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Sony's Kaz Hirai addresses PlayStation Network hack, we're liveblogging
Sony's PlayStation Network has been down for over a week, and it's a royal mess for all involved -- as you've no doubt heard, an external intrusion by unknown hackers compromised the personal information (supposedly including everything but credit card numbers) of potentially millions of users. This morning, Sony VP Kaz Hirai (formerly of the PlayStation division) will address the world from the company's headquarters in Japan, and our friends at Engadget Japanese are on the scene to bring us first-hand details in just a few minutes. Additionally, there appears to be an official livestream that will begin at 1AM ET, so keep it locked right here and potentially find some video at our source link. Update: We're hearing that Sony's "goodwill gesture" may not be an incredibly significant one -- affected users can expect a free 30-day subscription to PlayStation Plus and a free software download of some sort, while Qriocity customers will get an extra 30 days of service on the house. Update 2: As many as 10 million credit card numbers may have been exposed, though Sony says it has no proof that any actually have been compromised, and claims that it's received no reports of credit card fraud thus far. It is, however, working with the FBI to investigate the hack. 2:00 JST: The show's begun -- following a little bit of Mozart, Sony has trotted out three solemn-looking executives. More updates after the break.
Sony update on PSN / Qriocity outage: 'some services up and running within a week' (updated)
As the PlayStation Network / Qriocity outage stretches into its second week, over on the PlayStation Blog rep Patrick Seybold has just posted an updated Q&A based on the inquiries of concerned users. Beyond the security of our personal information, the most important question is when service might be restored and he reiterates Sony expects to have "some services" up and running within a week from yesterday. When it comes to the most important personal information like credit card numbers, there are assurances that the credit card database was encrypted and there is no evidence anything was taken, but that's a possibility that still cannot be ruled out completely. To keep things secure, Gamasutra reports game developers are getting new SDKs with updated security features as well. When the service comes back up, expect a mandatory system update that requires a new password before getting back to your Mortal Kombat or Portal 2-related plans. Update: Sony posted Q&A #2 with a few more details addressing custom compensation. Regarding a "goodwill gesture," Sony says, "We are currently evaluating ways to show appreciation for your extraordinary patience as we work to get these services back online." The company is also working on a "make good" plan for gamers with a subscription to the PS3 MMOs DC Universe Online or Free Realms, details of which are coming soon.
Hulu Plus credits users for PlayStation Network-related downtime
In reaction to the week-long (and still going) outage of the PlayStation Network, Hulu has decided to issue users a credit for the downtime. That should net Hulu Plus subscribers $2 off of this months bill, which is pretty good considering that - a. it's not Hulu's fault and b. you can still use the service on a handful of other devices. Kudos to Hulu for the thoughtful customer service, though it still stands in stark contrast to the fiasco that made the credit necessary. If you use the service simply check your email for the letter shown above and click the link to receive your credit. [Thanks, Darren, Alex, Shahraiz]
Sony provides PSN update, confirms a 'compromise of personal information' (updated)
It's looking like things are just as bad as we feared and that "external intrusion" got a little deeper than we might have liked. In an update on its PlayStation.Blog, Sony just confirmed that the ongoing PSN outage was caused by "malicious actions," which we already knew, but continues by indicating that there has also been "a compromise of personal information." Exactly what that means Sony isn't saying, and it stops short of saying that credit card data for PSN and Qriocity users has been exposed, but the company does say "your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained." Yes, it may have been obtained -- even Sony isn't sure. There's no further ETA for when PSN may be back up online or when you might be able to finally sample Portal 2's delicious online co-op mode, but at least you can still watch Netflix. Update: Our friends at Joystiq are reporting that Connecticut Senator Blumenthal is rip roarin' mad about the situation, "demanding answers" from SCEA president Jack Tretton. Right now, we're more curious what Kevin Butler has to say about things. Update 2: Sony UK is shedding more light on just what data has been exposed, and frankly we were happier when it was dark. By the sound of things, everything Sony had about you has been accessed. There's a full list after the break, so only click on through if you dare. Update 3: Sony's just posted a clarification regarding the delay of their response: in a nutshell, PSN was shut down after the intrusion on April 19th, and the company needed to work with outside experts to "understand the scope of the breach" before posting the full lowdown earlier today. For those interested, Sony has a lengthy FAQ page regarding this incident. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Watch Netflix on your PS3 while PlayStation Network is down
As the PlayStation Network outage continues on with no word on a resolution, we can't get your PS3 online for Call of Duty: Black Ops but if all you want is a quick Netflix fix and haven't already figured it out, here's some help. A post on HackingNetflix points out that merely skipping through the login error screens (hitting the button to try to login and waiting worked best for us) is allowing many to access their queues and stream movies. We were able to get through to our Netflix queue a few days ago using this message, but we were stopped cold when we tried to actually stream a movie by an unskippable failure to connect to PSN screen that is probably due to our console's status as a rarely used streaming option. Unfortunately this method won't help with Hulu Plus and when it comes to Qriocity...was anyone ever using Qriocity?
PlayStation Network outage caused by 'external intrusion,' continues for third day
It started on a quiet Wednesday night, with PlayStation gamers finding their Network unresponsive to their login attempts, and now continues well into its third day. Sony has now finally shed some light on the problems it's been having with PSN and, to nobody's surprise, the culprit for its troubles has been identified as "an external intrusion." The current downtime for PSN is the second of its kind this month, with the Anonymous group of online crusaders claiming responsibility for the first. Sony now intends to keep both PSN and its Qriocity music streaming service offline until it can pinpoint the vulnerability that has been exploited and put a stop to it. Skip past the break for the company's full statement. Update: The PlayStation Blog has added an update to its US portal this evening that suggests the service disruption may continue for a good while longer -- according to Sony's Patrick Seybold, the company is "rebuilding our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure," and working non-stop to do so. [Thanks, Christian and Joe]
PlayStation Network down for a long count, what's up Sony? (update: down for 24+ hours!)
We've been hit by a big batch of dismayed tips from PlayStation gamers this morning, who are finding themselves unable to log in to the PlayStation Network (again). Sony's response has been to acknowledge there's a problem in the vaguest of terms -- "We're aware certain functions of PlayStation Network are down" -- and to promise an update on the situation as soon as it's available. Alas, that statement was issued over nine hours ago and there's still no word of either a rectification or an explanation for the outage. The error code provided by the console is, as you can see above, somewhat uninformative as well. So come on, Sony, what is going on with your Network? Update: PSN is acknowledging on its EU blog that the network outage may be a result of "the possibility of targeted behaviour by an outside party." Still no ETA for when services will be restored. Update 2: PSN is now reporting that the network may be offline for "a full day or two." Update 3: As of midday on Friday (US Eastern Time), an issue that began on Wednesday night is still being worked. Thanks, Farres! [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
PlayStation websites, PSN suffer outage: Anonymous claims responsibility, Sony claims 'sporadic maintenance'
Been having trouble with the PlayStation Network or any Sony website today? You're not alone. A widespread outage that started in Europe last night has now spread to North America, and none other than hacktivist group Anonymous is claiming responsibility for the attacks. As you can see above, however, Sony is singing a slightly different tune, and says simply that "sporadic maintenance" may cause PSN service to be interrupted throughout the day. Because, really, you can never do too much "sporadic" maintenance. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Sony adds cloud storage for game saves to PSN Plus subscriptions
Alright, it's official, Sony's PlayStation Plus subscription just became a thing worth owning with the new addition of online storage for game saves. It's coming with v3.60 of the PS3 firmware, which we're promised to receive tomorrow, March 10th. You'll be allowed to stash up to 150MB of PlayStation 3 game progress data in Sony's make.believe cloud, which is not exactly a staggering amount, but then it's not like those save files take up that much space. The major attraction that we see here is being able to just plug your account details into any PS3 around the globe and continue your questing in Dragon Age II as if you're still at home. See Sony's press release and instructions on how to use the new cloud saving option after the break.
Sony celebrates PS3 success at GDC, 41 million sold worldwide
It's tough to get solid numbers out of Sony for hardware sales, usually they're cloaked behind a vague "shipped" figure, but at GDC this week the company gave us one rather impressive number: 41 million. That's the number of PS3 consoles the company says it has sold worldwide, and over 80 percent are sucking down data from ye olde internet. Confirming the moneymaking trend we heard about last month, in 2010 the PlayStation store saw a 60 percent boost in traffic and a 70 percent boost in revenue from a total of 70 million PSN accounts. Let's see... 70 million PSN user accounts, 41 million PS3 consoles, 80 percent of which are online -- that means almost everyone has one account for gaming and a second for griefing. Sounds about right.
PlayStation hackers reportedly able to unban selves, ban others, turn tables
Just last week Sony said that those found to have hacked their PlayStation 3 consoles would have their PlayStation Network access "terminated permanently." Harsh words that, unsurprisingly, weren't too warmly received by the hacking community. Destructoid is now reporting that not only have those tinkerers found a way to unban themselves, but that they can in turn ban any other console they want. There's apparently a catch, though, with the hackers having to know the unique ID assigned to the other console that they'll be banning, which makes this sound like perhaps the hack is simply swapping a "good" ID onto a "bad" console, but at this point we have no details on the supposed procedure here. Regardless, if some random girl with a cute avatar hits you up on IM and, after a few minutes of casual conversation, asks you for the serial number on your PS3, think twice before handing over those digits. Update: We were a little leery about this given Destructoid's lack of a source, and thanks to a note from reader Omega we now have what looks to be the actual source -- indeed this all is sounding rather theoretical.
Sony releases statement on PS3 hacking, surprisingly comes out against it
In the wake of recent developments in Sony's war on Geohot, the company has released an "Official Statement Regarding PS3 Circumvention Devices and Pirated Software," which reads, in part: Consumers using circumvention devices or running unauthorized or pirated software will have access to the PlayStation Network and access to Qriocity services through PlayStation 3 system terminated permanently. To avoid this, consumers must immediately cease use and remove all circumvention devices and delete all unauthorized or pirated software from their PlayStation 3 systems. In other words: get caught with custom firmware, find yourself banished from the PlayStation Network forever. Seems rather reasonable. More reasonable than, say, filing a motion in court for the usernames and IP addresses of everyone who posted comments on Geohot's YouTube video. Read the entire statement at the source link.
Sports Illustrated 'Swimsuit in 3D' video now available on PlayStation Network, Qriocity
With the advent of the internet, the release of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue isn't quite the event it once was, but even an old dog can learn new tricks and the magazine has partnered with Sony to issue a 3D video version this year. It's currently available (also in 2D, if that's your preference) for download to your PlayStation 3 ($9.99 purchase / $4.99 rental, and there's a short free preview avialable as well) or other Sony network connected hardware with Qriocity. Other than the behind the scenes 3D video, there's also twelve hours of other Swimsuit issue content from this and previous years and some exclusive PSN themes.
iTunes stays on top of growing internet movie business in 2010, but 2011 could be very different
While much of the news lately has surrounded subscription internet movie and TV services the video on-demand market was up nearly 40% last year and is expected to keep growing. According to stats from IHS Screen Digest, video revenue for the Apple iTunes store grew 60 percent last year, but saw its overall market share shrink from 74.4 to 64.5 percent. This is mostly explained as a side affect of the Kinect driving up Microsoft Xbox 360 sales at the end of last year and introducing its Zune store to a new market of families looking for digital entertainment. The up and comer to watch for 2011 appears to be the Wal-mart/Vudu combo, currently fourth in line behind Sony but poised to grow by showing up on more devices and increasing its promotional efforts. Of course, as NewTeeVee points out, the ultimate wild card in all of this is the launch of Ultraviolet buy-once/watch-anywhere DRM later this year (without support from Apple or Disney) and the effect it could have by causing consumers to see digital downloads as a viable option instead of the fragmented mess they are now -- good luck with that. [Thanks, Aaron]
PS3 firmware 3.56 hacked in less than a day, Sony's lawyers look confused (update)
Sony's taken some strong steps against PS3 cracking in the past week -- not only has it taken to the courts and won a temporary restraining order against Geohot and fail0verflow for cracking the console, but it also released firmware 3.56, which locked things down again. Unfortunately, that restraining order doesn't mean anyone else has to stop a-crackin', and wouldn't you know it: 3.56 was cracked open in less than a day by KaKaRoToKS, who was behind one of the first 3.55 custom firmwares. Now that the 3.56 signing keys are out, we'd guess updated custom firmware is soon to come -- and we'd bet Sony's lawsuit will just inspire an entirely new wave of people to jailbreak once those hit the scene. Way to put that genie back in the bottle, Sony. Update: We're hearing that new custom firmware isn't on the table quite yet, because Sony changed most of the locks, and is reportedly actually storing the all-important ECDSA private key with random-number cryptography this time around. Be warned: if you upgrade to 3.56, there's no easy way back down. In related news, Github complied with a DMCA takedown notice to remove KaKaRoToKS's repositories, so you'll have to head on over to Gitorious (at our more coverage link) to get at the fail0verflow tools. [Thanks, Tomi R]
Next PS3 update rumored to add 'Online Saving' for PlayStation Plus users
Say it with us, finally a PS3 firmware update that actually does something useful! We've grown so accustomed to Sony refreshing the software on its console just to spite jailbreakers that we almost started to believe that's all the word "update" entailed. But, here comes Kotaku with word that v3.6 of the PS3's firmware will come with a neat little addition: saving games to the cloud. This seems a very logical step toward delivering Sony's overall goal of giving users a holistic, integrated experience. Indeed, during the NGP presentation, guest speaker Hideo Kojima specifically referred to saving your PS3 game on the console and resuming it on the Next Generation Portable. "Online Saving," as Sony's reputed to be calling it, would be the conduit through which that can be realized, though it doesn't appear like it'll come for free. Kotaku's sources indicate it'll be part of the PlayStation Plus subscription, at least initially. Still, we like cloud storage, and if it means never having to see another hard drive again, we're all for it.
Turtle Beach adds dual radios, customizable presets and voice morphing to 7.1 Ear Force PX5 gaming headset
Hear that? That's the sound of a million new products being introduced here in Vegas... in glistening 7.1 Dolby surround sound, no less. Turtle Beach has just ushered out its new flagship device, the Ear Force PX5. Designed for use with Sony's PlayStation 3 (but perfectly usable with the Xbox 360 or any other audio source), this here gaming headset is wireless in nature and is the company's first to incorporate dual radios -- one for surround sound, and another for chatting on the PlayStation Network via Bluetooth. This is also the first of its kind to incorporate customizable presets; there's a DSP chip that lives inside, and the bundled software interface allows you to program voice prompts, custom EQ, compressors, Bass Boost, etc. Then, those settings are saved right on the headset, enabling your CPU to take a breather while the cans themselves handle the math. Moreover, the BT feature can be used to accept mobile phone calls or listen to audio streams, and if you needed any more reason to invest, it also supports voice morphing. You heard right -- it can be programmed to disguise a gamer's voice, which is partially awesome, and partially the worst thing ever to happen to online chat. Hop on past the break for the full feature list, and look for this one to land in the Spring for $249.95.
Neo Geo games hit PSN, add online play, ditch the gigantic cartridges
If you're of a certain age, there was one console you wanted more than any other: a Neo Geo. It was so big, so dark, and so freaking expensive it was like a gadget from another time -- yet there it was, looking down at you from behind the counter at Babbage's. $649 in 1990? Yeah. Ouch. Anyway, people today can now experience that machine's greatness for a much lower price, with the PlayStation Network receiving 10 of the system's greatest hits, each selling for between $6.99 and $8.99. Yes, these games were already available on the Wii Virtual Console, but the PSN versions will support online competitive and co-operative play, which is truly worth getting excited about. All games will be hitting the PS3 on December 21, while Fatal Fury and Metal Slug will be hitting the PSP then as well. For other games, like Magician Lord and Super Sidekicks, you portable folks will just have to wait until January.
VUDU available on the PlayStation 3, BBC content now up on the PSN
As promised, VUDU popped up on the PlayStation Store yesterday. In case you haven't gotten your 1080p movie download on already, check the video from the PlayStation.Blog showing off the new app. If that's not enough, there's also a fresh load of video content on the PSN from the BBC, with episodes of Top Gear in SD and HD, while Doctor Who and Being Human are due to arrive in December. That's when the 2.0 version of VUDU with Move support should arrive as well, so mark your calendars appropriately.
NHL GameCenter streaming coming to Roku, PS3
In addition to an updated app for Boxee, the NHL just announced its GameCenter streaming app is coming to the PlayStation 3 and Roku players. Free to PlayStation Plus members ($9.99 for all others, free on Roku) gamers get access to the app with its highlights, stats and information, while subscribers to the $169 GameCenter Live service get the full package including streaming out-of-market games and some playoff matchups. It's pretty similar to the MLB app that's also available on PS3, but similarly the lack of locally blacked out games makes it more of an alternate way to catch more sports than a cord-cutters best friend. Additional details are in the press release after the break, or check for the app under the video section of the PlayStation Network store.
