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Minecraft on Xbox One this week, PS4 'soon, maybe sooner' [update]
Not satisfied with mere bajillions, Minecraft starts racking up more sales this week when it launches as a downloadable on Xbox One - and perhaps PS4 too. The Xbox One release date is locked in for Friday, September 5, when 360 owners of Mojang's sandbox game will be be able to upgrade for $5/£4 - Microsoft notes the upgrade applies whether you own a disc or download copy. Otherwise, the full price version is $20/£16. While the PS4 date is unknown, Mojang's Daniel Kaplan tweeted that "Sony friends" can expect a "Minecraft surprise soon... or maybe sooner?!" That tease followed a PlayStation France tweet that claimed the PS4 version will release today, though as yet no other Sony channels have confirmed that. As soon as someone digs up a concrete release date for the PS4 version, we'll let you know. Update: The PlayStation 4 version of Minecraft appears to have launched in the EU. There's still no word on when the game will reach North America or other territories. [Image: 4J Studios]
Nano Assault Neo dodges bullets on PS4 later this year [update]
Nano Assault Neo is confirmed for PS4 now, and it's bringing its 3D rotational twin-stick shooting to the system in 1080p. Developer Shin'en Multimedia tweeted the new port of the 2012 Wii U game features PS4-specific improvements, though it's not yet detailed what those are. We've reached out to Shin'en to learn more, including whether or not the two-player local coop will make its way across. As PEGI revealed over the weekend, the new PS4 port is called Nano Assault Neo X - when in doubt, chuck in a X. Shin'en says we can expect the game to shoot onto PSN later this year, and for an idea of what to expect, check out the Wii U trailer below the break. Also, the original Nano Assault Neo is currently available on the eShop for $7.49, 25 percent off the regular price, until September 11.
Dark Souls 2 DLC still locked for EU PS3 season pass holders [update]
Update: Perhaps we're a lucky charm. Shortly after this post went live, users on the game's Facebook page began reporting the DLC issues are now resolved, and PS3 pass holders in Europe can download the content for free. Bandai Namco's yet to confirm that officially. Original Story: European PS3 season pass holders for Dark Souls 2 are currently unable to unlock content they've already paid for, despite it being available for everyone else. The second of a trilogy of DLC, Crown of the Old Iron King, launched this week with no hitches on PC and Xbox 360, but for EU owners of the PS3 pass it shows up as requiring purchase. This may seem like another of the game's nefarious lateral challenges, but the only solution at present is to buy the DLC, which is a pretty terrible solution since you've already ponied up the cash. Bandai Namco apologized for the error and warned PS3 pass holders to not purchase the content while it tries to fix the problem.
Vita rides into the Joe Danger zone next week
Side-scrolling stuntman Joe Danger debuts on Vita as a freebie for PS Plus subscribers, and he's due to land on September 2/3 in North America and Europe. The handheld port of the Hello Games' PS3 puzzler-trickster includes all the original's levels, plus ghost replays and the Laboratory dev challenges from other versions. It also has "slightly tweaked" controls including a touch interface for level creation, all of which sounds sensible to us. There's no word yet on a price for Plus non-members - the PS3 version is priced $15. Joe Danger's mix of Trials-like puzzling and ridiculous stunts caught the eye back in 2010, as did Joe Danger 2: The Movie with its near-Joystiq levels of punny titles for levels. On that note, Hello Games says the follow-up is still on its way to Vita, and the No Man's Sky studio expects to have more news on that "soon-ish." [Image: Sony Computer Entertainment]
Postponed PSN maintenance rescheduled for today
The past few days saw the PlayStation Network undergo more downtime than a bear in winter, so Sony postponed Monday's regular maintenance 'til later in the week. That later is today, and between 12:40PM and 7:50PM ET (9:40AM and 4:50PM PT) PlayStation users won't be able to access the Store, Home or Account Management. As long as you've signed in at any point since August 23, you'll still be able to play games online and use apps like Netflix, Hulu Plus and so on. It's always frustrating when you can't access stuff, but in the words of Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." In other words, perhaps use the downtimes to dine at a fancy restaurant, take the stage at a parade, and find epiphanies in the destruction of your father's rare Ferrari. Just to be clear, we're not telling you to ruin your dad's Ferrari. Or any car. Look, this Ferris Bueller reference has gotten away from us, and we'd like to bail out right now. [Image: Paramount Pictures]
Mega Man X4, X5 zero in on PlayStations next month
Two of the PlayStation-era Mega Man X platformers are blasting their way onto PS3 and Vita in the next couple of weeks. The first mighty number to land is X4, which hits PSN in North America on September 2. X5 follows a week later on September 9. Capcom didn't announce prices, but hopefully the games won't cost a pretty zenny. Mega Man X4 was the first of the series to ditch the SNES and take full advantage of the 32-bit Sega Saturn and PlayStation. Apart from PC versions from around the turn of the millennium and a mobile phone port in Japan, Capcom hasn't put out either game as a standalone on other systems until now (they did appear in the PS2 and GameCube Mega Man X Collection). Does this mean Mega Man X6-8 could be on the way too?
PSA: PSN gets knocked down again [Update: Back online]
The PlayStation Network servers are currently out of commission for the second time in as many days. Sony posted a notice to its official Twitter account that its engineers are "aware of connectivity issues" and "are working to resolve" them. PSN suffered an outage for the majority of Sunday thanks to an apparent DDoS attack (distributed denial of service). Sony noted that no personal information was accessed in the attack. b=Both PSN and Sony Entertainment Network were "impacted by an attempt to overwhelm our network with artificially high traffic," though it's unclear if that's also causing today's issues. We'll update this post when PSN is up and running again. Update: Sony said that "network connectivity is being restored," and thanks players for their patience. [Image: Sony]
Vita gobbles up Don't Starve: Reign of Giants next week
Don't Starve for me, soon on (E)Vita. The truth is Klei's dark realization of wilderness survival hits the Sony handheld on September 2 in North America and the day after in Europe, priced at $15 and 14 euros. It includes the Reign of Giants expansion that came to PS4 separately back in July, but at no extra cost. Despite that disparity, Klei's made the Vita version cross-buy; if you own the game on PS4 you unlock it on Vita, and vice-versa. Don't Starve isn't cross-play, though, so saves won't cross over between PS4 and Vita.
PSN resumes normal service, maintenance rescheduled
Following yesterday's distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, Sony said this morning both the PlayStation Network and the Sony Entertainment Network are back online. Users can now resume game downloads, play games online, buy stuff off the PlayStation Store, use apps and all the other PSN services as normal. Furthermore, the PSN maintenance that was due to take place today is to be rescheduled. The company will announce the new date and time for the maintenance "shortly."
Hackers' bomb threat allegedly reroutes SOE's president's plane
Hackers who implicated themselves in this weekend's PlayStation Network outage have apparently stepped up their attacks on Sony with a casual bomb threat made over Twitter that may have diverted a plane carrying SOE president John Smedley. In addition to tweeting several mocking threats about the flight as well as an image purporting to be Smed's e-ticket, the hacker account sent this message to American Airlines: .@AmericanAir We have been receiving reports that @j_smedley's plane #362 from DFW to SAN has explosives on-board, please look into this. Smed tweeted earlier today that his plane had been rerouted to Phoenix over "security reasons." Local news stations report that the FBI is investigating the threats. [Developing]
Head of Sony Online Entertainment's flight rerouted over concerns for explosives [Update]
The commercial flight of John Smedley, head of Sony Online Entertainment, has allegedly been rerouted due to Twitter users warning America Airlines that explosives are on board. These same users are also claiming responsibility for this morning's apparent DDoS attack on the PlayStation Network, explaining that part of the group's messaging is that Sony "should be paying for DDoS protection" with the revenue earned from PlayStation Plus. Smedley tweeted earlier today that he would be flying to San Diego, later adding that his flight had been rerouted to Phoenix, seemingly due to concerns about "security and our cargo." Smedley's tweets match the flight pattern of AA Flight 362, shown in the above image from Flight Aware as well as AA's online records. Update: The FBI has released a statement to Game Informer. It's not much of a statement, but it shows the authorities are at least aware of the situation. "Today AA Flight 362 traveling from Dallas to San Diego was diverted to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. The flight landed without incident. Passengers were safely removed from the plane," the Bureau writes. "The investigation is still ongoing." [Image: Flight Aware]
PSA: PSN down, reportedly due to DDoS attack [Update]
At the time of this writing, the PlayStation Network is offline, reportedly due to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that occurred in the early hours of Sunday, August 24. Shacknews reports that other services and online games, such as Path of Exile, World of Warcraft and League of Legends were also attacked, but those seem to have recovered. It's worth noting that this attack, if true, is not comparable to the 2011 PSN outage. Whereas the incident three years ago was due to compromised systems and an intrusion into Sony servers, a DDoS attack is much simpler, and basically floods the targeted network with data so that it can't make new connections to legitimate users. Should the issue escalate or resolve, we'll keep you posted. Update: Sony is aware of the issue and working to resolve connection problems, according to the official PlayStation Twitter account. Update 2: Sony has posted an update to the PlayStation Blog, clarifying that "no personal information has been accessed." Update 3: Sony announced Monday morning that PSN is back online, and the maintenance that was due to take place today is being rescheduled. [Image: Sony]
PSN Flash Sale knocks DmC, XCOM, P4A, more to $10
Surprise! There's a quick little sale happening on PSN right now that bumps the following PS3 and Vita games to $10: DmC: Devil May Cry, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Metro: Last Light, Darksiders 2, BioShock 2 and Infinite, The God of War Collection, The Sly Collection, Prototype 2, Persona 4 Arena and more. There are 20 games on sale in total. [Image: Sony]
Minecraft PS4 fails certification as August creeps to a close
It's looking unlikely Minecraft will meets its August release window on PS4 after it failed Sony's certification tests. So it's back to the fixing board for 4J Studios, and the team will have to re-submit the game for certification before it can be released. 4J's been busy fixing issues and squishing bugs throughout the month, and not just in the PS4 version but in the upcoming Xbox One and Vita releases too. We've reached out to the studio to confirm a delay, and whether that'll affect just the PS4 version or other platforms too. All three ports are currently due for release this month.
PSN Store Update: El Diablo
Video games! They've been hibernating through the summer, but this week's PlayStation Store update brings plenty of the blighters onto PS4, PS3 and Vita. Let's start with the biggie, Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition, which brings Reaper of Souls to the action-RPG on PS3 ($40) and debuts the game itself on PS4 ($60). It's also out on Xbox 360 and Xbox One. The two other cross-platform releases are Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, which'll eat up 40 of your greenbacks on PS4 and 30 on PS3, and the stealthy CounterSpy, a $15 cross-buy purchase that unlocks the game ons PS4, PS3 and Vita. PS4 players also have a choice between the hyperviolent $10 Hotline Miami - also cross-buy - the somewhat less violent The Last Tinker: City of Colors ($20) and the retro Arcade Archives Rygar ($8).
New discounts join EU PSN Summer Sale: FIFA 14, Just Cause 2
Sony's European division has rolled out a swath of new discounts now available from the ongoing PlayStation Network Summer Sale including a massive price cut on FIFA 14 and lesser but still impressive discounts on Just Cause 2, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and 1942: Joint Strike. The aforementioned FIFA 14 discount is the highlight of the sale, as the PlayStation 3 soccer simulation's price has dropped from £59.99 to £19.99. Meanwhile, retro-futuristic shooter Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon has gone from £11.99 to £6.49, open-world action adventure Just Cause 2 has been reduced from £10.99 to £3.99 and arcade shoot 'em up 1942: Joint Strike now bears a £1.69 price in lieu of its previous £7.99 tag. With the exception of FIFA 14, each of these games also receives an additional 10 percent discount for anyone with a valid PlayStation Plus subscription. Though no PlayStation 4 games are included in this swath of new bargains, there are a massive number of discounts available for the PlayStation 3, Vita and PSP handhelds. Pay a visit to the European PlayStation.blog for a full rundown and regional pricing details. [Image: EA]
P.T. teases first-person horror on PSN
An "interactive teaser" for P.T. is now available on PSN, Sony announced during its Gamescom 2014 press conference in Cologne, Germany today. The accompanying video shows some first-person corridor traversing and a few screaming folks with controllers in their hands.
Toy Soldiers: War Chest brings rainbow doom to the diorama
War is an unrelenting gauntlet of hell, I think, watching a band of heavily armored rainbow ponies spill over a grassy field. Bursts of mortar fire end their horror-trotting advance, but the opposing men can't replenish the ammo quickly enough to stop what's next. A shadow crawls over the European countryside, darkening the prospects of all who look up to see a great, looming doom. It's a castle floating on a cloud, primed to end the war with a devastating slash adorable glitter-nuke.
PlayStation Now subscription option 'definitely in the works'
With PlayStation Now ready to enter its open beta today, Sony's Jack Buser answered calls for a subscription model by saying it's "definitely something in the works." The director of the game-streaming program elaborated on the PS Blog, writing, "...we've heard you loud and clear for an update on a PS Now subscription option and want to reassure you that we are working on it." To recap, PlayStation Now lets players stream PS3 games from Sony's cloud servers to PS4, and other systems in the future. Currently the beta only offers rental options, with players able to access games for either 4 hours, 7 days, 30 days or 90 days. As displayed in a new video, there are different prices for different games - Vigil Games' Darksiders, for example, is $3 for 4 hours, $6 for a week, $8 for 30 days and $15 for 90.
Court approves settlement over Sony's 2011 PSN breach
The US District Court for the Southern District of California approved a settlement for the class action lawsuit resulting from Sony's 2011 PSN data breach. The settlement may result in Sony doling out as much as $17.75 million, which includes an offer for one free game (PS3 or PSP only), three PS3 themes or credit for three months of PlayStation Plus membership (valid only for new subscribers). The claimant groups are divided based on whether PSN account holders prior to May 15, 2011 took advantage of the "Welcome Back" program following the intrusion. Those that did not accept the PSN Welcome Back offer can claim two of the benefit options among the games, themes and PS Plus membership credit on a first come, first served basis until a $6 million allocation from Sony is reached. For those that did take advantage of the program, they will receive one of the benefits above until a $4 million allocation is reached.
