The latest iteration of the console wars is set, with Sony on Thursday announcing a Nov. 12 North American debut for its PlayStation 5 gaming system. 

The PlayStation 5 will come in at $399 for an all digital version, and $499 for one that includes an Ultra HD Blu-ray player.

The consoles arrive two days after rival Microsoft debuts its Xbox X and S series products. 

The last refresh of the two biggest video game consoles occurred in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Like the new Xbox, PlayStation 5’s principal video streaming upgrades come in the form of screen resolution, with the device supporting 4K. 

Also read: Microsoft to Debut Next-gen Xbox Consoles Series ‘X’ and ’S’ Nov. 10

And similarly, there will be a big upgrade in terms of computer horsepower, starting with an AMX Ryzen Zen 2 CPU, and AMD Radeon RDNA 2-based graphics engine, 16 gigs of RAM and an 825GB solid-state hard drive. 

The device includes an HD camera and a separately available remote for video streaming ($29.99)

Sony announced the console upgrade in this blog post.

Confirming rumors that have been swirling for months, a top exec at Sony toldThe Financial Times that the CE giant is developing a “high-end” version of the PlayStation 4 that will support games and video in 4K resolution. 

Notably, Sony doesn’t plan to trot out the new device, codenamed “Neo,” at next week’s E3 show, but House said the new product will carry a heavier price tag than the current-gen PS4, which recently surpassed 40 million units sold worldwide.

"It is intended to sit alongside and complement the standard PS4," House told the publication, adding that Sony “will be selling both [versions of the console] through the life cycle."

Both the current-gen and Neo versions of PS4 will support the PlayStation VR headset, which will arrive in October and start at $399.

Sony has not announced any 4K content partners for the Neo console. However, Netflix and Amazon Video are examples of streaming apps that already offer libraries of 4K titles. It’s not yet known if PlayStation Vue, Sony’s OTT-TV service, will use Neo as an opportunity to add 4K content to its programming mix. 

Google’s Chromecast streaming adapter topped the media streamer market in the third quarter of 2015 on a global basis, Strategy Analytics found in a new study.

About 9.2 million devices were shipped in Q3 in the category. As the chart shows, Google Chromecast  was tops, with a 35% share of the market, followed by the Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku.

The latest numbers come in amid the launch of new products from each compan heading into the holiday buying season. 

Strategy Analytics noted that global shipments of all connected TV devices, including smart TV, Blu-ray players, game consoles and streaming players, reached 53 million units in Q3, and are on target to reach 221 million units for all of 2015. That’s a growth rate of 17%, the firm said.

On the smart TV front, Samsung is outpacing LG and Sony, and now accounts for about 25% of all smart TVs in use worldwide.  However, Philips, Sony and Sharp have recently jumped in with TVs powered by the new Android TV platform, which captured between 8% to 10% of the market in Q3 2015, Strategy Analytics found.

Sony, meanwhile, shipped more than double the number of gaming consoles as Microsoft in the period, though the Xbox One “is expected to close the gap on the PS4 during the final quarter thanks to its appealing 1st and 3rd party bundles.”

“Despite the growing penetration of integrated Smart TVs, Digital Media Streamers such as Chromecast and Fire TV continue to prove popular with consumers thanks to their low cost and effectiveness at bridging the gap between the Internet and the TV screen,” David Watkins, services director at Strategy Analytics’s Connected Home Devices service unit said, in a statement. “While the long term viability of such devices will be threatened by advancements in Smart TV technology, they are currently acting as significant components in Apple, Google and Amazon’s fast evolving TV and video ecosystems.”

“The growing adoption of Connected TV Devices in the home proves that the living room TV screen is still the dominant medium for consuming TV and video content,” added Chirag Upadhyay, the division’s senior research analyst. “The collective viewing experience cannot be replicated on a smartphone or tablet and so we expect the ‘connected TV screen’ to remain a focal point of homes in the future”.

Gaming consoles remained the top CE device used to access online video content as of the first quarter of 2015, followed by smart TVs, streaming media players, connected DVRs and Blu-ray players, Parks Associates found in a new study.

But keep an eye out for a potential shift in the months and years ahead. The research firm said about  21% of U.S. broadband homes with at least one Internet-connected CE device use streaming media players as the “primary” platform for online video, up from 12% a year ago.

Of the platforms, Roku, which just launched a 4K-capable model, is now the third-most commonly used connected CE device for video streaming (10%), behind Microsoft’s Xbox (14%) and Sony’s PlayStation consoles (13%), Parks Associates said, noting that usage declined for both connected gaming consoles and DVRs, paired with a modest increase for smart TVs (see chart).

“Streaming media players continue to stake out a growing portion of the connected home,” said Barbara Kraus, director of research at Parks Associates, in a statement about the report -- The Streaming Media Device Landscape. “It is a rapid ascendance for streaming media players, and Roku in particular, especially considering the broad base of gaming console ownership compared to the lower penetration of streaming media devices.”

The report also found that two-thirds of U.S. broadband households connect at least one device to the Internet. About 20% of those homes own at least one streaming media “cube” player and 8% own at least one streaming stick. 

About half of U.S. homes now own a connected TV device, a category that spans connected TVs, game consoles, streaming players and Blue-ray Disc players, NPD Group found in a new study.

The number of homes with a connected device stands at about 46 million, up 4 million since Q2 2014, NPD Group found its new report.

The research firm’s retailing tracking service discovered that that 45% of TVs sold in the U.S. in the second quarter of 2015 supported apps, up from 34% last year, and up from 24% two years ago. Consumers are also connecting those TVs to the Internet at increased rates, as 69% of all installed Internet-capable TVs were connected, versus 61% last year, and 45% in 2013.

Among individual apps, Netflix retained its crown as the most commonly used OTT video services in Q2 2015, followed by YouTube, Amazon Prime/Instant Video, Hulu and HBO Go and HBO Now, the programmer’s new standalone OTT subscription offering.

 “The increase in the number of homes that use a TV with apps is the result of three very important factors,” said John Buffone, NPD Group’s executive director, Connected Intelligence, said in a statement. “Sales of TVs with apps have skyrocketed, their user interfaces have improved and there has been a surge in available premium services and programming.”

NPD Group based its findings on a survey of more than 5,000 U.S. consumers age 18 and older throughout the second quarter of 2015.