Sony had its day in the ongoing CES 2023 on Thursday where the brand debuted not only a prototype for an electric car ‘Afeela’ but also announced the PS VR2 headset, Project Leonardo for people with disabilities, Gran Turismo Movie, and more. The brand also talked about how there will be no shortage of PS5 this year and the record sales of the gaming console.
Let us have a look at these products one by one.
Electric Car Prototype ‘Afeela’ to come out in 2026.
One of the biggest highlights was the announcement of the e-car Afeela. The car has been developed with Honda and will debut in 2026 using Qualcomm technology. The brand confirmed that it will be open for pre-orders in the first half of 2025 and the deliveries will begin in early 2026. “Afeela represents our concept of an interactive relationship where people feel the sensation of interactive mobility and where mobility can detect and understand people and society by utilizing sensing and AI technologies,” a Sony India executive said in a keynote at CES.
Sony has been working on this electric car for years now as the early vision of the Vision-S01 prototype was shown off at CES 2020. The success of Sony’s upcoming e-car is still unclear as the competition in the market is stiff. The announcement however has put Sony ahead of Apple which has been said to be working on an e-car as well. Dyson had also tried to work on e-vehicles but dumped the idea later due to the high cost involved.
Playstation VR2 Headset to launch in February 2022
The PS VR2 headset that will need PlayStation 5 to run it will launch next month on 22nd February. The headset is priced at 550 dollars and is a high-end virtual reality system with better specs than the market leader Meta’s Quest 2 which costs 400 dollars. Sony has promised a minimum of 30 games for PSVR’s launch which include a spin-off to the popular robot animal hunting action-adventure series Horizon as well as Gran Turismo 7. PSVR2 is the 2nd headset by Sony after PSVR that was launched in 2016, priced at 400 dollars. PSVR 2 is expected to be a huge success. Grand Turismo 7 will have PS VR2 support when the VR platform launches next month.
Project Leonardo customizable accessibility controller kit for PS5
This controller kit is still in development so not much is known about it right now, but Sony claims that the controller will “remove barriers to gaming and help players with disabilities play more easily, more comfortably and for longer periods on PS5.” The controller has been developed with contributions from accessibility experts, community members, and game developers.
The controller is highly customizable and looks to be in the shape of a disc with 8 PS5 buttons and a joystick attached to it. It can be used as is or can be paired up with a DualSense controller. Due to its shape, there is no need to hold with by hand as it can rest on a table itself or can be mounted on a tripod. The release date is yet to be announced.
First look of the Gran Turismo Movie releasing in August 2023
Sony has also shared the first look of the upcoming Gran Turismo movie that will hit the theatres in August. The sneak peek had words from stars Archie Madekwe, Orlando Bloom, and David Harbour and showed off the movie’s combination of real-life racing and Gran Turismo action.
Some other Big Announcements
PlayStation’s CEO Jim Ryan announced that the shortage of PS5 will be over in 2023. He said, “Everyone who wants a PS5 should have a much easier time finding one at retailers globally, starting from this point forward. We would like to inform everyone that we have resolved the long-term supply issues of PlayStation 5 and will be able to deliver it to many customers in Japan and Asia from this year-end shopping season into 2023.” He thanked the players for being patient as the company tried to manage the demand for consoles during the global challenges over the last 2 years.
Also, Jim Ryan announced that the PS5 has passed 30 million units sold. December was the biggest month ever for sales as 25 million units had been sold till November 2022. A tweet from Sony’s official handle said- “Also confirmed today: December was the biggest month ever for PS5 console sales, bringing the total to more than 30 million units sold worldwide. Thanks for playing everyone- 2023’s gonna be a great year.”
