People think they got hacked again.
Continue reading “Hotcakes: Sony’s Silence On Downtime Invites Speculation”
Tag: PSN
Sony Concedes Defeat On Unpopular PSN Requirements
The Pope can finally play Spider-Man 2.
Continue reading “Sony Concedes Defeat On Unpopular PSN Requirements”
PSN Sale Highlights
Playstation’s big holiday sale has arrived, bringing with it big savings. The list is massive, so MMO Fallout has put together our highlights from the sale. Titles below include the cost for both regular and Playstation Plus members. Check out our list below and then head on over to store.playstation.com to see what else is on offer.
Playstation 4
- A Boy and His Blob: $3.49/$2.49 (Crossbuy)
- Bully: $10.49/$8.99
- Crypt of the NecroDancer: $7.49/$4.94 (Crossbuy)
- Dishonored: Definitive Edition: $13.99/$11.99
- Divinity: Original Sin – Enhanced Edition: $29.99/$14.99
Playstation 3
- A Boy and His Blob: $3.49/$2.49 (Crossbuy)
- Dishonored: Game of the Year: $13.99/$11.99
Vita
- Assassin’s Creed Chronicles Trilogy: $14.99/$12.49
- Crypt of the NecroDancer: $7.49/$4.94 (Crossbuy)
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)
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)
Playstation Network Down (For Most) For Most of Today
If you plan on doing anything that requires logging into Playstation Network, you have approximately ten minutes (until 11am eastern) to do so, otherwise you will be locked out for thirteen hours until tonight. Sony is conducting routine maintenance on the PSN servers, meaning during this time players will be unable to sign into the service in order to access the Playstation store, account management, and Playstation Home.
This also means being unable to sign into Playstation Network to access your games online. To the best of my understanding, however, if you are signed in before the deadline, you will still be able to play multiplayer games, so make sure you do so in the next seven minutes (I’m going to waste half of that time writing this article). This includes, of course, Free Realms, DC Universe, and Massive Action Game.
Any trophy you receive during the off time will sync when the servers come back up, as normal.
Well ****, More PSN Accounts Stolen…
Note: The above video contains strong language, not safe for work.
I imagine the above video pretty accurately describes how Playstation users are feeling today. In case you hadn’t heard, Sony has shut down the ability to log in outside of your playstation following an exploit that popped up allowing players to reset an account’s password knowing only the email and birth date of the user.
You can still log in from your Playstation and play online, and if you are affected you’ll know because you’ll receive an email thanking you for changing your password, which you obviously will not have done. There is no word at this time when the ability to log in via Playstation.com or Qriocity’s website will return.
To the best of my knowledge, this does not affect Sony Online Entertainment users.
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 Services Returning This Week
Finally some good news for our PS3 players of DC Universe, Massive Action Game, and Free Realms (the latter of which I for some reason ignored on the past articles relating to the PS3 outage). According to the Playstation Blog today, services will be returning to the Playstation Network this week and, as expected, compensation will be coming along with it. Players will be given free downloads of select software of unknown name or quantity (perhaps a free digital download of DC Universe to bolster subscriber numbers?), 30 days of free PSN Plus, and that:
Additional “Welcome Back” entertainment and service offerings will be rolled out over the coming weeks as the company returns the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services to the quality standard users have grown to enjoy and strive to exceed those exceptions.
In addition, Playstation users will undergo a forced update if they want to be able to sign into PSN:
In addition, PS3 will have a forced system software update that will require all registered PlayStation Network users to change their account passwords before being able to sign into the service. As an added layer of security, that password can only be changed on the same PS3 in which that account was activated, or through validated email confirmation, a critical step to help further protect customer data.
You can read more on the blog link above. No news yet on compensation for DC Universe or Free Realms subscribers.
Community Concerns: So Should I Cancel DC Universe?
This is a tough article for me to write, because it goes against virtually all of my established ethics for MMO Fallout, foremost the ultimate disapproval: Recommending that people not only do not buy, but unsubscribe to a game. Since last week’s Playstation Network outage, I’ve had a number of people emailing me to ask a simple question: Should I cancel my DC Universe subscription (on the PS3)? And after long deliberation, my short answer is…yes.
Sony is rebuilding the Playstation Network, so if your account is about to run out, simply save yourself the money and do not resubscribe until everything is clear. That is, assuming you still trust Sony with your personal information after the news that data, possibly including credit card information, was stolen in the security breach. Sony maintains that data from Sony Online Entertainment was not affected, and only the Playstation Network experience an intrusion.
There is still no concrete date on when the PSN service will be back up, so if you have any subscriptions to DC Universe or Massive Action Game, you’re better off just cancelling now, and resubscribing when the service is back online.
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