Hasta La Gadget!

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.

Sony and DirecTV have announced that they’ve teamed up once again this year to bring PS3 owners access to NFL Sunday Ticket. The two companies did the same thing last year, but there’s one key difference this time around: the price. Users “without access” to DirecTV can get NFL Sunday Ticket on PS3 for $299.95, which – even though it sounds pretty expensive – is a bit cheaper than it was last year.

Of course, the PS3 Sunday Ticket app will be free to those who already subscribe to DirecTV, but allowing users to purchase the app outright will definitely be appreciated by those who live in areas where DirectTV isn’t available. According to the PlayStation Blog, NFL Sunday Ticket will be available on September 4, just a few days before the regular NFL season kicks off on September 9.

As many of you already know, NFL Sunday Ticket lets you watch out-of-market games to your heart’s content, but PS3 users are also getting a few perks by downloading this app. They’ll be getting access to DirecTV’s RED ZONE channel as well, which “delivers the final yards of every scoring drive and other exciting moments from all Sunday afternoon games as they happen.” Sony is also targeting fantasy football players with this app, offering “up-to-the-minute stats” and the ability to follow your team in real time if you happen to be playing fantasy football through NFL.com.

All in all, this isn’t a bad offer for the millions of football fans out there. Not only does it give DirecTV subscribers another to way to watch their Sunday Ticket content, but it also gives those without a subscription a chance to follow their favorite team (or teams) throughout the season. Will you purchasing and/or downloading the NFL Sunday Ticket app for PS3?

Sony and DirecTV bringing NFL Sunday Ticket to PS3 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Here’s something that’s rather interesting: Anonymous is claiming that it has hacked the PlayStation Network, making off with information on 10 million accounts. Anonymous announced the hack on its Twitter account just over an hour ago (though that tweet has since been removed), and someone claiming to be “the man behind Anonymous” posted this list of emails and encrypted passwords reportedly stolen from PSN as proof of the attack.

Reports of a new PSN security breach make us immediately recall the bad memories from spring 2011, but there may not be reason to worry just yet. The list which was posted to Pastebin is apparently just a duplicate of a list posted back in March. Kotaku says that SCEA’s Shane Bettenhausen has stated on Twitter that claims of the hack are “totally fake,” but that tweet appears to have been taken down too.

It’s all very confusing, but at the moment, it seems that the PlayStation Network is safe. It’s a good thing too, because PS3 owners definitely still remember last year’s attack all too well. The attack was severe enough that Sony had to take PSN down for a month as it worked on boosting security and investigated what all was stolen. When Sony reported that credit card details may have been stolen in the attack, that made things go from bad to worse, and Sony had to do a lot to restore faith in the company.

Luckily, it seems that history won’t be repeating itself quite yet, but with Sony claiming that it greatly improved security after the first attack, you know that there are plenty of hackers trying to bring PSN down for a second time. With that in mind, it seems that it’s only a matter of time before someone gets in, but who knows? It could be that Sony’s defenses are as strong as the company says. In any case, we’ll be bringing you more information as this rather strange story develops, so keep it tuned here to SlashGear!

Anonymous claims new PSN hack, Sony says it didn’t happen is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Sad news coming out of Crytek today, as it seems that the long-awaited TimeSplitters 4 will have to wait a bit longer. We’ve been hearing rumors of TimeSplitters 4‘s existence for years now, but in an interview with VG247, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli said that fan interest is not yet high enough to justify making the game. However, don’t despair TimeSplitters fans, as Crytek might have something for you anyway.

“I tested through my official blog to see how big the Timesplitters community is, and while the volume of responses was quite high, we feel it’s not high enough yet,” Yerli said. “That being said, it did indeed trigger a deeper evaluation of what we do with Timesplitters, and I can only say this for now; we might have some surprises coming soon.”

So Crytek might have some surprises in store for TimeSplitters fans? That would be great, but like any good game developer, Yerli picked his words carefully and didn’t give anything away. Since he isn’t talking (and probably won’t be for a while), we’re just going to go ahead and make some assumptions. Yerli’s tease makes us immediately think that Crytek might be considering an HD re-release of the TimeSplitters trilogy. At the very least, we might see some of the original TimeSplitters games released on PSN and Xbox Live.

Of course, we don’t have any proof to back these assumptions up, but re-releasing the older TimeSplitters game would be a good way to gauge fan interest in TimeSplitters 4. Provided those re-releases sell well, Crytek may be encouraged to begin development on TimeSplitters 4, and anyone who has played a TimeSplitters game knows that wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Whatever these surprises are, we can’t wait to find out about them. TimeSplitters is one of the great franchises of years past, and it would be wonderful to see Crytek giving the series more attention. Hopefully Crytek ends up following through with Yerli’s tease, because even if it isn’t anything more than a few re-releases on XBLA and PSN, we’re sure TimeSplitters fans would be happy to have them. Stay tuned.

Fan interest for TimeSplitters 4 not high enough yet, Crytek says is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The other day we reported that come 31^st of July (today), Grand Theft Auto 3 would be making its way onto the PSN. For those who were looking forward to it, you’ll probably have realized that the game is missing from PSN. The reason behind the delay of the release was due to some licensing issues that they encountered with a particular audio track. According to Morgan Haro, the PlayStation Community Manager who posted on the PS Blog:

“There were some last minute issues with getting clearance for a certain audio track in the game; but the teams at Rockstar are on it to review how to best get this title on PSN.”

No word on when it will see a release, but be sure to stay tuned as we will keep you updated on its progress.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Grand Theft Auto 3 heading onto PSN 31st July, Rockstar announces GTA III for Android,