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Sony says it fixed message bug that crashed PS4s
You might not have to dread receiving a message on your PS4. Sony's Twitter-based PlayStation UK support has told customers that the company has "fixed the issue" that let malicious PSN messages crash consoles. While the team didn't explain what had been done to address the problem (we've asked Sony for more details), there's no firmware update involved. This suggests that any fix would have been on Sony's end, such as blocking messages with the unrecognized characters.
Sony will finally let you change your PSN Online ID
After years of talking about the possibility of changing your PlayStation Network handle, Sony is finally close to making that seemingly basic feature a reality. The company has announced that it will soon launch a PSN Online ID Change beta for "select" users who are part of the PlayStation Preview Program. Your first name swap will be free. After that, it'll cost $10 per change ($5 if you're a PlayStation Plus member) to discourage abuse. The preview for the feature will end in November, but don't worry -- it should reach all PS4 owners by early 2019.
Sony may finally let you change your PlayStation Network name
Many a gamer has had regrets about their choice of username -- xXxDeathCrusher420xXx might not be quite so appealing in adult life as it was in your teenage years. And for PlayStation fans, that's been a big problem when your PSN name has always been set in stone. Sony may have seen the light, though. In an interview at PlayStation Experience, the company's Shawn Layden said he hoped to have a name change option available by next year's Experience. So what's the holdup? Layden didn't dive into specifics, but he said the technical solutions were "more complex than you think."
Sony crowdsources ideas for its next PlayStation TV series
Living in television's golden age means that every company wants to film their own hour-long prestige drama for us all to obsess over. Sony is no different, although attempts to turn PlayStation into a Netflix-esque platform fizzled after Powers was axed. That's why the company is now launching the Emerging Filmmakers Program, which is asking members of the public to submit ideas for the next great TV series.
Nintendo Switch still uses friend codes for some reason
As recently as January, we were told that Nintendo's awful friend code system for finding and adding buddies for multiplayer games would be no more. That made us hope a better system for adding Switch contacts was on the way. Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime even told CNET, "There are no friend codes within what we're doing." It turns out that's not true at all, as the company revealed that friend codes are very much alive and well.
Twitch will let you change your username every two months
Starting today, you can change your Twitch username. What's more, you can do it every 60 days, and, seemingly as a shot at Microsoft and Xbox Live, it won't cost you a dime to swap from "FluffyJungle9991" to something a that's easier to commit to memory.
PlayStation's Communities app helps you find teammates faster
PlayStation's official mobile app has been live since 2013, letting players glance at their friends list, keep up with console news and buy new games on the fly. Then Sony released another companion app last December dedicated to messaging within the PlayStation Network. Today, iOS and Android users get a third: Communities, which will let players join groups with similar interests and game preferences.
Sony brings PSN toolbar to Playstation.com
Sony has been slow to add new functionality to its PlayStation Network and integrate it across platforms. Take two-factor authorization, for example, which they first announced last April and finally released in August. Today, they've introduced another better-late-than-never feature: adding PSN interaction to their Playstation.com home site. Simply log in using your browser and you'll be able to message all your buddies and view your profile, in case you need to prove to your coworkers how many platinum trophies you've earned.
Sony's original series 'Powers' won't return for season three
Although it lasted two seasons, Sony's original superhero crime drama Powers unfortunately won't be returning for a third. According to series creator and comic book author Brian Michael Bendis on Twitter, "season 2 was the last. at least for now."
PlayStation Network is adding two-factor sign-ins
It's about to get much harder for someone to compromise your PlayStation Network account. Sony has confirmed that it's working on two-factor authentication for PSN, preventing intruders from getting into your games (or worse, going on a spending spree) simply because they have your password. It's unclear just what that second identifying factor will be, but the odds are that you'll get an SMS-based code to type in the first time you sign into a device or website.
Skype hides IP addresses to protect users from online trolls
Let's be honest: it's pretty hard to find someone who will be genuinely happy for you when you win something. When it comes to online gaming, however, that probability falls to zero. Losing a multiplayer game leaves some people so angry that they'll go out of their way to force fellow players offline. In order to do this, gamers can use tools to locate a target's IP address from just their target's Skype username and then launch a DDoS attack to overload their internet connection. It's not the most common attack vector but Microsoft has changed the way its messaging app works so that gamers, and the wider Skype community, can rest a little easier knowing it's harder for them to be tracked.
PlayStation Network is down, Sony confirms (update)
It's a rough Monday for Sony, as the PlayStation Network appears to be experiencing widespread issues. Sony acknowledge that it's aware of the problems, which have affected PS4, PS3 and Vita users for pretty much the entire morning. The company's network status tracker also notes that all of PSN's services are having issues. There's no word when service will be restored, but we'd imagine Sony is working feverishly to get things sorted ahead of its CES press conference tomorrow. We've reached out to Sony for additional comment and will update if we hear back.We're aware that some users are having trouble accessing PSN. Thanks for your patience as we investigate. https://t.co/8hMUSl2cCe— Ask PlayStation (@AskPlayStation) January 4, 2016Update: Judging by Twitter, PSN services are back in action, with head of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida confirming as much.As people are tweeting, PSN is back online. Very sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience. https://t.co/y3aO5iiWfn— Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp) January 5, 2016
Attacker who ruined your holiday gaming gets a slap on the wrist
If you were hoping that all of the Lizard Squad attackers who took down the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live last holiday would get their comeuppance... well, you'll be disappointed. A Finnish court has convicted Julius Kivimäki (aka "Ryan" and "Zeekill") of a whopping 50,700 charges related to various computer crimes, including data breaches, telecommunication-based harassment and swiping credit card data. It sounds good, but his penalty is limited to a suspended 2-year prison sentence and an order to help fight cybercrime -- a trivial penalty in light of his overall damage. Even if you limit Kivimäki's culpability to the gaming network outage, he was still partly responsible for days of downtime at Microsoft and Sony that frustrated millions of players. While he'll theoretically stay on the straight and narrow for at least a while, the verdict isn't exactly going to scare Lizard Squad's other members into becoming model citizens. [Image credit: Jean-Jacques Boujot, Flickr]
PlayStation's original programming future depends on 'Powers'
Powers is the first series to come from Sony PlayStation's original programming push, a partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment, and it's not rated "E" for everyone. With comic books as its source material, the racy superhero cop drama from creator Brian Michael Bendis is a custom fit for the PlayStation user base, especially users that pony up $50/year for Sony's PlayStation Plus subscription service. And it's that particular demographic the PlayStation group is keen to pursue with any future projects. "We are a gaming company, so we want to do what's best for gaming and for our gamers," says PlayStation VP of Platform Marketing John Koller. "We're going to make a decision here after we see how Powers does. But whatever we do, it'll be very centered on the gamer and the gaming audience and what caters best to them."
What's on your HDTV: 'Powers', 'The Breakfast Club' Blu-ray, 'The Jinx'
Sony's first TV show for the PlayStation Network is finally here. The supernatural cop show Powers will be free for PlayStation Plus members, but everyone can check out the first episode and it's embedded after the break. This week The Breakfast Club is back on Blu-ray for its 30th Anniversary Edition, and HBO wraps up its excellent series looking into the life of creepy killer billionaire Robert Durst. On Sunday, ESPN's 30 for 30 featuring Christian Laettner airs, and we have the season finale of Episodes. Need one more thing to look forward to? Fine, don't forget that Community comes back on Yahoo Screen next week, and of course, the F1 season kicks off Sunday morning from Australia. Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
'Powers,' the first PlayStation TV show launches on March 10th
When Powers failed to materialize on Sony's PlayStation Network back in December, you were probably distracted by the company's other, more high-profile catastrophes. Now that some of the dust has settled, however, series creator Brian Michael Bendis has taken to the PlayStation Blog to tell the world that the supernatural cop show will debut on March 10th. The first three episodes will all land on that day, with the remaining seven episodes that comprise the first season launching on subsequent Tuesdays.
PlayStation Network is back online following Christmas Day attack
Three days after Lizard Squad's latest denial of service attack knocked the PlayStation Network offline (and Xbox Live, we'd add), the internet gaming service is gradually getting back on its feet. Sony now says that PSN should be up and running for all of its consoles. While the company warns that there might be some "intermittency" as it gets back into the swing of things, you theoretically won't face major interruptions during that big Destiny raid. It's not clear if Sony's infrastructure will be any better at weathering future digital assaults on this scale; given that the attack was supposedly three times larger than the previous record-setter, this probably isn't a permanent fix. However, it's good to know that you can squeak in at least some online gaming on that shiny new PS4 before the holidays are over.
These are the hackers who wrecked your holiday gaming
If you're a console gamer, you're probably all too aware of Lizard Squad, the hacker outlet that allegedly knocked both the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live offline for a good chunk of the Christmas break. But just why and how is this group causing so much grief? Thanks to the Daily Dot, we now have a better (if imperfect) idea of what's going on. It might not shock you to hear that the team is doing this both for laughs, à la LulzSec, and to expose the "incompetence" of the security teams at Microsoft and Sony. However, they also claim to have access to undersea internet cables and other "core routing equipment" that lets them flood networks with massive amounts of data. They supposedly bombarded PSN and XBL at a rate of 1.2 terabits per second, or three times the rate of the previous largest attack on record.
Xbox Live and PlayStation Network both down due to an apparent attack
Merry Christmas, game fans: Both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network are down this morning, apparently due to a denial-of-service attack. The notorious hacking group Lizard Squad -- which already carried out earlier attacks on Microsoft and Sony -- has claimed responsibility on Twitter for these latest outages. While Lizard Squad's role in all of this remains unconfirmed, the group did threaten last week to take down Xbox Live and PSN, according to Business Insider. Regardless of who's behind this, the timing is obviously terrible: Plenty of people surely received one of the two consoles as Christmas presents today, while many more gamers would have happily spent the afternoon in front of the TV. In the meantime, both Sony and Microsoft have acknowledged the problem, with Sony issuing a tweet and Microsoft posting a message on its website: "We're working to address this as quickly as we possibly can," reads its status website. "Thanks for your patience, Xbox members." In an email, a Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment further or say when the company expects to restore service. We've also asked Sony to comment and will update this post if and when it does.
The trailer for PlayStation's 'Powers' series doesn't hold anything back
If you were worried that Sony's transformation of Powers into a PlayStation Network show would lose the comics' grittiness, you can (probably) relax. The first trailer for the original series is now available, and it's pretty clear that the production maintains a dark, twisted world of superhero crime. Detective Christian Walker is foul-mouthed and not exactly sympathy-inducing, while the suspects he's chasing are more warped than your typical comic book villains. You'll probably have to wait until the series launch in December to see much more, but it's already apparent that Sony is taking advantage of Powers' console-only release to push a few boundaries.
