Hasta La Gadget!

With all of the attention Sony is receiving today for its upcoming press event where the world expects them to unveil the PlayStation 4, the company must be on cloud nine. It looks as though they’re apparently feeling very generous too as they have been sending messages to PSN “loyal customers” that include an attachment of a $10 voucher to be used for PlayStation Network purchases.

The letter sent out to loyal customers, myself included, says “Thank you for being a loyal customer and fan of PlayStation Network. As a token of our appreciation, we’ve sent you $10.00 to spend on the PlayStation Store.”

No word has come directly from Sony as to what people they consider “loyal customers” and what part of the world these messages are being sent to, although we have a feeling it’s restricted to North American PSN users. Either way, if you haven’t checked your PSN’s received messages folder, you should do so as soon as you can as the offer expires on March 5th.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Diablo 3 Will Be Arriving On the PS3/PS4, Sony PlayStation 4 Announced,

This week the folks at the UK-based Information Commissioner’s Office have made it clear that under the Data Protection Act they’ve had “one of the most serious” dealings in history with PlayStation’s privacy blunder up for charge here in 2013. The actual offense that’s being fined occurred back in 2011 when Sony had a security breach and millions of gamers’ information sets were leaked online by hackers. The fine that’s being issued is no more than £250,000, this being the maximum the ICO is able to push against a private company.

Back when the PlayStation Network was cracked, it was no joke – millions of users were exposed to the wild with their names, email addresses, passwords, physical addresses, and dates of birth out in the open for the internet to see. Interestingly enough, it appears that the ICO has found that once the vulnerability that ultimately lead to the hack was made known to Sony, they “failed to address it.” This was back on the 19th of April, 2011, while the most massive wave hit the network in May.

The attack was, according to the ICO, a “focused and determined criminal attack” that to this day has not seen a single entity solidly caught and persecuted (on the hacker end of the equation, anyway.) Though back after the attack occurred several supposed Anonymous hackers claimed responsibility, the larger bulk of the Anonymous collective denied responsibility. This is not the first (and certainly wont be the last) time hackers of all brands have claimed to be part of the collective known as Anonymous while higher-ups deny responsibility for their wild and unassociated underlings.

Sony has responded to the ICO’s fine this week with note that they “strongly disagreed” with the ruling. Mentioning the fact that the ICO found that, “personal data [was] unlikely to have been used for fraudulent purposes” across the board, Sony hopes to avoid any fine – and more importantly, any official admittance of wrongdoing on their part.

“Criminal attacks on electronic networks are a real and growing aspect of 21st century life and Sony continually works to strengthen our systems, building in multiple layers of defense and working to make our networks safe, secure and resilient. The reliability of our network services and the security of our consumers’ information are of the utmost importance to us, and we are appreciative that our network services are used by even more people around the world today than at the time of the criminal attack.” – Sony

Sound reasonable to you? How about those of you that were affected by the leak/attack back in 2011, do you feel Sony has made a big enough effort to repair itself?

[via The Guardian]

PlayStation Network breach earns max cash fine from ICO (2 years late) is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Sony is always looking for more ways to make the PS3 standout from the likes of the Xbox 360 and Wii (soon to be Wii U), and one new way its doing that is by putting games on PSN the same day they launch at retail. Unveiled today, Sony’s new “PSN Day 1 Digital” program will kick off in October with the release of Resident Evil 6, letting users purchase and download full, new games on launch day right from their couch. Even better is that PS Plus users will get to enjoy a 10% discount in some cases.

Out of all of this, the fact that PS Plus users get 10% off is probably the most surprising. Console manufacturers – Microsoft especially, Sony to a lesser extent – sometimes like to keep prices high on digital versions of retail games. The result is that occasionally you’d end up paying more for a digital copy of the game than you would for a physical copy from a brick and mortar store, but this time around, Sony is ready to pass on some discounts provided you’ve subscribed to PlayStation Plus. Of course, just being a PS Plus member doesn’t automatically mean you’re entitled to the discount, as you’ll have to pre-order the game in question before Sony and the publishers will shave 10% off the purchase price.

Here’s the full list of games that will be launching on PSN on launch day. Keep in mind that PS Plus prices only apply if you pre-order the title unless otherwise stated:

• Resident Evil 6 – October 2, $59.99
• NBA 2K12 – October 2, $59.99/$53.99 for PS Plus members
• Dishonored – October 9, $59.99/$53.99 for PS Plus members
• Doom 3: BFG Edition – October 16, $39.99/$35.99 for PS Plus members
• 007 Legends – October 16, $59.99/$53.99 for PS Plus members during first week of availability
• Medal of Honor Warfighter – October 23, $59.99
• Need for Speed: Most Wanted – October 30, $59.99/$53.99 for PS Plus members
• Assassin’s Creed III – October 30, $59.99

Unsurprisingly, three of October’s biggest games – Resident Evil 6, Medal of Honor Warfighter, and Assassin’s Creed III – don’t come with a discount for PS Plus members, though Assassin’s Creed III is still available for pre-order. There’s no word on if these games will be available to download at midnight on launch day, but Sony’s recent launch day release of Borderlands 2 wasn’t, so it isn’t looking good for the rest of the bunch. More details will almost certainly be coming shortly, so stay tuned.

[via The Verge]

Sony unveils PSN Day 1 Digital program is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

In addition to announcing a brand new, super-slim PS3 model at the Tokyo Game Show, Sony finally gave a time frame for the arrival of PlayStation Plus on PS Vita. Sony announced that PlayStation Plus would be coming to PS Vita back at Gamescom in July, but today it announced that PS Plus will launch November. Unfortunately, the company didn’t get any more specific than that, so it looks like we’ll be left waiting for additional details once again.

Still, at least Sony has narrowed down the release window a bit for us. When PlayStation Plus launches on the PS Vita, it will come with all of the features that PS3 members love in tow. One of these features is Instant Game Collection, which allows users to access free full games for as long as they’re a PS Plus member. PlayStation Plus subscribers will also get discounts on games and DLC on a consistent basis, along with with 1GB of cloud storage, letting users back up their game saves or store DLC.

With PS Plus, PS Vita owners can also take advantage of automatic updates, which will turn your PS Vita automatically to begin downloading game demos, game updates, and system updates. Once the update has finished downloading, the PS Vita will switch into standby mode, meaning that your PS Vita could potentially download updates without you ever knowing – definitely a handy (if not somewhat creepy) feature to have around.

Those who are already subscribed to PS Plus on PS3 will get a PS Vita membership for free, and those who sign up for PS Plus using their Vita will be able to enjoy the PS3 benefits as well. If you aren’t already a subscriber, a membership will cost the going rate of $49.99 annually. As stated above, the PS Vita version of Plus is still lacking a specific launch date, but you can bet that we’ll update you once Sony lets it loose. Stay tuned!

[via Playstation Blog]

PS Vita gets PlayStation Plus in November is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

With this year’s National Football League season almost ready to kick off (not taking pre-season games into consideration, of course), DirecTV’s properly preparing itself on all entertainment cylinders. The satellite provider announced earlier today that the well-known Sunday Ticket package will be returning to the PlayStation 3 on September 4th via a PS Store update, allowing current subscribers to stream full-HD games directly to Sony’s renowned console. As for those without any current attachments to DirecTV, however, there is an option out there — one which costs a familiar $300 per NFL season. We’ve still got a few days until the madness gets started, which should be plenty of time to get approval from your better half to snag the action-packed ticket.

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD

DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket returns to PS3 in time for the upcoming football season originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 22:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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