Warp Zoned Presents
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THQ releasing uDraw HD, Saints Row 3 in 2011; Drive-By canceled
THQ used their quarterly financial call to reveal a bit more about its 2011-2012 release slate.
For this year, the publisher is readying MX vs. ATV Alive for release this month, Red Faction: Armageddon on June 7, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine for August and UFC Personal Trainer sometime this Summer. Towards the end of the year, THQ plans to release Saints Row: The Third and the next WWE game along with bringing their uDraw GameTablet to the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Speaking of Saints Row, after the call, the publisher told Joystiq that Saints Row: Drive-By (the franchise’s 3DS/PSN/XBLA spinoff) was canceled. Bummer.
But 2012 is looking great for THQ as they revealed that they have several major releases planned including the unannounced UFC Undisputed 2012, Darksiders 2, Tomonobu Itagaki’s Devil’s Third, Metro 2033: Last Light and Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online.
Finally, the publisher publicly commented on Nintendo’s next console: “[THQ is] excited about the prospect of new hardware next year and look[s] forward to working on that system.” Got an opinion of which of THQ’s 2012 releases will make the leap to the Wii 2/Project Cafe? Let us know in the comments.
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Red Faction: Armageddon, Saints Row: The Third, UFC Personal Trainer, WWE '12
Sony pins SOE attack on Anonymous, makes statement to Congress
While the PlayStation Network is still down, Sony has gone on the offensive, detailing exactly what they told the U.S. House of Representatives and pinning the Sony Online Entertainment attack on Anonymous.
According to a new post on the PlayStation.Blog, Sony discovered a file on one of the SOE servers named “Anonymous” with the words “We are Legion.” Perhaps this calling card was left by an unconnected party in an attempt to paint the “hacktivist group” in a bad light. But it doesn’t inspire confidence in the group’s message that “For Once, We Didn’t Do It.”
Kazuo Hirai, SCEA’s Chairman of the Board, would go on to say that the major credit companies have not reported a single fraudulent transaction connected to the PSN information breach. But to be on the safe side, the company has also pledged to offer complimentary identity theft protection to U.S. account holders. This offer was not part of Sony’s original “Welcome Back” program and may have been spurred on by a Senator from Connecticut making the demand for identity theft protection in an open letter to the console maker last week.
Sony still has not confirmed when the PSN will be back online. They would only say that details will be coming “shortly.” Perhaps the promise of a return to service this week was a bit premature. SOE servers remain down indefinitely.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PSP
Tagged ApocalyPS3 2011
The Next Level: The Games of May 2011
After a wild April that saw major havoc being wreaked on the PlayStation Network and several high profile releases in Mortal Kombat, Portal 2 and SOCOM 4, it’ll be hard for May to compete. And with a slew of delays, the already slim May slate has gotten even slimmer over the last few weeks. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t on the brink of something big. So join us in la-la-land for a look at what we want to play in May: (more…)
PSN to be restored next week; Sony offers “Welcome Back” gifts
As promised, Sony held a press conference on the state of the PlayStation Network and announced that the PSN/Qriocity music service will be back online next week. An exact date for the service’s return was not revealed, but the initial phase of the rollout will include restoration of online play, Qriocity’s Music Unlimited service, account management options (including password resets), PlayStation Home, the Friends List and chat. It looks like the PlayStation Store will come back online later.
Sony spent the last week examining the network infrastructure and investigating how the breach occured. In order to prevent something like this from happening again, the company has created a new position: Chief Information Security Officer. In addition to a new executive that reports directly to the highest levels of Sony, the gamemaker has beefed up the PSN’s security with automated software monitoring to defend against attacks, tougher encryption and new firewalls.
A mandatory PS3 update will also require all PSN users to change their passwords before logging in to the restored system. To further enhance security, this password change can only be performed on the same PS3 in which that account was activated or through a validated email confirmation.
To apologize for gamer’s patience during The Great PSN Outage of 2011, Sony has launched a “Welcome Back” program. The “Welcome Back” program will supply PSN users with free “entertainment content” (specific content will be announced soon) and a 30-day subscription to PlayStation Plus (or a 30-day extension for current subscribers). Current Qriocity users will receive a 30 days of free service. Sony plans to announce additional “Welcome Back” offerings over the next few weeks.
The full text of the press statement can be read at the PlayStaton.Blog.
Posted in News, PS3, PSP
Tagged ApocalyPS3 2011
Sony evaluating “goodwill gesture” for PSN users
With the PlayStation Network still down and seemingly no end in sight, Sony has begun to investigate ways they can say “We’re sorry!” to gamers.
The latest update on the PlayStation.Blog confirms that user’s download history, friends list, settings, Trophies and PlayStation Plus cloud saves will be unaffected by the network outage.
The update also revealed that Sony wants to provide a goodwill gesture to gamers for their patience in dealing with the PSN outage and while they’re not ready to announce what it is just yet, the company is currently evaluating several different options. Though they did say that DC Universe Online and Free Realms players would receive some kind of compensation for the downtime as part of Sony’s “make good” plan.
Posted in News, PS3, PSP
Tagged ApocalyPS3 2011, DC Universe Online
Your Madden NFL 12 Cover Athlete: Peyton Hillis
Cleveland Browns running back Peyton Hillis didn’t just win the Madden NFL 12 Cover Vote, he demolished his competition, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick. The Madden NFL 2004 coverboy only managed to capture 34% of the vote to Hillis’ 66%. Hillis had an impressive 2010-2011 season, but this vote was clearly a huge upset.
All told, more than 12,000,000 votes were cast throughout the entire tournament and Hillis steamrolled some pretty hefty competition (including head-to-head victories over Ray Rice, Matt Ryan, Jamaal Charles and Aaron Rodgers).
Madden NFL 12 (with Peyton Hillis on the cover) will be released for the PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360 on August 30.
Sony says “we didn’t know hackers stole info” as CT Senator goes after company
It looks like gamers aren’t the only ones that can’t believe Sony waited as long as they did to inform consumers about their lost personal information. Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal has written a letter to SCEA President and CEO Jack Tretton demanding that consumers be compensated for the security breach and Sony’s failure to notify PlayStation Network users in a timely manner.
The Senator is asking Sony to provide PSN users with free access to credit reporting services for two years (this service is actually already provided by the federal government) and asked that “affected individuals [..] be provided with sufficient insurance to protect them from the possible financial consequences of identity theft.”
While I’m sure gamers everywhere appreciate Blumenthal going to bat for them, Sony is actually claiming that they just learned of the user information theft on Monday, April 25th. A Sony spokesman posted the following timeline of events on the PlayStation.Blog late last night:
There’s a difference in timing between when we identified there was an intrusion and when we learned of consumers’ data being compromised. […] It was necessary to conduct several days of forensic analysis, and it took our experts until yesterday to understand the scope of the breach.
The forehead-slapping stupidity of that statement makes me think the Senator might have a point. Sony’s failure to admit it was a strong possibiliy that hackers accessed the personal information of 77 million PSN users on the 19th is inexcusable.
Maybe it really is the “ApocalyPS3” for Sony…
Posted in News, PS3, PSP
Tagged ApocalyPS3 2011
Sony admits hackers stole personal info, possibly credit card numbers as well
First, the good news. Sony has “a clear path” to bringing the PlayStation Network back online. The software giant expects some services to be back online within a week. It’s not much, but a preliminary timetable is more than we knew before.
Now the bad news… HACKERS HAVE STOLEN YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION FROM SONY! According to Sony, during the intrusion, an outside party obtained the following information from PSN users:
[N]ame, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, 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 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.
While Sony states they are still investigating the security breach, I can’t believe they just learned what personal information (and possible credit card information) the hackers gained access to today. Sony should have notified PS3 owners about this possibility a week ago and I’m shocked that they, quite literally, said nothing over the holiday weekend.
More information is available at the PlayStation.Blog.
Posted in News, PS3, PSP
Tagged ApocalyPS3 2011