Despite a recent push into live service and multiplayer games, Sony says it will continue to create the single-player games its best known for.
In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz about Sony's recent acquisition of Haven Studios, PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst reaffirmed Sony's commitment to single-player games.
"Obviously we will always carry on making these single-player narrative-based games such as Ghost of Tsushima , The Last of Us , and Horizon Forbidden West ," Hulst told the publication. "But you've spotted correctly that we have invested in live service games, because that's incredibly exciting for us. It allows us to build larger worlds, it allows us to create really meaningful social connections between players."
Analysis: a major live service push
Haven Studios is the latest developer to be acquired by Sony as part of the company's push into the live service and multiplayer space. The most prominent acquisition was that of Destiny developer Bungie, which is working on a brand new multiplayer action game.
This new game from Bungie is one of 10 live service PlayStation games that Sony plans to release by 2026. While this slew of new games hasn't been confirmed, Hulst told GamesIndustry.biz that the company has "quite a few now in development or conceptualization".
We do know of quite a few multiplayer games Sony is working on right now. As mentioned above, we know Bungie is creating a new IP that's rumored to be called 'Matter', we also know that Marvel's Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games was hiring for a multiplayer project back in 2021, as was Ghost of Tsushima developer Sucker Punch , while Naughty Dog has been working on its "first standalone multiplayer", which is a spin-off of The Last of Us 2 .
In addition, Sony has teamed up with Deviation Games , made up of ex-Treyarch devs, to work on a new IP (which we imagine will be a multiplayer shooter) and PlayStation and Firewalk Studios have a publishing partnership to develop a new multiplayer IP.
We also now know the recently acquired Haven Studios is working on a AAA multiplayer game that aims to "build a systemic and evolving world focused on freedom, thrill, and playfulness".
With all this focus on multiplayer, it's welcome news to hear Sony hasn't forgotten about its single-player experiences. Though it's unlikely the company would've thrown away its bread-and-butter in pursuit of new experiences, especially with PlayStation exclusives like God of War: Ragnarok , Marvel's Spider-Man 2 , and Wolverine in the pipeline.
Dyson Zone air-purifying headphones: everything we know so far
Dyson has unveiled its first-ever piece of wearable tech with the Dyson Zone air-purifying, noise-cancelling headphones.
These sci-fi-looking cans could tackle one the biggest issues of city living – providing air-purifying filters to improve the quality of the air you breathe in and noise-cancelling capabilities to drown out the noise pollution you face on your morning commute or outside jog.
While they’re still several months from release, Dyson is already making some big promises about the capabilities of the Dyson Zone headphones. The company claims that the Zone will deliver an audio performance to rival some of the best headphones out there as well as a mask that could outpace the Razer Zephyr in terms of fashion and function.
Here’s everything we know about the Dyson Zone air-purifying headphones so far.
Dyson hasn’t yet released the pricing of its Dyson Zone air-purifying, noise-cancelling headphones, but we suspect they’ll cost a fair bit more than your standard pair of cans.
Dyson air purifiers typically start at around $400 / £350 / AU$600. However, as the Zone are much more unique and feature-heavy than a regular air purifier, we could see Dyson charging a fair bit more for it.
Considering that you could pick up the best noise-cancelling headphones out there (the Sony WH-1000XM4 ) for $349.99 / £349 / AU$549 at launch, it wouldn’t surprise us if Dyson’s first headphones come in at around $500 / £450 / $650. We’ll have to wait and see what the company has in store for us, though.
While Dyson hasn’t given us a firm release date it has said that the new Dyson Zone headphones will be available online and in-store in "Autumn 2022" (that’s Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere so September through November).
Given the world’s ongoing shipping and manufacturing issues, we suspect Dyson will leave us waiting for a more specific release date for a while.
We’ll be sure to keep you up to date with everything as we hear it, but you can also register your interest at Dyson US or Dyson UK if you want to be sure you’re as up-to-date as possible.
The Dyson Zone are set to offer a mix of premium features for audiophiles and the health-conscious alike.
While we haven’t been able to test these headphones for ourselves to verify the claims, Dyson is already making bold promises about the audio performance the Zone can deliver. Specifically, it says that the device’s “high performing neodymium electroacoustic system” can deliver audio as the artist intended.
This likely means high-fidelity (or lossless ) audio support, and potentially some form of spatial audio support to create a realistic soundstage – again, though, we’ll have to wait and see.
Much like other noise-cancelling cans, the Dyson Zone will have three options: Isolation, Conversation, and Transparency. Isolation, as you can guess from the name, will be the highest level of noise cancellation, for when you want a fully immersive audio experience.
Conversation mode is switched on when you pull down the air-purifying visor; the air purification will switch off and the voices around you will be amplified. Lastly, Transparency mode will let you stay aware of your environment - it's designed to amplify key sounds like emergency service sirens or informational announcements.
As for air purification, Dyson says that the Zone can capture 99% of particle pollution including dust, pollen, and bacteria, and can filter city gasses like NO2, SO2, and O3. It does this using two motors that sit inside the earcups.
The visor that provides the air purification also comes with in-the-box add-ons to modify it for different scenarios. There’s the regulator visor, a face-covering attachment that forms a seal around your face, and an FFP2-compliant face covering to meet certain filtration standards.
The Zone will offer four air-purifying modes: Low, Medium, High, and Auto. As the headphones are designed with fitness in mind, the Auto mode will automatically switch between the different settings based on the information from the onboard accelerometers. So, if you're running and breathing heavily, the Zone will toggle to the High setting to filter air more quickly as you inhale and exhale rapidly.
If you want to focus on the music and don’t need the air purification at all, then the visor can be detached.
We don’t yet have any details about battery life, but we suspect it could sit toward the lower end of the scale – especially if you have ANC and air-purifying settings turned up as high as they’ll go.
As such, we'd be surprised if these cans could boast a battery life longer than 10 hours under these conditions. That said, with the visor detached and ANC off you might see a performance that's more in line with regular wireless headphones like the Sony WH-1000XM4, which offer up to 38 hours of playback.
We'll just have to see what Dyson announces as we get closer to the release date.
The OnePlus Nord N20 5G is a new cheap phone with solid specs
The OnePlus Nord line just keeps on getting bigger, with the latest addition being the newly announced OnePlus Nord N20 5G.
For now, this phone is only headed to the US, and is initially just available through T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile, where it will be sold starting on April 28 and cost $11.75 a month for 24 months, for a total of $282 (around £215 / AU$380).
While its predecessor - the OnePlus Nord N10 5G – also made it to the UK, OnePlus has confirmed to TechRadar that the N20 5G won't be coming to the UK or Europe - though that doesn't rule out other regions such as India, where OnePlus has a big following.
What the OnePlus Nord N20 5G is definitely set to do is become available beyond T-Mobile, as from “early summer” it will be sold unlocked by other retailers.
So what does your $282 get you? Well, the OnePlus Nord N20 5G has a 6.43-inch FHD+ AMOLED screen, a mid-range Snapdragon 695 chipset, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, a microSD card slot, a 4,500mAh battery with 33W charging, and a triple-lens camera, with a 64MP main sensor joined by monochrome and macro cameras.
The OnePlus Nord N20 5G also has 5G and an in-screen fingerprint scanner, but only a 60Hz refresh rate. As a result, it feels a bit behind the times there, especially as the Nord N10 5G has a 90Hz panel – albeit an LCD rather than AMOLED one.
Its Android version is also slightly behind, being Android 11 (overlaid with the company’s OxygenOS).
Analysis: how the Nord N20 5G fits in
You might be wondering where the OnePlus Nord N20 fits in the wider Nord lineup, and the answer is above the OnePlus Nord N200 5G but below the OnePlus Nord 2 5G .
However, the OnePlus Nord 2 5G isn’t available in the US, so the Nord N20 5G will be top of the line in the country where it’s set to be sold.
Of course, while it sits high in the Nord lineup, this is still very much a mid-range handset, with the OnePlus 10 Pro offering far better specs at a far higher price.