The U.S. and Canada had a massive launch for the PlayStation 4 almost two weeks ago, selling over 1 million units in just 24 hours. Now it's almost time for European countries to start selling Sony's new game console at midnight on Friday in their respective time zones, which is just a few hours away from now.
In preparation for what Sony claims will be "record sales" of the PS4 in Europe on Friday, along with record numbers of people signing into the PlayStation Network, the company has announced via their official blog that they will temporarily disable two features on PSN in those countries. One of those two features is the "What's new" screen, which is designed to help players "discover and engage with all of your friends’ PS4 related activity". The other is the "Content Information" screen, which lets players "see friends’ activity and information specific to the title you are looking at."
Sony states that both of these features will be switched back on a few days after Friday, "once the intensity of launch day calms down." All other PSN features, including online multiplayer services, will be available on Friday.
In related news, Eurogamer reports that Sony has a small stockpile of PS4 units that it has reserved for customers who buy faulty consoles. The U.S. launch included a few reports where customers received faulty PS4 units but Sony has said the failure numbers amounted to less than one percent of the total number of consoles sold.
Source: PlayStation Europe blog | Image via Sony
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