Sean Hollister
Sony
It’s hard to imagine a company with a greater influence on consumer electronics than Sony. You can trace a direct line from the Walkman -- the first portable media player -- to the smartphone. Today Sony is a massive force in gaming, making the PlayStation and publishing games for it and other platforms. Sony image sensors are in iPhones as well as its own mirrorless cameras. Not to mention the OLED TVs; smartphones; noise-canceling headphones; music, tv, and film publishing; and, yes, robot dogs.
Nathan Edwards
Emma Roth and Ash Parrish
Jay Peters
Smooth.
Check out this slick map-to-gameplay fast travel transition in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment in Thursday’s new trailer for the game, but I think that’s the point; it happens really fast!
Emma Roth
Check out these shiny new PlayStation covers and controllers.
PlayStation’s new “Deep Earth Collection” features DualSense wireless controllers and PS5 cases wrapped in a metallic red, blue, and silver finish.
Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
Can’t wait to play PS5 on my $50 Chromecast later today.
No joke: Sony is officially releasing its PS Remote Play app on Android TV, specifically for 4K Google Chromecasts and Sony’s own A95L TV. Like with PS4, the app lets you sling PS5 games to a different room of your house.
It’s not live yet, though: The app doesn’t show up on my Chromecast, and Google Play says “This item is not compatible with your device.”
Jess Weatherbed
Emma Roth
PlayStation Plus is going up in price tomorrow.
Sony will start charging more for its PlayStation Plus subscription starting September 6th. If you’re already subscribed, you won’t see any changes until your renewal date or after November 6th.
Here’s a breakdown of the new annual tiers:
• PlayStation Plus Essential: $79.99 (previously $59.99)
• PlayStation Plus Extra: $134.99 (previously $99.99)
• PlayStation Plus Premium: $159.99 (previously $119.99)
Umar Shakir
Apple’s future plans for a cheaper Vision Pro could rely on new Chinese display suppliers.
Two companies, BOE Technology and SeeYa Technology, raised their hands in interest to, at scale, build specialty Micro-OLED screens, The Information reports.
Most companies haven’t invested in building the complex screens, so finding cheaper suppliers — or just more competition — is important for Apple to get the price down on successors to the $3,499 Vision Pro that uses displays made by Sony.
David Pierce
Come watch the Vergecast crew solve Sony’s problems and invent the hate-click tracker.
We just want to know if you’re clicking or you’re hate-clicking! That’s the only reason we’re asking for constant always-on access to your microphone and trying to scan your iris and follow you around the web! We promise!
Tom Warren
Bungie is about to detail the future of Destiny 2.
Bungie is wrapping up the light and darkness saga with Destiny 2: The Final Shape, and we’re about to hear a lot more about this giant DLC. Bungie is holding a special showcase today at 9AM PT / 12PM ET / 5PM UK. Things will kickoff an hour earlier if you want to tune into an hour-long pre-show, but the main show will deliver details on The Final Shape, today’s season 22, and the future of Destiny 2.
Brandon Widder
Alex Cranz
You might have heard people talking about Spider-Man: Lotus, a two hour fan film that premiered on YouTube Friday,
and wondered how an unlicensed two hour film could exist when even Disney had to negotiate with Sony to use the character in films. Sony, Disney, and Marvel are all very protective of the character so it’s a surprise to see this film still live. It’s also super unusual to see a fan film of this scope outside of the Star Trek fan film community, especially as the last time a Star Trek fan film attempted a project of this high a production quality level Paramount sued the creator.
Spider-Man: Lotus’s other major problem is it was funded by a non-profit more than two years ago and immediately faced challenges after the VFX team quit due to racist remarks previously made, separately, by the lead actor and the director.
Spider-Man: Lotus Fan Film’s Controversy Explained
[Yahoo Entertainment]
Tom Warren
Richard Lawler
Who can say that this isn’t a “PS5 Slim.”
Rumors about the design of a “slim” PlayStation 5 redesign featuring the detachable Blu-ray drive we’d heard about seem to have boomeranged from a Twitter / X post describing it as “shorter not thinner” to a Chinese forum and back to Twitter.
The largest grains of salt are attached here, but we’ll see if more leaks follow — the original account that posted about it claims to have a video (which hasn’t been posted yet, if it ever will be).