Creating a virtual reality headset, much less one that’s affordable to the masses, is no easy task. If Oculus Rift’s journey has taught us anything, it’s that the road is rife with challenges, both financial and technical. Sony’s PlayStation VR has faced its fair share of hurdles and in speaking with Digital Spy, Sony Worldwide Studios president for SCEI Shuhei Yoshida revealed that putting the device on was one of the biggest challenges of its design.

“Mechanical engineers from each part of the development team had a big challenge from Ito-san, the head of hardware (Masayasu Ito, PlayStation executive vice president). His order was to make it so that anyone can put it on and off with just one hand.

“The earlier prototype of Project Morpheus had two sets of fit bands, which was a bit too complicated for our tastes, so the designers came up with this one big band that stretches and shrinks pretty easily, so you can handle it with one hand when you’re used to it.

“It also lets you to pull out the display when you need to look at a smartphone or drink, because of the weight balance. This was important but super challenging for the designers and we are proud of what they’ve accomplished.”

PlayStation VR is out in October 2016 and will retail for $399. A special bundle containing PlayStation Camera (mandatory for using PS VR), PlayStation Move, the VR headset and a free game will be available for $499.

Evolution Studios has been hard at work on DriveClub, what with DriveClub bikes allowing us to race on two wheels as opposed to four, but it’s still hard at work on the original game. In fact, the game’s official Twitter account is teasing some new tracks for players in 2016. You can see one of these in the image above.

Other images showcased varying weather conditions, night-time settings and much more to go with your average city-scape. These tracks look like fairly decent follow-ups to the game’s current roster and it will be interesting to see how Evolution Studios chooses to implement them, considering its experience with both paid and free DLC.

Though DriveClub launched with a variety of issues in October 2014, it’s been supported by Evolution Studios to a huge extent, receiving both free and paid DLC along with numerous other features. What are your thoughts on the new tracks? Let us know in the comments.

Kojima Productions is now with Sony Computer Entertainment (if you didn’t know already) and his next big game will be coming to the PlayStation 4. In a recent Q&A released by the company (as per Medium), it was revealed that not only is Sony not investing in the studio but that the game was “planned to become available on PC” following its release on PS4.

It was also revealed that this new game would not be related to either Metal Gear or Silent Hills in some way, which is a given since they’re both owned by Konami. As for Sony’s relationship with Konami in the midst of all this, the former said that the latter “will remain one of SCE’s most important publishers, and our relationship with them will not change.”

Many in the industry have already commented on Kojima Productions re-forming to work with Sony Computer Entertainment. What are your thoughts on the same? Let us know in the comments.

Though the PS4 had two good releases this year with Bloodborne and Until Dawn (The Order: 1886 was…disappointing to say the least), it hasn’t quite been as good as the Xbox One’s first party line-up. Managing director for Sony Computer Entertainment Australia Michael Ephraim spoke to GameSpot about the same during the PlayStation 20th Anniversary event in Sydney and admitted that this year’s first party line-up for PS4 wasn’t as strong it should have been.

“Games that have been released this year, from Destiny, Call of Duty, Star Wars – most of them we have a collaboration with for additional content if you play on PlayStation 4, so we’re pretty confident with the way Christmas is going. The demand is strong. We have worked very closely with third parties this year because our first party line-up was not as a strong as we would have liked.”

That being said, 2016 is looking much brighter for Sony. As Ephraim states, “Next year, our first party line-up looks incredible. You’ve got Street Fighter, Uncharted 4, No Man’s Sky, The Last Guardian, Gran Turismo. These are all exclusives, and two of them are new franchises.”

What are your thoughts on this year’s PS4 offerings and what are you looking forward to next year? Let us know in the comments.

Enough has been said about SOCOM, the famous tactical team shooter, and it eventually coming to PlayStation 4. Sadly, there’s been no confirmation of a sequel anytime soon. In an interview with PS Nation following PlayStation Experience 2015, president of Sony Worldwide Studios for SCE Shuhei Yoshida about the reason for the same.

Speaking about the dedication of PlayStation players, Yoshida stated that, “I appreciate the passion and their [fans] dedication. Every time there is a chance to voice their opinion or things they want to see come back. The latest that I understand had over 10,000 people signed up? So there is high expectations and when there is a rumor we are bringing back some of the PS2 games, they are like oh!…SOCOM was one of the PS2 titles, they want to see it and it wasn’t there. I thought I had to address that because there was such a high expectation. I said we had nothing that we can talk about and we don’t have plans for a new SOCOM game anytime soon.”

Apparently this made a lot of people upset with some asking Yoshida to leave the industry.

“That made some people really angry and I have been bombarded with angry messages. Some people say that I don’t qualify for my job, I should leave this industry and something like that. So I appreciate the passion but it’s not easy to bring back.

“In an online game…you know moved on. So much of quality and production values, everything is way, way higher. People have great memories of playing these games many years ago but people’s experiences have moved on as well. So even if they say that they had a great time and they want to experience it again they may not know how much higher their own expectations have become.”

Yoshida further states that it’s a matter of gauging interest and balancing things out. “We have to gauge the interest and what they are saying and what they really want to see or play. We have to balance that with what we can do with the number of people who will enjoy that and we don’t have a good answer to that. So it’s a hard one. We made the game. It’s not like we did not liked the game. We are extremely proud of what our teams have accomplished during that days, but we have to balance everything.”

What are your thoughts on Yoshida’s stance? Let us know in the comments below.

Sony recently announced a new sales milestone for the PlayStation 4. As of November 22nd, the console hit 30.2 million units sold, making it the fastest selling console for the company yet. The PS4 first became available in November 2013.

President and global CEO of SCE Andrew House stated that, “We are sincerely grateful that gamers across the globe have continued to choose PS4 as the best place to play since launch two years ago.

“We are committed to bringing engaging games and entertainment services to users worldwide. Thanks to the support of our partners, PS4 continues to be the premier platform for game and interactive entertainment innovation.”

Thus far, the PlayStation 4 has been beating out Microsoft’s Xbox One – which recently begun measuring user engagement as opposed to console sales – in sales since both consoles launched. Sony is currently readying for its PlayStation Experience show on December 5th to 6th where it will reveal plans for the PS4 heading into 2016.

Stick a fork in the PS Vita, because it’s done. Well, not quite done but at the very least it seems that Sony won’t be bringing any more first party titles to the handheld in the foreseeable future.

Sony Computer Entertainment senior VP Masayasu Ito spoke to 4Gamers (translated by DualShockers) about the same and said that, “Currently, first-party studios have no titles in development for PS Vita. Since third-parties are working very hard on PS Vita, SCE’s own strategy is to focus on PS4, which is a new platform.”

It seems that the players using the Vita have become younger and along with third party releases like Minecraft: PS Vita Edition, there will be new colours for the handheld to appeal to said audience.

Plans could change in the future but considering all the first party efforts coming to the PS4, it doesn’t seem likely. Thoughts on the matter? Let us know below.

After Sony announced a price cut for the PlayStation 4 in Japan following its pre-Tokyo Game Show conference, it seems that the United States may be next in line.

According to a listing on retailer Target, the PS4 is poised to be priced at $349.99 which makes for a roughly $50 cut. It’s not much of a surprise really. Sony has been selling PS4 consoles hand over fist since it launched in 2013 and managed to turn a fairly decent profit on each unit sold. There’s also the fact that the Xbox One has been $349 in price for a while now and has been gaining significant momentum since then.

Could the price cut be announced at the Paris Game Show later this month where Sony has a significant presence? We’ll find out in the coming weeks but in the meantime, let us know what you think of the new price in the comments below.

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Naughty Dog is busy with Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End but the developer has stated before that it’s working on ideas for a sequel to The Last of Us, the studio’s hit third person action title that was both critically and commercially acclaimed. While we may not be much closer to a confirmation on the state of a sequel, The Last of Us 2 does have another supporter in the form of Sony Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Yoshida stated that with regards to The Last of Us 2, “I asked [community strategist Arne Meyer] that question last night over dinner. We haven’t confirmed The Last of Us 2, but ever since the launch of the first game, people like [creative director Neil Druckmann] are talking about some ideas for a potential sequel, some experiments that they want to do.

As of now, there have been “talks around development” and Sony is interested in the “life these characters have after what happened in The Last of Us.” Thoughts? Let us know in the comments.

Sony is currently winning the console war in terms of sales with its PS4 having notched up more than 22.3 million units worldwide as of March 31st 2015. However, Microsoft still serves as strong competition especially when it offers some things with its Xbox One that the PS4 doesn’t, like backwards compatibility.

What does SCE Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida think of that, especially since the Xbox One’s backwards compatibility is free and Sony’s solution PS Now requires a subscription?

Speaking to Games Radar, Yoshida said, “We don’t have backwards compatibility with PS4. With PS Now you can play PS3 games on PS4, but the main purpose of PS Now is a network service. By removing the requirement of games running on the console itself we can bring PlayStation games to multiple devices, including non-PlayStation devices. We just announced an alliance with Samsung in the US so people who purchase Samsung TVs can play PlayStation games on their TV. So that’s the main purpose, not to provide backwards compatibility.

“I totally understand people asking for it, and if it was easy, we’d have done that. But our focus is creating PS4 games and adding new services. remaking games on PS4 makes the games even better – with The Last Of Us, you can play at 60 frames per second, and the same goes for Dark Souls II. Actually, I just finished Dark Souls II again on PS4.”

The PS4 is scheduled to receive a number of remasters like Uncharted Collection, Beyond: Two Souls and Heavy Rain along with new sequels such as Uncharted 4 and new IPs in Until Dawn and Everybody’s Gone To Rapture. What are your thoughts on Sony’s philosophy though? Let us know in the comments.