Sony, the conference at CES 2023: all the announcements and news of PS5 and PS VR2

There Sony conference at CES 2023 it was particularly awaited: the Japanese house had revealed that the PlayStation VR2 viewer would have been among the protagonists of the event, also suggesting the arrival of some surprises; and so it was, with announcements related to the Gran Turismo franchise, the new Project Leonardo controller, updated PS5 sales and automotive news.

In less than fifty minutes Sony took stock of the current situation, confirming the end of the problems relating to the availability of PlayStation 5 in stores (which should now return to the pre-pandemic situation), presented a new device voted accessibility, added a couple of big names to the PS VR2 launch line-up, and confirmed their love of cars – even on the big screen.

So here it is all the announcements and news from the Sony conference at CES 2023.

Gran Turismo

After an introductory phase in which the president and CEO of Sony, Kenichiro Yoshida, spoke about the corporate vision and the results achieved so far on the market, as per tradition for this type of event, the ball immediately passed to the gaming division and in particular to Kazunori Yamauchithe brilliant mind behind the series of Gran Turismowho talked about the project related to artificial intelligence Sophy, able to compete with pro-players.

Then Yamauchi recalled that this year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the series and that the release of the Gran Turismo movie in cinemas could contribute significantly to increasing the popularity of the brand. At that point, Yoshida returned to the stage, inviting Sanford Panitch, president of Sony Pictures, Asad Qizilbash, head of PlayStation Productions, and finally director Neill Blomkamp to the stage.

Panitch recalled the great success of Uncharted and revealed that PlayStation Productions boasts several projects in the pipelinethen Qizilbash explained what the company has tried to do with the film adaptation of Gran Turismo, its attempt to bring the passion for cars and the thrill of track racing to the big screen, creating a new and spectacular mix for this thread.

A vision obviously shared by the talented director Neill Blomkamp, ​​who brought with him a first behind-the-scenes look at the Gran Turismo film, shown during the conference: a video in which the actors Archie Madekwe, Orlando Bloom and David Harbour introduce us to the atmosphere, story and characters that we will find in this interesting adaptation, which promises to get us on track like no other film before.

Games and virtual worlds

The PlayStation division was the main protagonist of the event, with its many facets. There was talk in general of games and development with the interventions of Jade Raymond, founder of Haven, a studio acquired by Sony last July; Justin Truman, chief development officer at Bungie, working on unannounced projects; and Nuria Tarré, who talked about the collaboration between Sony and Manchester City to create a football metaverse.

A concept reaffirmed by Kenichiro Yoshida, who in addition to listing the possible sports applications of this application, took advantage of the occasion to present mocopi, the portable motion detection system which will soon allow users to perform a motion capture on the fly and make blocks with virtual avatars for social platforms like TikTok.

Playstation VR2

Sony’s new virtual reality viewer, arriving in stores on February 22, was able to count on a fair amount of space within the conference. Talking about the device was Jim Ryan, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, who after a brief introduction immediately announced a highly valuable content that will enrich the launch line-up of Playstation VR2i.e. Gran Turismo 7 VR.

This is not a stand alone game, but one free additional mode for owners of the latest episode of the racing series, which will allow them to face the races in first person, taking advantage of the sophisticated PS VR2 technology to truly “feel” the thrill of racing aboard the fastest cars in the world. As mentioned, Gran Turismo 7 VR will be available from February 22 in the form of an update.

Ryan then hinted at the upcoming release of Beat Saber on PlayStation VR2, without however providing further details: the rhythm game by Beat Games has so far met with extraordinary success and certainly its entry into the playroom of the new VR viewer will be welcomed with enthusiasm by users. For further details, however, we will have to wait.

Project Leonardo and PS5 sales

The next announcement from the conference was Project Leonardo, a highly customizable, modularly designed PS5 controller designed for users with disability. Thanks to the characteristics of this device, studied and tested in collaboration with organizations such as The Able Gamers Charity, SpecialEffect and Stack UP, it will be possible to create from scratch a configuration that best suits anyone’s needs.

Staying on the PlayStation 5 theme, Jim Ryan took advantage of the stage of the Las Vegas event to announce that the console has sold 30 million units so far and that December 2022 was the best month ever for the platform. The president of SIE also stated that the problems related to the availability of PS5 now belong to the past, and that from now on it will be much easier to find and buy the console in stores around the world.

Smart cars

Back on the scene for a final segment, Kenichiro Yoshida closed the conference talking about the Sony Honda Mobile project and welcoming its director, Yasuhide Mizuno, who presented the prototype of the line Afeela: an electric car that focuses on intelligent mobility, supported by advanced artificial intelligence systems. The car will be available for pre-order from 2025 and will go on sale in the spring of 2026 in the USA.

Afeela will be equipped with well forty-five internal and external sensors, who will take care of monitoring what is happening inside and outside the vehicle at all times, so as to fully support the driver and assist him in preventing accidents. Of course, a lot of technology will also be expressed in the context of infotainment, which would seem to integrate the components of a PS5 for watching movies, listening to music and gaming.

The arrival on stage of the CTO of Epic Games, Kim Libreri, revealed a further collaboration with the Fortnite company, which will make the technologies of theUnreal Engine 5 for the purpose of virtualizing environments and traffic, thus contributing to the creation of a system that has never been so advanced for detecting what is around the car we are driving.