It’s hard to imagine a company with a greater influence on consumer electronics than Sony. You can trace a direct line from the Walkman -- the first portable media player -- to the smartphone. Today Sony is a massive force in gaming, making the PlayStation and publishing games for it and other platforms. Sony image sensors are in iPhones as well as its own mirrorless cameras. Not to mention the OLED TVs; smartphones; noise-canceling headphones; music, tv, and film publishing; and, yes, robot dogs.
It can apparently recognize how much influence a given track or artist had on AI content, and can work with or without cooperation from AI developers. Sony thinks it could be used to create a licensing system for AI music, but “has yet to decide” when it might be put to use.
Sony shipped 8 million PS5 consoles over the recent holiday quarter. While that’s down 16 percent year-over-year, it’s still nearly the same amount of PS4 shipments Sony managed during the same period of its lifecycle. In fact, VGC points out that the PS5 has been pretty much aligned with Sony’s PS4 shipments in the months since its launch.
Power Buy has since taken down the listing for the new Sony WF-1000XM6 earbuds as spotted by Reddit’s Mr_Snail10, but The Walkman Blog managed to capture some images before it disappeared. The upgrade to 2023’s WF-1000XM5 appear to feature a more rounded pill-shaped design with a charging case that now has a flat top and bottom.
Sony has started rolling out a new system update for the PlayStation 5 today that includes the ability to turn on read receipts to let gamers know you’ve read their messages. The update also improves navigation between the Friends Activity widget and the Welcome Hub, as well as the usual “performance and stability” improvements.
As part of a multiyear agreement, Sony Picture Entertainment films will stream on Netflix worldwide following their “full theatrical and home entertainment runs.” The deal is worth more than $7 billion, Deadline reports. Netflix already has Pay-1 rights in the US and other select territories.
9
Verge Score
It’s not the brightest OLED, and it isn’t perfect, but there’s no TV I’d rather watch.
The Sony-Honda brand unveiled the higher-riding, roomier equivalent to the Afeela 1 at its CES keynote earlier this week, saying it could go into production in 2028. While the luxury EV market is a bit saturated these days, the concept is sure to appeal to anyone who loves Afeela’s approach to in-car entertainment and wants more room than the sedan version offers.
Afeela cars will get themes featuring Sony franchises like Gran Turismo and Astro Bot, including custom wallpapers and e-motor sounds. Driving with the delightful sounds of Astro Bot does feel like it could be fun.
Last month, Sony Honda Mobility also announced that you’ll be able to stream PlayStation games to your Afeela via Remote Play.
Sorry, had to get the first Afeela pun out of the way ahead of the CES 2026 Sony Honda Mobility press conference. The shows kicks off at 8PM ET / 5PM PT, and you can watch it on YouTube.
Good grief, is the Peanuts franchise really worth $457 million in 2025?
Your Wrap-Up summary will show you how many hours you clocked on your PS5 this year, along with stats showing the number of games you played, which ones you played the most, and how many trophies you earned throughout the year. You can view your recap on PlayStation’s website until January 8th, 2026.
According to FlatpanelsHD and TheWalkmanblog, Sony has trademarked “True RGB” in Japan and Canada. It’s almost certainly for the RGB TV technology announced earlier this year to compete with similar RGB tech from Hisense, TCL, and Samsung shown in 2025.
The ¥55,000 (about $355) console is approximately 25 percent cheaper than the standard discless edition, but requires a Japanese PlayStation account, is region-locked, and only offers the Japanese language too. Still, all that money saved will go a long way towards buying a cheaper Japan-only version of the Switch 2 to go alongside it.
Despite a $50 price hike to offset Trump’s tariffs, Sony shipped 3.9 million PS5 units globally in the recent quarter (up slightly from 3.8 million last year) with help from Ghost of Yōtei sales that reached 3.3 million after just one month. Lifetime shipments now sit at 84.2 million consoles after five years, putting it roughly in line with the PS4.
[Sony]
The site, which is home to merch from titles like The Last of Us, Astro Bot, and God of War, now displays a message saying it’s closing on December 31st, 2025, as spotted by PushSquare. It notes that its customer support team will still be available, but all sales are now final.
