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Sony Japan has marked its UBP-X700/K player as "Discontinued," removing the company's last standalone Blu-ray player from sale, according to FlatpanelsHD. Sony had already stopped shipping the units in February, selling only remaining stock since then. The PlayStation 5 remains the sole Sony device that plays Blu-ray discs, though Sony has said it will halt physical game disc production by January 2028.
Industry analysis suggests that surging demand for memory chips, driven largely by AI companies, is raising component costs for Microsoft and Sony as they develop next-generation gaming consoles. Current Xbox and PlayStation hardware has already seen price increases tied to these chip shortages, and the report warns future console prices could rise far more sharply.
Sony announced that its PlayStation Pulse wireless headset will ship November 19 across the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan and other markets, priced at $100 and available in white or midnight black. Pre-orders begin October 29, with additional country availability to be detailed later.
A South Korean developer known as Gezine posted a video on X showing access to the PS5's restricted debug menu, claiming to have broken through security protections in firmware version 14.10. That firmware had been released by Sony specifically to patch the earlier 'Relapse' exploit, which allowed decrypting and running PS5 games on jailbroken consoles. Gezine noted that the old method of dumping game data no longer works, suggesting a different hypervisor-based exploit would be needed to fully jailbreak an updated console.
Amazon is selling physical copies of Star Wars Zero Company, the XCOM-style tactical strategy game, for $47.99 on PlayStation 5 and $49.99 on Xbox Series S/X, down from the regular $59.99 price. A tech journalist reviewing the deal praised the game's branching story missions, character customization options, and inclusion of familiar Star Wars alien races.
A developer known as Gezine posted a video showing access to the PS5's hidden Debug Settings menus, which normally require kernel-level access, on firmware version 14.10.00. That firmware update, released in October, reportedly closed an earlier jailbreak method and is said to be required to run Grand Theft Auto VI. Gezine has not published the exploit method and indicated they may first seek disclosure through a bug bounty program.
Fortune reports that Microsoft's internal projections put the price of its 2028 holiday-season Project Helix console between $1,200 and $1,800, with a separate next-gen handheld planned by the end of next year. Fortune also reports internal disputes at Microsoft over whether the handheld should run a trimmed version of Windows or a custom operating system built by the Xbox team, with one executive reportedly threatening to cancel the device if forced to use Windows.
Sensor Tower estimates Rockstar had pre-sold about 6.45 million copies of Grand Theft Auto VI as of October 20, generating roughly $630 million in revenue. PlayStation 5 accounts for about 74% of pre-orders (4.8 million units) versus 1.66 million on Xbox Series X|S, ahead of the game's November 19 release.
Square Enix director Naoki Hamaguchi, who has led the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy for over a decade, spoke about nearing completion of the project's final installment, Final Fantasy VII Revelation. He described feeling calm rather than stressed as the release approaches, saying his focus made the years pass quickly. The trilogy began with 2020's Final Fantasy VII Remake and continued with 2024's Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, both reimagining the 1997 original with altered timelines.
A new guide clarifies that the orange light on a PlayStation 5 is a normal indicator rather than a warning sign, while outlining other symptoms that suggest the console needs repair. It identifies overheating and GPU failure as the most common PS5 problems, detailing symptoms like unexpected shutdowns, loud fans, and screen flickering or static.
The PlayStation 3, now 87 million units sold since launch, has lost support from most third-party streaming services, including Crunchyroll in 2022, Plex in 2023 and Netflix in March 2026. Despite this, the console can still be repurposed for tasks like streaming media from a PC, playing Blu-ray discs, ripping CDs, and emulating retro games.
Consumers looking to offload an old PlayStation console have three main options: trading it in at big-box retailers like Best Buy, Amazon or GameStop; selling to buyback services such as Back Market Trade-in; or listing it on marketplaces like Swappa and eBay. Each option trades off convenience against payout, with retailers often paying only in store credit and marketplaces requiring more effort but yielding higher cash returns.