News

Redbox has rolled out game rentals nationwide this month. Though it appears that none of them are near me. Which sucks, because there's a few games that I'd love to rent for a day or two, but sure as hell wouldn't buy....

Quote

As promised, Redbox has rolled out game rentals nationwide.

In April, Redbox said it would start offering game rentals in 21,000 of its 27,000 kiosks this month. The company is renting out a range of titles for the Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation 3, including the recently launched Duke Nukem Forever and last year's blockbuster hit Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Redbox has launched a full online listing of games available to customers. Those who find something they like can reserve a title from home and pick it up at their chosen Redbox location.

Redbox is charging $2 per day for its game rentals. It currently rents DVDs and Blu-ray discs for as little as $1 per day and $1.50 per day, respectively.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20071891-17/redbox-presses-play-on-game-rentals-nationwide/#ixzz1PXbuyGOn

It looks like some members of "Anonymous" were arrested in Spain. Sucks for them.... According to Sony, the attacks will cost them 14 billion (yep billion) yen. Yikes.... Anyone sell hacker insurance?

Quote

The Spanish police said Friday that they had arrested three suspected computer hackers in connection with recent cyberattacks on Sony’s PlayStation Network as well as corporate and government Web sites around the world.

The arrests have dismantled the local leadership of the shadowy international network of computer hackers known as Anonymous, which has claimed responsibility for a wide variety of attacks, the National Police said in a statement.

(further)Sony has estimated that the hacker attacks will cost it at least 14 billion yen, or $173 million, in damages, including information technology spending, legal costs, lower sales and free offers to lure back customers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/11/technology/11hack.html?_r=1&smid=tw-nytimes&seid=auto

At E3 Sony announced their anticipated new mobile gaming gizmo called Vita. Here's some specs:

Quote

•Multitouch five-inch OLED display
•Dual analog sticks
•Sixaxis motion detection
•Rear touchpad
•Enough hardware to run the amazing Uncharted software being shown live at the press conference
•3G and WiFi models
•Social tools

I'm not a big mobile gamer and never played with a PSP. I'm sure there were a lot of other folks that were excited. There's two models - one that uses AT&T + Wifi for data at $299 or a Wifi only model for $249.

The Playstation TV sounds interesting, though I really wouldn't want to have to wear glasses to use it. I never thought that TV glasses were a good idea. Here's the bundle pricing:

Quote

Sony is offering a bundle that includes the 24" 3D TV, a pair of 3D glasses, a copy of Resistance 3, and a six foot HDMI cable for $499. Extra pairs of glasses cost $69.99 a pop.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/06/06/playstation-vita-unveiled-detailed-for-real.aspx

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/06/06/playstation-branded-3d-tv-bundle-announced.aspx

This weekend Sony finally restored PSN after the highly publicized security breach. They assure everyone that they have made changed to security so this won't happen again. I don't have a Playstation myself, but I do use Xbox Live and I can imagine how much it must have sucked. Have they at least tried to make it up to you in any way?

Quote

Sony has announced the PlayStation Network has begun restoration today. The PSN will be restored in a series of phases with phase one restoring access to the PSN, online gaming for the PS3 and PSP, access to Netflix, Hulu, MLB.com and PlayStation Home. The remaining features, such as the ability to make purchases from the PSN Store will return soon.

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/712657/psn-restoration-has-begun-online-multiplayer-netflix-and-more-are-active/#ixzz1MWIOEns4

It seems that Wirefly spilled the beans on the network that the Sony Xperia Play will be on. I wonder, who will be buying this phone? It might be one of those jack of all trades, master of none, type of deals... Or it could be the greatest thing to happen to mobile gaming. Who knows... Actually, I do. Sony's history of past systems yields my thoughts to lean to the failure category. Remember Sony, once people buy the device, they own it!

Quote

Verizon customers could have a tough choice to make. After all, the Xperia Play is no slouch when it comes to specs. The phone will come with Android 2.3 Gingerbread installed right out of the box. A 4 inch LCD display weighs in with resolution at 480 x 854, and there is a front-facing camera. Of course, you can't forget that slide-sliding game controller that has game players excited.

Is Wirefly's intelligence correct? By Sunday evening, we should know. Sony Ericsson has had its troubles finding a carrier to subsidize its smartphones in the U.S., but because the Xperia Play is so unique, the joint-venture does have a good shot at getting a major U.S. carrier to sign on the dotted line.

Mobile World Congress is set for this weekend and that's when many new phones will be announced and released.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sony-Ericsson-Xperia-Play-to-launch-on-Verizon_id16559

Good job, LG. I doubt this will ever pass, but LG is trying to stop sales of the Sony PS3 since they claim that the Blu-ray player infringes on their IP. Isn't imaginary property fun?

Quote

According to the documents, LG said it holds two patents that it believes Sony violates in the PlayStation 3 related to the way a Blu-ray player reproduces data from a Blu-ray disc. The company cited another patent that covers the "reproduction of multiple data streams" by way of multiple camera angles. LG also said Sony violates a patent it holds on the display of text subtitles on Blu-ray.

LG's decision to take aim at Sony follows a complaint filed by Sony with the ITC in late December. In that complaint, Sony said that LG violates patents it holds for mobile phones. The company asked the ITC to bar LG from selling its mobile phones in the United States.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20030963-17.html

According to some news, Best Buy has started selling the new Sony Internet TV as of the 17th of October! You can jump over to Gizmodo and take a quick look, as they have a great deal of pictures to take a look at.

Quote

Earlier this morning rumor had it that Best Buy was getting—and selling—the new Sony Internet TVs as early as today. An anonymous tipster sent us some pics confirming that this could indeed be the case.

Stop by over at Gizmodo and check this puppy out :-)

That silly "unauthorized controllers may explode so we don't support them" crap Sony talked about the other day? Apparently that was Sony legalese for "we are going to intentionally disable third-party controllers that we don't like." Fantastic, Sony. I feel much safer.

Quote

Owners of various PS3 peripherals, including (but not limited to) the Yobo PS3 Joybox, the XCM Cross Battle Plus Adapter and the SplitFish FragFX, are reporting compatibility issues after the release of PS3 firmware 3.50. Some conspiracy theorists believe the rampant failure of these devices is linked to Sony's ongoing battle to circumvent further use of the PS3 jailbreak, which requires a USB tool to activate.

1UP suggests that this issue may be a side effect of Sony's discovery (and subsequent disabling) of "counterfeit" PS3 controllers. A recent consumer alert on Sony's official website states that "SCEA does not support continued functionality of counterfeit or unlicensed controllers in system software updates and these devices may cease to function in the future because of system software updates."

The 1UP report adds that "no third-party controllers that are officially licensed by Sony" have been disabled in the latest update. Considering the affected devices haven't been officially licensed, it's unlikely that a fix will be offered. A SCEA representative told us that "SCE does not support continued functionality of unlicensed controllers."

Linky.

That third paragraph is incorrect, by the way.

Sony, who designed the PS3 with a deliberately open standard for USB devices so the system would support PC peripherals, apparently have decided that going completely full-blown crazy in their overreactions to things they don't like is the way to go. I'm starting to wish Sony never offered any of this extra freedom over the 360 in the first place if they were going to remove it in the future.




Of course, something to keep in mind is that it is entirely possible that this was an accident, but I personally doubt it.

Quote

Well, nobody saw this one coming. Sony has patented an external device that allows you to play PS2 games on a PS3. The device contains RAM, CPU and GPU, but no disc slot, as the PS3 will spin the disc. But while first impressions may suggest this is an unnecessary and expensive method for playing what can almost be classed as retro games, it's actually the best method from a gamer's perspective.

Linky
I wouldn't advise you to actually read the article, though. Tons of incorrect information about the way the original PS3 BC worked.






I'm okay with this. Basically, it works the same way that the launch PS3 did, only with the PS3 connected to an external box to do the actual PS2 processing. So long as Sony doesn't get obnoxious with the pricing ($50 would be the sweet spot, considering it probably costs Sony $20 to make the components that go into it), I think this is probably the best solution for all. It might even relight the fire under the PS2 market that Sony keeps saying isn't dead. I would obviously prefer an SKU with it integrated, particularly now that we have the cooler-running and supposedly-more-reliable Slim PS3, but I suppose this is a good compromise.

Also, if Sony are really nice and make it region free (unlike the original PS3 BC), I would snap one up in an instant, even though I own a CECHA PS3. Next Page »

So, after »that whole Linux fiasco happened (which is currently tied up in courts, just so you know), Sony probably thought that they were safe from any major threats to their system. Then this happened.

Quote

Who needs George Hotz anyway? A USB modchip for the PS3 has emerged from the mists this morning, purporting to allow the dumping of games onto nearby storage -- the console's internal HDD and external drives are both a-ok -- as well as the subsequent playing of said games without the need for the original disc. Could it be the backup/piracy nirvana Sony loyalists have been awaiting for so long? Well, there's a video showing the little USB device apparently working, and the PSX-Scene team say they have personally verified that it does what it claims to do, but skepticism remains advisable here. The PS3 has been a fortress of hacker unfriendliness, so we'd rather kick back, relax, and wait for some braver souls than us to do the testing. For now, the video awaits after the break.

Linky.

Just... wow.


What it basically does is work the same way that Pre-2009 PSPs did with Pandora Batteries, in that inserting the proprietary drive into the USB port kicks the system into service mode so you can fiddle with it. Basically, this exploit exists for the same reason as it did on the PSP, because that is the method that Sony themselves use in order to fix PS3 consoles that ended up with screwed up firmware installs and other low level issues. This supposedly allows everything from dumping your PS3 games to the hard drive (internal or external) to downgrading the system firmware. And because the dongle interacts with the hardware on a machine code level using Sony's own software, there is nothing Sony could do to prevent its use until they change the hardware itself to no longer allow the system to boot in that way (which is what they ultimately had to do with the PSP with the 3000).



One thing that must be kept in mind is that, regardless of where you usually come down on the "open platform versus closed platform and consumers rights therein" argument, this is completely, totally crazy illegal. Not because of any whining Sony will do about their hardware being hacked, but because the way this thing was developed was apparently by the guys that made it getting their hands of one of the dongle's that Sony's guys use themselves, copying the hardware and dumping the software, then copying both to their own drive design. Because of that, when this explodes like it obviously will, Sony will probably be able to successfully block the sale of them in America/Britain/etc. Not that that really matters, I suppose.

Sony announced firmware 3.21 yesterday. What long-wanted feature does it bring to the PS3 XMB? Finally add .mkv support? Cross game chat? Automatic trophy syncing? No!

Quote

The next system software update for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) system will be released on April 1, 2010 (JST), and will disable the “Install Other OS” feature that was available on the PS3 systems prior to the current slimmer models, launched in September 2009. This feature enabled users to install an operating system, but due to security concerns, Sony Computer Entertainment will remove the functionality through the 3.21 system software update.

In addition, disabling the “Other OS” feature will help ensure that PS3 owners will continue to have access to the broad range of gaming and entertainment content from SCE and its content partners on a more secure system.

Linky.

That's right ladies and gents, Sony is once again doing the "we don't want you to have this feature you paid for anymore" conga line by introducing another force-upgrade firmware solely dedicated to removing stuff Sony promised wouldn't go anywhere.

Said By Yahoo Games

Think you paid too much for your Playstation 3? Don't expect any sympathy from Sony.
In the company's fiscal 2008 annual report, Sony revealed that they've now lost roughly $3.3 billion (that's billion with a B) on the Playstation 3 since its launch. That breaks down to $2.16 billion in 2007, followed by a notably smaller but equally daunting $1.16 billion loss in 2008.

Linky.

For comparison purposes only, really. Unlike Microsoft, who has nothing to really show for their losses with the Xbox 360; I doubt Sony shareholders are worried too much about it as Sony's Blu-Ray gamble paid off. It does show that Sony managed to halve their operating losses within a year while Microsoft is seemingly having more trouble doing so (in addition to losing far more money), though the over a billion put aside for the warranty extension and repair program probably didn't help Microsoft meet their goal.

An now it is guaranteed: Sony will not replace the 60gb model, allowing European sales to tank harder.

Quote

Following the previous announcement that the £349 60GB PS3 bundle that includes two first-party titles is only going to be available for a limited time, UK gamers had hoped Sony would be bringing the 80GB model, already out in the US, to our shores. However, in a statement Sony Computer Entertainment Europe said that "as the 60GB stock is depleted the £299 40GB sku will be the only version available going forward".
Gamers considering whether to invest in a PS3 this Christmas will at least for now have two versions of the console to choose from - the £349 60GB model and the £299.99 40GB model.

Linky.



Having defied all expectation over their stupidity, Sony still continues to give Europeans the shaft with the hope that they won't notice. What morons.

Quote

After weeks of speculation Sony has officially unveiled the lower-spec 40GB PlayStation 3 and has announced that it's heading to the UK on October 10 at the cut-down cost of 299 GBP. What's more, Sony is also slashing the cost of the 60GB PS3 down to 349 GBP.

The lower capacity hard drive aside, the entry level 40GB PS3 only has two USB ports (compared to the usual four), the multi-memory card port has been removed and the machine will not be backwards compatible with PlayStation 2 titles, because Sony reckons there has been "reduced emphasis placed on this feature amongst later purchasers of PS3".

Linky.

No PS2 support? Screw that. I hope Sony doesn't get it into their minds that people don't want PS2 support when people begin to flock to the system simply because of its lower price. Especially since they have announced that they are killing the 60gb as well (I personally think it is so they can replace it with the 80gb model, but who knows?).

Quote

"The truth is the PS3’s tools and the way it works just sucks. The truth is they are both virtually the same in terms of hardware when it comes to how powerful they are, maybe the PS3 has a few different things that makes it a bit more advance, and Sony has this idea that it is designed for optimal development but that’s a load of crap. In the last generation we would make the game for PS2 and then port it over to Xbox, but because Xbox was easier to develop for, we could actually enhance the title a little if we wanted to. The case with this generation is different, now we make the game for 360 first and then port it over to PS3, but we really don’t have the time to mess with how the PS3 works to really add to much more. It will change in the future, but for now it sucks.”

Well, this is bound to set the sparks flying. There are several parts of this statement that make it sound as if EA is completely incompetent, and others that actually sound viable. But in general, we can only compare to what we've seen from other developers on the PS3...and we have to conclude that EA, quite simply, is lagging behind. There are plenty of great-looking PS3 games on the way, and 2K Sports has already said one of their titles, NBA 2K8, would run at 60fps on the PS3, very much unlike Madden 08.

Linky.

Nice to see them using big boy words like SUCK

EA talk total rubbish, they are now a lazy 3rd grade developer that makes lousy games for maximum profit, not helped by the fact that most developers now are getting the hang of coding for the PS3; and even Ubisoft went on record as saying it was no more difficult to develop for the PS3 than the 360 (cue GRAW2) and that EA were mad in complaining that it was impossible to make the games equally as good.

It seems Sony is intent on not only snagging the DS sales, but also swiping sales from the IPod Nano. The most notable things are improved battery life and 8Gb built in memory, making it a serious MP3 player alternative. Look for sales to explode if Sony can deliver this at the same price of the current unit. The camera can go screw, though, especially if it raises the price.

Said By Kotaku

The new Playstation Portable will have a much slimmer design, thanks mostly to a new LED screen that will deliver an ultra-crisp image but take up far less space. That LED also helps pump up the battery life of this sexy new model, which can last as much as four times longer than the original PSP. While the new PSP still makes use of the UMD drive, it will be a faster version and to help speed up loadtimes and gameplay, the portable will come packed with 8GBs of internal flash memory.

To sum up? I will get one if it comes out like described, and I loath the PSP.

Quote

Sony's video game unit and Immersion have ended their patent fight and signed a deal that opens the door to putting the latter's Rumble technology into the former's PlayStation 3, the companies said Thursday.

Rumble technology makes a video game controller vibrate so that action on the screen seems more real--for example, when a race car is off the track--and has been a key feature in controllers for Sony's market-dominating PlayStation 2 console.

Linky

After what seems like years of Sony feeding everyone crap about how Rumble didn't work (including press releases put out last week), Sony has finally all-but admitted it for the crap it was. I'm personally glad, and look forward to what it will bring.

Said By Gamespot

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) senior vice president of marketing Peter Dille took to a side stage inside the booth to announce that the company had shipped 1 million PlayStation 3 units into the North American retail channel by the end of December.

Linky.
I'm actually rather pleased that Sony overcame the hardware shortages so quickly, which is so far far better than what was done with the PS2. I only wish they would start with higher launch numbers, for the sake of safety at least.

Sony must pay each individual $175 for damages when a customer purchased that CD. If this is not a great example of why DRM is a failure, I don't know what is.

Quote

The settlement agreement was announced Thursday by the state of Massachusetts, the lead plaintiff in the case. In addition to the $4.25 million, Sony BMG will also pay up to $175 apiece to consumers whose computers were damaged by the software. "We're pleased to reach these agreements," Sony BMG said in a statement. The announcement comes just after the music label announced similar deals with Texas and California. With the settlements, Sony BMG, jointly operated by Sony and Bertelsmann Music Group, has taken a major step in resolving a controversy that caused a public uproar last year.

What is really troubling is the fact that Sony still believes they have done nothing wrong. I'm sure they think that if you listen to a piece of their music that you paid for, you must relinquish all rights to your computer so they may spy and track you. It is amazing that these people also made the first video tape recorder.

Remember last year when Sony released those DRM riddled CDs that broke people's computers? Remember when Sony said they did nothing wrong? Remember how some states are suing them? Remember how smug Sony acts about its BS policies? Screw Sony.

Quote

Likely so, but the deal with California and Texas won't be the end of the "rootkit" fiasco for the music giant. Sony still has to contend with a consortium of 13 states, including Massachusetts, Nebraska and Florida, that are expected to look for a similar deal, according to Jeff McGrath, deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County, which took part in California's case against Sony. In addition, McGrath said an investigation launched earlier this year by the Federal Trade Commission looms. A spokesperson for the FTC declined to comment.

The uproar over Sony's DRM started in October 2005 when a computer programmer discovered that one of the company's CDs was restricting his computer's ability to copy music. He had installed Sony software that enabled him to listen to a CD on his computer, but without his knowledge, the disc also installed a DRM program that would limit the number of copies he made of the CD and barred him from creating unprotected MP3s. The DRM also provided a place where malicious software could hideout and operate undetected. The feature is known as a rootkit.

The exploding Dell batteries are being recalled. 4.1 million batteries are being recalled. They are Sony batteries... figures.

Quote

The battery packs were included in some models of Round Rock, Texas-based Dell's Latitude, Inspiron, XPS and precision mobile workstation notebooks. Dell launched a Web site, http://www.dellbatteryprogram.com , that described the affected models. Williams said the Web site would tell consumers how to get free replacement batteries from Dell. Rick Clancy, a Sony spokesman, said the companies have studied problems with the battery packs intensely for more than a month, after getting reports of about a half-dozen fires or smoking laptops in the United States.