The Xbox One launched in 13 territories on Friday, November 22nd 2013, selling one million units in the first 24 hours, matching the first-day figures for the PS4. However, in comparison, the PS4 sold one million units in just two countries: USA and Canada, compares to Xbox One’s 13. The European launch on November 29th 2013 will further boost the PS4’s numbers.
The PlayStation Store is now available on the PS4 in the UK, revealing the prices and file sizes for the PS4 launch titles. Prices for games range from £11.99 for PSN titles to a massive £62.99 for AAA titles, including FIFA 14 and Battlefield 4, while file sizes range from just 393 MB to 38.2 GB.
Spearhead Games has announced that their upcoming PS4 co-op puzzler Tiny Brains will be releasing in North America and Europe in December. Tiny Brains is a quirky, social, cooperative, action puzzler, which follows four tiny lab animals – a rabbit, a mouse, a hamster, and a bat – each of whom has been so extensively experimented on as to develop cool psychic abilities.
Speaking to MCV, Sony has revealed that an ultimate bundle including both the PS4 and PS Vita will be available to buy before Christmas. The new bundle promotes the PS4’s Remote Play functionality with the PS Vita, and will also include a memory card to help you get started. Unfortunately, pricing for the bundle hasn’t been revealed, but you can expect it to cost around £450.
A screenshot taken from a UK PS4 has confirmed a number of video services for the PS4 launch on November 29th 2013. So far, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport, Channel 5’s Demand 5 and IGN have been confirmed for launch, with other popular services like LOVEFiLM and Netflix still missing from the line-up.
GameStop has revealed that it has sold out of the company’s current stock allocation of the PS4, with 2.3 million customers waiting for the console from the company globally. The 2.3 million remaining customers are in a waiting list to be informed when the console is back in stock, suggesting demand for the console for months to come.
Website AnandTech has run two speed tests on the internet browsers on the Xbox One and PS4, revealing that the PS4’s browser is 2-5x faster than the Xbox One, at least in terms of JavaScript performance. Two tests were run on each browser, the first using the Sunspider benchmark suite which measures JavaScript performance, and the second using Kracken, a JavaScript performance benchmark created by Mozilla.
DTS, Inc. has revealed that the PS4 is the first product to include the new DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 decoder, enabling the game console to decode 7.1-channel soundtracks streamed in the DTS-HD format. “By featuring DTS’ new DTS-HD Master Audio|7.1 technology, PS4 owners will be able to enjoy the same high-definition 7.1 surround sound experience received on Blu-ray from streaming and VOD services,” said DTS Executive Vice President and COO Brian Towne.
Sony has released the first minor firmware update for the PS4, updating the system software to version v1.51. The minor update is mandatory, and improves the stability of the system software and makes “minor refinements” to the System UI. The update should download to all North American PS4s by default while your console is in stand-by mode.
