News Roundup - February 2025

“Sonic the Hedgehog 3” has become the second-highest-grossing video game movie of all time, earning $462 million worldwide and surpassing “Detective Pikachu’s” $450 million. The film follows “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which holds the top spot with $1.26 billion in global earnings. Other successful video game adaptations include “Warcraft” with $439 million and “Rampage” with $428 million. A fourth installment, “Sonic the Hedgehog 4,” is scheduled for release on March 19, 2027.

Sony reported record-breaking PlayStation 5 sales during the holiday quarter ending December 31, 2024, shipping 9.5 million units, including the newly launched PlayStation Pro. This surge contributed to a 16% year-over-year increase in the Games & Network Services segment, totaling ¥1.7 trillion ($11 billion) in revenue. The company also achieved a milestone of 129 million monthly active users, the highest in PlayStation history, with over 40% of holiday PS5 purchasers being new to the console. As a result, Sony has raised its fiscal year sales forecast for the gaming division to ¥4.6 trillion ($29.9 billion).

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman announced plans to introduce paywalls for certain subreddits later this year, allowing exclusive content or private areas accessible only to subscribers. Despite this addition, Huffman emphasized that the existing free version of Reddit will continue to thrive. This move aims to diversify Reddit’s revenue streams and offer new types of communities, building upon previous premium features like Reddit Gold. Specific details on implementation and affected subreddits have not been disclosed yet.