethered to a computer) and comes with a controller wand and a smaller ring-sized peripheral. It also sports dual 4K OLEDS microdisplays for a "crisp viewing experience" and allows for "user and space tracking" for mixed reality experiences. There's no word on price, but we should know more when it goes on sale later in 2024. 

The company also discussed its latest offerings from Sony Pictures entertainment, some PlayStation stats and more. The press conference went on for 46 minutes, but we've cut it down to just six so you can get the gist as quickly as possible.  

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

Sony's partnership with Honda around a new concept EV called the Afeela has been a highlight of CES for several years now. And while we're not any closer to finding out if and when this car will become a reality, Sony had a fun way to show off the latest iteration of the vehicle: they drove it onto the Sony CES 2024 stage with a PlayStation DualSense controller. Sure, it was just a fun gimmick rather than any evidence of a PlayStation-controlled vehicle coming down the road, but CES is all about the spectacle. 

Sony

We'll keep an eye out for more details on the Afeela, but Sony just invited Microsoft on stage to talk about how the in-vehicle experience is going to get smarter thanks to — you guessed it — AI. We're getting close to CES bingo here, folks. 

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

The annual Consumer Technology Association (CES) trade show is nearly upon us, having already turned Las Vegas into a high-tech wonderland. Sony’s holding a press conference the day before CES 2024 exhibitions open, on January 8 at 8PM EST. You can stream it live via Sony Square or on the company’s YouTube channel.

What we expect

Sony is being particularly cagey about what it has in store, saying it will “showcase various technologies and initiatives that support creators.” An official company press release also says Sony’s purpose here is to “fill the world with emotion, through the power of creativity and technology.”

There was a holding image on Sony’s website that seemed to indicate that the presser would focus on technology involving movie production, professional sound and VR. Those three together could certainly, uh, fill the world with emotion. The original teaser image showed the Ghostbusters logo, a man singing into a microphone and a film crew. However, Sony replaced this image with a simple visual showing a bunch of nondescript circles.

While we don’t know what Sony will focus on, we have some ideas of what the company is likely to avoid. Last year, Sony didn’t mention TVs at all, saving that for an event in March. It’s possible we’ll get something PlayStation related, but with the recent launch of the PS5 Slim and the befuddling PlayStation Portal, don’t hold your breath.

We could, however, get some game announcements for the PSVR2. Sony revealed a VR Gran Turismo 7 update at last year’s press conference. It’s also possible that Sony will announce some home theater products to go along with that whole “creativity and technology” thing.

Sony likes to use CES to reveal experimental tech that may or may ever see an actual release. Last year we got the Afeela EV concept vehicle, a partnership with Honda, so who knows what wacky tech will take center stage this year. Sony also revealed a truly innovative kit for PS5 controllers to help players with disabilities during 2023’s event.

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

Waking up in the mornings is especially hard in these cold, dark winter months. Now there's a fun incentive to do so, thanks to the release of the Xbox Series S Toaster. For $40 you can get it from Walmart and have the Xbox sphere logo toasted onto your bread every day — a dream fulfilled that you never knew you had? The Xbox Series S toaster was first spotted in France back in March 2023, with gaming deals poster Wario64 sharing the news of its US arrival.  

Xbox's toaster is more than a fun gimmick: It fits two slices of bread, has six browning levels available, an LED countdown and a removable crumb tray. It also offers bagel and defrost settings — though it's unclear how the logo will appear when facing a canvas with a hole in the middle. 

The toaster isn't Xbox's first foray into the kitchen appliances market. The Xbox Series X "Mini Fridge" started as a meme in 2021 and became a six-foot, 400-pound reality. Now, its third iteration is on sale for $199, down from $250. The Xbox Series X Compact Fridge is actually mini at just over two-feet tall, with a matte black exterior and Xbox green light glowing inside it. The freezer compartment reads, "Power your dreams" for that extra motivation you need when grabbing a drink mid-gaming. 

If you’ve been planning on spending the tail-end of your holiday break revisiting the original Splatoon for Wii U or Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, you could be out of luck. It looks like Nintendo has already begun to restrict the Wii U and 3DS’s ability to play online, according to multiple users and media outlets like Nintendo Life. This started just before Christmas Eve, which is a real Bowser move.

We knew this was coming, but Nintendo originally said the shutdown wouldn’t happen until early April. This may not impact every player just yet, so head online with your console to give it a shot. Jonathan Barrow of Pretendo, an “open-source Nintendo Network replacement," wrote that this is part of a “slow rollout” of Nintendo’s April plans. Pretendo hopes to eventually bring the two consoles back online.

To be fair, Nintendo never actually said that the April end-date was set in stone, as the company suggested that it could discontinue online services “earlier than planned.” It could’ve warned folks, however, so they could get one last round of multiplayer Kid Icarus: Uprising in.

This news follows Nintendo closing its 3DS and Wii U eShops back in March. So, now, you can’t buy new games or go online with your old games. The company’s silly-yet-engaging Miiverse social network, which operated on both consoles, was shut down in 2017, though there’s a post archive.

This is sad, but it happens. Out with the old and in with the new, and all of that. Being a gamer is weird that way. Entire generations of games simply disappear, like Goomba tears in the rain. On the plus side, maybe we’ll be able to shell out full-price for some more remakes, with a Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon refresh coming to the Switch next year.

The PlayStation 5 has officially hit the 50 million sales milestone, Sony confirmed in a blog post. That's an impressive figure, considering the litany of supply chain issues that kept PS5s in limited supply after its November 2020 launch. And notably, the PS5 manage to reach 50 million sales just a week longer than it took the PlayStation 4, which wasn't bogged down by as many supply chain issues or a worldwide pandemic. 

Sony has also outsold the Xbox Series X and S by almost three to one this year, the Financial Times reports, based on data from Ampere Analysis. While Microsoft doesn't release official Xbox sales numbers (you can take a wild guess as to why), Ampere estimated that Microsoft sold 7.6 million next-gen systems this year (a 15 percent drop from 2022), while Sony's sales exploded by 65 percent to reach 22.5 million units sold. 

It's not hard to see why the PS5 is in more demand: Sony has pumped out far more must-have games this generation (including the recent Spider-Man 2, as well as anticipated sequels like God of War Ragnarok), while Microsoft has stumbled with its more high profile releases, like Halo Infinite and Redfall. But it could just be that Microsoft has a different goal. It's far more focused on pushing subscriptions to Xbox Game Pass, which also allows players to stream titles over the cloud and play on PC with its ultimate tier.   

Meta has been promising as much for a while, and now Meta Quest 2, 3 and Pro owners can now stream hundreds of games through Xbox Cloud Gaming. You'll need an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership, compatible controller, solid internet connection and the most recent Quest software update. Then, you'll be able to snag the Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) app and hop into games such as Starfield, Cocoon and Halo Infinite on a large virtual screen.

Meta says you'll be able to choose from four virtual display sizes. You can opt to play games in an Xbox-themed virtual space or make it appear as though the display is floating in mid-air thanks to the Quest 3 and Pro's full-color passthrough features. As for supported controllers, Meta says Xbox gamepads, PlayStation 4 peripherals and the Nintendo Switch Pro all work. Support for the PlayStation 5's DualSense will be available at a later date.

This is the second major cross-platform collaboration that has arrived on Quest in the last couple of weeks. It's now possible to wirelessly play PC VR games on the headsets thanks to Steam Link support. While some folks were already able to access Xbox Cloud Gaming on Quest headsets via workarounds, the arrival of the app will make it much easier for anyone to dive in and play something when, say, they're traveling or someone else is occupying the TV.

Sony’s 2023 Wrap-Up is now available. The recap, similar to those from music streaming services, reflects on your PS5 or PS4 gaming habits from the past year. The new version will sum up your most-played games, tally your total hours and assign an algorithmically generated “gaming style.” Since, from a business standpoint, these year-end rewinds also serve as crowdsourced social media marketing, Sony created easily shareable digital cards outlining your 2023 habits.

You can view your PlayStation 2023 Wrap-Up by visiting Sony’s web portal and logging in with your account. It generates cards summarizing your top games, trophies earned, monthly gaming stats and your personalized style. (Mine was “Thrill Seeker.”) A button at the bottom of the UI will pop up the cards to share with friends or followers. Sony will also, uh, “helpfully” recommend games you haven’t yet bought that fit your personalized style.

The company says the recap is only available if you’ve played games on a PS5 or PS4 for at least 10 hours from January 1 to December 31. In addition, if you didn’t consent to “Full Data” collection from PS5 settings or “Additional Data” from PS4 systems in certain regions (Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australasia, India and Russia), you won’t be able to use the promotional feature. Sony is also throwing in a bonus “unique avatar” and a PlayStation Stars digital collectible of a Spider-Bot from the Marvel’s Spider-Man franchise as rewards.

Since annual digital recaps have transformed into a popular online tradition in recent years, you can likely expect similar rewinds from Xbox and Nintendo before long.

Remember the 20th anniversary limited edition PlayStation 4? No, I didn't get one, either. But what if Sony were to port that same sweet retro look from the PS1 to the PS5? Look no further than the farewell gift which SIE (Sony Interactive Entertainment) President and CEO Jim Ryan — who is retiring in March 2024 — received yesterday.

In a photo posted by Yuichi Haga, the Global Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Lead at SIE, the "one of a kind" PS5 console — not the slim model — was customized with the PS1's retro gray finish, along with the classic quad-color "PS" logo. Even the DualSense controller was given a DualShock 1 makeover, complete with a cable and a cute plug cover that goes over the PS5's front USB-C port. Ryan's team went the extra mile to make a special packaging design — one that pays homage to the PS1's box art.

At yesterday's thank-you party, the outgoing PlayStation boss was honored by many industry legends, including the "father of PlayStation" Ken Kutaragi, Gran Turismo's Kazunori Yamauchi, Team Asobi's Nicolas Doucet and, of course, Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida. PlayStation's BAFTA-winning indies lead, Shuhei Yoshida, was notably absent as he had to attend The Game Awards (while nabbing the "Games for Impact" award on behalf of Awaceb, the developer behind indie title, Tchia).

It's unclear as to whether us mere mortals will get to own a version of this special edition PS5, but considering that it'll be PlayStation's 30th anniversary next year, perhaps Sony will consider making one for the PS5 Slim then?