Here is a brief summary of everything that Sony announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, including its new electronic car, "Afeela."
At the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on Thursday, Sony held its biggest launch in a long time. There, it showed off a new electric vehicle prototype called the Afeela, which will go on sale as early as 2026. The well-known PlayStation VR 2 headset will go on sale on February 22, according to the Japanese electronics giant. In addition to a sneak peek at the Gran Turismo movie and the electric Afeela car, Sony unveiled Project Leonardo, a brand-new PS5 accessibility controller kit.
The most significant announcements made at Sony's CES 2023 event are listed below.
The new electric vehicle dubbed "Afeela" by Sony, which will be available in 2026, is perhaps the most significant announcement made at CES this year. Utilizing Qualcomm technology, the automobile, which was developed with Honda as part of a Sony Mobility subsidiary, will make its debut in 2026. According to Sony, preorders for the automobile will open in the first half of 2025, and North American deliveries will begin in early 2026.
During a keynote event at CES, Sony Honda Mobility CEO Yasuhide Mizuno stated, "Afeela represents our concept of an interactive relationship where people feel the sensation of interactive mobility and where mobility can detect and understand people and society by utilizing sensing and AI technologies."
Sony, which is famous for products like the Walkman, PlayStation, and Trinitron TVs, has been working on an electric car for a while. In 2020, Sony unveiled an early version of the Vision-S 01 prototype at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and a year later, the Vision-S 02. In particular in North America, Honda and Sony are making significant bets on the future of electric vehicles.
Sony's electric car's future is uncertain, particularly in light of the fierce competition in the EV market right now. Sony now leads Apple, which had been rumored to be working on an electric car, with its announcement of Afeela. However, designing and manufacturing an electric vehicle is very expensive. The British company Dyson, which is best known for its vacuums and hand dryers, had been working on a line of electric vehicles but decided to stop because they would be expensive.
The PlayStation VR 2 headset, which requires a PlayStation 5, will be available for purchase in stores on February 22. Sony's PSVR 2, which retails for $550, is a high-end virtual reality system with more features than Meta's Quest 2, which sells for $400. For the PSVR's launch, Sony has promised at least 30 games, including Gran Turismo 7 and a spinoff of its popular action-adventure robot-animal-hunting series Horizon. The virtual reality market is Sony's second attempt. In 2016, Sony released the initial PSVR for the PlayStation 4, which cost $400. Sony wants to be seen as a major player in virtual reality, which is currently exploding. Sony is hoping that the new PlayStation VR 2 will be a hit because brands like PlayStation are ingrained in popular culture.
Project Leonardo is a PlayStation 5 accessibility controller kit that can be customized. Project Leonardo is the accessibility controller kit that is currently being developed for the PlayStation 5. Although Sony claims that the controller will "remove barriers to gaming and help players with disabilities play more easily, more comfortably, and for longer periods on PS5," there is not much information available regarding Project Leonardo. However, we do know that accessibility experts, community members, and game developers all contributed to the creation of the specialized controller. The Xbox Adaptive controller, which is made by Microsoft to make gaming accessible to people who have limited mobility, is also available.
Other significant announcements made at Sony's CES 2023 press conference include the PlayStation 5's 30 millionth sale, which was announced by PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan on stage.
*The upcoming Gran Turismo movie, which will be released in theaters in August, was shown off for the first time by Sony.