Business Tech & Science
John Hofilena on May 21 2013
After five months of waiting – maybe for the hardcore
Sony console fanatics – the Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) online store will finally be available in Japan starting May 29. Sony announced this on Tuesday, and the browser-based marketplace will now be available in Japan almost half a year after it launched in the United States. Almost similar to Android’s Google Play store, the system enables users to sign in with their
PlayStation Network accounts and buy games, television show episodes, and full length feature films for any Sony device that they own.
Japan's public broadcaster NHK will be unveiling its next-generation 8K
Super Hi-Vision (SHV) format on May 16 and 17 by screening the first short film shot in the ultra-HD format at the Cannes International Film Festival. Director Toshio Lee will show his 27 minute comedy "Beauties À La Carte" on a 220-inch screen so viewers can better appreciate the 8K super HD format, with a 22.2 channel audio system, also developed by
NHK.
Japan electronics giants
Sony Corp. experienced a rare surge in the company’s stocks on Wednesday after a US hedge fund – who has considerable investments in the company – called on the multimedia company to sell part of its profitable entertainment unit. This is one of the rare times that a foreign investor has tried to effect change on one of Japan’s strongest and most influential industry leaders.
Japan's
Sony Corp. revealed today that it recorded its first annual net profit in the last five years, with much of credited to the recent weakening of the yen and the resulting increase in overseas revenue. For the fiscal year ending March of this year, the financially beleaguered electronics giant earned 43.03 billion yen (approx. 436.08 million dollars), a quick turnaround from the 456.66 billion yen in losses that were recorded one year earlier.
PlayStation Vita – officially abbreviated as
PS Vita – is electronics giant Sony’s official successor to the PlayStation Portable handheld gaming platform, but it might not receive the acclaim and success that its predecessors had. While the touchscreen handheld gaming console is selling better these days, that doesn’t equate to its owners being overjoyed by the mobile
video game device either.
In what is said to be an “unprecedented” move, around 40 executives at Japanese electronics giant
Sony Corp. have chosen to give back their fiscal 2012 bonuses in what looks to be a move to take responsibility for the poor business performance that the electronics company is going through. This action was formally announced by company officials on Wednesday, where the bonuses returned were estimated to be at around 1.0 billion yen (around 10 million US dollars).
After a 43 billion yen loss last year,
Nintendo Co. should be happy to post an annual profit of 7.1 billion yen (US$72 million) as the fiscal year ended on March 31. The Kyoto-based game console and software manufacturer was boosted by the weakening yen, creating an environment ideal for exporters like Nintendo. Still the profit was slightly less than what analysts have projected for the game company.
Cody Kretsinger – a hacker known by his
nom de guerre “Recursion” – pleaded guilty to an extensive computer network security hack of
Sony Pictures Entertainment and was sentenced on Thursday to one year and one day in prison, to be immediately followed by a one year of home detention, plus 1,000 hours of community service.
While
Microsoft's Xbox 360 has been the leading video game console in the US, their sales in Japan have been so low that some stores have stopped selling the console and its games. As a push to get more Japanese interested in the Xbox (and become loyal to the brand as well), they are launching the 1 Million Hours campaign.
An internet service provider (ISP) in Japan back by
Sony just launched what is said to be the world's fastest internet for home consumers. Dubbed "Nuro," So-net Entertainment's fiber-based internet service launched on Monday in
Tokyo and six nearby prefectures with download speeds of 2Gbps and 1Gbps for uploads, all for 4,980 yen (approx. $51) per month.
