Sony readies two $300 PlayStation 4 bundles for December

By Danny Cowan December 1, 2015

Miss out on a Black Friday deal for the PlayStation 4 this year? Sony has you covered with a pair of PS4 hardware bundles priced at $300 during the holiday season.

Starting on December 6th, holiday shoppers can purchase the Star Wars Battlefront Standard Edition PS4 bundle and the Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection PS4 bundle at a reduced cost. The discount will apply online and at retail locations throughout the United States for two weeks.

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Sony’s limited-time price drop represents a savings of $50, as both bundles normally retail for $350 apiece.

The Star Wars Battlefront Standard Edition PS4 bundle includes a copy of EA DICE’s recently released competitive multiplayer shooter Star Wars Battlefront, along with a collection of Star Wars-related digital bonuses. The package offers codes redeemable for digital copies of the PlayStation 2-era games Star Wars: Racer Revenge, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, and Star Wars Bounty Hunter, in addition to a PS4 port of the classic 16-bit side-scroller Super Star Wars.

Star Wars Battlefront normally retails at $60. Star Wars: Racer Revenge, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, Star Wars Bounty Hunter, and Super Star Wars are available digitally via the PlayStation Network for $10 each.

The Uncharted PS4 bundle, meanwhile, includes a free copy of the series-spanning compilation Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, regularly priced at $60. Included are PS4 ports of the single-player campaigns from Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, newly upgraded with higher-resolution textures and a persistent 60 frames-per-second framerate.

Both bundles also include a 500 GB PlayStation 4 console and a Jet Black DualShock 4 controller.

The Star Wars Battlefront Standard Edition PS4 bundle and the Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection PS4 bundle will be priced at $300 each starting on December 6th, and the price drop will remain in effect through December 19th.

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Sony’s new PlayStation earbuds are a perfect match — for my Nintendo Switch

Sony's Pulse Explore earbuds sit next to a Nintendo Switch OLED.

If you’re the kind of PlayStation loyalist who buys every add-on Sony puts out, 2023 may have been a pricey year for you. We’ve gotten the DualSense Edge, PlayStation VR2, a brand new PS5 model, and the PlayStation Portal -- but that’s not all. Sony is refreshing its audio offerings on top of all that, starting with the Pulse Explore next month.

Sony’s new wireless earbuds are built with PlayStation devices in mind. They use a new PlayStation Link connection system, which is built to easily pair them with the PlayStation 5. That tech actually replaces Bluetooth entirely on the new PlayStation Portal, which means that the Pulse Explore will be one of the only ways to get wireless audio on the handheld this year. It’s a sign that Sony is getting more aggressive about building a dedicated PlayStation ecosystem, Apple-style. It doesn’t just want you to buy Sony consoles, but all of the black-and-white accessories that go with them too.

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You only have one week left to share PlayStation clips and screenshots to X

Two versions of the PS5 next to each other.

A notification some users received on PS4 and PS5 confirms that the platforms' integration with X -- the social media platform formally known as Twitter -- will go away next week. That means you'll no longer be able to quickly share screenshots or videos to X from the console.
"As of November 13, 2023, integration with X (formerly known as Twitter) will no longer function on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 consoles," the notification (as screenshotted by Wario64) states. "This includes the ability to view any content published on X on PS5/PS4, and the ability to post and view content, trophies, and other gameplay-related activities on X directly from PS5/PS5 (or link an X account to do so)."

Since the release of the PS4, people have been able to share screenshots and videos taken with the controller's Share button with social media services. Twitter historically was one of those platforms, but API changes following Elon Musk's buying of the platform and rebranding to X have interfered with its integration with many platforms. Now, it seems that Sony has decided that it's best just to rid PlayStation platforms of any X integration whatsoever. PlayStation has not publicly commented on why it's removing this feature yet, but we've contacted them for comment and will update this story when we get a response.
If there are any screenshots or videos on your PS4 or PS5 that you want to get onto X, you have until November 13 to do so. After that, Apple, Discord, Spotify, Twitch, and YouTube will be the only services one can link their PlayStation account to.

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Sony’s cloud handheld, the PlayStation Portal, will only stream certain games

Astro's Playroom booting up on the PlayStation Portal.

Sony has unveiled the price for its upcoming cloud gaming handheld, as well as an official name for the device: PlayStation Portal. However, one significant caveat to its functionality might sour people's interest in the handheld: It only supports PS4 and PS5 native games that the owner purchased.
PlayStation VR2 games can't be streamed to PlayStation Portal, which does make sense. More bafflingly, though, is the fact that the PlayStation Blog post states that "games that are streamed through PlayStation Plus Premium’s cloud streaming are not supported." That means you shouldn't pick up PlayStation Portal expecting to stream some PS3 and PS4 games available through PlayStation Plus Premium to the device. That's certainly an odd omission when it's currently PlayStation's most notable cloud gaming effort.
Although Microsoft is more closely associated with cloud gaming, Sony beat it to releasing a dedicated cloud gaming device. PlayStation Portal was first teased as Project Q during May's PlayStation showcase, but now, a PlayStation Blog post more clearly explains what we can actually expect from the handheld. Most importantly, we learned that PlayStation Portal will cost $200, which puts it underneath the cost of a Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series S, and other cloud gaming devices like the Logitech G Cloud Handheld.
As for what you're getting for that price tag, it's essentially a decent screen attached to two halves of a DualSense controller. The controllers on each side share all the functionality of the DualSense, including things like haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. In-between is an 8-inch LCD screen that streams games over Wi-Fi at up to a 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second. All in all, that's fairly solid for a cloud gaming handheld that is this cheap.
Sony confirmed that the PlayStation Portal will have a 3.5mm audio jack, but also used the same blog post to unveil two new wireless audio options. There's the Pulse Elite wireless headset that features a retractable boom mic and a charging hanger and Pulse Explore wireless earbuds that offer similar audio quality in earbud form.
None of these products are available for preorder or have a specific release date just yet, but they are all expected to launch before the end of the year.