SOME PLAYSTATION®NETWORK AND QRIOCITY™ SERVICES TO BE AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
Phased Global Rollout of Services to Begin Regionally;
System Security Enhanced to Provide Greater Protection of Personal Information

Tokyo, May 1, 2011 – Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) and Sony Network Entertainment International (SNEI, the company) announced they will shortly begin a phased restoration by region of PlayStation®Network and Qriocity™ services, beginning with gaming, music and video services to be turned on. The company also announced both a series of immediate steps to enhance security across the network and a new customer appreciation program to thank its customers for their patience and loyalty.

Following a criminal cyber-attack on the company’s data-center located in San Diego, California, U.S.A., SNEI quickly turned off the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services, engaged multiple expert information security firms over the course of several days and conducted an extensive audit of the system. Since then, the company has implemented a variety of new security measures to provide greater protection of personal information. SNEI and its third-party experts have conducted extensive tests to verify the security strength of the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. With these measures in place, SCE and SNEI plan to start a phased rollout by region of the services shortly. The initial phase of the rollout will include, but is not limited to, the following:

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Video-game industry-related funding and acquisition deals rose 36 percent to a total of 210 in 2010, driven by developments in the online and social network gaming segments. This is according to new IHS Screen Digest research. The research firm said that 123 funding rounds and 87 acquisitions closed in 2010, and that the volume of activity last year was up by more than a third from the 2009's total of 154 events.

Acquisitions doubled last year, with 20 - 24 events occurring every quarter, compared to 49 acquisitions for all of 2009. Total funding for 2010 reached $1.89 billion, up 130 percent from $819 million in 2009. The numbers cover funding and acquisitions activity in all areas of the games market (excluding mobile gaming, which was tracked separately). Read More

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Users that made the unfortunate decision to download the latest Fallout: New Vegas update found out the hard way that it makes Obsidian and Bethesda's action-RPG unplayable. Now Bethesda is telling the community that it is working hard on a fix and urging those that have not downloaded already to avoid it. According to a post on the Bethesda's official blog, Obsidian has figured out what caused the problem and plans to put out a new patch soon. From the blog:

"Regarding the Xbox 360 update, we've discovered a solution to the issue that's causing problems with game saves," reads the blog post. "We'll be hosting a replacement update on Xbox Live as soon as humanly possible.

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SPOILERS: Listen to the often times hilarious recordings of Portal 2's Cave Johnson in this clip.

Besides Suda 51 strangling Shinji Mikami, see the developers talk about the process if creating Shadows of The Damned in this new trailer for the game.

The Driver series is on an upswing with this new trailer for Ubisoft's Driver: San Francisco.

According to this Gamasutra report, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is helping investigate the security breach of PlayStation Network that exposed millions of PSN users' personal data and credit card information to unauthorized intruders.

"The Department of Homeland Security is aware of the recent cyber intrusion to Sony's PlayStation Network and Qriocity music service," DHS spokesman Chris Ortman told government technology site NextGov. "DHS' U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team [CERT] is working with law enforcement, international partners and Sony to assess the situation." Read More

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GDC Europe organizers revealed new lectures for the August show, including BioWare talking about Mass Effect 3's new creatures, IMVU discussing "continuous deployment", and Slant Six speaking about  production pipelines. Taking place Monday through Wednesday, August 15-17, 2011 at the Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost, GDC Europe 2011 takes place alongside gamescom.

Main Conference sessions already announced include Brink, Blue Fang and Crysis 2 talks, and a lecture that compares the different creature creation pipelines used on Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3. Read More

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Hey guys!  Did you hear the one about Sony turning off the PlayStation Network due to some type of security breach and then *snicker* leaving its entire userbase in the dark for nearly a week before telling them that *snort* all of their personal data had been stolen except maybe their credit card data?

Bwa ha ha ha ha!  Oh ho ho ho!  Woo!  Oh man, good times.

What?  Too soon?  Not funny?  Okay, well maybe these webcomics’ take on the ongoing Sony PSN kerfuffle will strike a bit closer to your funny bones.

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Hey guys!  Did you hear the one about Sony turning off the PlayStation Network due to some type of security breach and then *snicker* leaving its entire userbase in the dark for nearly a week before telling them that *snort* all of their personal data had been stolen except maybe their credit card data?

Bwa ha ha ha ha!  Oh ho ho ho!  Woo!  Oh man, good times.

What?  Too soon?  Not funny?  Okay, well maybe these webcomics’ take on the ongoing Sony PSN kerfuffle will strike a bit closer to your funny bones.

Continue Reading