Shameful: Sony raised prices on Whitney Houston’s digital music 30 minutes after her death

As much criticism as record labels receive for how they treat artists, Sony Music might take the cake. The company pulled the ultimate in shameful activities this weekend by raising the price on Whitney Houston’s Ultimate Collection album on iTunes and Amazon within 30 minutes of her death on Saturday.

Music mega-star Whitney Houston died on Saturday at the age of 48. And when a high-profile artist passes away, fans often look to re-experience their … Continue Reading

Why Sony’s Shu Yoshida thinks the PlayStation Vita will kill it in the U.S. compared to Japan (interview)

Shuhei Yoshida is in charge of all of the games that Sony makes internally for the PlayStation 3 and its other platforms. The president of worldwide studios for Sony Computer Entertainment was at the recent DICE Summit in Las Vegas, and he showed up with the PlayStation Vita, the new handheld gaming device that will launch on Feb. 22. in the U.S. Yoshida’s team helped shape the features of the Vita and has been busy … Continue Reading

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The DICE Summit in pictures (photo gallery)

Here’s our photo gallery from the DICE Summit 2012. This year’s conference drew more than 700 game industry luminaries to a wide variety of talks on the art and science of making video games.… Continue Reading

The DeanBeat: DICE Summit entices the game industry’s insiders to Vegas

The DICE Summit (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) is well under way this week, bringing some of the game industry’s best minds together in Las Vegas for a few days of networking, thinking, talking, back-slapping, and partying. Staged by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, it is a chance for the best of the business to shine, from an opening keynote by The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim game developer Todd Howard on why we create … Continue Reading

Sony renaming the PlayStation Network? [update]

Update: A spokeswoman for Sony has added clarification behind the change:

Back at IFA in September, we announced that we would be changing the name of Sony’s online entertainment services from Qriocity to Sony Entertainment Network. The reason for this change was so that there was more unity between the services and the multiple Sony devices where they can be accessed. The goal is for there to be one networked log-in for all Sony services. … Continue Reading

Sony patent application shows control method that resembles Wii U

 Sony filed for an interesting patent in 2010 that shows it has technology that resembles Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U game console. Titled Position-Dependent Gaming 3-D controller, and Handheld as a Remote, the patent shows that the game company is at the very least interested in a controller or mobile device with a built-in display to be used as an input device for a console game.

The concept is similar to the Wii U, which was … Continue Reading

Here’s how new CEO Kaz Hirai wants to save Sony

Sony this morning reported a massive net loss of $2 billion, but Kazuo Hirai, who yesterday was officially appointed to replace Howard Stringer as CEO, has big plans in mind to get the company back in shape.

In a meeting with investors this morning, Hirai detailed a four-point plan that calls for Sony to focus on its core business, further streamline its TV business, cut costs, and move forward with innovation.

Sure, those seem like … Continue Reading

One day after appointing new CEO, Sony announces losses of $2.09B

A slumping TV business and a surging yen combined to send Sony into the red. The company reported a net loss of $2.09 billion for the final quarter of 2011, a far cry from the nearly billion in profit it managed to end 2010 with.

This makes nine straight years of losses for Sony’s TV business. Sensibly, new CEO Kazuo Hirai’s first moves have been to scale back the television division and look to replicate … Continue Reading

PlayStation Network to be down for maintenance most of Thursday

Sony has announced on its European PlayStation forums that PlayStation Network (PSN) will be down for maintenance through most of Thursday, Feb. 2. Based on the announcement, it seems the outage will only affect European PSN users, but we’ve reached out to Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) to ask whether North American users will experience any downtime.

Maintenance time always makes Sony’s gamers a little nervous these days, particularly after last year’s six-week outage after … Continue Reading

Sony appoints Kaz Hirai to replace Howard Stringer as CEO

Sony has officially appointed Kazuo Hirai as its new president and chief executive effective April 1.

As expected, Hirai replaces Howard Stringer, who will become chairman. Hirai, currently executive deputy president of Sony, said in November that “management is feeling a serious sense of crisis about the seven years of losses.”

Rivals like Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft are not going to make the coming years any easier. Sony has seen its grip on consumer electronics … Continue Reading

Sony’s North American PlayStation Network chief departs (exclusive)

Susan Panico, head of the PlayStation Network in North America, has left the company, VentureBeat has learned.

Panico headed the PlayStation Network as it grew into a huge online entertainment network over the last few years, growing beyond games into a collection of movies, TV shows and original content. Worldwide, the service has more than 77 million registered users.

But the network also faced big challenges during that time as well. In the spring of … Continue Reading

Virgin Gaming hits 1M registered users and $7M in prizes awarded (exclusive)

Virgin Gaming, the online tournament gaming division of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, is announcing today that it has snagged more than a million registered users for its prize-based online gaming tournaments.

Virgin has awarded more than $7 million in cash prizes. Four million game challenges have been issued and players are spending an average of 72 minutes per visit to VirginGaming.com as they play hardcore console games such as Electronic Arts Madden NFL 12 or … Continue Reading

The view from CES: The top 10 trends in technology for 2012

The International Consumer Electronics Show is a huge festival of gadgetry, but there’s no better place to get a bead on where technology is going in the coming year.

Among the 153,000 attendees at the show in Las Vegas last week were five VentureBeat staffers who were sniffing out the big trends. This story is our list of the most evident trends among the rows and rows of gadgets at CES.

The convention is like … Continue Reading

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Which anti-SOPA game companies are fighting back, and how

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) have definitely gotten the Internet’s attention, but not in the good Elmo orders Taco Bell sort of way. This is more like Rebecca Black announcing she’s obtained the license to the entire library of The Beatles music.

The two bills have lovers of all things Internet immensely concerned, with many people claiming that if either one passes, the current everyday freedoms we enjoy, including … Continue Reading

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Six million LittleBigPlanet user levels created; here are some of the best

Little Big Planet developer Media Molecule has announced via Twitter that six million user generated levels have now been created for its Playstation exclusive video game series.

LittleBigPlanet was a revelation among console games when the first instalment launched in 2008. Giving PS3 owners the tools to create and share their own levels, LBP had the potential to create a large, resilient community from the start. While some gamers may have found the creation aspect … Continue Reading

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For wider appeal, PlayStation Vita can do non-gaming apps like Twitter and Flickr (video)

Sony knows that its new portable console, the PlayStation Vita, is going to live or die on how good its games are. So said Guy Longworth, senior vice president of marketing and PSN at Sony’s games division, in a dinner interview at the Consumer Electronics Show. The ads and marketing campaigns beginning soon will reflect that.

But with the PS Vita, Sony has a chance to appeal to the larger mass market of non-gamers because … Continue Reading

Sony exec says Playstation Move sales should have been better

Fergal Gara, Managing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment UK, has been talking about sales of the Playstation Move periphal, saying, “I’d say we have a solid foothold. Could it, should it, have done more? I think so.”

In an interview with industry magazine MCV, Gara pointed out the importance of having strong software to support sales of the Playstation 3 motion sensing device. “We’ve had a widely different performance from the various Move titles. Sports … Continue Reading

Sony exec confirms no PlayStation 4 at this year’s E3

The next generation of Sony’s PlayStation console will not be seen at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, according to Sony Representative CEO and Executive Deputy President Kazuo Hirai.

Hirai confirmed there will be no announcement about the PlayStation 4 during a roundtable discussion at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, according to the Wall Street Journal, shooting down a previous rumor that Sony and Microsoft would be bringing their new hardware to E3 … Continue Reading

Hands-on with the unique Sony Xperia Ion and Xperia S smartphones (video, pics)

Sony has yet to have a major success with its Xperia line of Android smartphones, but it may have a shot with its two new models, the Xperia Ion and Xperia S, which were announced at the Consumer Electronics Show this week.

The Xperia Ion has the privilege of being the company’s first LTE 4G smartphone, while the Xperia S is a stylish upgrade to the Xperia lineup. Both phones are also branded as Sony … Continue Reading

Sony is bringing its Music Unlimited streaming service to iOS soon

Sony’s Music Unlimited streaming music service has been available on Android devices and PCs for some time now, but iOS users have been left out — until now.

The electronics company will offer a free iPhone and iPad app for Music Unlimited at some point this quarter, Tim Schaaff, head of Sony Entertainment Network said today at a small CES media gathering.

Additionally, the iOS app will offer offline caching for subscribers to Sony’s service, … Continue Reading