Articles about PlayStation

This evening, Sony captured geekdom for two hours, during a live event announcing PlayStation 4. If you're not prostrate on the floor crying like a baby, desperate to get the console now, you must have missed the stream -- or perhaps you're holding out for E3 in a few months and the promise of Xbox 720.

PS4 will go on sale this year -- that's right, holiday 2013. So Microsoft better get its shtick together and have Xbox in stores, too. Consumers will make some hard choices this year about gaming platforms. Whichever, or both, console gaming is going to be a whole lot more exciting come Black Friday.

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Here at E3 Expo, nowhere on the general floor are any of the Sony Playstation Mobile certified devices. No one of the Sony PR team can even tell me anything. Even the head of the Playstation Digital Platforms, the team in charge of the Playstation Network Store and Playstation Plus can't answer my question: "Will games purchased on Playstation Mobile certified devices be playable on Playstation Vita or Playstation 3?"

But on the press- and developer-only second floor of the Sony E3 Booth stands this sad lonely unmanned glass covered case. It tells me NO TOUCH, but I have to take pictures. Now don't hate me if I'm wrong because I'm using deduction from display case association; from the looks of this case the Playstation Vita is considered one of the Playstation Mobile Certified devices, which would mean: If you purchase a Playstation Mobile Certified game that is a PSONE Classic or PS Mini title, it should be playable on all certifies Playstation Devices. Sony is always cagey with details, but I got two bits to bet on this one that I'm right.

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At the the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012 Sony Press Conference, Sony announced a big push for their mobile phone gaming platform for Android powered mobile devices. Once called Sony Playstation Suite, Sony is first changing the name to Playstation Mobile. The whole idea is about making it possible to allow access to PlayStation Classic games and other PlayStation titles on "PlayStation Certified" devices. This move expands the selection of access to Playstation games for mobile beyond the current Sony made Xperia phone and tablet line of Android devices.

Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe (SCEE) president, Andrew House, announced this on stage during the briefing as a big move, "That is promoting PlayStation Mobile for third-party Android Cellphone makers". House also unveiled the initiative's first third-party hardware partner is HTC. Not much more in the way of details besides this has been released. It's interesting that Sony would jump into this kind of bed.

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Well, here's a strange Consumer Electronics Show announcement. Typically participants tout what products they will release. Sony has taken a different tack, announcing what's not coming.

The consumer electronics giant is sticking to its guns, and maintains that PlayStation 3 is a product with a 10-year life cycle. If you were hoping to see the PS4 at E3 this year, don't hold your breath. Former video game chief and now Sony chairman Kazuo Hirai told reporters at a roundtable discussion at CES that the company will not unveil a new console at the yearly conference.

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Sony admitted Thursday that its upcoming PlayStation Vita handheld console would miss the holidays in both the US and European markets, although it still would be on track to release by the end of the year in Japan. The company had said just last month that the PlayStation Portable's successor would arrive for that all important retail season.

The Vita ships in both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi+3G models through a deal with AT&T. It sports the familiar Sony controller interface with an OLED touchscreen, and adds a rear-mounted touchpad and six-axis motion sensors. A quad-core ARM processor and GX 543MP4+ graphics processor support the gaming experience.

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Shown in early previews as "NGP" or "Next Generation Portable," Sony officially announced the PlayStation Portable's successor will be called PlayStation Vita, and it will be available with AT&T 3G connectivity.

Sony's new portable combines the traditional dual-analog gamepad interface with a smartphone-like capacitive OLED touchscreen, and adds a rear-mounted touchpad, and sixaxis motion sensors for a versatile gaming experience. It is also equipped with a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 processor and an SGX 543MP4+ graphics processor.

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At Sony's afternoon E3 keynote, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) Jack Tretton issued an apology to third party partners, retailers and consumers for the massive Playstation Network outage.

To the media, who profited a great deal off of the bad news, Tretton said "you're welcome."

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A crucial piece of Sony's online infrastructure is slated to return on May 24, according to a memo sent to developers and publishers this week. Gaming news site Gamasutra obtained the note on the PlayStation Store, Sony's repository for gaming content and downloadable games.

The store is also a major source of additional revenue for developers, thus its return is highly anticipated. Backlogged content that was supposed to be released during the store's downtime will be made available on a rolling basis over the next few weeks, the note details.

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To compensate for the 24-day long outage of the Playstation Network that occurred as a result of a major security compromise, Sony Computer Entertainment is offering PSN users a "welcome back" package of free content.

SCEA is calling it a "customer appreciation program" that is available to all registered PSN users in the US and Canada. For 30 days after the PlayStation Store is restored, users can download and keep two games for either the PS3 or PSP, including: Dead Nation, inFAMOUS, LittleBigPlanet, Super Stardust HD, and Wipeout HD + Fury (PS3) or LittleBigPlanet PSP, ModNation Racers, Pursuit Force, or Killzone Liberation (PSP).

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Is the waiting finally over, or is Sony making more promises? Today, the entertainment giant announced partial PlayStation Network restoration, after a 24-day self-inflicted outage. PSN is being restored in Europe and the United States and, at that, on a rolling basis. This evening, I downloaded the necessary PS3 firmware update necessary to access PSN only to be confronted by that nasty "PlayStation Network is undergoing maintenance" screen, now in dark gray instead of the previous grim green. However, before posting the service went live.

In a video message announcing PSN's return, Sony Representative Corporate Executive Officer and Executive Deputy President Kazuo Hirai says that PSN, Qriocity, and third-party services like Hulu and Netflix are being "restored in phases, and I'm pleased to say that the first phase has been launched in most regions of the world." He claims that Sony has been "working around the clock" to bring gaming and media services "back online."

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Perhaps the question should be: "If I hold my breath waiting for Sony to answer and I die, can someone sue?" Because Sony's continued promises when PSN will be back up are like the kid who incessantly promises to clean his room and never does. Subscribers grow impatient, with the vast majority answering our poll are ready to switch to Xbox 360 and Xbox Live.

Late last month, Sony promised partial PSN restoration -- gaming, music and video services -- on May 4, a pledge repeated on May 1. It's now May 8, and PSN is still down. I checked just before posting.

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Today, Sony issued an official statement about the resumption of PlayStation Network services, starting soon. The company also revealed plans to compensate subscribers with some freebees as part of the "Welcome Back" program, which include 30 days free PlayStation Plus and Qriocity music streaming services. Sony will reveal further details about the freebees on a region-by-region basis.

I attempted to log into PSN early this afternoon Eastern Time, and the service was still down. However, instead of the immediate appearance of the "PlaySation is currently undergoing maintenance" screen, about 10 seconds passed first. That could be sign of nothing, but it's the most response I've seen from PSN in about 12 days.

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It's time to publicly pose the question that many of PSN's 77 million subscribers must be asking privately. Should they just give up and buy Xbox 360 and subscribe to Xbox Live, possibly giving up hundreds, even thousands of dollars, in games and peripherals? As the outage goes on -- 10 days now -- and the news grow grimmer, it's not unreasonable to wonder when enough is enough.

Hackers broke into PSN between April 17-19 and stole massive amounts of personally-identifying user data. On April 20, Sony voluntarily took down the network, after discovering the hack. The action may have helped prevent further data losses and allowed Sony, third-party security investigators and law enforcement to begin a forensic analysis of the hack. Meanwhile, Sony works to restore the service with improved security.

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As the PSN outage enters its eighth day, some online gamers surely are asking "What now? What can I do?" You've spent more than a week -- yes, it does feel like years -- in front of the TV looking at the PSN offline message and hoping the network will magically come back up. Sorry, bud, but the only magic is in the game.

I present some things you can do while waiting for PlayStation Network to come back up -- and perhaps buckle under the load of 77 million subscribers trying to change their passwords all at the same time. To our readers, the list is but a start. Please offer your own activities in comments. Let's have some real fun with this. Hey, adding to this list is one of the things to do while waiting for PSN. In no particular order of importance:

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In the 24 hours since Sony informed the world that PSN had been hacked, customers are finally getting useful information about the hack and risk to them. Clearly, Sony is trying to quell fears about the privacy risk posed to as many as 77 million subscribers.

Today's update was a Q&A, labeled #1, so more may be coming. The post responds, in part, to questions PlayStation Network subscribers asked in comments to yesterday's shocking post admitting hackers had stolen massive amounts of data -- account names and passwords, addresses and phone numbers, birth dates and security questions. Exactly how did the hackers get so much information?

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