Sony

News: Sony appoints ex-Homeland Security chief

by Salat on September 6, 2011 · 0 comments

Sony has hired Philip Reitinger, who was previously the director of the U.S. National Cyber Security Center, as chief information security officer.

“Certainly the network issue was a catalyst for the appointment,” a Sony spokesman told Reuters.

“We are looking to bolster our network security even further.”

Sony reinventing Playstation Home to be more like an MMO

by Salat on August 23, 2011 · 0 comments

Filed under: MMO industry, Consoles, Virtual worlds, Miscellaneous

PlayStation Home was a hugely anticipated feature for console fans, one that ultimately garnered mixed reviews and apathetic affection. Due to the reception, Sony has decided to reinvent the game lobby-slash-virtual-world to incorporate the best of theme parks, MMOs, and social networks.

When it relaunches this fall, PlayStation Home will look radically different, resembling something like a sleek mall with plenty to do and faster functionality for those who want to get right to their games. But between playing commercial titles, gamers are encouraged to hang out for a while, which is where MMO elements come into play.

The new Home has a number of districts, as an amusement park would, and in them players can pick up quests, go on treasure hunts, and explore these video game-themed zones to find hidden mysteries. Sony also promises that it will incorporate persistent, ongoing stories, similar to those you’d find in MMOs, such as an alien invasion that affects all of the areas.

Sony is hoping that the 23 million Home users will embrace this new experience and form stronger social connections through it.

Sony reinventing Playstation Home to be more like an MMO originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: Massively

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Sony announces Escape Plan for Vita

by Salat on August 16, 2011 · 0 comments

Sony has announced a new game for PlayStation Vita. It’s a stylized puzzle game called Escape Plan.

The object of the game is to help the two main characters Lil and Laarge escape the level by any means necessary. Not many details are known about the game as-yet (including the proposed release date or the developer.)

The two characters are said to be able to inflate themselves to roll or float to safety. The only release date being mentioned right now is “2012.” Hopefully more details will be revealed as gamescom marches forward, and we’ll get a glimpse of the video shown at the show.

Source: VG247

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News: Sony confirms global PlayStation 3 price cut

by Salat on August 16, 2011 · 0 comments

Update

Sony has confirmed that it is to cut the price of the PlayStation 3 with immediate effect.

The 160GB model will now retail at ?249 / $ 249 / ¥24,980 / £199 and the 320GB console for $ 299 in the US with European, UK and Japanese equivalents yet to be decided.

June 2011 Shipment Update for Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft

by Salat on July 30, 2011 · 0 comments

Shipment figures for Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have arrived. It was a very quiet quarter overall, with no hardware platform shipping even 2m units for the quarter. Wii, DS, PS3, and PS2 were each down year over year, with X360 and PSP up a touch. 3DS shipments also dropped substantially from its launch quarter.

Shipments April – June 2011 July 2010 – June 2011 Lifetime Through June 2011

Wii 1.56m 13.60m 87.57m

DS 1.44m 15.82m 147.86m

3DS 0.71m 4.32m 4.32m

PS3 1.80m 13.70m 51.83m

PSP 1.80m 8.60m 71.30m

PS2 1.40m 6.20m 152.3m

X360 1.70m 13.70m 55.30m

The figures above including some rounding, as Sony and Microsoft don’t report totals at the 10,000 unit level. 3DS has obviously only been out for four months, but global figures for the past 12 months come to 75.94m units of hardware – down from 100.8m systems shipped in the March 2009 year, in addition to being down from the 95.3m systems shipped in the March 2008 year, and the 87.8m systems shipped in the March 2010 year. Figures for the past year are even down substantially from the 78.2m systems shipped in the March 2011 year. With 3DS, Wii, PS3, DS, and X360 each likely to perform pretty well over the Christmas quarter (Vita will have limited quantities for launch), the year to June 2011, or the year to September 2011 looks like the absolute nadir for video game hardware in the current cycle. The low point in the era of PS2 was about 52m systems shipped per year, so the current era low point is about 40% higher – while the high point growth was close to 80%. [click to continue…]

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Sony Says it was Hacked Because it "Tried to Protect its IP" [It Only Does Offline]

by Salat on June 27, 2011 · 0 comments

Click here to read Sony Says it was Hacked Because it "Tried to Protect its IP"

At a shareholders’ meeting in Tokyo today, Sony boss Sir Howard Stringer got up on stage and had to field questions about the recent PlayStation Network attacks, which resulted in one of the biggest thefts of personal details in the history of the internet. More »

Source: Kotaku

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Sony Online To Shut Down Star Wars Galaxies

by Salat on June 26, 2011 · 0 comments

As EA and BioWare get ready to launch The Old Republic, Sony Online announced Friday that the original Star Wars MMO, Star Wars Galaxies, will go offline permanently in December. The move was described by SOE president John Smedley as a mutual business decision by the company and partner LucasArts in an interview with MMO blog Massively. In addition to The Old Republic’s imminent release, the company’s contract with LucasArts was also set to expire …

Source: Gamasutra News

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Sony Facing Possible Class Action Suit Over PSN Hack

by Salat on June 24, 2011 · 0 comments

Sony’s been through a lot of late. Major hacks, an earthquake, and extended downtime for PlayStation Network are just some of the headaches they’ve weathered. Now you can add a possible class-action lawsuit to that list.

This Monday, a lawsuit (Cotorreal et al v. Sony Corporation Inc.) was filed in federal court in San Diego. The suit claims that the hacks of PSN and Sony Online Entertainment were a direct result of Sony having laid off 205 employees. The layoffs coincided with the shutdown of the Denver, Seattle, and Tuscon offices of SOE, as well as their Network Operations Center. According to the lawsuit, Sony did not announce that any of these employees were a part of network operations at the time of the layoffs.

Possibly more damaging is the claim that Sony paid millions of dollars when they learned of the security breach, but they spent it to secure sensitive company data and ignored customer data.

While the lawsuit is currently not a class action suit, attorneys for the claim are obviously hoping to open the class to as many people as possible. We’ll keep an eye on this situation, and let you know when we get more news.

[Via Reuters]