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Possible new PlayStation Portal model pays homage to the Vita's OLED

While much of the focus on PlayStation's next steps is the PS6 and PS6 Portable , the two-year old PlayStation Portal could be getting a revamp according to those pesky internet rumours.  Update : Hints at pricing are around £/$250-299 for the new model, but everything remains deeply in rumours territory. Presumably to hit the 10% (currently 7%-ish) adoption rate among PS5 owners that would make it a bone fide hit gadget.   As the improvement in connectivity and streaming tech, proven by many gamers enjoying their PS5 or PlayStation Plus streamed content from around the world, an updated Portal Pro could be on the cards.  Possibly featuring a 120Hz display and an OLED screen in honour of the mighty Vita, that'd be cool. Assuming the 120HZ streaming is solid, an OLED would be the more welcome addition, especially with the latest generation of technology offering QD-OLED (Quantum Dot-OLED), WOLED (White-OLED) and other buzzy titles for smarter display.  Whatever ...

Phantasy Star Online 2 passes a million Vita users

Sega's grim and shrinking financials show a company rapidly falling by the wayside, miles behind the bigger players. Still, on the plus side, PSO 2 now has over a million Vita users in Japan (just imagine how many they could have if they localised the damn thing).

They don't say how many are active users, but since the content keeps coming and the figure dates to September 2014, it could be even higher. Chain Chronicle V is also doing well, but only helping that series' performance as "stable" according to Sega's report (PDF). With operating income down 53% year on year, where will Sega end up next year?

The company is restructuring and reducing its forecasts, and also lowering the number of 2015 releases from 10 down to six, which doesn't sound great. If you look at the chart, its easy to see that sales of console and PC games are tiny compared to those of smartphone games. No mention of Phantasy Star Nova, which Sony is giving a promotion push for with new hardware bundles at the end of the month.

Alien Isolation and Football Manager 2015 (no Vita version this year) will help shore up foreign sales, but 2015 is looking very bare for the company.

Currently playing on my Vita/PS3/PS4/PS5


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