Sony – Page 5 – MMO Fallout

[Less Massive] Playstation Mobile Shutting Down September 10th

Sony Computer Entertainment has announced that support for Playstation Mobile will be ending later this year. In an email sent out earlier today, customers have been notified that Sony will cease distributing content on the Playstation Mobile app on July 15, with full support for the platform ceasing on September 10th. Content purchased off of the platform will need to be downloaded and installed prior to the September cutoff date, as they will be unavailable after that date.

Refunds will not be provided for lost Playstation Mobile content. Playstation Mobile was an attempt by Sony to provide content to a number of platforms, including Android, Vita, and Playstation TV. The service never took off, even after Sony took steps to reach out to independent developers, including the removal of a license fee in 2013.

(Source: Sony email)

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)

Planetside 2: “We Are Actually Trying To Make Money.”

John Smedley went on Twitter today to defend SOE’s decision to reduce the drop rate and effectiveness on implants to push players toward newly introduced, more powerful variants. In response to complaints that the update was a cash grab, Smedley responded via Twitter:

Sorry but we are actually trying to make money. I don’t consider it a money grab.

Smedley later pointed out on Twitter that the changes were due to the original drop rates being too high.

(Source: Massively)

Playstation Plus Prices Increase In Several Territories

Sony has announced that, due to market conditions, the price of Playstation Plus will be increasing in multiple countries. Affected countries are South Africa, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, and India. While Sony described the price increases as “slightly increased prices,” emails sent to users in affected regions reveal that the prices are increasing over 50%. Sony responded to questions of prices rising in North America by noting that “price adjustments are not being planned for PS Plus in the SCEA region.”

(Source: Shacknews)

Elder Scrolls Online Ignores PSN Subscription

The Elder Scrolls Online launches in just a few months on current gen consoles and PC, and playing on the Playstation 4 just became a little cheaper. In a blog post on the Playstation website, Zenimax Game Director Matt Firor revealed that The Elder Scrolls Online will not require an active Playstation Plus subscription in order to play.

Conversely, Elder Scrolls Online on the Xbox One does require an Xbox Live subscription in order to play, which owners of the console will already have if they play anything else online.

(Source: Playstation Blog)

Planetside 2 Will Feature Weekly Updates

Matt Higby from Sony Online Entertainment posted a thread on the Planetside 2 forums detailing that the company plans on expediting updates to better service the MMO shooter. Starting January 15th, Planetside 2 will enjoy weekly updates to address bugs, balancing, and more. There will still be large updates to the game, that will be included with the weekly updates as they become ready for release, but the overall goal is to allow SOE to work on bug fixing and balancing at a faster pace.

One final note, the first couple of these weekly updates are going to be a bit smaller than what you can expect to see later on, as we’re still shaking off the holiday cobwebs and getting used to the new development processes.

You can read the entire notice at the link below.

(Source: Planetside 2)

Not Massive: Sony Won't Ban You For Early Playing

If my childhood is anything to go off of, Sony’s consistent public contradiction of Microsoft is going to net them a belt buckle to the head, you know once the two are out of the public view. Take Two and Rockstar Games have been going insane with shutting down any outlet for pre-release Grand Theft Auto V goodies, going as far as apparently threatening legal action against some publications. Look around and you’ll find a pile of now banned accounts on Livestream, Youtube, and more.

Microsoft has continued their policy of working in tandem with the publisher and handing out console bans to anyone caught leaking pre-release gameplay, IE: Anyone caught streaming or posting screenshots/captures of their gameplay online. It is important to the conversation to point out that the bans are related to the leaking of game footage before the official street date, and not the mere act of playing the game.

Enter Sony, a company whose past few months of public relations can be whittled down to “the opposite of what Microsoft just said.” Sony is not banning anyone with a legitimate copy of GTA V who post footage of their game online before Tuesday’s launch, a move that will likely net them brownie points with the gaming community if at the expense of Rockstar’s goodwill.

If you do manage to get ahold of a copy, you’re pretty safe as long as you don’t start streaming or leaking footage.

Not Massive: Sony Won’t Ban You For Early Playing

If you do manage to get ahold of a copy, you’re pretty safe as long as you don’t start streaming or leaking footage.

Massive Action Game Shuts Down 1/28/14

In all honesty, the incoming demise of Massive Action Game has been written on the walls ever since it descended to the sub-bargain bin of Gamestop where the representative gives you the choice between a free copy of the game or being shot in the chest with a pistol. In fact, you can currently pick the game up used for less than the price of a dollar menu item. Oh, and there is the minor detail that players have been unable to purchase DLC for several months, with Global PSN customer support telling them that MAG is a discontinued product and no longer for sale via the PlayStation Store. So it comes as no surprise that Sony unceremoniously announced via Twitter that the MAG servers will be brought down forever this coming January.

Advisory: Online multiplayer services for MAG, SOCOM Confrontation, and SOCOM 4 will be ending on 01/28/14

Given its 100% reliance on multiplayer, MAG as a game will be completely unplayable come next year, assuming you hadn’t already relegated the disc to coaster status by this point.

(Source: Twitter)

Taco Tuesday: How Will Planetside Manage Cheaters?

Last year I asked John Smedley if Planetside would be shutting down with Planetside 2 releasing, since Planetside was already dead in the water in terms of population. The response I received was that Sony would rather seek options including transforming Planetside into the free to play model before they shut the servers down, and that there would be more details as to where things were going in 2013. Just a day or so ago, Sony Online Entertainment threw a block grant of six months of game time in Planetside for Planetside 2 players. John Smedley also noted on Twitter:

This also gives us more time to make it f2p. So enjoy starting tmw late morning. And yes I’m sure we will miss flag some people.

Even though I knew that Sony preferred free to play to shutting the game down outright, my reaction to the announcement is still a sound “why?” I understand why Sony would want to take that road, since by their own admission no one plays Planetside anymore and therefore anything is better than nothing. On the other hand, players like myself are fully aware of why Planetside doesn’t have a trial system: because hackers were abusing it and mass-creating accounts. So when Planetside goes free to play, it’s hardly unrealistic to assume that the hackers will simply return in droves to ruin the experience once again.

Will Planetside become a den of aimbots, exploits, and hackers? At first, most assuredly. Afterward, who can say? Part of me wants to say that Sony will address the problem of mass-hacking in Planetside because otherwise the investment required to take the game free to play wouldn’t be worth it. A game like Planetside that is fully player vs player will see its population turn right around and leave if the game is infested with hackers. The hope, of course, is that Planetside will generate enough revenue after the transition that Sony can afford to have some full time staffers on hand to update the systems to battle cheaters at a software level while simultaneously having staff in-game to track down and ban cheaters by hand.

And again, this all comes down to how prepared Sony is to deal with the cheaters who will no doubt show up once the doors open.

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