Here’s a quick recap of everything Sony announced, including its new electronic car “Afeela” at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Sony Thursday held its biggest launch in years at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, where it debuted a new EV prototype called Afeela, which will go on sale as early as 2026. The Japanese electronics giant also announced that it will start selling the highly-anticipated PlayStation VR 2 headset on February 22. In addition to the Afeela electric car and a sneak peek at the Gran Turismo movie, Sony introduced Project Leonardo, a new accessibility controller kit compatible with the PS5.
Here are the biggest announcements to come out of Sony’s CES 2023 event.
Sony’s new ‘Afeela’ electric vehicle coming in 2026
Perhaps the biggest news to come out of CES this year is a Sony car, an electric vehicle dubbed “Afeela.” The car, which has been developed with Honda as part of a Sony Mobility subsidiary, will debut in 2026 using Qualcomm technology. Sony said it will open preorders for the car in the first half of 2025, with deliveries set to begin in early 2026 in North America.
“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,” Sony Honda Mobility CEO Yasuhide Mizuno said during a keynote event at CES.
Known for hits including Walkman, PlayStation and Trinitron TVs, Sony has been working on an electric car for several years. At the CES, in 2020, Sony rolled out an early version of the Vision-S 01 prototype and a year later, again at the world’s biggest tech show, it showed off the Vision-S 02. Both Honda and Sony are betting big on the future of electric vehicles, especially in North America.
The success of Sony’s electric car is unclear, especially now when the competition is cut-throat in the EV space. The announcement of Afeela puts Sony ahead of Apple, which has been rumoured to be working on an electric car. But the cost of designing and manufacturing an electric car is huge. Dyson, the British company best known for its vacuums and hand dryers, had been working on a line of electric vehicles but decided to stop working on them due to the high cost involved.
PlayStation VR 2 hits stores on February 22
Sony’s PlayStation VR 2 headset, which requires a PlayStation 5 to run it, will launch on February 22. PSVR 2, which Sony priced at $550, is a high-end virtual reality system with better specs than the market leader Meta’s Quest 2, which costs $400. Sony has promised at least 30 games for the PSVR’s launch, including a spin-off to its popular robot-animal-hunting action-adventure series Horizon as well as Gran Turismo 7. This is Sony’s second attempt at the virtual reality market. Sony’s original PSVR for PlayStation 4 launched in 2016 for $400. Virtual reality is lately exploding, and Sony wants to be seen as a big player. With brands like the PlayStation embedded in popular culture, Sony hopes the new PlayStation VR 2 will be a success.
Project Leonardo is a customisable accessibility controller kit for PlayStation 5
Project Leonardo is PlayStation 5’s accessibility controller kit that’s currently in development. Not much information is available about Project Leonardo, but Sony says the controller will “remove barriers to gaming and help players with disabilities play more easily, more comfortably, and for longer periods on PS5.” But we do know that the special controller has been developed with contributions from accessibility experts, community members, and game developers. Microsoft, too, offers the Xbox Adaptive controller, which is designed to make gaming accessible to those with limited mobility.
Other big announcements at Sony’s CES 2023 press conference
*PlayStation’s Jim Ryan announced on stage that the PlayStation 5 has passed 30 million units sold.
*Sony shared a first look at the upcoming Gran Turismo movie, which is set to hit theatres this August.
Source: indianexpress
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