Winners and Losers: Nintendo had a better PR week, while Sony did its best to kill the gaming good feeling during another hectic tech week of triumphs and tariffs.
Happy WrestleMania weekend everyone! And Happy Easter too, to those who celebrate. The week in tech continued to spring surprises including the heel turns and babyface pushes we’ve come to expect in 2025.
There was a lot to digest particularly in the gaming realm and, although we’re not ready to crown an undisputed champion just yet, one company in particular resurrected the good vibes after some recent downers.
Let’s start with Apple. There were a number of hints about the company’s future product launches, including the more imminent release of iPadOS 19, which will reportedly help Apple tablets behave more like the long-dreamt of touchscreen Mac.
Further down the road, it was reported Apple’s biggest priority is creating a pair of legitimate AR smart glasses and beating Meta to the punch at the same time. Apparently it’s all CEO Tim Cook spends his time on from a development perspective. We also got word on how Cook’s folks could improve Apple Intelligence without tearing up the privacy playbook.
Moving on to Android now and it was a rough week for Samsung who, after months of delays in getting the Android 15-based One UI 7 software out to 2024 device owners, had to recall it after users reported being unable to unlock their phones.
Google has a new security feature to keep baddies from breaking into Android phones, while the company is also removing the soon-to-be-obsolete Google Assistant from Fitbit watches.
In this week’s “*sigh* AI” news Deezer revealed 18% of daily uploads are fully AI generated tracks while Open AI is building a social network for some reason. That reason is likely to be a continuation of billionaire’s Sam Altman and Elon Musk trying to get under each other’s skin, rather than anything that’ll benefit humankind. Twas ever thus.
Speaking of greedy billionaires, it turns out Netflix really, really didn’t need to put its subscription prices up by a couple of quid.
Now, onto this week’s winners and losers…
Winner: Switch 2
Nintendo resurrected the Switch 2 hype just in time for Easter after a period over prices and tariffs. We just got word the US pre-orders are almost ready to go live with the April 24 data pencilled in and, in even better news, the company won’t be putting the prices up in the US either – despite the threat of trade tariffs wiping out its margins.
We also got a closer look at the Switch 2 console’s flagship launch title Mario Kart World and we’re happy to hear that Free Roam mode is much more than just a way to cruise to the next race.
Furthermore, our own Max Parker got some hands-on time with the new console courtesy of an invite from Nintendo. I was happy to see the time exploring the new machine put to bed many of Max’s concerns about Nintendo’s new-gen offering.
He says the screen is great, even though it doesn’t pack OLED tech and the larger size adds to the experience rather than detracts. He was also hugely impressed with the upgrades offered by Switch 2 Editions of original games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. So much so he says: “I wish I was coming into it fresh and had never played it before.”
You can read his hands-on report and savour the Switch 2 pre-release hype here.
Loser: Sony PS5
Nintendo may not have put the Switch 2’s price up, but Sony hiked the PS5 this week. With immediate effect Sony added £40 to the cost of the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition console. The prices also went up in Europe, Australia, New Zealand.
There was a slight decrease of the disc drive accessory to cushion the blow. In the UK it’ll now be £69.99, down from £99.99. So if you want to upgrade at some point, you’ll be able to recoup most of the extra cash you had to put down for the console.
Sony said the increase was to account for fluctuating exchange rates, but let’s be real for a second. It’s because of the tariffs on goods entering the US and Sony is just trying to spread the cost around its various global markets.
To add insult to injury for Brits now asked to pay £70 more than when the PS5 Digital first went on sale almost five years ago, Sony didn’t even increase the PS5 price in the United States. Considering around 50% of American voters chose the man 100% responsible for the current crisis, then Sony should be punishing them first, not the people in sane countries.
