The Pope can finally play Spider-Man 2.
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Tag: Playstation Network
Cheap Games: Ubisoft Sale On PSN
Ubisoft is running a week long sale on the Playstation Network, and the list of games for sale is massive. The list of sale items includes the recently launched Division as well as other big name Ubisoft titles like Rainbow Six Siege and The Crew.
Sales are for the North America Playstation Network. Your mileage may vary.
Highlights:
- The Division: $49.79 (17% off)
- Rainbow Six Siege: $35.99 (40% off)
- The Crew: $17.99 (40% off)
- Toy Soldiers War Chest: $11.99 (60% off)
- Watch Dogs Gold Edition: $19.99 (60% off)
The entire list of games on sale includes 32 items between the Playstation 3 and Playstation 4. Currently no Vita games are on sale.
(Source: PSN)
Lizard Squad Member Convicted, Gets No Jail Sentence
Finland has successfully convicted Julius Kivimaki of over fifty thousand counts of cyber crime for his role in the attacks on Sony and Microsoft’s networks along with other members of the hacker group Lizard Squad. With fifty thousand counts under his belt, you might be wondering if Kivimaki will be going to prison for the next three hundred years. He won’t be. In fact, he won’t be going to prison at all.
Considering the weight and damage of Kivimaki’s actions, the seventeen year old is being handed the equivalent of a two-year suspended sentence, meaning he won’t be spending any time behind bars unless he manages to violate the conditions of his parole. As part of the sentence, Kivimaki’s online activities will be heavily monitored.
Finland’s judicial system has been under heavy criticism for years over its perceived lenient treatment of white collar criminals. In December last year, a Helsinki court handed out three five-month suspended sentences and one sixteen month suspended sentence to a group charged with collecting money to fund terrorist group Al-Shabaab in Somalia.
(Source: Daily Dot)
Tomorrow’s PSN Downtime Was Exaggerated
You may have read that on tomorrow, May 11th, the Playstation Network will be down for nearly ten hours for maintenance. The Playstation network status page originally had Monday’s maintenance scheduled to begin at 10:30pm EST on May 11th and run until 8am EST on May 12th.
Well that isn’t happening anymore. The new maintenance begins 9pm Pacific (midnight EST) on May 11th and ends two hours later.
(Source: Playstation Network)
Sony Caps Fraud Refund At $150, Threatens To Ban Victim
Sony is coming under some heavy fire after an account was stolen and used to rack up substantial charges, only to offer to reimburse a small portion of those funds. User Kadjar on Reddit noticed that his account was compromised when multiple purchase confirmations began popping up in his email. Acting quickly to remove on-file credit cards and change passwords, Kadjar contacted Sony support only to be told that his refund would be capped. Out of the $600 in fraudulent charges, they only offered $150 and as PSN currency.
If you read the transcript, ‘Malcom’ seems to indicate that the full amount could be refunded upon completion of the investigation. I called to confirm this, and the supervisor I spoke to informed me that there was a maximum of $150 even after investigation.
Further, the customer service rep Malcolm warns Kadjar that going through the bank to reverse the charges will result in his account being banned irrevocably, with no way to recover any licenses lost. Sony also refused to reactivate his Playstation onto the account until six months, which had been deactivated by the account thief and replaced with another system.
Sony does not currently offer two-factor authentication for its Playstation Network.
(Source: Reddit)
Buy $20 Mercenary Pack, Get DUST 514 Beta Access
Earlier this year, CCP announced that the initial cover charge for DUST 514 would be removed in favor of simply making the game free with a cash shop. Now, if you are like me and bought a $20 Playstation Network card in advance, you are not entirely out of luck. In a CCP press release today, the company has announced the release of a $19.99 Mercenary Pack.
The pack contains a number of goodies: guns, grenades, xp boosters, etc, but what it also includes is guaranteed beta access to DUST 514. While regular key holders will only be able to play during beta weekends, Mercenary Pack holders will have more opportunities to get in and start shooting.
The Mercenary Pack is $20 on the Playstation Store.
(Source: Massively)
PSN and SOE: They’re Coming Back Today!
By the time you view this video, PSN may be activated in your area. Today begins phase 1 of Sony’s restoration services for the Playstation Network, rolling out in various countries and states one by one. Players will be able to sign into the Playstation Network and download a patch and reset their passwords (this is mandatory). Gameplay services are also being restored on the PS3 and PSP, as well as access to services like Hulu, Netflix, the friends system, and Playstation Home.
If you live in the states, check out this page to see if PSN service has been restored in your area.
On the Sony Online Entertainment side of things, service appears to be restored. Those of you with subscriptions will see that your next billing period is listed as “45 days,” from an unknown billing source. For your games you do not subscribe to, you will see 45 days free game time listed as “pending.” I was not subscribed to DC Universe at the time of the shut down, and I still received 45 days free.
There are a few perks not mentioned in the previous announcement players can take part in. In Everquest, for example, housing decay has been deactivated for 30 days. Either way, welcome back everyone! PS3 users have a bit more to wait, but PC Station users can dive right in.
PSN and SOE: They're Coming Back Today!
By the time you view this video, PSN may be activated in your area. Today begins phase 1 of Sony’s restoration services for the Playstation Network, rolling out in various countries and states one by one. Players will be able to sign into the Playstation Network and download a patch and reset their passwords (this is mandatory). Gameplay services are also being restored on the PS3 and PSP, as well as access to services like Hulu, Netflix, the friends system, and Playstation Home.
If you live in the states, check out this page to see if PSN service has been restored in your area.
On the Sony Online Entertainment side of things, service appears to be restored. Those of you with subscriptions will see that your next billing period is listed as “45 days,” from an unknown billing source. For your games you do not subscribe to, you will see 45 days free game time listed as “pending.” I was not subscribed to DC Universe at the time of the shut down, and I still received 45 days free.
There are a few perks not mentioned in the previous announcement players can take part in. In Everquest, for example, housing decay has been deactivated for 30 days. Either way, welcome back everyone! PS3 users have a bit more to wait, but PC Station users can dive right in.
PSN Service Aiming For May 31st.
At this juncture, I’m just waiting for Sony to pull a card from Duke Nukem Forever and just label the PSN service as being restored “when it’s done.” To those of us who do a lot of gaming on our Playstation 3, or to PC users who subscribed to one or more game on Sony’s Station service, it may feel like forever ago that the Playstation Network and Sony Online Entertainment services went down. The PSN has been down for almost twenty days, while Station service was pulled one week ago.
According to Sony, the service is aimed for restoration by May 31st, a date that does not specifically include the Station service. It is worth noting that this is “full service,” and that Sony has expressed intent on restoring partial service (online gaming, store) as soon as last week, so you may see bits and pieces of the PSN coming up before the end of the month.
You can read the Eurogamer announcement here: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-05-09-sony-psn-restoration-targets-end-of-may
More on Sony as it appears.
PS3: Compensation. No PSN This Week.
Those of you who play DC Universe on the PS3, of whom are planning on coming back to the game once it comes online, may be interested to hear the details of Sony’s “Welcome back” package. Announced on Sony’s Facebook page, the plan includes:
- 30 days free game time.
- Plus one free day for every day the service was interrupted.
- And the mask you see above.
I hear if you play your cards right, Shigeru Miyamoto will come to your house and play Super Smash Bros. (but only the N64 version) with you. Actually, I’m being told Shigeru Miyamoto is from Nintendo. My apologies for the mistake. I’ve been tracking down the Free Realms and Massive Action Game, although the Free Realms guys have not released any compensation details, and the Massive Action Game guys haven’t talked about the downtime at all, as far as I can see.
And finally, a Playstation Network update. According to an article on CSMonitor, a Sony rep has announced that the Playstation Network will not be back up and running “this week.” There has not been an official announcement on the Sony blog, despite the article being published yesterday, so take the news as credible at your own risk.
At this rate, players will receive almost two months of free DC Universe game time on the PS3, with PC SOE users reportedly receiving 30 days free game time plus one day for every day the service is offline. There is still no information as to when the Sony Station service will be returned.
MMO Fallout 