An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: The PlayStation 5 shortage is finally over — at least according to Sony. "Everyone who wants a PS5 should have a much easier time finding one at retailers globally, starting from this point forward," said Jim Ryan, the company's gaming boss, during its CES presentation. The company also announced that it's sold around 30 million consoles at this point. That's around 5 million more than the last time it released sales numbers in November.

It's been a long time getting to this point; the PlayStation 5 launched in November 2020, and it wasn't until August 2022 that we declared it "almost easy to buy." For most of the console's life, getting one required you to be either very lucky, relatively on-the-spot with drops, or willing to pay scalpers or Best Buy significantly more than the console's MSRP. Even recently, the main way to get it was via a $550 bundle, which included the PS5 with disk drive, and a game -- that's fine if you were already going to buy Horizon Forbidden West or God of War Ragnarok, but a pretty steep markup if you were hoping for the $399.99 digital console. During the presentation, Ryan thanked PlayStation fans for their patience as the company "managed unprecedented demand amid global challenges over the past two years."

Perhaps the biggest reason TVs have gotten so much cheaper than other products is that your TV is watching you and profiting off the data it collects. From a report: Modern TVs, with very few exceptions, are "smart," which means they come with software for streaming online content from Netflix, YouTube, and other services. Perhaps the most common media platform, Roku, now comes built into TVs made by companies including TCL, HiSense, Philips, and RCA. But there are many more operating systems: Google has Google TV, which is used by Sony, among other manufacturers, and LG and Samsung offer their own.

Smart TVs are just like search engines, social networks, and email providers that give us a free service in exchange for monitoring us and then selling that info to advertisers leveraging our data. These devices "are collecting information about what you're watching, how long you're watching it, and where you watch it," Willcox said, "then selling that data -- which is a revenue stream that didn't exist a couple of years ago." There's nothing particularly secretive about this -- data-tracking companies such as Inscape and Samba proudly brag right on their websites about the TV manufacturers they partner with and the data they amass.

The companies that manufacture televisions call this "post-purchase monetization," and it means they can sell TVs close to at cost and still make money over the long term by sharing viewing data. In addition to selling your viewing information to advertisers, smart TVs also show ads in the interface. Roku, for example, prominently features a given TV show or streaming service on the right-hand side of its home screen -- that's a paid advertisement. Roku also has its own ad-supported channel, the Roku Channel, and gets a cut of the video ads shown on other channels on Roku devices.

An anonymous reader shares a report: One year ago this month, Microsoft announced it would spend $68.7 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard, highlighting how it would get "iconic franchises" including Call of Duty, Warcraft and Candy Crush for that fee. But now that gamers and regulators are worrying Microsoft might keep Call of Duty from appearing on Sony's PlayStation, Microsoft's lawyers are suddenly pretending they have no idea why Call of Duty is special. Or even when it came out, for that matter.

As Matt Stoller notes, the company's 37-page reply to the FTC lawsuit seeking to block the Activision Blizzard deal includes this laughable passage: "Microsoft avers that it lacks knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of the allegations concerning industry perceptions of Call of Duty and Call of Duty's original release date; or as to the truth of the allegations concerning Call of Duty's launch and typical release schedule and the resources and budget Activision allocates to Call of Duty, including the number of studios that work on Call of Duty."

Satya Nadella keeps thinking bigger. Microsoft's chief executive has been buying new businesses at an impressive clip. Look for him to add Netflix to the list in 2023. Reuters reports: [...] The two companies are already closely aligned. Netflix chose Microsoft as its advertising partner for a new advertising-supported subscription service. Microsoft President Brad Smith also sits on the Netflix board. Part of the rationale for a deal is that Microsoft wants to offer a video-game streaming service over multiple devices. Netflix has its own big plans in gaming. In 2022, the company co-led by Reed Hastings snapped up developer Spry Fox, its sixth in-house studio. Becoming part of the Microsoft empire would supercharge those ambitions. A bundle with streaming TV and games together is not hard to fathom.

With a market value 13 times that of Netflix, as of early December, $1.8 trillion Microsoft can afford Netflix. A 30% premium would value the Netflix enterprise at nearly $190 billion. Significant cost savings would be hard to find, however. And after taxing the $8 billion of operating profit that analysts project for Netflix in 2024, the implied return on investment would only be half its 8% weighted average cost of capital, per Morningstar analysts. Nadella has defied such back-of-the-envelope financial logic before. And if nothing else, he has shown a willingness to be a bold dealmaker. On that basis, it's easy to believe Microsoft will set its sights on Netflix.

A raft of lawsuits from the games industry seeks to crack down on cheating in some popular online games, arguing that making cheats for games and even using them might be illegal. From a report: Cheating is a scourge of many online games, inspiring increasingly bold legal counteroffensives by some of the companies who make them. Those lawsuits are largely aimed against makers of cheat software, but they don't let players who use the cheats fully off the hook.Cheat-makers "induce and enable individual Destiny 2 players to create an unauthorized and infringing derivative work each time they deploy the cheat software," states one lawsuit from Sony-owned Bungie Studios that's still winding its way through the courts.

The kinds of cheats in play aren't the ones old-school gamers might have applied by inputting a developer-programmed invincibility code. Rather, they involve premium cheats that let players see through walls to get an advantage in multiplayer combat games such as Destiny 2 or Call of Duty. Game companies, many of which are banning tens and hundreds of thousands of accounts, say cheating scares off honest players and is costly to fight. Bungie estimated in one suit that it spends "roughly $1,250,000 per year on its anti-cheating measures," not including legal costs.

Tim Cook has tweeted an admission that Apple uses Sony image sensors in its iPhones as part of the CEO's supplier tour of Japan. "We've been partnering with Sony for over a decade to create the world's leading camera sensors for iPhone," Cook tweeted, and thanked Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida for showing him around the Kumamoto facility. The Verge reports: Apple largely keeps tight-lipped about the specifics of the hardware components that go into each iPhone, so outright confirming that it's used Sony camera sensors for over a decade is notable. Apple's website tends to just list the specs of each iPhone's camera -- such as resolution, aperture, and field of view -- rather than the specific components used. But hardware specifics have tended to matter less in the age of computational photography.

Tim Cook's visit to Sony's facility suggests this partnership isn't going anywhere anytime soon, and a recent report in Nikkei Asia offers some clues as to what the companies are working on for future iPhones. Sony is said to have developed a new image sensor that uses a new semiconductor architecture to capture more light and reduce both over- and underexposure. The new sensor is expected to feature in Apple's next generation of iPhones, but will also ship to other smartphone manufacturers.

Xbox chief and Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer says Sony's opposition to the Activision Blizzard deal is influenced by the PlayStation-maker's desires to "protect its dominance" in consoles. From a report: "Sony is trying to protect its dominance on the console. The way they grow is by making Xbox smaller," Spencer said on the Second Request podcast when discussing "the one major opposer to the deal": Sony. "Sony is trying to protect its dominance on the console. The way they grow is by making Xbox smaller," Spencer said.

"[Sony] has a very different view of the industry than we do. They don't ship their games day and date on PC, they do not put their games into their subscription when they launch their games." Spencer claimed that "Sony is leading the dialogue around why the deal shouldn't go through", saying that the company is trying to protect PlayStation's "dominant position on console" by "grab[bing] onto Call of Duty". "The largest console maker in the world raising an objection about the one franchise that we've said will continue to ship on the platform," Spencer added. "It's a deal that benefits customers through choice and access."

A Japanese billionaire picked his crewmates for the first-ever artist-centered mission. Space.com reports: Yusaku Maezawa, who made his fortune as an online fashion retailer, announced the eight people who would be flying with him on the dearMoon mission, which aims to use a SpaceX Starship to fly around the moon as soon as next year. "I hope each and every one will recognize the responsibility that comes with leaving the Earth, travelling to the moon and back," Maezawa says in the video in Japanese, with a translation provided in-video.

Riding along with Maezawa will be:
- Steve Aoki, D.J., producer and electronic dance music artist with several Billboard-charting studio albums;
- Tim Dodd, YouTube creator of the "Everyday Astronaut" channel (Dodd has interviewed SpaceX founder Elon Musk multiple times on camera);
- Yemi A.D., artist and choreographer known for his work with JAD Dance Company and with Ye (formerly Kanye West);
- Karim Iliya, photographer whose publications include National Geographic Magazine;
- Rhiannon Adam, a photographer who has been supported by the BBC/Royal Geographical Society and won multiple awards, according to their website;
- Brendan Hall, filmmaker on projects such as the two-hour documentary "Blood Sugar Rising" about diabetes in the United States, according to the Internet Movie Database;
- Dev Joshi, an "Indian television actor known for portraying the role of Baal Veer in Sony Sab's Baal Veer and Baalveer Returns," according to the Internet Movie Database;
- T.O.P., a South Korean rapper known as the lead for the boy band Big Bang;
- Two backup members: dancer Miyu, and snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington.

Each member of the dearMoon crew was briefly quoted in a video from the dearMoon YouTube channel, and the announcement was confirmed on Dodd's and Maezawa's Twitter feeds.

The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday sued to block Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of the video game publisher Activision Blizzard, charging that the massive deal would allow the Washington tech giant to suppress its competitors in gaming. Washington Post: The lawsuit represents the FTC's most significant effort to rein in consolidation in the tech industry since prominent tech critic Lina Khan (D) became the commission's chair and was expected to usher in a new era of antitrust enforcement characterized by a willingness to bring cases in court rather than pursue settlements with companies.

The FTC lawsuit against Microsoft could foil the company's ambitions to become a heavier hitter in gaming frontiers. Activision is the owner of massively popular titles like "Candy Crush" and "Call of Duty," and its acquisition could bolster Microsoft in its competition with Japanese console makers Nintendo and Sony. The commission voted on Thursday on a party-line vote to issue the lawsuit in administrative court, with the three Democrats in favor of the complaint and one Republican against it.

Microsoft says it has reached a 10-year agreement with Nintendo to make Call of Duty available on Nintendo consoles if the Activision Blizzard acquisition closes. From a report: The deal is similar in length to what Microsoft has offered Sony, and the Xbox maker has also committed to continue to offer new versions of Call of Duty on Steam at the same time they launch on Xbox. The deal is clearly designed to put pressure on Sony to accept a similar offer, just days after Microsoft president Brad Smith said "Sony has emerged as the loudest objector" to Microsoft's proposed $68.7 billion acquisition and that "it's as excited about this deal as Blockbuster was about the rise of Netflix." Microsoft confirmed earlier this week that it had offered Sony a 10-year contract to make each new Call of Duty release available on PlayStation the same day as it launches on Xbox.

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today, Microsoft president Brad Smith said the company has offered Sony a 10-year contract to make future Call of Duty games available on PlayStation if its proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition gets approved. Microsoft initially offered to keep the popular game series on PlayStation for three years after the current agreement expires, but that deal was deemed inadequate by Sony's gaming chief Jim Ryan.

"The main supposed potential anticompetitive risk Sony raises is that Microsoft would stop making 'Call of Duty' available on the PlayStation. But that would be economically irrational," Microsoft President Brad Smith said in the WSJ opinion piece.

Microsoft also plans to increase the prices of its upcoming first-party Xbox games next year. The Verge's Tom Warren writes: From 2023 onward, new full-priced games from Xbox Game Studios like Redfall, Starfield, and Forza Motorsport will be priced at $69.99 instead of the usual $59.99. It's a price increase that matches the pricing that competitors like Sony, Ubisoft, and Take-Two all offer their own games at.

Microsoft issued the following statement about the price increases: "We've held on price increases until after the holidays so families can enjoy the gift of gaming. Starting in 2023 our new, built for next-gen, full-priced games, including Forza Motorsport, Redfall, and Starfield, will launch at $69.99 USD on all platforms. This price reflects the content, scale, and technical complexity of these titles. As with all games developed by our teams at Xbox, they will also be available with Game Pass the same day they launch."

You can read the news in Military Times magazine. "Coming just after the 25th anniversary of the release of the cult classic Starship Troopers (November 1997), Offworld Industries and Sony Pictures Consumer Projects are bringing the fight against the Arachnids to a computer near you."

An official announcement and gameplay teaser were released for the upcoming game this week. "Starship Troopers: Extermination is a co-op FPS that puts you on the far-off front lines of an all-out battle against the Bugs!" explains its page on Steam. "Squad up, grab your rifle, and do your part as an elite Deep Space Vanguard Trooper set to take back planets claimed by the Arachnid threat!"

The page says an "Early Access" launch is planned for 2023: In Starship Troopers: Extermination, our vision is to show a galactic war between the Federation and the Arachnid Empire. After our initial launch and throughout the course of Early Access development, players will get to engage with exciting new updates that expand upon the in-game universe, and provide feedback through the Steam Community Hub that our developers can take into consideration.... [W]e will be sharing an exciting and robust roadmap with content already planned for 2023. Throughout Early Access we will provide players with more weapons, an updated class leveling system as well as progression achievements and unlockable skins for both weapons and armor. Additionally we will be adding vehicles special call in attacks including massive Orbital Strikes to help during missions. On the enemy side we will be adding more bugs, flying enemies, and boss battles that require complex player coordination to accomplish.

As we progress in development, our goal is to then begin ongoing planetary battles where the player can explore new items and enemies introduced in previous updates as an epic war breaks out. This transition adds a new world as we head to the completion of Early Access. The intent throughout Early Access is to convey that this part of our development cycle is the beginning of the war and the battle will only increase in complexity and ferocity as we move to full release.

Starship Troopers: Extermination is expected to be in Early Access for approximately 1 year. The full version of Starship Troopers: Extermination will span multiple worlds to liberate them from the Arachnid Threat. This will include additional weapons, enemies types, class progression upgrades, community events, and encounters. The player will have a more diverse roster of customization options allowing them to tailor their Troopers to fit their playstyle and experience." Starship Troopers: Extermination will launch with a massive map on Planet Valaka. Up to twelve players can team up to complete side and main missions before escaping to the extraction zone. We'll have more to share closer to the Early Access launch in 2023!

We plan to work closely with the community on Steam's Community Hub and in the official Starship Troopers: Extermination Discord as we add features, tune gameplay, and develop new content.
"Starship Troopers is in a league of its own when it comes to 90s science fiction films," writes Boing Boing's Devin Nealy. "Despite serving as an adaptation of the Robert A. Heinlein book, Starship Troopers forges a unique identity through its striking visuals and deft use of satire."

Noting the two "pretty weak" straight-to-video sequels (and two more CGI-animated films), Nealy argues that "Until the franchise finds a creative team that can properly capture the essence of the first film, a video game might be the best option for the series."

Microsoft is likely to offer remedies to EU antitrust regulators in the coming weeks to stave off formal objections to its $69 billion bid for "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard, Reuters reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: The U.S. software giant and Xbox maker announced the deal in January to help it compete better with leaders Tencent and Sony. It has since then faced regulatory headwinds in the European Union, Britain and in the United States, with Sony criticising the deal and even calling for a regulatory veto.

The deadline for the European Commission, which is investigating the deal, to set out a formal list of competition concerns known as a statement of objection is in January. Offering remedies before such a document is issued could shorten the regulatory process. [...] Microsoft's remedy would consist mainly of a 10-year licensing deal to Playstation owner Sony, another person with direct knowledge said.

Hackaday writes According to [Venn Stone], technical producer over at Linux GameCast, the Sony a5000 is still a solid option for those looking to shoot 1080p video despite being released back in 2014. But while the camera is lightweight and affordable, it does have some annoying quirks — namely an overlay on the HDMI output (as seen in the image above) that can't be turned off using the camera's normal configuration menu. But as it so happens, using some open source tools and the venerable telnet, you can actually log into the camera's operating system and fiddle with its settings directly.
A grassroots tool for unlocking Sony cameras apparently also unlocks developer options — including a telnet server on its WiFi interface. (There's a video of the whole procedure on Linux Gamecast Weekly's web site.)

Venn Stone (the podcast's technical producer/engineer) is apparently also a long-time Slashdot reader — and also describes himself on the podcast as "not a fan of articial software limitations."

And he calls this telnet-enabled tweak "the most hack-y thing I've done in recent memory" — even creating a playlist of 1990s hacker music to more fully enjoy the moment.

Netflix agreed to some exclusive theatrical distribution for "Glass Onion" and "Matilda the Musical," but it's not clear exhibitors will get much more. From a report: "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery," the much-anticipated follow-up to the 2019 sleeper hit directed by Rian Johnson, was supposed to be the moment Netflix crossed the Rubicon. Rather than give the film a perfunctory theatrical release -- a strategy designed to ensure most viewers ultimately watch a movie on the streaming service -- Netflix, in a first, would give the film a traditional, exclusive run in a large number of cinemas. It didn't happen.

After much back and forth, and contrary to the wishes of some Netflix employees and Mr. Johnson, a theatrical release for "Glass Onion" that at one point some people inside the company hoped would reach up to 2,000 screens ended up at 638 in the United States. The movie, which was released on Wednesday and has received positive reviews, will run in theaters for just one week before becoming available on Netflix on Dec. 23. What was supposed to be the moment to prove the value of theaters to the streaming giant will not come to pass. Yet the company is also involved in another intriguing theatrical experiment this weekend, one that could end up providing Netflix with even more valuable feedback.

On Friday, "Matilda the Musical," financed and produced by Netflix, will open on more than 1,500 screens in 670 locations across the United Kingdom and Ireland. The movie, starring Emma Thompson as the villainous Miss Trunchbull, will be released and promoted by Sony Pictures, which, in a unique one-picture deal, licensed the rights to Netflix on the condition that Sony could hold onto the United Kingdom for a theatrical release. ("Matilda," which is based on a stage musical that itself is based on a children's book by Roald Dahl, is beloved in the United Kingdom. The musical has been running in London's West End since 2011.) "It will be a good example of what could be done," said Tim Richards, founder and chief executive of Vue International, a London-based exhibitor with theaters in countries including the United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany and Italy. âoeIf there was ever a film made for the big screen, it's 'Matilda.'"

An anonymous reader shares a report: According to Microsoft, Nintendo "offers a broader range of mature content than Xbox." Microsoft's statements came about as part of its response to the UK CMA about wanting to buy Activision. Despite some claiming that Nintendo is more family-friendly, Switch in particular has proven otherwise. Microsoft highlighted the Nintendo-published Bayonetta 3, the console-exclusive Shin Megami Tensei V, and other third-party titles such as The Witcher 3 and NieR: Automata. Ultimately Microsoft is looking to prove that Nintendo is as much a competitor as Sony is with PlayStation, and was looking to provide "evidence that Nintendo Switch is not just a console aimed at the family friendly customer segment but more broadly at a diverse group of gamers across all demographics."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Politico: The Federal Trade Commission is likely to file an antitrust lawsuit to block Microsoft's $69 billion takeover of video game giant Activision Blizzard, maker of the hit games Call of Duty and Candy Crush, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. A lawsuit would be the FTC's biggest move yet under Chair Lina Khan to rein in the power of the world's largest technology companies. It would also be a major black mark for Microsoft, which has positioned itself as a white knight of sorts on antitrust issues in the tech sector after going through its own grueling regulatory antitrust battles around the world more than two decades ago.

A lawsuit challenging the deal is not guaranteed, and the FTC's four commissioners have yet to vote out a complaint or meet with lawyers for the companies, two of the people said. However, the FTC staff reviewing the deal are skeptical of the companies' arguments, those people said. The investigation remains ongoing, but much of the heavy lifting is completed, including depositions of Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella and Activision head Bobby Kotick, the people with knowledge of the investigation said. If the agency does move ahead with a case, it could come as soon as next month, said the people, all of whom were granted anonymity to discuss a confidential matter.

Central to the FTC's concerns is whether acquiring Activision would give Microsoft an unfair boost in the video game market. Microsoft's Xbox is number three to the industry-leading Sony Interactive Entertainment and its PlayStation console. Sony, however, has emerged as the deal's primary opponent, telling the FTC and regulators in other countries that if Microsoft made hit games like Call of Duty exclusive to its platforms Sony would be significantly disadvantaged. [...] To a lesser extent, Google is also an opponent of the deal, according to two of the people with knowledge of the matter. The company has argued that Microsoft has purposely degraded the quality of its Game Pass subscription service when used with Google's Chrome operating system, and owning Activision would further its incentive to do so, ultimately steering hardware sales towards Microsoft and away from Google, the people said. Last month, Microsoft Xbox chief Phil Spencer said he intends to continue to ship Call of Duty games on PlayStation "as long as there's a PlayStation out there to ship to."

Microsoft spokesperson David Cuddy said the company "is prepared to address the concerns of regulators, including the FTC, and Sony to ensure the deal closes with confidence. We'll still trail Sony and Tencent in the market after the deal closes, and together Activision and Xbox will benefit gamers and developers and make the industry more competitive."

"Any suggestion that the transaction could lead to anticomp effects is completely absurd. This merger will benefit gamers and the US gaming industry, especially as we face increasingly stiff competition from abroad," added Activision spokesperson Joe Christinat. "We are committed to continuing to work cooperatively with regulators around the globe to allow the transaction to proceed, but will not hesitate to fight to defend the transaction if required."

A new study has found that Apple's wireless earbuds can serve as a more affordable and accessible sound amplification device than medical hearing aids. Gizmodo reports: Inspired by a feature called Live Listen released in 2016 by Apple, which allows an iPhone or iPad to be used as sound-boosting microphone, researchers from the Taipei Veterans General Hospital wondered whether the performance of AirPods 2 and the original AirPods Pro using this feature could compare to medical hearing aids. Apple does not position Live Listen as a tool for those dealing with hearing loss but as a way for users with normal hearing to boost desired sounds, like the calls of a bird. However, the researchers found that, in some situations, consumer-level personal sound amplification products faired quite well against pricier medically prescribed solutions, and given the popularity of products like Apple's AirPods, there's no stigma associated with wearing them.

The researchers tested the $129 AirPods 2 and $249 AirPods Pro paired with iPhone XS Max smartphones running iOS 13. They compared these against the $10,000 OTICON Opn 1 behind-the-ear hearing aids and a more affordable alternative, the $1,500 Bernafon MD1. The four options were tested with 21 participants dealing with mild to moderate hearing loss, who were asked to repeat short sentences read to them by the researchers in varying environments. In a quiet setting, the AirPods Pro were found to perform as well as the cheaper hearing aids and almost as good as the premium model, while the Air Pods 2 performed the worst of all four tested devices but still helped participants hear what was being read to them more clearly than not using a sound-enhancing device at all. In a noisy environment, the AirPods Pro performed even closer to the premium hearing aid model, thanks to their built-in noise cancellation, but only when the distracting noises were coming from the sides of the participant. When the noise was coming from the front, alongside the sample sentences being read by the researchers, both wireless earbud products failed to help improve what was being heard. "Hearing aids remain the best option for those dealing with hearing loss, but for those who don't have access to them for whatever reason, a cheaper product like Apple's AirPods Pro could provide noticeable improvements in hearing and clarity for those dealing with mild-to-moderate hearing loss and could serve as a useful alternative until over-the-counter solutions are more readily available and affordable," concludes the report.

Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration decided to allow hearing aids to be sold over the counter and without a prescription to adults, a decision that "could fundamentally change technology," said Nicholas Reed, an audiologist at the Department of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Sony's first OTC hearing aids were announced last month.

Japan said on Friday it will invest up to 70 billion yen ($500 million) in a new semiconductor company led by tech firms including Sony and NEC as it rushes to re-establish itself as a lead maker of advanced chips. From a report: "Semiconductors are going to be a critical component for the development of new leading-edge technologies such as AI, digital industries and in healthcare," Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura said at a news briefing. The new chip company will be named Rapidus and aims to begin making chips in the second half of the decade, he added.

As trade friction between the United States and China deepens and Washington restricts Beijing's access to advanced semiconductor technology, Japan is rushing to revive its chip manufacturing base to ensure its carmakers and information technology companies do not run short of the key component. Japan is also concerned that China may attempt to take control of Taiwan, the global hub for advanced chip production.

Sony will start phasing out plastic packaging for small electronic gadgets such as smartphones, cameras and audio accessories from next year, a company spokeswoman said Tuesday. From a report: From April, plastic packaging will not be used for some new products weighing one kilogram (2.2 pounds) or less. The Japanese conglomerate wants to eliminate the material from all containers for newly designed smaller goods by 2025, the spokeswoman told AFP. "Instead of plastics, we will mainly use paper, and a so-called 'original blend material' made from bamboo, used paper and squeezed sugarcane fibre," she said. Sony eventually wants to eliminate plastic packaging for larger products like televisions, but no specific time frame has been decided yet, she said.