Category: Science & Tech

Sony has announced a range of new “perks” for PS Plus, including a three-month trial to YouTube Premium, as well as trials and discounts for other services. But not all fans are on board.

“Enjoy a range of special offers, trials and discounts from PlayStation, Sony and select partners. All included with your PlayStation Plus membership,” Sony’s announcement reads.

Those partners include YouTube Premium, DAZN, Audible, and Sony Pictures’ own Core. Elsewhere, PS Plus members get a 5% discount when they buy direct from PlayStation, they can save 10% on gaming and audio from Sony Electronics, and a two month trial of Calm Premium.

“How is a free trial a perk?” one person complained on social media. “Calling free trials a perk is a big reach,” another person commented. “These are not real perks, these are just money for Sony by funnelling people into these other subscriptions,” another said. “Nobody cares about a free trial. Give us full crunchy roll premium on ps plus and then maybe we will be happy,” one person suggested.

Others are using the perks announcement to once again criticize Sony for its decision to kill PlayStation discs from 2028. “Are Physical discs a perk?” said one social media user. “This reeks of desperation,” said another before continuing: “So many people have abandoned PS Plus as a result of Sony’s plans to end physical discs, that they are now trying to entice people with the old carrot and the stick routine.”

The disc backlash does not appear to have affected Sony’s bottom line so far. In Sony’s recent financial results, the number of monthly active users (MAUs) across the PlayStation platform actually increased 7% in September compared to the same month of the previous fiscal year to 127 million accounts — that’s a record high for September. Sony said this indicates “the baseline of engagement is steadily improving.”

According to the same results, 78% of game sales over the period were digital, which is a significant majority. With digital sales of first-party games, Sony gets the full cut of revenue.

Kirk McKeand is a Contributor on IGN News. Find him on Twitter @MckKirk

ENDIX, the fully digital, free-to-attend gaming expo, is now live from today, November 6, through November 8, and it offers guests from around the world the opportunity to step onto a virtual show floor to check out over 50 games, play demos, watch world premieres and exclusive trailers, and even speak to the studios and publishers behind the titles through integrated voice chat, all from the comfort of their own homes.

By downloading ENDIX for free on Steam or the Epic Games Store, guests can create their own avatar and walk through the show floor, stopping at virtual themed halls, rooftop spaces, and dedicated publisher areas, including THQ Nordic Island, where players can check out Titan Quest II, Expeditions: Samurai, Fatekeeper, and The Eternal Life of Goldman.

Bohemia Interactive has its own dedicated area featuring Silica and Nailcrown, 505 Games is there with Among the Trolls, Frozen District is showing off House Flipper 2: Pets, Forgery Craft, and Dreampainters, Noodlecake Games has Tiebreakers, Monkey Brain, and Harpooner on display, Playism features Homura Hime, and Horrified Triangles will offer guests a chance to experience Haunted Bloodlines and Alpha Nomos.

These are only a few of the games currently on display, and there will be even more to explore in ENDIX. For example. Alienware and Elgato are the brand partners this year and will have mini-games for guests to enjoy and a unique activation, respectively. Furthermore, guests can head over to the City Mega Stand to see Crema’s Temtem: Pioneers, walk over to the laid-back Cozy Area, or test their mettle within the eerie halls of the horror-themed Theatrum Obscurum.

“Every edition of ENDIX starts with the same question: how do we make the most unique and inclusive event experience for gamers from all over the world?” said Nikos Perifanis, founder of ENDIX. “Seeing publishers like THQ Nordic, 505 Games, Frozen District, Noodlecake, and Playism build their spaces inside ENDIX, right alongside dozens of independent studios, tells us we’re on the right track. Whether you’re a two-person studio, solo dev or a publisher with decades of history, everyone shares the same virtual space, and every player can walk right up to any and connect. We can’t wait to open the virtual doors in November.”

For more, check out ENDIX’s website to learn all about this playable gaming event you can check out right now, assuming you are reading this between November 6-8! Additionally, you can see many of the excluisve trailers on IGN.com and IGN’s YouTube channel.

SINGAPORE – From Neoprint stickers in the 2000s to the South Korean-style self-photo studios of today, Singapore’s love for photo booths keeps coming back. Studios have mushroomed across the island since 2022, with many charging around $10 for a session.

As competition heats up, studios are standing out with increasingly creative themes. Here are five photo booths to check out:

1. Solace Studios

One of the pioneers of Singapore’s South Korean-style photo booth boom, home-grown brand Solace Studios was founded by Keith Kok, 25, in 2022 and is known for themed backdrops inspired by everyday life.

Its first themed booth, an elevator, drew queues of up to two hours when it opened in Haji Lane and has since become the brand’s signature.

Other themes include a laundromat booth complete with a washing machine that you can stick your head in, a business class airplane cabin, and a refrigerator booth at its Waterway Point outlet.

Solace Studios releases new frames for the photo strips every month, designed with customers who journal and do scrapbooking in mind. It also offers mini photo strips that fit behind a phone or in a wallet. A session costs $10 for two strips.

The brand has two stores in Haji Lane alone, down from three. Before committing to a permanent outlet, Solace often tests new areas with pop-ups. A successful pop-up at Jem, for instance, led to a permanent shop there.

Info: Solace Studios has about 20 locations across Singapore, including pop-ups. Its main outlet is at 73 Haji Lane, with others at Jewel Changi Airport (04-239), Jem (04-53) and VivoCity (02-37). Most are open from 10am to 10pm daily. Visit solacestudios.sg for the full list of outlets.

2. Haengbok Studio

“Haengbok” means happiness in Korean, and the brand hopes every customer leaves with a little more of it.

Run by Jerry Wong, 34, and his wife, the business started in 2022 as Haengbok Supplies, a gift store selling quirky finds, before opening its first physical store in Haji Lane in March 2023. Haengbok Studio, its photo booth concept, followed in October 2023.

After exiting Haji Lane in February 2026, the brand opened two new stores, in Joo Chiat in March and Chinatown in May. Both combine the gift store with photo booths, so visitors can browse cute gifts, stickers, nostalgic toys, stationery and designer pieces before or after a snap session.

Sessions start at $10, with classic, translucent and sticker films to choose from. The highlight is its Neoprint booth featuring more than 10,000 frame designs, with new ones added regularly. Customers can decorate their photos with stickers before printing, just like the machines of the 2000s.

Info: Haengbok Studio’s flagship store is located at 228 South Bridge Road, with a second outlet at 01-03, 2 Fowlie Road. Open from noon to 7pm on weekdays and from 11am to 7pm on weekends.

3. Another Booth

Billed as Singapore’s first walk-through photo booth, Another Booth takes visitors through four timed, Japanese-themed rooms in one session. Customers pose in each room before the timer runs out, then pick and print their favourite shots at the end.

The four rooms are Sakura Room, Convenience Store, Baseball Club and Izakaya. The Japanese theme is a nod to the area around Cuppage Plaza and Orchard Plaza, sometimes referred to as Singapore’s Little Japan.

Convenience Store and Izakaya are the most popular. The first has an illuminated fridge backdrop, chequered flooring and banana props, while the second is decorated with dimly lit lanterns and props in the shape of skewers and edamame.

Founded by couple Joseph Lim, 30, and Reyna Yeo, 26, both former product managers, the studio opened in late July.

Standard strips cost $14 for a pair, and mini strips and postcards are priced at $16. Mini near-field communication (NFC) CD keychains – which hold pictures and feature an embedded NFC chip that plays a song when tapped with a phone – are priced from $18 to $20.

Visitors get $2 off from Mondays to Thursdays, between 10am and noon, and 2pm and 4pm.

Info: Another Booth is located at 05-50 Orchard Plaza, 150 Orchard Road. It is self-service and open 24 hours daily.

4. Dollop Pit Stop

Dollop founder Jonah Sng started out photographing weddings and events, and began offering photo booths as an add-on around 2009. When Covid-19 halted events, the brand moved into automated walk-in booths – self-service booths in malls that the public could use unsupervised – around 2021.

Its racing-themed concept space, Dollop Pit Stop at *Scape, is home to its most popular booths. In the Glambot Ride, its signature, guests can pose in a real car while a robotic arm fitted with a camera captures them from four angles.

There is also the Minimart, stocked with movable props such as cereal boxes, canned food and a shopping cart, and a Neon Petrol Station booth, a retro-futuristic kiosk where visitors pose as if refuelling at a cyberpunk fuel pump.

Dollop’s booths also have Neoprint-style features, letting customers decorate their prints with digital stickers, names and drawings. The brand works with local illustrators on its frames and releases new designs twice a month, including K-pop, concert and Formula 1-themed frames.

A session is $10 and no booking is needed.

Info: Dollop Pit Stop is located at 01-23 *Scape, 2 Orchard Link (open from 10am to 10pm daily). Dollop has around 20 outlets, including 24-hour booths at Changi Airport Terminal 3 (Level 1 Arrival Hall) and The Riverfront at Clarke Quay (Lobby D, Level 1).

5. Blind Animals

Run by Singaporean sisters Ruby, 22, and Scarlet Christie, 24, Blind Animals opened on Aug 15.

Both have art backgrounds: Ruby developed her art direction and styling portfolio in Seoul, while Scarlet studied costume design in London.

The studio specialises in art-directed, vintage-inspired booths filled with time-accurate props sourced locally and from abroad.

Its most popular booth is the lotus pond, where visitors duck under and pop out of an oval cut-out surrounded by lotus leaves, pods and flowers. Golden-hour lighting complements the solid blue background, which is designed to mimic a surrealist sky.

The studio has three other booths: a high-angle 1950s Vintage Bathroom with pastel pink and green tiles, a bathtub and a display of real vintage cosmetics from Europe and the United States; a red-lit Chinese Den with beaded curtains, Chinese chessboard and vinyl records; and a Classic Portrait booth with “flattering” lighting.

A session costs $10 for two prints, with extra copies at $20 for four, $30 for six and $40 for eight. The booths are self-service and walk-in only.

Info: Blind Animals is located at 107A Killiney Road. It is open from 1pm to 7pm from Tuesdays to Thursdays and on Sundays, and from 1pm to 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays. It is closed on Mondays.

SINGAPORE – From Neoprint stickers in the 2000s to themed self-photo studios today, the humble photo booth keeps coming back, and Gen Z is leading the queue.

When Keith Kok visited South Korea in 2022, he found photo booths almost everywhere he turned.

“Every 50 to 100 steps, I’d see one,” says the founder of photo-booth chain Solace Studios, now 25, who ended up visiting one every day of his week-long trip.

“When I came back to Singapore, I realised there weren’t many of these photo booths,” he says. “Four years ago, we had only self-photo studios, where you had to make a booking, then you had 15 minutes to take all the shots. It wasn’t a walk-in service like the ones in South Korea.”

At 21, he decided to start his own company offering exactly that. “It was something that I enjoyed doing, so I wanted to let others experience it.”

It took three months to get the first shop ready, including a month of renovations. Solace customises its booth exteriors in China but sources components such as cameras and printers locally.

His father, Solace’s co-founder, was unsure at first. “He asked, will it work? It’s only $10, how are you going to earn money from it?” says Kok. “But he also asked me how confident I was. I told him I’m sure it will work. I think after hearing that, he decided to trust me.”

Together, they put in about $75,000, half from Kok’s savings. His father, Noelle Kok, pawned a luxury watch to fund the other half.

When Solace Studios opened in Haji Lane in 2022, people queued for one to two hours for a shop with only three booths. “I didn’t expect that, because people were queueing in the hot sun just to take their photos,” the younger Kok recalls. With no budget for new air-conditioning, the team put a standing fan in each room.

Today, the brand has become ubiquitous, with about 20 locations, including pop-ups – and has plenty of competition.

Self-photo studios have mushroomed across Singapore, from Haji Lane to Orchard Plaza to even suburban malls, with many charging around $10 a session. Checks by The Straits Times showed there are at least 25 companies offering such services.

It is a revival of sorts, recalling the 2000s, when teenagers squeezed into Neoprint booths after school to make decorated sticker photos. But today’s studios are bigger and bolder, swopping plain backdrops for elaborate themed sets, from a lotus pond bathed in golden-hour light to a real car fitted with a robotic camera arm.

Prints now range from classic strips to translucent film and stickers. Some booths have even dabbled in artificial intelligence, turning guests into cartoon versions of themselves, though these are mostly hired for corporate events, says Kok.

He is, however, firmly against the idea of bringing AI into his booths, believing it would undercut both the art and the photos. Solace releases new frames for its photo strips every month, each drawn up by an in-house designer. Kok says of AI: “For frame design, it would really insult my designer. And I think it kind of kills the meaning of photos.”

For him, the appeal of a printed photo is simple. “It was taken within that moment. You can’t retake it or try to perfect it, and I guess that’s the beauty of it,” he says. “When you hold the physical photo and look back at it, it brings back a lot of memories.”

More than just a photo

Samer El Hajjar, a senior lecturer in marketing at the National University of Singapore’s Business School, believes photo booths as a trend reflect a shift towards spending on experiences. “Many people assume photo booths are competing with smartphones, but I don’t think that’s the case. Smartphones help us capture moments, while photo booths help us create them,” he says.

“We are seeing many young consumers spend more on activities that create memories rather than simply buying products. A photo booth is not really selling a photograph. It is selling a moment, an experience, and something people can share with others.

“Ironically, as our lives become more digital, physical keepsakes can become more meaningful because they feel rare and tangible.”

He adds that unlike on social media, where there can be pressure to look perfect, photo booths tend to encourage playfulness and spontaneity. “In a world where almost every moment can be photographed, experiences that feel intentional and memorable become more valuable.”

For Anthea Lee, 19, a third-year law and management student at Temasek Polytechnic who rates photo booths on TikTok, these studios mean something more personal. She visits them at least once a month, and once a week if she can convince her friends to go along.

“When I was really young, I really enjoyed being in front of the camera. However, people did not have nice things to say about my looks when I was growing up, so I started shying away from the camera,” she says. “Taking my first solo booth portrait gave me a shot of confidence I hadn’t felt in a long time.”

She also sees it as a creative outlet. “Many Gen Zs bury our artistic sides to study accounting, science and engineering. Photo-boothing has become a way for my artistic side to be expressed in 10 minutes,” adds Lee, who has visited 10 photo booth studios in Singapore so far.

Her photo strips have become decor on her bedroom wall, alongside Polaroids, postcards and letters.

“I kind of think of my wall as a myriad of everyone who has ever loved me and everyone I have ever loved,” she says.

Standing out in a crowded field

The growing number of studios has brought challenges. In December 2025, Solace closed its first outlet at 30 Haji Lane after rent went up and competition opened nearby.

“It doesn’t make sense for us to continue there, when we can open a new and bigger outlet in a mall,” Kok says. Solace still runs two other outlets in Haji Lane.

El Hajjar expects some studios to fall by the wayside despite strong demand. “Studios that reply solely on having a camera and a backdrop may struggle. The winners will be those that create a distinctive experience,” he says.

One studio that has found its niche is Haengbok Studio, whose Neoprint booth Lee singles out as a highlight. “Choosing frames with your friends and drawing on the photos adds an extra layer of activity, which makes Haengbok somewhere you take more of a pause at,” she says.

In a crowded market, Haengbok has set itself apart by looking back rather than forward. Entrepreneur Jerry Wong, 34, who runs the business with his wife, developed his own Neoprint machine instead of competing on elaborate themed rooms.

“I’ve always had a soft spot for Neoprints, and felt it would be nice to bring back that nostalgic experience in a way that could appeal to both the older generation and younger customers today,” he says. “I spent some time researching and designing the overall outlook of the machine.”

The gamble paid off. After closing its first Haji Lane store in February, Haengbok opened two stores, in Joo Chiat and Chinatown, each pairing photo booths with a gift shop.

“Ultimately, I hope Neoprints can connect different generations through a shared experience, and stay around for many years to come so they won’t simply disappear with time,” Wong says.

If you’re a fan of Hideo Kojima’s video games, you might want to take a look at Seiko’s later collaboration. The watchmaker has teamed up with Kojima Productions, the studio behind Death Stranding, to release two limited-edition watches celebrating its 10th anniversary, both exclusive to Japan.

And, in keeping with Kojima’s rather distinctive creative universe, these aren’t your typical Seikos.

The new Ludens watches come in two colourways, black and white, with just 300 of each available. Both take inspiration from Ludens, the futuristic, spacesuit-wearing mascot of Kojima Productions, whose illustration takes pride and place on the dial alongside the studio’s motto From Sapiens to Ludens.

The white edition features a silver-and-white dial paired with a patterned white strap, while the black version offers a darker alternative. Turn either watch over and you’ll find an engraved illustration of Ludens on the case back, alongside the Seiko logo and an individual serial number.

As for what’s inside, both watches are powered by Seiko’s battery-operated 6N01 quartz movement, which offers an accuracy of approximately 15 seconds per month and a battery life of around three years. There’s also a stainless steel case, Hardlex crystal, and everyday water resistance.

The black edition is priced at ¥55,000 (approximately $350), while the white version costs ¥57,600 (around $365). The latter also comes with a ticket to Kojima Productions’ Beyond the Strand 10th-anniversary exhibition, taking place at Tokyo’s Azabudai Hills Gallery until December 20.

Pre-orders opened in Japan on October 30 through Lawson and HMV&BOOKS, with reservations running until December 14, unless all 300 pieces sell out first.

But here’s the catch. Despite being available to pre-order now, neither watch is expected to arrive until September 30 2027. That’s almost eleven months of waiting for a watch that’s already rather difficult to get hold of, particularly if you’re shopping from outside Japan.

Still, for diehard Kojima fans, a limited-edition Seiko celebrating a decade of one of gaming’s most recognizable studios might just be worth the wait.

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