Sony’s PS5 Outstrips Predecessor with 10 Mln Units Sold Since Nov. Launch

Inside a GameStop store Sony PS5 gaming consoles are pictured in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, US, November 12, 2020. (Reuters)
Inside a GameStop store Sony PS5 gaming consoles are pictured in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, US, November 12, 2020. (Reuters)
TT

Sony’s PS5 Outstrips Predecessor with 10 Mln Units Sold Since Nov. Launch

Inside a GameStop store Sony PS5 gaming consoles are pictured in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, US, November 12, 2020. (Reuters)
Inside a GameStop store Sony PS5 gaming consoles are pictured in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, US, November 12, 2020. (Reuters)

Sony Group Corp said on Wednesday its PlayStation 5 (PS5) gaming console has sold more than 10 million units since launching last November, outstripping sales of its predecessor even as the Japanese firm grapples with a global chip shortage.

The PS5, which offers cutting edge graphics and faster loading times than the PS4, is in short supply as the COVID-19 pandemic strains global semiconductor supply chains while demand has risen amid a gaming boom with more people staying indoors.

“We’ve built more PlayStations faster than we ever have before which makes me happy. But on the other hand, we’re some time from being able to meet all the demand that’s out there, which makes me feel bad,” Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan told Reuters via email.

“Our partners are performing really well for us, but the chip shortage is definitely a challenge that we are all navigating,” Ryan said.

Boosted by exclusive games likes Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, which has sold more than 6.5 million copies, PS5 sales have outstripped the PS4.

It took Sony around nine months to sell 10 million units of the PS4, which had a staggered launch. More than 100 million units of the console have been sold since November 2013.

Electronics makers warn of deepening semiconductor shortages, with Apple on Tuesday saying the shortfall is affecting iPhone production.

“Sony’s deep expertise in supply chain management for consumer electronics has enabled it to weather the worst impacts of the pandemic even during the launch of a new product,” said Piers Harding-Rolls, head of games research at Ampere Analysis.

Sony sees demand for the PS5 continuing even as vaccinations spur easing of curbs on going out, Ryan said.

A strong games slate will be crucial to maintain momentum amid competition from Microsoft’s rival Xbox device, analysts say.

Another first-party title for Sony, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, has sold more than 1.1 million copies since its release last month. First-party titles refer to games from companies that are owned by the firm making the console.

The group forecasts PS5 hardware sales of at least 14.8 million units in the year through March.



Apple Agrees to $250 Mn Settlement over AI Siri Claims

FILE PHOTO: A woman uses her smartphone inside the Apple store in Beijing's Sanlitun area as the new iPhone 17 series smartphones go on sale in Beijing, China September 19, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A woman uses her smartphone inside the Apple store in Beijing's Sanlitun area as the new iPhone 17 series smartphones go on sale in Beijing, China September 19, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo
TT

Apple Agrees to $250 Mn Settlement over AI Siri Claims

FILE PHOTO: A woman uses her smartphone inside the Apple store in Beijing's Sanlitun area as the new iPhone 17 series smartphones go on sale in Beijing, China September 19, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A woman uses her smartphone inside the Apple store in Beijing's Sanlitun area as the new iPhone 17 series smartphones go on sale in Beijing, China September 19, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo

Apple on Tuesday agreed to pay $250 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing it of misleading millions of iPhone buyers by falsely touting artificial intelligence capabilities for its Siri voice assistant in late 2024.

Plaintiffs accused the California tech giant of having "promoted AI capabilities that did not exist at the time, do not exist now, and will not exist for two or more years" in order to boost iPhone sales, the document -- reviewed by AFP -- stated.

The Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division, the US advertising watchdog, had also concluded that Apple falsely suggested the new AI-powered Siri was "available now."

The settlement filed Tuesday for court approval, which includes no admission of wrongdoing by Apple, covers roughly 36 million eligible devices -- the iPhone 16, as well as the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max -- purchased in the United States between June 10, 2024 and March 29, 2025.

Each class member could receive $25 per device, a sum that could reach $95 depending on the number of approved claimants.

"We resolved this matter to stay focused on what we do best: delivering the most innovative products and services to our users," Apple told the Financial Times.

A Morgan Stanley survey cited in the complaint indicated that "enhanced Siri" was the feature that potential iPhone buyers most anticipated.

Apple had launched a major advertising campaign in 2024 to promote these capabilities, before confirming their indefinite delay and pulling its ads.

The settlement must still be approved by Judge Noel Wise of the federal district court for the Northern District of California at a hearing set for June 17, 2026.


India Approves Two Semiconductor Projects Worth $414 Million

Prime minister of India Narendra Modi leaves after the hand shake photo with President of Vietnam To Lam prior to a meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, India, 06 May 2026. EPA/RAJAT GUPTA
Prime minister of India Narendra Modi leaves after the hand shake photo with President of Vietnam To Lam prior to a meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, India, 06 May 2026. EPA/RAJAT GUPTA
TT

India Approves Two Semiconductor Projects Worth $414 Million

Prime minister of India Narendra Modi leaves after the hand shake photo with President of Vietnam To Lam prior to a meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, India, 06 May 2026. EPA/RAJAT GUPTA
Prime minister of India Narendra Modi leaves after the hand shake photo with President of Vietnam To Lam prior to a meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, India, 06 May 2026. EPA/RAJAT GUPTA

India said it had approved two new semiconductor projects worth $414 million, as the government accelerates efforts to establish the country as a global electronics powerhouse.

The projects -- an LED display facility and a semiconductor packaging unit -- were cleared late Monday, taking the total number of facilities in India to 12, with a total investment of about $17.2 billion.

New Delhi launched its push into domestic chipmaking in 2021 and has since backed a range of fabrication, design and packaging units as part of a broader strategy to cut import dependence and strengthen supply chains.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the two new projects were a part of "our efforts towards making India a leader in the global semiconductor value chain".

"India's advances in the world of semiconductors will boost economic transformation, technological self-reliance and encourage the innovation ecosystem," AFP quoted him as saying on social media.

The LED project will be an "integrated facility for compound semiconductor fabrication" aimed at producing mini and micro display modules, the government said in a statement.

The packaging unit will cater to automotive, industrial and electronics sectors.

The projects would provide a "significant boost" to the country's semiconductor ecosystem and "complement the growing world class chip design capabilities coming up in the country", it said.

India's chip market has risen from around $38 billion in 2023 to an estimated $45-$50 billion in 2024-2025.

The government is targeting $100-$110 billion by 2030.

Several previously approved plants have begun production, with two facilities already starting commercial shipments.


Major Publishers Sue Meta for Copyright Infringement Over AI Training

Cars drive past a sign of Meta, the new name for the company formerly known as Facebook, at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, US, October 28, 2021. (Reuters)
Cars drive past a sign of Meta, the new name for the company formerly known as Facebook, at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, US, October 28, 2021. (Reuters)
TT

Major Publishers Sue Meta for Copyright Infringement Over AI Training

Cars drive past a sign of Meta, the new name for the company formerly known as Facebook, at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, US, October 28, 2021. (Reuters)
Cars drive past a sign of Meta, the new name for the company formerly known as Facebook, at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, US, October 28, 2021. (Reuters)

Publishers Elsevier, Cengage, Hachette, Macmillan and McGraw Hill sued Meta Platforms in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, alleging that the tech giant misused their books and journal articles to train its artificial intelligence model Llama.

The publishers, as well as author Scott Turow, alleged in the proposed class action complaint that Meta pirated millions of their works and used them without permission to train its large language models to respond to human prompts.

“AI is powering transformative innovations, ‌productivity and creativity ‌for individuals and companies, and courts have rightly ‌found ⁠that training AI ⁠on copyrighted material can qualify as fair use," a Meta spokesperson responded in a statement on Tuesday.

"We will fight this lawsuit aggressively.”

The publishers allege that Meta pirated works ranging from textbooks to scientific articles to novels including "The Fifth Season" by N.K. Jemisin and "The Wild Robot" by Peter Brown for its ⁠AI training.

They asked the court for ‌permission to represent a larger class ‌of copyright owners and an unspecified amount of monetary damages.

"Meta’s mass-scale ‌infringement isn’t public progress, and AI will never be properly ‌realized if tech companies prioritize pirate sites over scholarship and imagination," Maria Pallante, president of the Association of American Publishers, said in a statement.

The lawsuit opens a new front in the ongoing copyright ‌battle between creators and tech companies over AI training, in which dozens of authors, news outlets, ⁠visual ⁠artists and other plaintiffs have sued companies including Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic for infringement.

All of the pending cases will likely revolve around whether AI systems make fair use of copyrighted material by using it to create new, transformative content.

The first two judges to consider the matter issued diverging rulings last year.

Amazon- and Google-backed Anthropic was the first major AI company to settle one of the cases, agreeing last year to pay a group of authors $1.5 billion to resolve a class-action lawsuit that could have cost the company billions more in damages for alleged piracy.