PSN Update

There has been a few tidbits of news about the PSN yesterday and this morning. First, it seems like the whole PSN debacle has caught the attention of Homeland Security, they are now carrying out an investigation. Spokesman, Chris Ortman has stated:

"The Department of Homeland Security is aware of the recent cyber intrusion to Sony's PlayStation Network and Qriocity music service. DHS' U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) is working with law enforcement, international partners and Sony to assess the situation."

On the bright side, the PSN is supposedly to finally come back with a full restore this week. And for waiting, Sony is giving us free content (it is not sure what the content is), a free 30 day Playstation Plus Membership, and a 30 day unlimited music subscription.

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Marvel Goes MMO

 
Marvel has announced their next biggest video game plan: A free to play MMO. It's all free that lets you play as any character in any Marvel event that's taken place from the 60's to now from the 616 universe. But that won't be the only universe you can explore, the Ultimate Universe will be included along with the Marvel Studio films.

You do not get to make your own character, instead you choose any character from a supposedly extreme list that tops any Marvel game. So far they have revealed Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Nova and Squirrel Girl.

The first platform to be getting this new Marvel game will be PC first with a TBA release date, then the consoles will get their releases.

People are wondering if it will be Disney like, and luckily Bendis has said that it won't be Disney like at all. The target audience are the adults.

So far, this sounds like it will be a big project, there seems to be a lot going on with the game. I'm extremely excited for this and will try to keep an eye on the progress. I might play as Squirrel Girl and unleash an army of Squirrels on Doctor Doom, I hope they'll let us do that. But for more information, take a gander here.

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Portal 2 DLC This Summer AND Free

Valve has announced that Portal 2 DLC will be coming out this summer and that it will be free for PC, Mac, PS3 and 360. The DLC will include new test chambers, leaderboards, and single/multiplayer challenge modes. Good ol' Valve given us what we need.

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PSN Hackers Selling Info

There has been a rumor going around that the hackers behind the PSN dilemma are selling information they took from 2.2 million users on random forums. It's also rumored that they hackers tried to sell the information back to Sony, but they denied. These are all rumors and may not be 100% true..

But in good news, Sony has stated that the trophies for your games are unaffected, phew! And there are talks about ways for Sony to show appreciation to users and for us waiting. I demand for early released games, and for them to be free.

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Beyonce Gets Sued By Developers

Here is another law suit story for you guys, this one involving Pop singer; Beyonce.

The run version of this story is that a software developer, Gate Five, teamed up to make a game with Beyonce titled Starpower: Beyonce. After they agreed with their terms, Beyonce and her financier went back on their deal and demanded for more money, but Gate Five did not like this demand and couldn't afford it. Beyonce then backed away from the deal causing massive layoffs for Gate Five, about 70 people were laid off during the week of Christmas.

Gate Five retaliated by suing Beyonce for $100 million to cover for their loses. I think that's a fair deal, considering she went back on their contract and cut off all communications with Gate Five.

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Sony Gets Sued

A law firm in California are starting to file lawsuits against Sony complaining that Sony did not take proper measures in securing their network with proper data encryption. Things are not looking good for Sony since each PSN user can get up to $318, these lawsuits can take Sony up to the billions though.

And with that, supposedly an investigation took place where there was data found containing no decryption, making it easier for hackers to get users' information. If this is true, then Sony is in a lot of trouble.

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Dog Wars Pulled From Market

There has been much controversy over the Dog Wars app, many people complained so much about it; such as Animal Right Activists and Michael Vick (yes, THAT Michael Vick). The complaints were so big, that Google decided to pull the game off of their Market.

I'm not going to lie, but that irritates me a bit. I'm not all for real life dog fights, but people need to realize that this is just a game, it's not real life. There are tons of FPS out there, where you kill virtual people, and not so many people are all up tight about it. It sucks for Kage Games that they are being heavily censored because people cannot realize that it is just a game.

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Jurassic Park Delayed

As everyone knows, the good games get delayed. And it's the same for Telltale Game's Jurassic Park. It's just been announced that they are going to release Jurassic Park this Fall as apposed to this month.

For all you disgruntled buyers, do not fret, because Telltale has offered something nice for the PC users who have preordered the game: a refund and a free game. Now that is rare for a company to do, makes me wish I preordered the game. But you get a complete refund and you get a free Telltale game of your choice. 

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The Avengers First Production Day

Yesterday marked the first day for the filming of the upcoming Avengers movie, just right after the last filming day of Captain America a few days ago. They are currently on set in Albuquerque, New Mexico and will eventually go to Cleveland, Ohio for their initial set. This movie won't have all the original Avengers team, but it will include; Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye and The Hulk.

I'm excited to see how the characters turn out and watch them kick some ass! I wish that they would have included Wasp and Ant Man, and a Black Panther would have been awesome.

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Hackers May Have Your Info From PSN

Lots of people know that PSN is down because of major hackers. What people don't know is that those hackers might have your credit card info. The Sony PlayStation Blog states:

"Valued PlayStation Network/Qriocity Customer:
We have discovered that between April 17 and April 19, 2011, certain PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account information was compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network. In response to this intrusion, we have:
1. Temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services;2. Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happened; and
3. Quickly taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our network infrastructure by re-building our system to provide you with greater protection of your personal information."

Followed by:

"Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birth date, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained."

It is not a for sure thing that your credit card info was obtained, but keep an eye on your card just in case. I'm not sure if I have my card on info, so I'll be keeping an eye on it. I mainly use the PSN cards for my purchases.

In good news though, the PSN should be back by next week.

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Sony Goes Tablet

Today, Sony has announced their two planned Android 3.0 tablets codenamed S1 and S2.They both include wi-fi and 3/4G connectivity. Their release are set to be this fall, but there is no word of a price tag as of yet.

The S1 tablet will be powered by a Tegra video card making it able to play Playstaion 1 games and their mobile based games with a 9 inch screen.

S1

The S2 is a design that looks so familiar, it folds in half like a Nintendo DS and acts like one; the top screen is for play while the bottom screen is for control with both screens measuring at 5.5 inches.

S1 (left) and S2 (right)

I'm quit excited for this, as much as the Gamestop rumored tablet. I just bought myself a Viewsonic G Tablet, and depending on the price (which I'm guessing will be maybe around $500) then I might get one or the other. The S2 looks interesting design wise, but looks like it can be easy to break if one accidentally slams the tablet closed. So I'm leaning more towards the S1 with its PS1 capability.

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Nintendo's New Console Playable At E3

A letter from Nintendo has surfaced today about Nintendo's new console saying that it will be playable at E3 this Summer.

"To whom it may concern:

Re: Wii's successor system

Nintendo Co., Ltd. has decided to launch in 2012 a system to succeed Wii, which the company has sold 86.01 million units on a consolidated shipment basis between its launch in 2006 and the end of March 2011.

We will show a playable model of the new system and announce more specifications at the E3 Expo, which will be held June 7-9, 2011, in Los Angeles.

Sales of this new system have not been included in the financial forecasts announced today for the fiscal term ending March 2012."

Its pretty interesting that it was just announced last week, and now they have a playable unit. I wonder how long they've been working on this one. But this new console is suppose to blast the Wii out of the water with:

• Hardware comparable to the Xbox and PS3
• A screen on the controller
• Easy 3rd party development

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PSN Suspended

Here's an update about the PSN suspense, it seems like that Sony is temporarily shutting PSN/Qriocity down, but no one is sure when it will be brought back up. What they are doing is rebuilding the whole system, they're reprogramming their whole network, so that's going to be quite a down time for the PSN. The senior director of Sony's communications and social media, Patrick Seybold, states:


"We sincerely regret that PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have been suspended, and we are working around the clock to bring them both back online. Our efforts to resolve this matter involve re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure. Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security. We thank you for your patience to date and ask for a little more while we move towards completion of this project. We will continue to give you updates as they become available."

If you guys have any DLC or games you wanted to purchase online via your PS3, well, looks like you're out of luck. And I haven't updated my copy MvC3, and I was planning on doing it today also. But this will probably effect Sony in some great way.

Hopefully the new security will work and keep the troublesome hackers who started all of this away. Maybe they will even bring a new GUI to the table while they're working on the new PSN, that would be pretty neat. I just hope there won't be too many bugs right after it is finally released.

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PSN Temporarily Shut Down

The PSN has been down since April 20th due to attempted hackers. A Sony representative (Patrick Seybold) has stated:

"An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th. Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience. We will continue to update you promptly as we have additional information to share."

Ill inform you guys if there are anymore related news about this. Hopefully things will get resolved soon, I'm sure many PS3 fans are lost and confused. I would be too if I depended on my PS3.

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More Marvel Movies On Their Way?

In a recent interview with Kevin Feige (Film producer and the President of Production at Marvel Studios) states this:


"Thor will go off into a new adventure, and Captain America will continue to explore the modern world in another film of his own. We hope that holds true for the characters appearing in that film — Black Widow, Hawkeye, and the spy organization, S.H.I.E.L.D. —all of whom are more than worthy and capable of carrying their own films. And, we’ve got a lot of other characters we’re prepping and getting ready for film debuts: the world of martial arts, these great cosmic space fantasies, Dr. Strange, and the magic side of the Marvel Universe. There are many, many stories to be mined."

So after the Avengers movie, there will be a Thor 2 and a Captain America 2. Along with a Black Widow, Hawkeye (will we see Mockingbird?) and a S.H.I.E.L.D. movie. But that's not even all of it, Feige just pretty much announced a martial arts movie (Iron Fist with maybe a Luke Cage cameo) or could it be a better DareDevil movie? There's a "cosmic space fantasies" section also, so that means that the Marvel Cosmic world will see the big screen. I hope that it';s either Nova or Guardians of the Galaxy. Hell, I would love a Silver Surfer one also. And there's also a confirmed Dr. Strange movie also.

I'm totally hyped for this, especially the Cosmic movies, they are going to be amazing. But I'm not that excited for a Black Widow or S.H.I.E.L.D. movie, but I'm sure it will bring in more fans for Marvel. Either way, this is a big move for Marvel Studios.

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