The Last of Us First In-game Screenshots

The first screenshots from The Last of Us have been revealed.

Game Informer got their hands on some exclusive in-game screenshots of The Last of Us. the game will include both gun and melee combat, as well as breakable weapons, so scavenging for items is a necessity.

The Last of Us First In-game Screenshots

You can recognize the Fort Duquesne Bridge in the image above, yes, Joel and Ellie are in Pittsburgh.

The Last of Us First In-game Screenshots

The Last of Us is no ‘escort mission.’ Ellie will fight for herself, stay out of the way when necessary, and keep up with Joel. Joel is the only playable character.

“her AI is one of the team’s primary areas of focus. In our demo she always managed to keep up, yet stay out of the way. She didn’t seem to need any babysitting at all.”

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New DLC coming to Gran Turismo 5 next Tuesday, January 17, along with some updates to the game itself.

Lamborghini Aventador

As reported by Sony Playstation, a new Car Pack 3 is made available featuring six new cars:

• Lamborghini Aventador
• Jaguar XJR-9 LM racecar
• Aston Martin V12 Vantage
• 1966 Volkswagen 1200
• Mini Cooper S Countryman
• Nissan Leaf.

1966 Volkswagen 1200

Nissan Leaf

Aston Martin V12 Vantage

Mini Cooper S Countryman

Jaguar XJR-9 LM racecar

The second piece of DLC is the Speed Test Course Pack featuring the Route X test course. Route X is a massive oval with giant banking corners, allowing you to test your vehicles’ maximum speed and performance.

Route X test course

Buy car pack 3 for $5.99, Route X test course for $3.99.

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The Last of Us

The Last of Us was revealed as a PlayStation 3 exclusive last weekend. Since then, a lot of speculations circled around to find out and analyze what analyzed what we know so far.

And now, as revealed by ign. Naughty Dog, Yes, the developer behind the PS3-exclusive smash hit series Uncharted, is developing the game. In the reveal trailer, a middle-aged man and a young girl are seen ravaging through an abandoned house, looking for supplies and fighting humans that seem to be infected by some sort of disease. After killing a number of these infected humans, they run through the rest of the house and find their way outside.

“Abandoned cities reclaimed by nature. A population decimated by a modern plague. Survivors are killing each other for food, weapons; whatever they can get their hands on.

Joel, a brutal survivor, and Ellie, a brave young teenage girl who is wise beyond her years, must work together if they hope to survive their journey across the US.”

Check out the trailer below:

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The Last of Us

Update:

This is true, Naughty Dog is behind the game.

One of the most exciting announcements set for this weekend’s Spike VGA awards is the PS3 exclusive “The Last of Us“, which has been teased several times before.

The mysterious title seems to be themed around a real-world disaster involving a viral outbreak that leaves “millions feared dead or infected”. The first teaser that went live shows a post-apocalypse feeling trailer which you can watch below:

The second teaser was a viral video that referenced a fungus using bodies to grow.

Lately, a new screenshot featured a newspaper talking about the end of humanity and quarantine zones.

There’s not much else known about the title, though fans have since discovered this morning a very suspicious reference in Naughty Dog‘s Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception.

As you can see in the video on this page, a newspaper in the game’s opening scene makes reference to a “deadly fungus” is The Last of Us fungus the same as the Uncharted fungus? Could Uncharted and The Last of Us happen in the same universe? Could developer Naughty Dog be behind this new exclusive? Is Naughty Dog just friends with whomever is making The Last of Us? Is this all just a joke? We will find answers in the upcoming Spike awards. Stay tuned

[via ign]

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Sony offered a partial answer to the Xbox 360′s group Netflix viewing this weekend by upgrading PlayStation Home to support group viewing through Crackle. Gamers can gather friends in personal and public spaces to watch “hundreds” of movies and TV shows for free. The movies are the same as on the web page and include big-name, if older, movies like Resident Evil and Snatch.

watch free movies via crackle on Playstation Home

Crackle gets its own virtual TV screen or theater as well as a customized, simplified interface for picking movies from a gamepad.

Access just requires being a PlayStation Home member, also free, and the equally mandatory PS3. Fans can watch at the LOOT EOD Theater spaces as well as the Hollywood Hills House and Sunset Yacht spaces. Live RadioIO Internet audio streams and UStream live videos should come in December.

Sony has recently redesigned PlayStation Home project and these are some of new features the company provide to bring back a competitive service.

[via electronista]

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"Snake was supposed to die"

Hideo Kojima has confirmed in a interview with the Official PlayStation Magazine that Metal Gear Solid 5 is a reality, and that he will be in charge of the game’s development. More info will be revealed by Kojima in the December issue of the Official PlayStation Magazine. This will be the first time in the 16-year history of Official PlayStation Magazine a developer will grace the magazines’ cover.

Hideo Kojima on the cover of Official PlayStation Magazine

The developer will also talk about the upcoming Metal Gear Solid Rising and his desire to kill off series protagonist Solid Snake. In Kojima’s own words, “Snake was supposed to die“.

Previously, Kojima Productions has confirmed that Yuji Korekado is the new producer of Metal Gear Solid: Rising, replacing Shigenobu Matsuyama. More game details to be revealed in the upcoming VGA.

The December issue of Official PlayStation Magazine will be available November 29th.

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God of War IV‘s release date may have been leaked. New Zealand retailer MightyApe has listed the game with an estimated release date of September 28, 2012.

A job listing previously discovered on recruitment site Creative Heads has revealed that that the game may be in development, and this listing only adds fuel to the fire. According to the listing, the title is in the “military/combat” genre, and the person chosen for the position will start “immediately.”

The job is with Sony’s Santa Monica studio, which is responsible for developing all three previous God of War console titles. Since the portable God of War installments have been developed by Ready At Dawn Studios, Sony Santa Monica’s involvement could mean that the in-development title is God of War IV.

“Join the GOW team,” the listing reads. “The Santa Monica Studio is an open and creative environment, where we strive to make the best games in the industry. Join us as we embark on our next project.”

For now, Sony hasn’t confirmed that the game is in development and the release date is only a rumor.

[via IGN]

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Sony announced on Tuesday it has purchased Sucker Punch Productions, developers of the Infamous and Sly Cooper franchises. This move ensures that all games developed by Sucker Punch will remain exclusive to Sony’s platforms going forward.

“Sucker Punch Productions is one of the most highly acclaimed development studios in the industry and we have enjoyed a wonderful relationship with the company for over 12 years. We are delighted to officially welcome them to the SCE family,” said Shuhei Yoshida, president, SCE WWS.

According to Sony, the Infamous and Sly Cooper franchises combined have sold over seven million copies worldwide to date. Day-to-day operations will continue to be run by the current management team.

“We’ve enjoyed an incredible relationship with Sony that has allowed us to combine our creative design capabilities with their guidance to make some of the best franchises to hit the PlayStation platforms. Equally important, the relationship with SCE has provided us the flexibility and trust to take creative risks and invent new properties,” said Brian Fleming, managing partner, Sucker Punch Productions.

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It has been one year since LIMBO originally launched, and that year has been an incredible time for everyone at Playdead. The game was exclusive title to the Xbox owners and it seems the guys at Playdead managed to expand the experience to PC and PS3 owners after all. refresh your mind with the trailer below:

We’ve gotten feedback from many people around the world, and it’s been amazing to hear about the experiences people have had with the game.

So we are happy, on the mark of LIMBO’s birthday, to bring the experience further and share it with even more people. We will be releasing the game on the PS3 through the PlayStation Network on the following dates:

• US – July 19th
• Europe – July 20th
• Japan/Asia – to be announced soon

LIMBO Soundtrack, will be available starting this Monday, July 11th on iTunes.

Will Limbo ever make it to the iOS as well?!

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Popular hacking group LulzSec, responsible behind hacking the PSN, have announced that they will be retiring, exactly 50 days after forming the group.

The group have released a farewell statement urging all its supporters to support the AntiSec movement, saying:

“Again, behind the mask, behind the insanity and mayhem, we truly believe in the AntiSec movement. We believe in it so strongly that we brought it back, much to the dismay of those looking for more anarchic lulz. We hope, wish, even beg, that the movement manifests itself into a revolution that can continue on without us. So with those last thoughts, it’s time to say bon voyage. Our planned 50 day cruise has expired, and we must now sail into the distance, leaving behind – we hope – inspiration, fear, denial, happiness, approval, disapproval, mockery, embarrassment, thoughtfulness, jealousy, hate, even love. If anything, we hope we had a microscopic impact on someone, somewhere. Anywhere.”

LulzSec did go out with a bang however, the group claims they have obtained 50,000 passwords of Gaming forum members, 55,000 Battlefield Heroes Beta users’ data, AT&T Internal Data, 200,000 hackforums member data, AOL internet data and more. Read the full statement here.

Previously, the group were said to be taken down by a 17-year-old member of a hacking group named TeaMp0isoN_. While gaining attention through their acts of “hackery,” the group annoyed some members of the hacking community, as a member of hacking group TeaMp0isoN_ hacked the site of a LulzSec member, posting the following message (after defacing the site):

BREAKING NEWS: TEH LULZBOAT HAS OFFICALY SANK WITH 100S OF ANON MEMBERS ON BOARD!

No matter how many bots you gather, no matter how much people you lie to, no matter how much pre-made tools you use, you will _NEVER_ represent the real hacking scene, we warned you, we told you we do not make empty threats, we gave u 48hrs to secure your ircs yet u failed to do so, instead u posted hashes from public forums and then claimed you doxed us and laughed at the fact that i was 17years old. stop telling yourself that u are hackers, putting a ip into a irc is NOT hacking nor is using pre-made tools and scripts to grab databases… you do not represent the anti-sec movement, u are not allowed to greet underground groups like zf0, ab, h0n0, el8 like your member “AnonSabu” was doing, you will never be apart of the underground scene, if anyone thinks you are underground and can actually hack they have no idea about what happens in the underground scene. oh and TeaMp0isoN Issue 2 is coming out VERY soon exposing lulzsec members (pictures, addresses, passwords, ips,phone numbers etc). . . . not so anonymous anymore are you? lets hope that you can swim because the lulzboat just got titanic’d

Adding a little “humor,” a video clip of the song “My Heart Will Go On” from the movie Titanic was also posted. In addition, the group also stated that they will post the identities of every LulzSec member in the next issue of their magazine. So far, the Twitter account of LulzSec has remained quiet since the attack by TeaMp0isoN_.

You can check out a copy of the hacked site here for your own amusement.

Later, Sven Swootleg, the Dutch owner of the website hacked by TeaMp0isoN_ has denied that he is involved with LulzSec, and his statement can be found below.

This website was compromised through exploiting a plugin in an outdated WordPress setup, uploading a shell, and replacing the index page. I am not a member of Lulzsec (a statement I have made several times before in various places), noone “hacked the server” (this has been verified by the hosting company, as this website is on shared hosting) and this was definitely not an “elite hack”. I am not available for further comments to press.

How can we know that he’s telling the truth? The members of LulzSec are meant to stay anonymous, and he’s NOT going to publicly admit he’s affiliated with the group. However, who knows?

[via grindgadget]

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Hacker George Hotz ‘GeoHot’, who recently settled a lawsuit with Sony for publishing a PlayStation 3 crack online, now works for Facebook. His exact position with the company is unclear, but he may be on a the development team tasked with building the social network’s new Pad app.

Geohot reportedly started working for Facebook last month but the announcement was made on 17th June only to be discovered today.

According to iDB:

We were just tipped off by the folks at Tech Unwrapped that George Hotz is now working for Facebook. Needless to say that I was a bit skeptical about the news and when I inquired for more details, I was pointed to GeoHot’s very own Facebook profile where he confirms that he is indeed working for Facebook…

According to Gabe Rivera, GeoHot started working for Facebook in May, but he only announced it on June 17. If you have a look at his Facebook profile, it’s pretty clear that he is not joking.

Hacker Joshua Hill, aka @p0isixNinja, who said in a recent interview that Hotz had made the move. Hill reportedly challenged Hotz to a iPad 2 jailbreak duel. Watch the live Q&A session:

Geohot is a well-known for having originally unlocked the iPhone for use on wireless carriers other than AT&T and also for hacking into Sony’s PlayStation 3 console back in January and later sued by Sony. The case settled later in April.

GeoHot is also known for iOS jailbreaking using a bootrom exploit found since iOS 4.1. The jailbreak tool called Limera1n and still in use since then.

[via Yahoo]

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SEGA has released a new trailer for Captain America: Super Soldier video game of Marvel’s upcoming movie. Watch it below:

Become Captain America (TM), the ultimate Super-Soldier, as you face Red Skull’s army in this gripping original third-person action adventure set in the darkest days of World War II. Wield Captain America’s legendary shield to take out enemies at a distance, interact with your environment, and deflect incoming fire back at foes as you traverse Hydra’s massive castle to save the world from Cap’s villainous archenemies. Get ready to hurl yourself shield-first into the fray. Create your own superhuman feats with the superior force of the world’s first Super-Soldier at your fingertips.

The game will be released on July 19th for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS and Wii.

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Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima recently answered listener questions during a segment on his company’s latest Kojima Productions podcast. Kojima addressed several rumors and speculation, answering with a simple “yes” or “no.” Read the full Q&A below:

• Will you appear at the Microsoft E3 press conference?
  Kojima: No

• Will you announce Metal Gear Solid 5?
  Kojima: No

• Will Metal Gear Solid 3DS be released at the end of 2011?
  Kojima: Yes

• Is Doctor Lautrec the new title from the Metal Gear staff?
  Kojima: No (laughs)

• Did Kojima Productions Not Work on Metal Gear Arcade?
  Kojima: Yes

• Is Gray Fox the main character in Metal Gear Solid: Rising?
  Kojima: No

• Will MGS Rising’s multiplayer be shown?
  Kojima: No

• Is MGS Rising’s release date November 1, 2011?
  Kojima: No

• Will Metal Gear Solid 4 be ported to NGP?
  Kojima: No

• Are you planning something big for Metal Gear’s 25th anniversary next year?
  Kojima: Yes

Translated by Andriasang.

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Away from all the buzz and security issues Sony seems confident to announce their new official wireless headset / microphone that promises to take game to a higher level.

The headset features 7.1 virtual surround sound and will be available for about $99.

The official PS3 Wireless Stereo Headset will be available for $99.99 (MSRP) at retailers nationwide this September. Many more of your favorite franchises, such as Killzone and Gran Turismo, were also designed for surround sound audio. Featuring 7.1 virtual surround sound, the Wireless Stereo Headset lets you hear all the minor in-game audio clues clearly, whether you are in a firefight in a first-person shooter game or racing for the checkered flag.

Connecting the Wireless Stereo Headset with PS3 is made easy with the included USB Wireless Adapter. Precise volume controls and accessible microphone mute make it so you never have to interrupt gameplay to fumble for buttons. You can easily stay informed about battery status, sound controls, etc. with on-screen headset status updates. On top of that, the Wireless Stereo Headset also offers the highest quality voice chat for crystal clear online conversations. The mic is retractable so you can put it away if you just want to listen to music or play a single player game.

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It seems like a nightmare for Sony as Reuters now reports that the Internet service provider unit of Japan’s Sony, alerted customers that an intruder broke into its system and stole virtual points from account holders worth $1,225.

This latest attacks comes after personal information of some 100 million Sony user accounts was stolen last month when its online gaming systems, the PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment, were hacked.

“What we’ve done is stopped the So-Net points exchanges and told customers to change their passwords,” So-Net said in a statement to customers on its website in Japanese.

About 100,000 yen ($1,225) was stolen from accounts that were attacked. The company said there was no evidence that other accounts in the online system had been hacked.

“At this point in our investigations, we have not confirmed any data leakage. We have not found any sign of a possibility that a third party has obtained members’ names, address, birth dates and phone numbers.”

Security experts, however said that Sony’s networks around the world remain vulnerable to attack.

Update:

There’s signs of a credit card phishing scam apparently running, live, on one of the company’s servers as reported by slashgear where F-Secure discovered the fake site, at hdworld.sony.co.th, inviting people to enter all their details for a card they’ll never get.

At time of writing the page was still up, though Google’s Chrome browser did warn us that it was a reported phishing site. F-Secure has apparently notified Sony, and we’re expecting the company to move with reasonable speed to make sure this all gets removed.

Actually figuring out how the pages got onto the servers, however, and what loopholes are being taken advantage of may take longer, and it seems that Sony isn’t out of the woods yet when it comes to addressing its security. There are also unconfirmed reports that phishers are sending out fake PSN password reset emails, so do be careful where you click.

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5. PSN Accounts Threatened by New Password Exploit [Updated]

Sony’s new PlayStation Network security measures have seemingly been compromised just days after the service reboot.

According to reports from Nyleveia, a new exploit enables attackers to change other users’ passwords via the PSN password reset page members are forced to access when they first reconnect to the online service.

Attackers can apparently reset the password themselves using just a PSN account email and date of birth, pieces of data that were compromised in the recent PSN hack.

Despite the methods currently employed to force a password change when you first reconnect to the PlayStation network, your accounts still remain unsafe.
A new hack is currently doing the rounds in dark corners of the internet that allows the attacker the ability to change your password using only your account’s email and date of birth.

It has been proven to me through direct demonstration on a test account, so I am without any shadow of a doubt that this is real.

I would suggest that you secure your accounts now by creating a completely new email that you will not use ANYWHERE ELSE, and switching your PSN account to use this new email. You risk having your account stolen, when this hack becomes more public, if you do not make sure that your PSN account’s email is one that cannot be affiliated with or otherwise traced to you.

While we originally assumed this was a poor hoax designed only to stir the community into another frenzy, the individual who we are in contact with requested just two pieces of information from us: this being an account email and the date of birth used for that account. We promptly created a new account via us.playstation.com and provided the individual with the email address and date of birth used.

Roughly a minute later they requested that we try to login with the password we used for the account (which they did not know at any point), and sure enough, we were presented with an invalid username and/or password prompt.

While we will not reveal specific details regarding how the exploit is performed for obvious reasons, we can say that the exploit involves a vulnerability in the password reset form currently implemented, not properly verifying tokens.

Updated:

Sony has fixed the security breach found today. Sony’s Patrick Seybold has issued an update via the PlayStation Blog denying it was a “hack”, and saying Sony has fixed the issue.

We temporarily took down the PSN and Qriocity password reset page. Contrary to some reports, there was no hack involved. In the process of resetting of passwords there was a URL exploit that we have subsequently fixed.

Consumers who haven’t reset their passwords for PSN are still encouraged to do so directly on their PS3. Otherwise, they can continue to do so via the website as soon as we bring that site back up.

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Sony just announced that over the next several hours it will be flipping the lights back on in its Playstation Network that has been since hackers attacked it nearly a month ago.

The company announced a phased restart to its network starting with the Americas followed by Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East. the company has also pushed out a software update 3.61 that will prompt users to change their password as part of the new security procedures put in place.

Hirai announced advanced security technology, encryption and additional firewalls:

We have greatly updated our data security systems. These changes were the result of an intensive investigation aided by some of the most respected forensic and security experts in the computer industry.

Here is the statement released from Sony today:

Thank you for your patience and encouragement over the last few weeks. As covered in the post from earlier today, you can now update the firmware on your PS3 and change your password. Kazuo Hirai just announced that we have begun the phased restoration by region of some of the services, starting with online multiplayer functionality.

Please note that these services will take a bit of time to be turned on and rolled out to the whole country. The process has begun and some states are being turned on now, so please be patient as we reach your city and state. We’ll be updating the map below as service comes online in individual states. It will take several hours to restore PSN throughout the entire country, so please keep checking back for the latest updates. In the meantime, now’s a great time to get your PS3’s firmware updated, which is required to get online.

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According to Financial Times, two long-time members belonging to the hacker group Anonymous says it’s likely that other group members were behind the attack that took Sony by surprised–contrary to what the group said yesterday in their press release, released yesterday.

Sony has said in a letter to the US Congress that it found evidence suggesting Anonymous’ involvement but has not directly accused the group of the crime, which exposed millions of customer accounts.

One member from the group told FT that he saw the technical details of the vulnerability in Sony’s network prior to the attack on the PlayStation Network; the member added, “The hacker that did this was supporting OpSony’s movements”.

Another long-time member of the Anonymous group told FT that it’s very likely that other members from the group hacked Sony, “If you say you are Anonymous, and do something as Anonymous, then Anonymous did it,” said the hacker, who uses the online nickname Kayla. “Just because the rest of Anonymous might not agree with it, doesn’t mean Anonymous didn’t do it.”

We’re not sure who to believe? More on PSN hack here.

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Ubisoft has launched a fresh teaser trailer for the new Assassin’s Creed game ahead of its reveal later this month.

Posted on the publisher’s Assassin’s Facebook page, the trailer appears to flash the date 24.06.1459 atop an image of Hagia Sophia, a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey.

Another Assassin’s Creed teaser trailer was released earlier this week, shortly after Ubisoft accidentally confirmed the game will be subtitled ‘Revelations’.

For a brief moment the official Assassin’s Creed Facebook page displayed a link to a mysterious teaser site, along with the message, “The day you have been waiting for has arrived!!! Click the link below to help reveal an exclusive look at the upcoming Assassin’s Creed game!”

Naturally the teaser site disappeared as quickly as it turned up, but not before ravenous fans were able to dissect its every last detail, including a logo for Revelations and confirmation of a May 13 reveal in US mag Game Informer.

Most interesting though was the translation of an Arabic message on the briefly-online teaser, which mentioned the name of original Assassin’s Creed protagonist, Altair Ibn La Ahd.

We’ll know for sure when it’s unveiled in US mag Game Informer on May 13.

[via CVG]

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Sony CEO Howard Stringer faced criticism of his leadership after the consumer electronics giant revealed hackers may have stolen the data of another 25 million accounts in a second massive security breach. as reported today by Reuters.

Sony’s latest revelation came just a day after it announced measures had been put in place to avert another cyberattack like that which hit its PlayStation Network, hoping to repair its tarnished image and reassure customers who might be pondering a shift to Microsoft’s Xbox.

The Japanese electronics company said its Sony Online Entertainment PC games network had been hacked on April 18, but did not find out about the breach until the early hours of Monday and shut down the service shortly afterwards.

The breach may also have led to the theft of 10,700 direct debit records from customers in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain and 12,700 non-U.S. credit or debit card numbers, it said. Stringer has not commented on the security breach, leaving No.2 Kazuo Hirai to lead the news conference and apology on Sunday. Hirai headed the networks division and is seen as the likely successor to Stringer, who in March committed to stay in his role for the current year at least.

The attack that Sony disclosed on Monday took place a day before a massive break-in of its separate PlayStation video game network that led to the theft of data from 77 million user accounts. Sony revealed that attack last week.

Sony said late on Monday that the names, addresses, emails, birthdates, phone numbers and other information from 24.6 million PC games accounts may have been stolen from its servers as well as an “outdated database” from 2007.

Sony executives apologized on Sunday and said the company would gradually restart the PlayStation Network with increased security and would offer some free content to users, pleasing a number of its users.

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Sony Santa Monica, the team behind those amazing God of War titles, is believed to be at work on God of War IV, which will likely be outed within the next few months. However, recent job postings have raised plenty of questions: several weeks back, we heard about a job listing for a Senior Online Programmer, and that caused everyone to assume the new GoW would boast online multiplayer.

Now, the Superannuation Twitter page has turned us onto two new job listings for the studio: a Level Designer with experience in “open world games” and a Senior Combat Designer that has experience in “both first- and third-person shooters” and “working with, developing or designing vehicle combat.” So what? A GTA knockoff? Anybody have any bright ideas?

We all know the fourth God of War will arrive at some point, and we’re fairly certain Sony Santa Monica will develop it. But they have to be working on something else, don’t you think?

[via psxextreme]

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Sony executives bowed in apology for a security breach in the company’s PlayStation Network that compromised the personal data of some 77 million accounts on the online service, said the Associated Press.

“We deeply apologize for the inconvenience we have caused,” said Kazuo Hirai, chief of Sony Corp.’s PlayStation video game unit, who was among the three executives who held their heads low for several seconds at the company’s Tokyo headquarters in the traditional style of a Japanese apology.

Hirai said parts of the service would be back this week and that the company would beef up security measures. But he and other executives acknowledged that not enough had been done in security precautions, and promised that the company’s network services were under a basic review to prevent a recurrence.

Hirai said the FBI and other authorities had been contacted to start an investigation into what the company called “a criminal cyber attack” on Sony’s data center in San Diego, California.

Sony said account information, including names, birth dates, email addresses and log-in information, was compromised for players using its PlayStation Network. Hirai asked all users to change their passwords.

He said data from 10 million credit cards were believed to be involved, and that Sony still does not know whether information was stolen.

Sony has added software monitoring and enhanced data protection and encryption as new security measures, he said. The company said it would offer “welcome back” freebies such as complimentary downloads and 30 days of free service around the world to show remorse and appreciation.

According to Sony, of the 77 million PlayStation Network accounts, about 36 million are in the U.S. and elsewhere in the Americas, while 32 million are in Europe and 9 million in Asia, mostly in Japan.

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5. PlayStation Network User Information Compromised

Sony Computer Entertainment has issued an update on last week’s “external intrusion” on its PlayStation Network, an attack that forced the network offline and may have exposed the personal information of millions of members.

On the company’s PlayStation.blog, senior director of corporate communications Patrick Seybold writes that the PlayStation maker will be “taking steps to make our services safer and more secure than ever before.”

That includes “a new system software update that will require all users to change their password once PlayStation Network is restored.” Presumably, that software update will come to both the PSP and PlayStation 3 within the week. Currently, PSN accounts are locked out of the system, making a change to personal information and passwords impossible.

For PSN account holders who may be concerned about the damage already done to their personal information or credit cards, Sony offers the following updates.

On the safety of your personal and financial information…

The entire credit card table was encrypted and we have no evidence that credit card data was taken. The personal data table, which is a separate data set, was not encrypted, but was, of course, behind a very sophisticated security system that was breached in a malicious attack.

On the credit card details that PlayStation Network and Qriocity do and do not store…

While all credit card information stored in our systems is encrypted and 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. Keep in mind, however that your credit card security code (sometimes called a CVC or CSC number) has not been obtained because we never requested it from anyone who has joined the PlayStation Network or Qriocity, and is therefore not stored anywhere in our system.

[via: kotaku]

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5. PSN Accounts Threatened by New Password Exploit [Updated]

The ongoing PlayStation Network outage that started last week has gone from bad to worse. Sony has confirmed that confidential user information – such as your name, address, password, and credit card number, were exposed to attackers who gained access to the PlayStation Network.

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, 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 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.

Assuming most of you will be affected by this, you may have already received an email from Sony with more information about what to do next. Otherwise, take a look at Sony’s blog post for more information (they’ve also compiled a list of frequently asked questions) on how to protect yourself.

Sony is still unable to provide a specific date, they claim PSN operations will resume “within a week”.

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Following to Users being unable to sign on or greeted with PSN Error Message 80710A06 when trying to log in to PSN, Sony was investigating the cause of the outages, which began late last night. No word on whether or not this outage is related to the same outage occurrences from earlier this month that was likely spurred on by the hacker group known as Anonymous.

Sony tonight issued a statement saying the PlayStation Network outage is due to an “external intrusion” but did not clarify beyond that. A timetable for when PSN will be up and running again was also not provided.

Hacker group Anonymous said today they are not claiming responsibility for this particular outage, however.

The statement in full from Senior Director of Corporate Communications Patrick Seybold can be read below:

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.

[via: ign]

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Business website Linkedin has provided a small piece of information which suggests that God of War 4 is in development, or at least in pre-production as found by PlayStation Systemlink,

An animator, whose name shall be withhold for security reasons, has the following entry under his work with Motion Logic Studios:

Game Cinematic for God of War 4 Cinematic Test (PS3)

Now gamrfeed claims that an unofficial PlayStation magazine, PSM3, has claimed that an unnamed source has informed them that God of War 4 will launch in September of next year.

“PSM3 has heard from another source that God of War 4 is coming, and will hit in September 2012. Our source works closely with the God of War universe, and let slip he’d be working on a related project at the same time.”

Most God of War fans are aware of the fact that God of War 3 marked the end of the trilogy. The game’s producer, Steve Caterson, stated that Kratos’ ending is “not the end of the franchise.”

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EA and developer DICE have just released their amazing new 12 minute gameplay trailer for Battlefield 3. If you had reservation about the ambitions of Battlefield 3, we believe this latest footage should give you a piece of mind.

Based on this trailer, the game is looking spectacular and looks to play even better. Battlefield 3 is launching later this year for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

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New information regarding Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception has surfaced via OPM. Issue 57 of the mag reveals some new details on the plot, locales and game mechanics of Nate’s next adventure. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception follows Drake, as he searches for a lost city in the Arabian Peninsula.

Spoilers Ahead:

• Drake will be spending most of his time in the Arabian desert, exploring the dunes of Rub’ al Khali.
• You’ll still be globe trotting, visiting places like London and a jungle temple.
• You can expect “all the things you’d expect in a desert” – that includes sandstorms and mirages.
• This creates a dynamic environment to explore, with altering geography, “We’ve done a ton of research…The way sand blows over and curls over the tops of dunes, the way it displaces and flows – it’s almost a liquid,” said creative director Amy Hennig.
• Plot is based around Lawrence of Arabia and Iram of the Pillars – The Atlantis of the Sands.
• Drake and Sully are seen in the Empty Quarter, looking for Iram of the Pillars.
• Apparently, there are bike sections, “We have a strong tradition of vehicular gameplay, and we try not to repeat ourselves,” says ND.
• Story isn’t set in stone yet, but villain Katherine Marlowe is part of a secret order that dates back to the time of Queen Elizabeth I.
• This is not Drake’s last adventure, ND stresses that “the Uncharted franchise was never conceived as a trilogy.”
• Previous characters will be returning, does that include both Elena and Chloe?
• New melee combat system lets Drake fight multiple enemies at once, but also shows him picking up a bottle from a table and introducing it to an enemy’s face. New stealth moves and mechanics have been added as well.
• Naughty Dog said, “We’ll be sure to alert everyone if a public beta is in the works this time around.”

Uncharted 3 is scheduled for a November 1, 2011 release, exclusively on the PS3.

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Portal 2 will be hitting TV stations near you sometime soon. As Valve prepares advertising for the game’s April 19 release, the company’s released the first television spot of the upcoming first-person puzzler.

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According to Wired, a federal magistrate said Sony may subpoena the PayPal account of the well-known PlayStation 3 hacker George Hots (aka Geohot). This came two weeks after Sony got the permission to track all IP addresses for anyone visited Geohot.com from January of 2009 onward.

The latest development allows the Japanese console maker to acquire “documents sufficientto identify the source of funds (.pdf) in California that went into any PayPal account associated with geohot@gmail.com for the period of January 1, 2009, to February 1, 2011,” Spero ruled.

Regarding the PayPal account, Sony claims Hotz has accepted monetary donations for the hack from people residing in Northern California — an argument that, if true, might make San Francisco a proper venue for the litigation.

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