Critic’s Notebook: Sizing Up the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One

Tony Cenicola/The New York TimesThe multipurpose concept advances: the Sony PlayStation 4, left, and the Microsoft Xbox One.

THE video game console is dead, and the body has been cold for a long time. Sure, Sony and Microsoft are releasing what everyone describes as new game consoles, but the term is a misnomer. The Sony PlayStation 4, released on Friday, and Microsoft’s Xbox One, due next Friday, are game consoles in the same way that the iPhone is a telephone.

A sortable calendar of noteworthy cultural events in the New York region, selected by Times critics.

Games first: the Sony PlayStation 4.

There hasn’t been a true game console under most TV sets for almost a decade, maybe longer. The aging Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, which begin their descent into obsolescence this week, do a lot more than play games. So does Nintendo’s high-definition Wii U, which was released a year ago.

You could watch National Football League and Major League Baseball games on the PlayStation 3. You could watch ESPN and HBO Go on the Xbox 360. You could surf the Internet, listen to music, connect with friends and feast on a buffet of streaming-video options — YouTube, Amazon, Hulu, Vudu and more — on both. Even the original Wii played Netflix.

The new machines — especially the Xbox One — accelerate this multipurpose evolution. They will compete with products like Roku and Apple TV in addition to the Wii U and the personal computer. Yet consoles face new competitors, too. There are now more places to play games than ever before: hand-held devices, computers, smartphones and tablets. New entrants like the independent console Ouya arrived this year, and Valve’s Steam Machines, living-room versions of the dominant PC gaming marketplace, are expected in 2014.

With this uncertain environment in mind, we put our hands on the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One this week. What follows is a preview of what they offer.

THE PLAYSTATION 4

In a world of Swiss Army entertainment devices, Sony is promoting the PlayStation 4 as something closer to a Swiss clock, elegantly designed for a single use. From the start, granted, its new console will include 11 entertainment applications — Amazon Instant Video, Redbox Instant, Netflix, Hulu and the like — with more to come. But Sony has pushed the new PlayStation as a games-first console that, at $399, is $100 cheaper than its rival.

The breadth of the price difference is deceptive. You have to buy a $60 camera to enable voice and facial recognition, or even just to play the three free mini-games that come bundled as the Playroom, a technical demonstration of how game designers might use two new features on the PlayStation 4 controller — a touch pad and a light bar that can change colors — to create new forms of play.

In one demo, a player can swipe the touch pad to make it appear on screen as if a small army of robots is being flicked out of the controller and into the living room. The camera acts as a sort of mirror, reflecting back an animated-robot-augmented version of the actual room. The robots waved back to a friendly hand gesture and were comically toppled by the cord from a set of headphones.

The PlayStation 4 controller is a significant improvement over the PlayStation 3’s, which had mushy bumpers instead of triggers on the back, making it inferior to the Xbox 360 controller for shooting games.

The importance of a controller to interactive entertainment is one way that new consoles are not quite the equivalent of innovations in movie theaters, like cup holders or stadium seating. A movie may be more enjoyable in a more comfortable theater, but the essential nature of the film doesn’t change with such perks. By contrast, the player’s relationship to the controller is at the very heart of interactivity.

Perhaps the most visible change on the PlayStation 4 controller is the removal of the “start” and “select” buttons that have been with us since the introduction of the Nintendo Entertainment System in the 1980s, in favor of buttons labeled “options” and “share.” Press share, and you can upload a screen shot of your game play to Facebook or Twitter, or a video to Facebook. (The system is perpetually recording the last 15 minutes of play. You can post the whole thing or quickly edit a snippet.) The PlayStation 4 also makes it simple to broadcast your play live on the services Twitch and Ustream.

The share button is part of a shift toward consoles as social networks, a transformation that began years ago with Microsoft’s Xbox Live and its friends list. More so than Xbox One, the PlayStation 4 is constantly notifying you what your friends have been doing with their consoles. And if players consent, the system will use their real names instead of the anonymous CB-style handles that, perhaps, encourage the culture of harassment and bullying that afflicts online play. In a notable change, the PlayStation 4, following the Xbox model, requires a subscription to compete with others over the Internet.

Chris Suellentrop, a former editor for The Times, and Stephen Totilo, the editor in chief of Kotaku.com, write about video games.

Bits Blog: Sony’s Next PlayStation Will Be Late to Japan

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PlayStation All-Stars: No New DLC Coming

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale came to PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita last fall. It was a great game and sold over a million copies worldwide, but it wasn’t enough for the game to require extended support. DLC started to come out back in December, and there were even signs that developer SuperBot Entertainment was hiring for a sequel. But Sony ended up severing ties with the studio, causing a round of layoffs.

Anyone who was hanging around hoping for more DLC support following the release of Zeus and Isaac Clarke earlier this year will be disappointed, as Sony has confirmed that there will be no future DLC for the game in terms of characters or stages.

A forum post from Sony Santa Monica notes, in part, that “the characters that have already been released to-date represent the full content for PS All-Stars,” further commenting that “there are always elements that never quite get finished” during a game’s development, likely a nod to the recently leaked images of unfinished characters and stages.

With that said, Sony Santa Monica is currently working on and will release a new balancing patch, free costumes for some of the game’s characters (that will be released for free later in August), and a fix for some leaderboard and tournament glitches currently being experienced by online players.

Colin Moriarty is IGN’s Senior Editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Critic’s Notebook: Xbox, Nintendo and PlayStation Look to Next Generation of Consoles

It is the latest in a generational line of Xboxes, PlayStations and Nintendos to arrive in the past quarter-century. To dedicated gamers, each generation is as relevant and real a part of the calendar as an Olympiad or a presidential election cycle. Gamers argue about which one is the best.

But the previous generation has stretched on longer than those before it and segues into the next at a time when there might be a meteor in the sky. Serious people discuss whether these new consoles, facing competition from cellphones and tablets, might be endangered. Untethered from a television, mobile devices — which draw hundreds of millions of people to distraction with Angry Birds, Clash of Clans and Temple Run — make gaming more convenient. The home console’s appeal is dependent on the notion that gaming on a television still matters.

The industry is at the start of its eighth console generation: the Xbox One, Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Nintendo’s Wii U. The Microsoft and Sony machines are planned for release this year; Nintendo’s device shipped in November, for the 2012 holiday season. Generations typically last a half-decade and are preceded by the promise that the new, ever more powerful devices will improve the world’s youngest major creative medium, make their manufacturers a lot of money and in some way reconfigure living rooms across the world.

The point of an Xbox is to “bring the things you love to life,” Don Mattrick, Microsoft’s chief of interactive entertainment, said in an interview outside the Xbox One tent. “You love entertainment. You love TV. You love games. This is going to be the premium experience for enjoying those things.”

Mr. Mattrick’s challenge, like that of his counterparts at Sony and Nintendo, is to convince people that the game console and its ubiquitous controllers aren’t going the way of the landline telephone or, in a threat that hits closer to home, the arcade machine. Just a few decades ago the home console was an upstart. By the late 1990s it was unseating arcade machines, gobbling the public’s attention the way Pac-Man used to gobble all those dots (and quarters). Consoles like the Nintendo 64 and the Sony PlayStation brought the graphics and sounds of arcade-caliber gaming home and improved on them by offering richer, deeper worlds to play in.

The outgoing console generation started in 2005 with Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Sony’s PlayStation 3 followed a year later, as did Nintendo’s Wii, with a motion-sensitive controller that turned it into a cultural phenomenon. In an age when iPhones are displaced every year, 2005-era console technology is nearly Paleolithic. It’s a testament to the ability of programmers to squeeze performance out of an established hardware standard that new games on the Xbox 360 can still look and sound impressive in 2013.

Proponents of consoles argue that most mobile games, while increasing in appeal, lack key qualities of console gaming. “They’re very bite-sized, very light on the story, very light on the emotions and the different things that a proper sit-down-on-your-couch-with-a-50-inch-screen-and-surround-sound experience can provide,” said Scott Rohde, who leads the highly regarded in-house American game development studios for Sony PlayStation.

Microsoft’s vision for the Xbox One extends beyond gaming. It is designed to switch from playing games to showing cable television with a snap of the fingers. Older consoles simply played games, but newer ones are designed to play television shows and movies.

That shift in focus has been gradual but definite at Microsoft, which added one of its most popular features to the Xbox 360, the ability to stream movies through Netflix, in 2008. At the tent event Mr. Mattrick, a former video game designer, announced a deal with the N.F.L. that would empower the Xbox One to display an interactive fantasy league application on the right side of a TV while the left side displayed a live football game.

Mr. Rohde and Mr. Mattrick may be rivals in the current console generation, but they are joined by colleagues on both sides who argue that the increased horsepower and technical flash of new consoles can make video game characters appear to be more realistic and increase a player’s emotional engagement. They suggest that better technology enables greater aesthetic achievement in their medium. This is by no means a settled point, nor even a universally shared belief of what it takes to advance the artistry of games. That view was in fact recently mocked at a recent conference for game creators by the independent developer Chris Hecker, who played a reel of proclamations by top console game developers who claimed that more powerful technology would beget more emotionally sophisticated gaming.

Stephen Totilo is the editor in chief of the gaming site Kotaku.com.

Sony's Third Mystery PlayStation Ad: The Aftermath

This morning, Sony has released a third mysterious video on YouTube, this one called The Aftermath. You can view it below.

In this ad, which runs for 19 seconds, the same woman from the first two videos (and from the Michael ad as well) walks down a corridor with keys in hand. As soon as you see her, you can see Sly Cooper’s staff hanging from the jail door on the left. One of the keys on the keyring she’s holding has a skull on it, perhaps a reference to MediEvil and its protagonist, Sir Daniel Fortesque.

Eventually, you see the ground in a room ahead, littered with bullets and a lone ice cream cone. The cone is no doubt a reference to Sweet Tooth. The bullets -- if this is indeed a PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale ad -- could be from Nathan Drake or, more likely, Colonel Radec from Killzone.

At the end, a man is sweeping up the bullets (this appears to be the barkeep from the Michael ad). He then picks up a large blade that appears to be the one Sweet Tooth uses. The same date that ended the last two videos -- 10.23.12 -- ends this one as well. That date , October 23rd, is this Tuesday.

With references to Sly Cooper, Sir Daniel Fortesque, Sweet Tooth and Colonel Radec, it seems clear now that these ads are aimed at PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Sony’s biggest first party release of the fall for both PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita.

For reference, watch the video released this weekend, called The Arrival. In it, Ratchet & Clank, Jak & Daxter and Uncharted are referenced, with what appears to be Nathan Drake himself driving a jeep:

And feel free to watch the first of the three teaser videos -- The Reload -- which references Ape Escape and more:

And of course, let the speculation flow in the comments below, including what you've taken from these three videos. Perhaps most importantly though, what does the date signify? Does it have to do with PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale's beta, or is it something else?

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Why PlayStation Mobile Could Be a Big Deal

"PlayStation Mobile" -- formerly PlayStation Suite -- has been a buzzword around Sony for a while, but today, it finally matters. Maybe. See, while you were worrying about PlayStation Vita sales and where you're scoring your next PlayStation Network Trophy, Sony was worrying about taking on the Apple and Android App Stores. Today, you can begin buying these games.

You should be very excited about this, but cautious at the same time. Let me explain.

PlayStation Mobile is Sony's move to get "PlayStation-like" games on smart phones and tablets -- regardless of brand -- as well as the PlayStation Vita. Basically, PlayStation Mobile gives developers one set of tools to create with and then allows those games to go to gamers regardless of where they play. Any would-be developer can grab the PlayStation Mobile tools for just $99, whip up a title, and get it to the people. Sound familiar? It's the Apple App Store model, and it's a momentous step for PlayStation.

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But I expect a lot of speed bumps.

Back in 2009, PlayStation Minis debuted on the PSP, but the movement never took off. The "bite-sized" experiences don't offer online support, don't pack Trophies, and are way too expensive. Part of this problem is that even though these were smaller games, they were still being worked through the traditional PlayStation pipeline. Now, PlayStation Mobile is streamlining the process and letting games get to the people without the traditional hurdles Minis have faced. Young upstarts working in their dorm room now have an affordable shot at getting their games on a PlayStation-certified device.

Does this mean we'll get breakout App Store hits like Game Dev Story and Hexagon to come to PlayStation Mobile? Who knows. If it's easy to port from one platform to the other, sure -- but what's more exciting is the untapped potential. PlayStation Mobile represents the next big mobile/indie game. The title we haven't even thought of that someone is going to tinker around with and publish one day.

Download the PlayStation Mobile title Aqua Kitty: Milk Mine Defender with its old-school graphics, shoot'em up gameplay and chiptune score and tell me that there isn't potential here. Tell me there aren't a million great game ideas out there ready for a crack at the big time.

Aqua Kitty in action.

This is all speculation, of course. PlayStation Mobile has a lot to prove now that it's out in the wild (you can get to the first run of games via the PlayStation Store on the Vita). First and foremost, when most of us think about mobile games, we think of 99-cent endeavors, but PlayStation Mobile titles range from free to $20.

On top of that, there are still a number of questions we as consumers need answered.

Will PlayStation Mobile games always come out on Wednesdays rather than Tuesdays?Will there be games every week?Will they ever have Trophies?Will online functionality be supported?How do developers make money? Percentages?What's the approval process for a game like? How long does it take?

I reached out and asked PlayStation these questions, but the rep declined to comment. I wish I could tell you that I have the utmost faith in PlayStation nailing this program, but I expect a lot of speed bumps.

The fact that PlayStation didn't include Trophies in PlayStation Mobile -- a surefire way to give mobile users a stake in the PlayStation Network -- speaks to the platform and its missed opportunities. Pricing is probably going to be too high, online will be nonexistent, and really these are just going to be modern Minis.

 

That's not the worst thing in the world. I think gamers like you and me might not be super-excited for the program at the moment, but people getting their first taste of PlayStation on their phones won't know what they're missing. They'll begin playing, and PlayStation will begin iterating.

Think of today as the first step. It'll be shakey and there's going to be plenty to improve on, but if PlayStation Mobile can get its feet, it could be pretty impressive when it's running and be the lifeblood of Sony's gaming division. One day, PlayStation won't be in the hardware business -- there will be no PlayStation console for you to wait in line for. Buying studios to make games and getting PlayStation Mobile off the ground are examples of PlayStation future-proofing its business, making sure there's still a PlayStation even if you're playing its games on a Microsoft device.

It's just a question of whether or not the moves are going to work.

What We Want in a PlayStation Store Redesign

It's been a whirlwind week of PlayStation news. As if a new model of the PS3 wasn't exciting enough, PlayStation Australia followed it up by teasing that a new look was coming to the PlayStation Store. Then, PlayStation promoted its new web portal and got everyone talking about what the humble store might become.

We don't have any definitive answers as to what's happening or when it's happening, but we do have lots of PlayStation Store ideas Sony should listen to. Below are five seemingly simple things the PlayStation Store should be doing.

PRELOAD THE DOWNLOADS

You know what the kids love? Steam, Valve's PC gaming platform. One of the coolest things about Steam? The ability to preorder a game, download it, and then have it unlock at 12:01 a.m. the day of release so you can get to playing.

PlayStation's getting better about this -- Borderlands 2 launched on the PlayStation Network Tuesday -- but it's still far from perfect. IGN reader Jaime Escalera wrote in to Podcast Beyond this week lamenting that his friends planned on downloading Borderlands 2 at midnight, but were "super disappointed" to see it not go up until the next day. Of course, even if the PlayStation Store had published the game at 12:01 a.m., Jaime's friends would've had to sit there while 5.8 GB downloaded.

Adopting the preorder/preload model solves this problem. Get Borderlands 2 on the PlayStation Store the week before launch, let me download it, and then unlock it the moment mobile people can pick it up at GameStop. The future is now. Interestingly, IGN fan Stephen Roche said that this PSN model exists in Australia, so let's get it together, Sony.

ONLINE PURCHASES

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The PlayStation Store's model is a dinosaur.

It sounds simple -- if you want to buy something on the PlayStation Store, use the PlayStation Store -- but it's so archaic. In a world where I can login to Xbox.com, buy a game and have it waiting in my download queue, the PlayStation Store's model is a dinosaur.

If the PlayStation Store is getting redesigned, it's time for PlayStation to embrace a ubiquitous experience -- a store that looks and feels the same on my PC or iPad as it does on my PS3 or Vita. Aside from the simplicity of use, you have to imagine it would increase PSN sales. How many PS3 and Vita games become impulse buys if you can read the review on IGN and then click over to the PlayStation Store to pick the title up in a few seconds? Right now, if a consumer hears about a cool PSN game, he or she has to keep that game at the forefront of his or her mind until they get home, turn on the PS3 and get to the Store.

PUSH DOWNLOADS

Now, Automatic Downloads are already a perk of PlayStation Plus, but if we're building a smarter PlayStation Store, let's give everyone the ability to have their PS3 wake up and start downloading. First and foremost, it works well with the idea of a web version of the PlayStation Store. If I download Lumines Supernova at work, I want my PS3 at home to turn on and download it so that I can play as soon as I walk through the front door. Secondly, getting this infrastructure in place would knockout the No. 1 thing people like to bitch about with the PlayStation Network: firmware.

If you're one of the people who uses the PS3 for the occasional exclusive, chances are you're forced to download a new update each time you turn on your PS3. With my revamped PlayStation Store, everyone would have the option for automatic downloads and push downloads -- and I'd make firmware default to this option. Any time PlayStation released an update, your system would boot up and get to installing.

MAKE AN EVENT OUT OF PUBLISHING

Busses get misses, kids get sick and cars breakdown -- I understand that not everything will be on time all the time. However, there's really no rhyme or reason to when the PlayStation Store updates on Tuesdays. Sometimes it's early in the San Francisco afternoon, other times it's just before Tuesday becomes Wednesday. Each week, it's a game of Russian roulette as to when you can get games.

This has to stop. YouTube has this thing called the Creator's Playbook. Basically, it's this huge document about how to be successful on the platform, and it stresses regularity and timing. "Frequency of uploads and other platform engagement keeps your channel feed active and retains audience interest," the playbook reads. "To build an audience, 'A consistent audience requires consistent content.' "

Let's be frank here -- the PlayStation Network audience isn't that "active." Yes, plenty of people downloaded Journey and have used the PlayStation Store, but the number of people saying "Oh, it's Tuesday! I have to see what's new on the PlayStation Store!" is a tiny one.

If Sony can get it together and say "Every Tuesday, we're publishing the store at 3 p.m. Pacific," it can become an event. It'll have people refreshing the store to the get new COD DLC and talking about what's to come. Tuesdays will become synonymous with the PlayStation Store to the masses. Add first day discounts, exclusives and surprises, and you'll build an audience that wants to be there as the Store update happens. All eyes would be on PlayStation.

FIX THE DOWNLOAD LIST

This is probably the nerdiest suggestion on the list, but if you've ever tried to use the PSN's Download List, you understand. Basically, the PlayStation Network rocks because it lets you download your content multiple times (there are system activations to worry about) in case you got a new console or whatever. Everything you've ever downloaded is added to the Download List, which is available in the PlayStation Store and Account Management.

The trouble is that there's no way to sort the Download List other than what it defaults to (date downloaded, and sometimes even that gets goofy). When you have DLC and games and more fighting it out on the list, this gets to be a big mess. If we're rebooting the store, let's toss a few options at the Download List. Stuff like sorting alphabetically and grouping content by type.

What do you think? If the PlayStation Store's getting revamped in October, what do you hope it means for the platform? Let us know in the comments below.

PlayStation All-Stars Dream Roster: Ethan Mars

Ever since PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale was rumored, IGN's been pitching characters that need to be in the game. Well, after last week's leak, it appears developer SuperBot Entertainment isn't listening. So, IGN's Podcast Beyond is teaming with IGN reader Pandamusk to create videos for the fighters we think need to be in the game.

This week, we're pitching Heavy Rain's Ethan Mars.

Who do you think should be in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale? Let us know in the comments below, and BEYOND!

PlayStation Network Maintenance This Thursday

According to the European PlayStation Blog, the PlayStation Network is set for “scheduled maintenance” that will occur beginning on Thursday, July 26th. The maintenance will last for 16 hours.

The times listed for Europe (BST) are 4pm Thursday afternoon through 8am Friday morning. That translates to 8am on Thursday through midnight Friday morning (PT).

During the planned maintenance period, the PlayStation Store will be down for all platforms, as will account management and registration. However, Sony does note that “if you wish to play online during the maintenance, then you may be able to do so if you sign into the PSN before the start of the maintenance window.”

The US PlayStation Blog has yet to comment on the planned maintenance period, but chances are this outage will affect the entirety of Sony’s worldwide PlayStation Network. However, we’re still waiting for confirmation on that front and will update when we hear more.

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Watch Anime with Crunchyroll on PlayStation 3

If you’re an anime fan, chances are you’ve heard of Crunchyroll, the streaming service that brings the masses in the west a slew of hard-to-access (or outright inaccessible) eastern entertainment. You may have even heard in recent weeks that Crunchyroll will be bringing its service to PlayStation 3. And if you’re curious about this forthcoming app, there’s good news. We’ve been given access to it, and have plenty of information you’ll need leading up to its launch.

For starters, why is Crunchyroll migrating over to PlayStation 3? A lot of it, according to the service’s co-founder and CEO Kun Gao, is because there’s an undeniable “synergy” between the PS3 and the audience that enjoys anime. The company polled their audience and found that 40% of those who responded said they owned a PlayStation 3. That, combined with the fact that PS3 offers more games from Japanese developers (and JRPGs in particular) than its competition makes Crunchyroll on PS3 make a lot of sense. There’s substantial audience crossover.

But how about some specifics concerning the app itself? The Crunchyroll app will be available to download free of charge for all North American PS3 users (specifics regarding its release in other territories are still unknown). It can be initially downloaded from either the XMB (under TV/Video Services) or from the PlayStation Store itself. However, access to the application once downloaded will vary.

Crunchyroll is a service that has both free and premium options ranging over different subscription tiers. This is true on the Crunchyroll website as well as on the many devices that already accommodate the service, ranging from iOS and Android to Roku and Google TV. The same is true for PlayStation 3. While a “comprehensive sample” will be made available for users having a taste of Crunchyroll’s service (such as being able to watch the first episode of a series), a premium membership will be necessary to use all of the application’s functions and see everything it has to offer.

If you’re interested in paying for Crunchyroll, then you’ll have unlimited access to its wares. Since Crunchyroll actually offers more than just anime (in the form of live-action dramas from all over Asia), you could opt to get the anime-only membership for just under $7 a month, with other options for a dramas-only membership, or for tying everything in together. Regardless of what you choose, everything will parlay over ubiquitously to PlayStation 3, and any other applicable device you stream Crunchyroll on.

For premium subscribers, Crunchyroll’s library of over 400 anime series will be available on PlayStation 3, and 34 of those series are “simulcasts,” meaning that they are posted on Crunchyroll only an hour after they first air in Japan, complete with English subtitles. Crunchyroll’s co-founder and CEO Kun Gao told me that his service is “one of the only places where you can watch [these shows] legally,” undoubtedly making it enticing for anime fans who may be using other means to get their fix.

The Crunchyroll application itself on PS3 is easy to use and fairly fluid. In many ways, it resembles Netflix. Users will have access to various menus to make navigating Crunchyroll’s roster of shows easier, boiling things down to submenus showing the service’s most popular shows, shows that are available via “simulcasts,” the most recently posted episodes and more. Obviously, users can make their own queue as well, and that queue can be updated and accessed from any device that supports Crunchyroll. Better yet, if you start watching an anime on your phone, you can pause it, then watch it on your PS3, then pause it again and watch it on your computer, and so on.

Crunchyroll on PS3 currently only supports up to 480p, which Gao explained to me was a fairly standard resolution for anime, as it’s more expensive to produce shows in higher quality. So even at 480p, most anime will be viewable on PS3 in its native resolution, though that will still fluctuate depending on the shows you’re interested in.

The Crunchyroll service will also be coming to PlayStation Vita, though it’s farther away from release than the PS3 iteration of the application. Gao told me that his company is shooting to release Crunchyroll on Vita by the end of the year, and “hopefully sooner.” They want to first be able to use the feedback they get from Crunchyroll on PS3 and make necessary improvements to make the Vita iteration of the application as good as it can be.

The release date for Crunchyroll on PlayStation 3 hasn’t been nailed down yet, but it will be coming to a PS3 near you (in North America only) very soon.

Limbo Was Almost a PlayStation Exclusive

In the summer of 2010, the beautiful, ambient game Limbo was released on Xbox Live and received critical acclaim. It came to PlayStation Network and Steam a year later, so just about everyone has had the chance to play it, but Sony itself revealed some information, via Edge, that paints a different could-be picture for Limbo in the years leading up to its release.

At last week’s Develop Conference in the UK, Pete Smith, a Sony producer, spoke about Sony’s pursuit of Limbo and how the deal to get the game exclusively on PSN fell apart over the securing of the game’s rights. “I maybe shouldn’t say this,” Smith said, “but we had issues when we were trying to sign Limbo because of the IP.”

Sony’s insistence on owning the IP meant that developer Playdead went to Xbox Live instead, where the studio retained the rights to the game. Subsequently, the game did gangbusters numbers and only came to PSN when the hullabaloo surrounding the game had died down. Smith noted that, generally, “there are obvious benefits to keeping [an IP], but also to giving it up: you’re way more likely to get the deal. Remember: 100 percent of nothing is nothing. A publisher is much more likely to commit to marketing and merchandising if they own the IP.”

For Sony, consider this instance a lesson learned.