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Oooooo, shiny. PlayStation revealed the PS5 UI in a State of Play yesterday. The video showed off enhanced social elements like a new and improved party system, as well as new overlays for both the home screen and the new “activities” screen. You’ll now also be able to share your screen with friends, and watch your friends as you play with picture-in-picture.
The NPD Group has their September 2020 numbers out for the video game industry. Mat Piscatella summarizes the report in this YouTube video, and Twitter thread. Some of the highlights include: September spending was up 10% totaling $4.3 billion year over year, Marvel’s Avengers was the top selling game of the month and spending on accessories reached a September record $191 million, gaining 30 percent when compared to a year ago. Year-to-date spending for accessories has increased 26 percent, to an all-time high $1.6 billion.
Cloud gaming has a storied past. Many wild twists and turns have seen startups be successful or fall out of the space. Now the big dogs are all in on cloud gaming. From Xbox’s Project xCloud, PlayStation Now, Google Stadia and the many others that are now flooding the consumer marketplace, cloud gaming has hit its stride. JP Mangalindan at Polygon takes you through the history of the technology.