To all the Playstation warriors out there:

[I][B]SONY has shut down a second online video-game unit amid an expanding investigation of a computer hack that may have compromised the personal information of as many as 77 million users, the latest black eye for the Japanese technology giant. [/B] Sony Online Entertainment, a San Diego-based subsidiary that makes multiplayer role-playing games, said it temporarily shut down services yesterday amid concerns a hacker may have breached its security. Two weeks ago, the company shut down its PlayStation Network, which lets gamers play against each other online, after it discovered a hacker had stolen names, birth dates and possibly credit-card numbers from the network. Sony said the shutdown of Sony Online Entertainment, which hosts the popular [/I][I]EverQuest role-playing game, was prompted by an expansion of the initial investigation, not a separate attack. "We temporarily took down SOE's services as part of our continued investigation into the external intrusion that occurred in April," said Michele Sturdivant, a Sony Online Entertainment spokeswoman. "This is not a second attack."[/I]

The Australian.

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

I'm going through some serious fn withdrawls with this PSN outage. I understand the need to take your services down for maintenance, but two weeks is ridiculous.

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

Excuse my French, but this is fuckin ridiculous! SONY....this is what shocks me. I mean fair enough if it was some small player, but SONY or should I say: [IMG]http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u233/terpbe2/sorny.jpg[/IMG]

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

[QUOTE=picklemonkey;951848][..]but two weeks is ridiculous.[...][/QUOTE]

The whole affair is ridiculous in my book. They got hacked and I assume, grabbing data from 77 millions registered users can't be done in a heartbeat but they realized it (correct me if I am wrong) two days later. I do not know how it was in other countries but in Germany, the 1st news made it to...drumwhirl...Facebook and Twitter. Facebook and Twitter are both shiny and trendy and lots of people have accounts on this platform but I don't lol. It took one day more to make it to mass media and then it was all over it but it took Sony a friggin week more till they finally contacted me via E-Mail.

Their first E-Mail was in English and included only hotlines and support options for US residents. I thought WTF. When I want to buy Games or play with friends from other countries outside Europe, Sony, cares a lot to make sure that I can only see content for my area but when they have to inform us about the biggest fuckup in their History, everybody is supposed to speak English suddenly? Two days later, the same E-Mail came in translated to German so all in all, it took them almost two weeks to contact me in a way I would have expected a day later after they got hacked.

What also went on my nerves was that I have read everywhere that people should change their passwords for the PSN in and it took me 20 minutes (including checking the manual lol) to find out that this is no given option until they put the Play Station Network online again. Global Players just SUCK and normally, everybody should get a new CC and forward the costs to Sony just like all their vendors should make them compensate for the losses. Why on Earth are they keeping even the credit card validation codes anyways? Keeping it till the transaction has cleared is fine but they are no fucking bank. Until they don't apply a Verified by Visa or other additional security systems, I will surely NOT buy in their Store anymore.

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

^Amen.

You think their European operations would be the first to respond, but my god. This is simply not good enough. 77 million pissed off people.

Sony's going down... [I]von jdm über den Tisch gezogen werden[/I]

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

I just saw a a $19.95 charge for creditreport.com on my credit card that was tied to my Playstation.... I never got a credit report on Sunday. :what

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

^dude, not cool...keep checking those statements.

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

Am I in a minority here? Really not that bothered about it. When it's back up I'll use it again. Until then I'll play solo games. And the credit card issue? Your card could get copied anywhere on earth really.

Had to laugh at some of the people on news reports 'This has disgusted me', 'This is shocking' etc. It's a game system FFS!

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

playstation is much more hackable than microsoft's system

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

I'm using XLink to play Black Ops on the PSN with strangers. This thing works GREAT! Just install and run this program on a Windows PC. No plugging your PSN into your computer, crossover cables, custom configs on your playstation ,etc. It uses your computer's NIC in promiscuous mode to sniff your playstation's traffic and inject false packets so you can play on a different private PS3 network. :)

[video=youtube;69s02spOSnk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69s02spOSnk[/video]

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69s02spOSnk[/url]

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

^Sweet

Is the network STILL offline?

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

yes :(

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

damn. thats pretty bad.

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

Tried yesterday too again and laughed seeing it's still offline. Seems they have serious issues going way deeper than they tell us. For them, each day is a huge loss so I guess their CEO's are already biting their fingernails.

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

They're starting to bring the network back up now, starting with the US, state by state

[url]http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/05/14/play-on-%E2%80%93-psn-restoration-begins-now/[/url]

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

Don't know if it's the network or not, or my connection, but was playing Brink yesterday with a buddy and was experiencing mad lag on both ends. Some other peeps we were playing with were reporting similar choppy connections.

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

^^ Its the PSN and not your connection:

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13403616[/url]

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

It's online in Germany too..dunno since when because I just tried it out after work. To my surprise, the Download went through with normal speed so it seems the Geeks were already killing the Servers last night lol. I hoped there would be an upgrade for Gran Tourismo 5 waiting for me including a Save option on the long tournaments (24h Nürburgring without saving ORLY?) but there wasn't. Wonder what they have been doing in the last four weeks. BTW congrats to Amazon..first the hoster of the infamous Wikileaks and now the potential hoster of the PSN attackers. Way to go, Amazon and welcome to the Cloud. :lol:

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

Wow, just read they have a sort of "Welcome back" program in Europe running.

We can choose 2 Games from the following list to download for free:

LittleBigPlanet Super StarDust HD WipEout HD/Fury Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty Hustle Kings

PSP user can additonally choose 2 Games max for free from this list:

LittleBigPlanet PSP ModNation Racers PSP JUNGLE PARTY Everybody's Golf 2

and 30 days free on PlayStation Plus for everybody or 60 for subscribers

That's more than I have expected..Little big Planet I will gladly take for free and WipeOut HD/Fury isn't bad for free either. :) That Ratchet and Clank Game has a funny title but I never heard of it...going to check it out as well. How is it in the US? Same program or different content?

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

Here's what they're offering in the US

Dead Nation
inFAMOUS
LittleBigPlanet
Super Stardust HD
Wipeout HD + Fury

[url]http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/05/16/details-for-playstation-network-and-qriocity-customer-appreciation-program-in-north-america/[/url]

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

I notice in the T&C's of that offer something about the content expiring after 30 days. So we get the free stuff for 30 days only?

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

i think what they meant is that the free downloads are active for the first 30days that PSN comes back on and after those 30 days those items that are offered for free are back being paid items again

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/BqvJH.jpg[/IMG]

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

Playstation Store yet to come back here in England, although online play is back.

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

i think it's the same with all the other global stores .. i had read that they are looking at getting the stores up this coming week

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

Yesterday, I downloaded one of the Welcome back Games but when I wanted to go for the 2nd one, I had no option anymore to even see the free games. Happening to anybody else? :what

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

^ Yep happened to me too. Cant find them? Took me a few hours to download infamous, and didnt wanna leave the PS3 for too long, so turned it off after it downloaded. Now cant access it?

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

I didn't have that problem. I was able to grab both with no problem

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

might be a EU PSN thing ... no problems grabbing games from the US PSN

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

TomTom - any joy in finding the games? I have still only been able to DL one of the games?

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

[QUOTE=GregWhelan;967406]TomTom - any joy in finding the games? I have still only been able to DL one of the games?[/QUOTE]

Same here and I say screw them. Won't even ask their customer service about it. How much Sony cares for their customers outside USA is pretty obvious to me by now.

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

Yeah agree mate; I'm not even that bothered about the games (inFamous doesnt look that amazing)

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

^^ seems it is still too amazing for Germans because it's not meant for us and for whatever reason not included in the WB program lol. Anyways, the only other Game I wanted to leech was Hustle or something, a pool Game. But I think I can live without it. Haven't even touched Little Big Planet yet. Still trying to bring L.A. Noire to a proper end. Phelps rocks! :)

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

lulzsec lol

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

[QUOTE=GregWhelan;967406]TomTom - any joy in finding the games? I have still only been able to DL one of the games?[/QUOTE]

Had this same problem, you have to go to Account Management > Transaction Management> Services List then select the welcome back promotion and choose your game through that . Had to search the internet to find this out. Doesn't explain it anywhere on the PS3 that I could see.

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

[PHP][/PHP]Thanks for the hint, will check it out. I bet they brainstormed for days to search for the most uncomfortable way for users to deal with it. I also bet, the guy who came up with this got a phat bonus. :lol:

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

Worked like a charm so thanks again for the explanation ChunkyFunk. Now Hustle Kings is also mine and it was a good choice. Great Game for inbetween.

Re: Sony shuts down another online game unit as expands investigation into computer h

Cheers ChunkyFunk for that tip.

Ended up getting inFamous and Wipeout, but prob wont give them too much time as I have Killzone 3, Just Cause 2 to complete first. Also replaying Black Ops and Red Dead Redemption when I can.