Sony Interactive Entertainment has so far said little about its PlayStation 5, set to debut during the 2020 holiday season. The company was even a no-show at E3, where Microsoft introduced its Xbox One successor, Project Scarlett. Sony had stated that PS5 would support ray tracing, just revealed to be via a GPU hardware acceleration, rather than a software tweak. The console will also feature a solid-state drive, which will dramatically speed up loading time, by avoiding the need to duplicate game assets, also saving space. Read more

Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra has faced another setback, this time in the European Union, which plans to introduce legislation to prevent it from competing with Europe’s single currency. European Commission vice president Valdis Dombrovskis, in charge of regulation, said Libra is a systemic risk to the Euro, “both from the perspective of financial stability and the protection of financial investors.” In the U.S., two Democratic senators urged Mastercard, Visa and Stripe to reconsider their support of Libra. Read more

Quibi, the short-form video platform co-founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, signed two new content partners. The Walt Disney Company’s ESPN will provide a daily sports highlights show, which will debut with Quibi’s April launch and be part of that platform’s Daily Essentials. According to Katzenberg, Daily Essentials will curate content and “make it convenient” to viewers. CBS News’ “60 Minutes” will also create “60 in 6,” a version of original news stories condensed into six-minute long episodes specifically for Quibi. Read more

Apple reportedly wants to bundle Apple Music and Apple TV+ for one flat fee, and is in early discussions with record labels to do so. Some labels are “open to the idea,” but others are leery it will lead to loss of revenue. According to sources, Apple hasn’t yet worked out a price formula. Currently, Apple Music costs $9.99 per month for those in the U.S., with a $4.99 level for students. Apple TV+ will cost $4.99 per month, and is free for a year to anyone who buys an iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, iPod touch or Mac. Read more

Facebook agreed to pay a $40 million penalty for providing incorrect metrics for average viewing time of ads on its platform. In 2016, Facebook admitted to the problem, and a group of small advertisers sued in California federal court, in part claiming that Facebook knew about the problem long before it admitted and fixed it. Facebook countered the impact was minimal because it doesn’t bill advertisers based on watch-time; plaintiffs disagreed, saying it is a “common indirect barometer to guide ad-buying decisions.” Read more