Weekly Roundup (15/03/21-21/03/21) – Southampton, Sony, and Disney+

This week is one seemingly lacking the usual controversy, a refreshing change of pace. What we have seen from this week though is plans approved for Southampton’s Leisure World to go ahead, Sony unveiling the new controllers for their PSVR system and analysts predicting that Disney+ will take over Netflix as the world’s largest streaming platform. To find out more, check out this week in news.

Headlines of the Week

Southampton’s Leisure World Plans Approved

In a bid for City of Culture, Southampton has had its plans for a Leisure World approved, becoming the new home of a casino, cinema, hotels, homes, and many other additions.

The £250m renovations, expected to take place along the harbour, will see Odeon, and the night-club Oceana destroyed and replaced with the above-mentioned facilities in the hope of making Southampton a more appealing destination to holiday-goers and residents. This proposal would also help Southampton achieve its City of Culture status in 2025, as well as expecting to create over 1000 jobs.

However, while the plans have been approved, the development is expected to be delivered in multiple phases over the coming years. Currently, some companies still have agreements that need to be honoured before their contract is up, and so full development cannot be completed until all these contracts finish. Along with all this though comes a lengthy development stage that could see Leisure World taking many years before full completion.

That said, it’s an exciting prospect nonetheless and could be a huge step for Southampton.

Sony Unveils New Controllers for Upcoming PSVR System

Sony has begun to unveil its upcoming PSVR system, with a complete redesign of the controllers.

The first iteration of the system that was released back in 2016 has become a respectable piece of hardware over the past few years, with a slowly increasing games library and player base. While it hasn’t received many mainstream VR games (the most notable game being Half-Life Alyx), Sony has managed to attract third-party exclusives as well as a steady stream of games to bolster its VR system as a serious competitor (and rather cheaper alternative) to other headsets like Vive and Occulus.

However, this could all be about to change after intuitive and exciting new advances in Sony’s VR controllers were announced. After the release of the PS5 back in November 2020 and its exciting advances in controller technology with the DualSense, the PSVR seems ready to catapult off the DualSense and included similar features like adaptive triggers and haptic feedback, while supporting a futuristic redesign. The new controllers will also feature finger-touch detection to allow games to map players’ finger position to give a more immersive and realistic hand design and in-game control.

The new VR controllers simply look great, promising a new experience to the PS5. While there’s still no information on a new headset, any possible launch games or even a release date, Sony promises that there is still more information to be released in the coming months.

Read the full-reveal here.

Disney+ Set to be the Largest Streaming Service in the World

After only releasing a year ago, Disney+ is set to become the world’s leading streaming service after its subscription numbers close in on Netflix.

The streaming service, which in the UK recently saw a price-hike as well as an onslaught of content with the addition of the service STAR, is predicted to overcome Netflix in the next three years. The two streaming competitors offer masses of original content but at current, Disney+ is the cheaper service, charing £7.99 a month in comparison to Netflix’s £9.99 a month.

Recently, Disney+ passed 100 million subscribers, while Netflix currently sits around over 200 million mark. However, by 2024, Disney+ is expected to have accumulated a whopping 260 million subscribers. Initial forecasts believed it would take Disney+ 5 years to achieve 90 million subscribers, but after these predictions were blown out of the water, there’s a testament to the far-reaching power that Disney+ has.

Of course, these predictions aren’t set in stone (as Disney+ managed to prove), but as Disney+ continues to apply the heat with no plans of slowing down, expect more Disney+ originals and a burgeoning growth of content.