While PlayStation and Nintendo are far older, more entrenched gaming brands than Microsoft, having multiple decades of history, and iconic hardware and software under their belt, it appears that in the immediate here and now, Microsoft is far more at the forefront of gamers’ minds than either of them. A study conducted by marketing firm ScribbleLive over CES seems to confirm as much.

Speaking of their study and the methodology behind it, ScribbleLive said “The ScribbleLive Insights application analyzed over 100 million articles from news, blog and social media sources to identify opinions from and reactions to the various product categories, people and brands featured at the event. Insights calculated a proprietary influence score (the “attention index”) based on the people or entities that reacted to an announcement. This was weighted by their influence on a given theme, the credibility of the outlet where the reaction was published or consumed, and the volume of reactions generated by the opinions within the studied timeframe of January 1-8, 2016.”

The results are truly surprising- Microsoft leads over Sony by a fair bit (though it is important to note that PlayStation has its own discrete category, which when combined with Sony, would gain a healthy lead over Microsoft- Xbox has no such distinct category). Amusingly enough, Oculus seems to be more influential than either of those.

Of course, what with this study being conducted at CES, a technology show, and seemingly being conducted in a very short timeframe, the results are bound to be biased in favor of companies with more technology heavy showings (which would explain why Nintendo doesn’t score highly here- they didn’t have any presence at CES, while Sony’s presence was mostly not related to their gaming products).

Still, it makes for some interesting insight, that is for sure.

The Xbox One controller goes on for 40 hours on one charge, and the Wii U Pro for a staggering 80 hours, but most other controllers this generation have shockingly poor battery lives- the DualShock 4 barely gets 7 hours of juice on a single charge, and the Wii U Gamepad gets about 5 hours.

It’s one of the big failings of this era of consoles- but it’s one that may soon be a thing of the past. At CES 2016, a company called PDP showed off new technology that can fully charge a battery in 1 minute, leading to 8 hours of usage time after that. So yes, this can be used for your Xbox One controller, your DualShock 4, your Wii U Gamepad, and even your Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita- you could use this for your phone or tablet too.

“In the past it has been about either your dry cell battery chemistries or your lithium ion or lithium polymers, but we’ve developed a new type of power pack,” director of product development at the PDP Christopher Dingle told Polygon at the show.

It’s a little unbelievable, but what they showed at CES definitely worked as advertised. How? Well, they discussed it a bit.

“It’s a new type of power pack chemistry,” he said. “It’s a physical reaction rather than a chemical reaction.”

PDP expects the pack will go for $99, which, hell yeah, I’d spend that money to not have to worry about batteries ever again.

Sony’s CEO Kaz Hirai discussed the reasons for not revealing PlayStation VR’s launch details in an interview with AV Watch. According to Hirai, PlayStation VR is a major new product for Sony- it indicates the direction the company is hoping to take in the future, an intersection of innovation and affordability- for the company, it’s clearly a flagship aspirational.

However, it’s also primarily a gaming product- not only that, but CES is an event that is meant to highlight the general direction a company takes each year, too, one that is better for broad overviews that product specific announcements. Hirai said keeping all this in mind, Sony decided to hold off on PlayStation VR announcements until a later event- GDC, E3, or TGS, basically.

I also imagine they wanted Oculus to announce their pricing and launch details first and gauge the response, so they could adjust their plans accordingly.

Sony had a pretty good keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show yesterday, where they showed off the full range of their high end consumer electronic products, as they try to regain their spot at the top of the consumer electronics world. Crucially, their keynote, as well as all of their official media at CES, shows us just how important gaming and PlayStation have become to Sony. For a company that originally wanted nothing to do with gaming, and didn’t even want its brand on the original PlayStation console, Sony has now embraced video games as one of its main core pillars.

The CES 2016 trailer is a testament to that- it shows off Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and PlayStation VR, all major PlayStation launches from Sony coming later this year.

Sadly, the launch date and pricing of PlayStation VR is still unknown- the headset is due to launch later this year, but pricing and launch details are still up in the air. With Oculus having blinked and announced pricing and launch details for Oculus Rift today, hopefully it won’t be long before Sony follow suit.

The Consumer Electronics Show 2016 has already kicked off; as the first major event of the year, technology enthusiasts the world over are anticipating major announcements at the event. For video games fans, Valve’s confirmed presence at the show was an exciting prospect- would we be getting new game announcements from them? Perhaps something exclusive to Steam Machines, or something for their upcoming VR headset?

It turns out no, we won’t. Valve has confirmed that its focus will be solely on hardware at the show- mostly on the upcoming HTC Vive VR headset, as a matter of fact.

The company’s Chet Faliszek stated much on Twitter. “So there is no confusion,” he said, “CES is a hardware/technology show where we will be talking about and showing hardware – VR hardware with HTC…”

“Last year at CES we were just quietly meeting with people and checking things out while we kept our secret. This one will be a bit different,” he continued. Responding to fan questions about Valve’s slate of announcements in 2016, he noted: “Less hype train in my mind – more just all of this becoming real. This year is just starting – pace yourself.”

Of course, VR is an exciting prospect anyway, and Valve and HTC’s Vive looks to be one of the most intriguing ones, so I’m not sure a whole lot of players will be complaining about this anyway.

We already knew VR will be a demanding proposition- after all, generating a high fidelity image like that would require some serious muscle power. At CES today, Nvidia announced the GeForce GTX VR Ready program, designed to allow consumers to “instantly identify VR capable PCs, notebooks and add-in cards through a GeForce GTX VR Ready badge.” The minimum threshold to be able to run VR? A GTX 970, apparently.

“For customers, navigating an emerging technology like VR can be daunting,” said Jason Paul, general manager of emerging technologies at Nvidia. “We’re working with trusted partners worldwide to simplify the buying process with a GeForce GTX VR Ready badge that will let customers quickly identify PCs or add-in cards that are capable of handling the demands of VR.”

The minimum specs you would need alongside a GTX 970 are:

• a PC with USB 3.0 support
• CPU: Intel Core i5- 4590 equivalent or greater CPU
• 8GB+ RAM of Memory/RAM
• 2x USB 3.0 ports and HDMI 1.3
• Windows

If you are running a laptop, you will need a GTX 980 at minimum. These specs will ensure your computer has the power required to be able to push two high resolution images at 90 frames per second, or higher.

I imagine most people serious about PC gaming – the people who would be interested in VR in the first place – already have high end graphics cards and well specc’d machines, so they don’t need to worry about this. Still, though, it’s good to have some benchmarks.

Looks like things are coming to a head now. According to Nintendo Enthusiast, Nintendo will be showing off its NX console behind closed doors at the upcoming Consumer’s Electronics Show. The source states that third party companies have been sent an invite to the showcase of the system, which appears to be an attempt to show them what it is capable of.

In terms of specs, it was compared to an Xbox One, and it was also mentioned that Nintendo will be pricing the system lower than the competition, in an attempt to undercut their advantage. No mention was made of any crazy controllers, or hybrid console/handheld designs, however.

The thought of Nintendo unveiling a new console to third parties at CES is not necessarily unreasonable- the company did the same thing with the Wii U back in 2012. However, the question of the system’s power is what’s in contention here- are these sources right on that? They may not be, especially since none of the console’s alleged unique functionality has been mentioned at all.

CES is almost here, so we will know soon one way or the other anyway. For now- let’s let the NX hype train roll, one last time.

Less than two weeks ago, HTC and Valve revealed that the VR headset HTC Vive would be delayed into 2016. In a recent report by Engadget at Vive Unbound, HTC CEO Cher Wang revealed the reason for the same – the company apparently made a “very, very big technological breakthrough” with regards to Vive.

This breakthrough is slated to be show at CES 2016 in January and though it meant a delay from the original release date, it was significant enough to allow the development team to take the time to properly implement it. Wang stated that, “We shouldn’t make our users swap their systems later just so we could meet the December shipping date.”

The Consumer Electronics Show or CES 2016 takes place on January 6th to 9th in 2016 and it should be interesting to see what new breakthrough that HTC have made to their VR headset. How will it compete with the likes of PlayStation VR and Oculus Rift? We’ll find out in the coming weeks so stay tuned.