Sony PlayStation Research Articles

Research on New Star of Anime Game Based on Genshin Impact's Success Factors and Potential Troubles

Abstract: Genshin Impact is one of the most widely influential and profitable Chinese games to date. So far, its achievements include but are not limited to winning the "Sony PlayStation Partner Awards", and winning the "TGA Best Mobile Game" award in 2021 and 2022. The success of Genshin Impact is legendary, and it is also a milestone in Chinese games. Studying the success of it is of great significance to the development of the game industry. This article started with the previous research on Genshin Impact and other anime games, combined with the current background of the game industry, and analyzed the underlying factors behind its tremendous success from three perspectives: the production level of Genshin Impact itself, IP publicity, and operation, and meeting the needs of players. Additionally, it delves into potential challenges that Genshin Impact may face from three aspects: the game's narrative and character design, player feedback and communication, and goals for game industrialization. Lastly, recommendations are presented for each of these fields. This article improves the strategic consideration of Genshin Impact in terms of profitability and improves the viscosity of game players.

Preposterous Pricing: A Case of the Secondary Market for the Playstation 5

Volatile market conditions, likely caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, have caused a highly active secondary market for the Sony PlayStation 5 on online marketplaces since the console’s launch on 12th November 2020. Those who have purchased a console have found it profitable to resell it at premium prices on online auction websites, such as eBay. This research aims to use eBay’s online marketplace to gauge what factors impact consumers’ willingness to pay for the console in secondary markets. Our results show that aspects of console listings, such as the edition and included accessories, largely explain variation in final secondary market prices. Secondly, sellers’ reputation management does not appear to be crucial for business in online marketplaces.

The cloth pass and soft glitch

In this article, sound artist Julie Rose Bower examines the relationship between the Foley ‘cloth pass’ and the ‘fabric sounds’ autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) trigger. Starting with Serres’s sensory appraisal that ‘the world is a mass of laundry’ the tactile qualities of cloth are proposed as a key component in accounting for the ‘felt rather than heard’ status of Foley sound. Writing from a practitioner perspective, Bower argues for textile manipulation as a form of embodied sound design and cloth sounds as a curiously generative media object. Through theorizing developments in the scope of attention within screen cultures, Bower develops a speculative ontology of soft glitch and conceptualizes a politics of folded listening. Alongside accounts of sound practice from industry Foley artists Vanessa Theme Ament (Die Hard, Edward Scissorhands), Joanna Fang (Sony PlayStation) and from her own ASMR work using costume and textiles (ASMR at the Museum for the Victoria and Albert Museum [V&A]), Bower argues for cloth sounds as transcendent cyberfeminist technique.

Three-dimensional microscope skill acquisition: A randomised controlled study comparing two-dimensional laboratory microscope training, video gaming and virtual reality gaming

IntroductionFine microsurgical motor skill acquisition can be challenging. With increasing technological innovation the method of microsurgical skills acquisition may change. Studies show that laboratory-based microsurgical training programs on a 2D microscope significantly improves novice’s microsurgical skill acquisition. However, are these skills transferable to a 3D microscope or is gaming agility more important? We present a randomised control trial of three interventions, namely laboratory tabletop microscope training (LM), high-fidelity video gaming (Sony PlayStation 4 console) (VG) and high-fidelity virtual reality gaming (Sony PlayStation VR console) (VR) versus a control group. MethodsForty novice medical students were block randomised to four groups: control (no intervention) n=10, LM n=10, VG n=10 and VR n=10. Participants performed chicken femoral artery anastomosis using the Aesculap Aeos® 3D microscope platform at baseline and again after intervention. Performance was evaluated using a modified structured assessment of microsurgery skills (mSAMS) score, time taken to complete anastomosis and time for suture placement by two blinded independent assessors. ResultNo statistically significant difference was noted between the groups at baseline. There was a statistically significant improvement in the LM arm between baseline and post-training for mSAMS score and time for suture placement. In the VG, VR and control groups no statistically significant difference was observed. ConclusionOur study demonstrates that during early microsurgical training, an intense laboratory-based microsurgical training program significantly improves novice’s anastomotic performance on a 2D microscope, and these skills are transferable when a 3D anastomosis is carried out. However, focussed gaming had no significant effect, and the results were akin to the non-intervention group.

Exploring the barriers and facilitators experienced by patients with heart failure when using popular exergaming platforms for self-management-a systematic review.

To systematically explore the barriers and facilitators experienced by patients with heart failure when using the most popular commercially-accessible digital exergaming platforms for self-management. A systematic literature search was conducted in: Embase, SCOPUS, PubMed, and ProQuest. Qualitative/mixed methods studies published in English between 2000 and 2024, including adults >18 years with heart failure using digital gaming platforms for exercise as self-management (i.e. Microsoft Xbox/Kinect, Sony PlayStation®, Nintendo™ Wii) were considered. Risk of bias was assessed using the Critical Appraisal Skills Program. The grounded theory method was used to extract, analyze, and synthesize the data. Three articles which qualitatively reported on the experiences of the patients with heart failure when using Nintendo™ Wii for self-management were included. Seventy-nine participants (male and female, age 32-81 years) were included in the studies. The three included studies were of high quality. Extracted qualitative data were grouped into subthemes, which were grouped into main themes, namely, Engagement, Apathy, Convenience, Health-related benefits and Gaming Platforms. The main themes were categorized into Barriers and Facilitators. Patients reported that gaming platforms were simple, easy to use, interesting, and motivating (Facilitators). Boredom while playing specific games, preferring other activities and technical issues were reported as Barriers. This review provides the first insights into the barriers and facilitators patients with heart failure experience when using popular digital exergaming platforms to participate in exercise programs in the self-management of their condition. However, few high-quality studies exist which limits the conclusions made and warrants further research in this area.

Analysis of Microsoft’s Acquisition of Activision Blizzard Base on Precedent Transaction Analysiss

The global video game industry, with its considerable market share attributed to console games, has long been dominated by three primary players: Microsoft's Xbox, Sony's PlayStation, and Nintendo's Switch.Three major companies have long controlled the worldwide video game business: Microsoft's Xbox, Sony's PlayStation, and Nintendo's Switch. Console games account for a large portion of this market. Activision Blizzard, a game publisher, significantly relies on these platforms inside this structure, earning significant income and profit from marquee brands like Call of Duty, Warcraft, and Diablo. In a game-changing move, Microsoft declared its intention to purchase Activision Blizzard in January 2022, a momentous development that may fundamentally alter the gaming industry. The $95 per share acquisition is presently the subject of intense antitrust investigation by international regulatory agencies, with UK's Competition and Markets Authority raising concerns about the merger's impact on both the console and cloud gaming industries. This article uses precedent case analyze method to estimate potential enterprise value post-acquisition. The case being studied is the acquisition of Zynga by Take-two Interactive in January 2022.

The Past Present and Future of Virtual and Augmented Reality

Mixed Reality Interfaces (MRITFs) like the Hololens and low-cost virtual reality (VR) machineries similar to the Oculus Rift, , Sony PlayStation and HTC Vive VR are attracting the attention of users and researchers, suggesting that they may be the next largest technological innovation stepping stone. However, the VR technology's olden times is elongated than it seems: In the late 1980s, the initial marketable VR tools seemed, and the concept of virtual reality was developed in the 1960s.As a result, thousands of scientific papers have been issued over the past two decades as hundreds of researchers investigated the processes, effects, and applications of this technology. What does this significant research produce? Using cutting-edge scientometric methods, this paper will investigate the field's existing research corpus to answer this question. In the Web of Science Core Collection scientific database, we gathered all existing VR-related articles. The resulting dataset contained 21,667 VR and 9,944 AR records. The author, title, abstract, country, and all of the references (which were required for the citation analysis) were all included in the bibliographic record. The literature was analyzed using network and cluster methods, and the results revealed a symbiotic panorama marked by changes and developments over time. Indeed, whereas conference proceedings and journals were the primary forms of VR publication up until five years ago, journals are now the primary means of communication. In a similar vein, although computer science was initially the most prominent area of research, clinical areas and countries participating in VR research have both grown in recent years. The present work focuses on the anticipated future capabilities, enhancements, and difficulties of virtual reality (VR), as well as the evolution and changes that have occurred over time in the main application areas. We conclude by taking into consideration the disruptive impact that VR/AR/MRITF will have not only on scientific fields but also on human communication and interaction—much like the introduction of mobile phones did—by altering social communication and interaction as well as increasing the use of scientific applications (such as in clinical settings).

Game subscription analysis--Take Xbox Game Pass as an example

Game subscription is a huge innovation made by Microsoft and an important development trend of the game industry in the future. This paper focuses on analyzing game subscription and mainly focus on Xbox Game Pass (XGP). This paper analyze the XGP’s operational mode and benefit. And future prospect of XGP. Through the research, XGP is benefit for both Microsoft themselves, game producers and users. Through the calculation of software hardware ratio, it can be concluded that Microsoft can definitely make money under the XGP model. XGP also helps game companies to provide financial support and reduce the cost and risk of promotion. XGP also reduces the decision cost for users. So this model is benefit for both Microsoft itself, game producers and users. In order to attract users to buy the XGP, the most important way is to increase the games that the users can play by the XGP. So Microsoft started a big acquisition spree in 2018, buying a lot of game companies, including, Recently, acquired Activision Blizzard. Game subscription is also the future of the game industry, and many other game companies have adopted the same strategy, such as SONY's PlayStation Plus (PS Plus), EA launched a subscription service in 2018: Origin Access Premier (now EA PlayPro).And perhaps more companies will join the game subscription in the future.

Towards a social-semiotic approach to visual analysis of two-dimensional games

Nowadays, video games are one of the most influential media from an economic and sociocultural point of view. Therefore, it is important to have tools to analyze such texts and the meanings and discourses they potentially convey. Based on the social-semiotic approach, this paper proposes a set of analytical categories to study the visual construction of 2D (two-dimensional) games. Although the 2D paradigm is no longer prevalent in video games — 3D (three-dimensional) games became gradually common as early as 1995 with the introduction of the Sony PlayStation — it is still used in several current titles. Furthermore, social-semiotic studies on video games are still not numerous; therefore, a focused study that systematizes methodological categories for the analysis of video games is a relevant step towards understanding the semiotic constitution of these artifacts. The present study focuses on Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems for the Super Nintendo (CAPCOM, 1996). By applying the categories presented here on the Brazilian stage of the game, this article suggests ways to analyze the visual mode of video games, taking into account their multimodal nature and discursive potential.

Seven Decades of Royal Tech [Jubilee - gadgets

She was the first head of state to send an email and these days prefers an eco-hybrid car to the State Carriage. The Queen has always kept abreast of modern technology, examples of which include the Braun Multimix, computer mouse, desktop cassette recorder, IBM Personal Computer 5150. Sony PlayStation and iRobot Roomba.

Effectiveness of virtual reality-based vestibular rehabilitation in patients with peripheral vestibular hypofunction.

The rehabilitation of classical peripheral vestibular disorders is long and costly. Recently, interactive systems based on virtual reality (VR) technology have reduced the cost of vestibular rehabilitation therapy (VRT) and made the process more enjoyable. This study aims to investigate the effects of VR-based VRT in patients diagnosed with peripheral vestibular hypofunction (PVH). In this study, a VR-based VRT program that utilized Sony Playstation®4 VR Head Mounted Display was applied to 25 patients (between 18-60) diagnosed with PVH. PVH was diagnosed by evaluating the patients' clinical histories, the findings in the "Micromedical Technologies VisualEyes Spectrum" videonystagmography (VNG) and the "Micromedical Aqua Stim" model bithermal water caloric tests. VR-based VRT program was applied to the patients for 4 weeks, 2 sessions per week, 8 sessions in total. Each session lasted around 30 to 40 min. All patients underwent the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI), Sensory Organization Test (SOT), Adaptation Test (ADT), Limits of Stability (LOS), and Rhythmic Weight Shift (RWS) before, after, and 8-week follow-up of the VRT program. In addition, the Cybersickness Survey was applied to the patients at the end of the VR-based VRT session every week. The DHI mean scores of the patients were 54.60, 19.20, and 16.84, respectively, before, just after, and at the 8-week follow-up VRT (p < 0.001). The mean SOT composite score of the patients was obtained as 58.08 before VRT; 77.16 after VRT and 76.40 at 8-week after VRT (p < 0.000). On the other hand, the values in the 'movement velocity' and "direction control" parameters of the patients in LOS and RWS showed a significant improvement after VRT compared to before VRT (p < 0.000). From before VRT to 8 weeks after VRT, the patient's oscillation averages in the 'toes up' and 'toes down' positions in ADT reduced progressively (p < 0.000). This study demonstrates that implementing a VR-based VRT protocol may be an efficient option to improve posture stability and the quality of life in patients with PVH. In addition, VR-based vestibular rehabilitation therapy has shown to be effective for PVH patients in the mid-term.

Harmonic Chains

Omega Quintet (Idea Factory International, 2014), a role-playing video game released for the Sony PlayStation 4, centers around the concept of weaponizing musical entities and apparatuses to combat threats in a dystopian universe. Omega Quintet weaponizes music literally, supernaturally, and economically, both inside and outside of the game narrative. In this article, we interpret these types of weaponization as an extended allegory for consumption. On one level, the surface narrative denotes sound as a murder tool, on another level the player enables violent consumption of these tools, and yet another level reveals the weaponization of agency within a gendered labor market. The story of Omega Quintet is set in a dystopian Japan overrun by monsters known as the BEEP. Protagonist Takt and his childhood friend, Otoha, join an organization that develops special idols known as Verse Maidens to fight the BEEP. Surviving members of humanity provide the fan base for the Verse Maidens. The Verse Maidens depend on fan support to fuel their powers. Battles in Omega Quintet feature an assortment of musical weaponization. Examples include Sound Weapons as the main conduit for physical attacks, Verse Maidens’ unique songs to play during extended attack sequences known as Live Mode, and special joint attacks known as Harmonic Chains. The battles take the commodification of idols to such an extreme that they are simultaneously consumed and used as weapons. Presented as a duality of fragility and strength, beauty and brutality, art and war, the Verse Maidens are consumed in a complex system of cultural and narrative implications.

Bricked by Age: Manufacturers Should Supply the Software to Keep Things Working Indefinitely

I recently did some Marie Kondo–inspired housecleaning: Anything that didn't bring me joy got binned. In the process, I unearthed some old gadgets that made me smile. One was my venerable Nokia N95, a proto-smartphone, the first to sport GPS. Another was a craptastic Android tablet—a relic of an era when each year I would purchase the best tablet I could for less than $100 (Australian!), just to see how much you could get for that little. And there was my beloved Sony PlayStation Portable. While I rarely used it, I loved what the PSP represented: a high-powered handheld device, another forerunner of today's smartphone, though one designed for gaming rather than talking.

Business model innovation in video-game consoles to face the threats of mobile gaming: Evidence from the case of Sony PlayStation

This paper investigates how videogame consoles have innovated their business model (BM) in response to the entrance of mobile gaming. Business Model Innovation (BMI) is widely recognized in management literature as a strategic tool that incumbent firms can leverage to face the competitive threat of new entrants. However, none of the previous work has addressed this topic for the context of videogame industry. With the aim of filling this gap, we explored the case of Sony PlayStation by adopting a qualitative approach. All the innovations that were identified were coded in terms of value creation and value capture mechanisms. We detected that the evolution of the Sony PlayStation's BM can be articulated in four phases where mechanisms typical of mobile games have been detected and incrementally integrated. Our findings were finally discussed to highlight novel insights about the innovations implemented by Sony, that can be beneficial for both scholars and practitioners. Indeed, this paper contributes to the academic debate in the field of BMI research as well as offers practical indications for managers and executives of incumbent firms that face the competition of new entrants in their industry.

Twitter Usage Practices of Digital Game Brands

Social media is a platform through which brands actively communicate with consumers. By using social media, brands can communicate with consumers regardless of time and place. The purpose of this study is to reveal how Twitter, a popular social media tool, is used by digital game brands. In the study, Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox, and Ubisoft, the most followed digital game brands by Twitter users in the world, were selected as sample brands. The tweets published by the selected brands in three months between October 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 were analysed using content analysis method. According to the results of the research, Sony PlayStation is the most followed digital game brand on Twitter. All three brands shared messages to encourage more sales and for promotion purposes. It was observed that the messages shared by these three brands were mostly in the form of direct tweets. It has been observed that the messages shared by Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation mostly contain URLs and all three brands adopt a one-way communication style. Looking at the findings in general, it can be said that Twitter plays an important role in brand communication for digital game brands.

Optimising Environmental Educational Narrative Videogames

In May 2019, A Night in the Forum videogame was published in the Sony PlayStation store, for PS VR. It was the final result of the REVEAL EU project, whose goal was to identify strategies, features, and tools to develop educational titles in a more efficient, cost-effective, and valuable way, exploiting their educational, cognitive, and engaging potential for schools and cultural tourism. Environmental Narrative videogames was chosen as a genre suited for this purposes. This article presents how known issues in the production of videogames have been faced, the solutions identified, and results obtained.

Deep Learning-Based Fault Localization in Video Networks Using Only Client-Side QoE

Maintaining a satisfactory customer Quality of Experience (QoE) is of vital importance for video service providers such as Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. Network faults degrade QoE and must therefore be detected, isolated, and fixed. However, this is difficult because each part of the end-to-end path belongs to a different autonomous system (AS) that is typically owned by a different entity, such as the video streaming provider, the internet service provider (ISP), and the client's local network operator. Although the video service provider (VSP) is usually blamed by the customer when there is poor QoE, the VSP does not have access to many parts of the network to localize the issue. In this paper, we show that with the aid of AI, it is possible for the VSP to localize the network fault without having access to the faulty part and using only QoE metrics. We collected a dataset from an actual video streaming testbed, where multiple videos are streamed from a video server through a simplified ISP network to a client network. Actual faults were generated in both the ISP and the client networks. Using only the QoE metrics measured at the client side, we use the deep learning methods of multi-layer perceptron (MLP) and long-short-term memory (LSTM) to detect and localize the fault with an accuracy of 93–97%, depending on the situation. Impact Statement —Technologically, our work impacts video/game streaming service providers such as Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime, Google Stadia, Sony PlayStation Now, Nvidia GeForce Now, and videoconferencing providers such as Zoom and Skype. Our work enables these providers to train similar AI systems that can localize network problems using only the video quality of experience (QoE) recorded by their client software. They can then take an appropriate action, such as rerouting traffic using Open Connect Appliances (OCA) if available, using another network provider if they have contracts with more than one, or informing the owner of the network segment with the fault, so they can fix the problem and maintain their customers’ QoE at a satisfactory level. Economically, our work can contribute to the market expansion of any video streaming solution because it will lead to better QoE, which is synonymous with more customers.

Software piracy and outsourcing in two-sided markets

This paper examines the role of software piracy in digital platforms where a platform provider makes a decision of how much software to produce in-house and how much to outsource from a third-party software provider. Using a vertical differentiation model, we theoretically investigate how piracy influences the software outsourcing decision. We find that when piracy is intermediate, the loss in in-house software profits due to piracy outweighs the loss in licensing fee profits. As a result, an increase in piracy leads to more outsourcing. However, when piracy is high, it becomes too expensive for the platform provider to subsidize the software provider, resulting in a decrease in outsourcing. Moreover, when software variety is also endogenously chosen by firms, the platform provider’s incentive to develop software variety in-house depends not only on the return from software profits but also on the return from hardware profits. Under such a situation, an increase in piracy always leads to less outsourcing and less total software variety. To provide additional insights on the outsourcing decision, we conduct empirical analyses using data from the U.S. handheld video game market between 2004 and 2012. This market is a classical two-sided market, dominated by two handheld platforms (Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Portable) and is known to have suffered from software piracy significantly. Our regression results show that in this market, piracy increases outsourcing but has no effect on the total software variety.

House of Flowers: An Analysis of the Image of Yugoslavia in Video Games

This article examines the image of Yugoslavia in contemporary video games. I researched games of various genres (action games, strategy games, military simulators, etc.) that were released on various gaming platforms (PC, Sony PlayStation, etc.) between 1990 and the present day. I researched such aspects as visualization, information, plot components, and popularity among players. I consider and provide definitions of the terms used to designate various elements of video games and their meaning for the perception of the image of the country. I paid special attention to the characters associated with the Yugoslav region. Two of them – the inventor Nikola Tesla and the main character of the comics of the same name, Largo Winch – owing to their potential significance for the image of Yugoslavia, were considered in detail. The article is accompanied by four illustrations showing important moments of the visualization of personalities and the structure of game moments. As a result of this research, I draw some conclusions about the main plots associated with the image of Yugoslavia that prevails in modern video games. Firstly, there is the obvious peripherality of Yugoslav plots and their generally negative connotation. In most of the video games reviewed, the settings involved the criminal world, the Yugoslav war of the 1990s, or the problem of international terrorism. Secondly, the portrayal of Yugoslav characters is not very homogeneous and it is therefore impossible to talk about their exclusively positive or negative character. Thirdly, in general, Yugoslavia is mostly unplayable: only a very limited set of strategy games and a very small set of action games allow you to control the country, its troops, or characters of Yugoslavian origin.

Software Piracy and Outsourcing in Two-Sided Markets

This paper examines the role of software piracy in digital platforms where a platform provider makes a decision of how much software to produce in-house and how much to outsource from a third-party software provider. Using a vertical differentiation model, we theoretically investigate how piracy influences the software outsourcing decision. We find that when piracy is intermediate, the loss in in-house software profits due to piracy outweighs the loss in licensing fee profits. As a result, an increase in piracy leads to more outsourcing. However, when piracy is high, it becomes too expensive for the platform provider to subsidize the software provider, resulting in a decrease in outsourcing. Moreover, when software variety is also endogenously chosen by firms, the platform provider's incentive to develop software variety in-house depends not only on the return from software profits but also on the return from hardware profits. Under such a situation, an increase in piracy always leads to less outsourcing and less total software variety. To provide additional insights on the outsourcing decision, we conduct empirical analyses using data from the U.S. handheld video game market between 2004 and 2012. This market is a classical two-sided market, dominated by two handheld platforms (Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Portable) and is known to have suffered from software piracy significantly. Our regression results show that in this market, piracy increases outsourcing but has no effect on the total software variety.