Playstation Long Live Play!-Michael Trailer

Over the last several weeks Sony has been ramping up to a big announcement for this past week.  With the news of Steve Job's passing; some things were slid on down the headlines, as was to be expected.  One of these headlines concerned Playstation's 'Long Live Play' campaign.  This wasn't anything more than a commercial; but I have to go on record and say that Playstation serves up some pretty good commercials.

Sure, a lot of people were somewhat disappointed that the announcement wasn't anything bigger.  But it was awesome.  Simply entitled 'Michael'.  We get to see some of modern gaming's most beloved characters (from the Sony consoles, so no Master Chief or Marcus Fenix, sorry).  From Kratos to Solid Snake to SackBoy; they're all their.  And a heart felt speech delivered by a soldier from Medal of Honor, we see that as much as we honor our game hero's; they honor the players behind them.  It's pretty cool.

Check it out:

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What does the new PSN Terms of Service Agreement Contain?

The other I day powered on my PS3 for the first time in about a week to play a little 'Deus Ex: Human Revolution'.  And I was greeted with a prompt to accept the new PSN TOS before I could login.  Not a big deal since 'Deus Ex' doesn't feature online play.  But I do like to browser the PSN Store on occassion to see what's new.  So I decided to be a good little PS3 owner and do as I was being told by Sony.  Like many user's, I rarely read the entire TOS agreements.  Simply put they are long and drawn out.  And in the case of my situation, I have a smaller television and the small print this agreement is typed up in (and some game text as well) makes it absolute murder to read onscreen.  So, I scroll down and click on 'Accept'.

So what was in it that was so noteworthy I needed to accept it now?  Simply put, a little 'cover-their-butt' strategy by Sony.  In layman terms, the new Terms of Services agreement will prevent customer's from filing class-action lawsuits against Sony.  If you digg around enough there are a few loopholes to the new agreement, but if you want to play on their device you have to accept it.

So what about those involved in lawsuits for this past summer's PSN outage and data leak?  Those people aren't covered under this new TOS for that lawsuit since it occured before the new TOS was issued and put into action.

Here is where the red flag jumps out to me.  After this summer's issues that impacted not only Sony, but game publisher's market wide and customer's alike.  What has Sony discovered (if anything) that would cause them to go out of their way to issue this TOS now?  I would fully expect either something crazy to hit the headlines soon about a new internal issue or a drastic change to existing services that may impact customer's experience with their products?  Time will tell.

I love my PS3, and haven't had any real issues or qualms about Sony (with the exception the events from April/May 2011).  And one reason I jumped ship from the Xbox 360, is Sony doesn't charge for online access.  But with all the controversy flying around the last several months, I have to ask myself: "Is a single, dedicated platform for any service really that good of an idea?"

And my answer is "No".  It only benefits the companies behind the platform.  As demonstrated in April and May, a dedicated platform can be brought down and can greatly impact not only transactions and business conducted via the product, but also completely shut down the online portions of games people just wanted to play.  This is where PC gaming is mostly different.  Most PC games feature hosts for online playing.  Where the game servers are not dependent upon a e-commerce platform to operate.  So you may not be able to by a player skin for your character, but at least you can play.  I completely understand that this is not how Sony or Microsoft has setup either of their platforms, but moving forward maybe it is something that should at least be considered.

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Ventillation over PSN...Part 2

Okay, my last blog post was on April 29th, 2011.  That was 3 days before I went on a cruise for vacation.  In the time I was gone, I had high hopes that PSN would be restored when I returned.  However, upon my return after a week away, that PSN was still down.  As I was thinking on the whole PSN outage, I got to thinking a little outside the box.

All of us gamers are asking, "When will PSN be back up?" or "What is Sony going to give us for our troubles?". But to be fair, without vendors making software for the PS3 (or utilizing PSN services), what good is PSN?  Think about it from a business aspect.  Business are in a certain market for a reason.  Companies make video games because we buy the video games to play.  These games and software don't just fall out of the sky.  Real time and real money has to be invested into this software in order to make it something we will want to play.

So how are these companies losing out?  Easy.  Once a game is released, it is common that the public release is just the first stage in a game's life cycle.  A lot of companies then role out DLC (Downloadable Content) for player's to purchase and enjoy.  The rollout of this DLC content is solely dependent upon services like PSN or Xbox Live.  If those platforms go away, so does the access and availability of that content.

On another side of the plate, say a game company makes a game that heavily relies on online multiplayer experiences.  That online aspect is lost when it's host service is disrupted.  So why would someone buy a game on a system that would rely upon an online experience that isn't currently available?  After all, we all want what we want, and we want it now; right?  Especially since households having multiple consoles are so popular now.  You may say: "Well, regardless of the platform I buy a game for, I'm still buying it.  The still get money right?"

Sure, that's a correct statement.  However, back to basic Business 101: "Provide in the market where the demand is."  High sales go towards one particular platform, guess which platform gets better support for that title...The one that made them money.  So not only does this whole PSN fiasco trouble us as gamers.  It screws the game makers as well.  If game makers are losing money on a game, label, or brand they have invested millions of dollars on in hopes to make back that money plus some.  Guess who gets the bad end of the stick now?  We do.  The price of games go up.

So when you're trolling the Playstation Blog please try to keep it in mind that Sony had better be busting a$$ to get PSN back up.  I'll be the first to say they haven't been as "transparent" as they should have been.  But at least their are trying to be honest.  Today's post basically reads:

"I know you all want to know exactly when the services will be restored. At this time, I can’t give you an exact date, as it will likely be at least a few more days. We’re terribly sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work through this process."


Is it good for their business?  Nope.  Is there anything we can do about it...Nope.  But, it is what it is.


On another note, Sony is saying that we will have a choice of 2 games from a list of 5 games (that's not that bad, as I am fairly new to the PS3 and probably can find 2 games on the list I haven't played yet).  They are also offering a year of credit/identity monitoring, supposedly offering a free month of PS+ access, and offering a free period of the newly launched music streaming services.  So don't worry fellow PS3'ers, Sony has heard your cries as well.


Now it's unfortunately a waiting game.  Sony is still touting that the service should be back up in a few more days.  But it feels like all along they have been saying: "Just a couple more days."  It'll be interesting to see how the general public handles this in the long run, and don't 
be surprised of any changes that they may make to PSN in the meantime...


Happy Surfing!

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A little ventilation over the whole PSN Scenario...

Here is my take on the PSN Outage.  Please read the post all the way through before jumping to conclusions.

Last week millions of Sony Playstation 3 gamers became shocked to find out that the beloved online service 'PSN' (Playstation Network) was offline. And not only was the service down, but it was apparently suspended without any time frame for when it would return. As of this writing (4-29-11) the service is still offline.  But don't be fooled into thinking that is as bad as it gets.

The service interruption for PSN seemed to follow awfully close to Sony dropping the lawsuit they brought against Geohot for modding the PS3 console.  It was very apparent that Sony wanted to make a rather large example out of George Hotz (dubbed 'Geohot').  For those who don't know Mr. Hotz is very well known within the modding communities.  Sony agreed to drop their lawsuit if Hotz would quit modding Sony's products.  The whole GeoHot lawsuit took the web by storm.  There was a distinctive line where loyal PS3 owners felt they shouldn't alter the hardware because it promotes piracy, which in turn drives up the price for services, games, and consoles for everybody else.  Meanwhile, the modding communities were sounding off to the tune of our products should work the way we want them too.  Why buy a product if you are restricted to only doing what the manufacturer allows.  Both sides honestly have very valid points. However, neither will be appeased regardless of what Sony does (reference back to Sony removing 'OtherOS' from the PS3 to see what I'm talking about).

Now, fast forward to the current PSN outage.  What do we know?  We know Sony realized their system had been compromised on Tuesday, April 19th.  The next day the service went offline (both PSN and Qriocity services are affected).  Sony still didn't tell their customer's that the services had been compromised. It wasn't until April 22nd  that Sony posted what had actually happened to their system.  I realize that they had to have time to investigate what the intrusion involved.  But seriously, a system that contains not just personal information but also credit card numbers for online transactions; and they didn't disclose this to the public?  That's crazy.  And better yet, the daily updates Sony was giving were about as vague as they could be.

But hold on to your hat, it gets better.  Over the following weekend Sony posted on the PS3 Blog that they were actually having to rebuild their infrastructure.  So let's get this straight, Sony offers a pretty good premium online experience without cost to their customers.  This service allows customer's to purchase games and content directly through the internet.  This service gets attacked from an outside party/parties; this attack causes Sony to realize that their system needs not only a major security maintenance job done, but a complete rebuild?!  What the hell did the hackers do or have access to?

It wasn't until Tuesday, April 26th that Sony posted on the PS3 Blog that customer's information was stolen.  Over the next several days we have seen reports that this information contained credit card information along with names, addressed, and phone numbers for millions of people.  Then reports of a database containing this very information was up for sale to the highest bidder.  Now word is that some of the information contained in the database was encrypted (including credit card information).

Okay, that's a little better.  But seriously Sony; you're dealing with hackers here.  They acquired access to your system to take the data in the first place, what it keeping them from getting around this encryption too?  All the while, if you read through the numerous postings on the PS3 Blog, you'll see people more pissed off that they can't play games.  Or they are trying to guess how Sony will repay all of their loyal customers.  Seriously people, take a breath and look at the bigger picture.  Much more than access to Modern Warfare is at stake here.  Some people were suggesting that Sony "make up" for the outage and data leak by providing credit monitoring for it's customers for a year or two.  Whether that's a valid option or not, Sony is definitely in the hotseat as far as their Public Relations go.

During the whole course of this outage numerous media outlets and websites have been pointing the finger at Anonymous.  Meanwhile, somehow someone from Anonymous has said it wasn't them who authored the attack on Sony.  According to an article at: http://gamrfeed.vgchartz.com/story/85857/hacker-group-anonymous-condemns-psn-attacks/ the person said that the attack was "against the Anonymous principles".  Regardless of who is behind the attack, the attack has not only dealt a huge blow to Sony's online service/e-retail outlet, millions of customers are potentially at risk now as well.  Not to mention all of the customer's of their online MMO (which is subscription based), those guys have every right to be upset at the service's downtime.

My personal opinion, the PSN access is provided free of charge.  If the service is down, ok I won't be playing online until service is restored.  Big deal, I'm not paying anything extra for the service; so who am I to scream and jump up and down when it's unavailable.  I also understand that anytime online security is compromised (whether it be personal or business related), this can be devastating to the entity compromised and/or all of the customers or clients.  It is very unfortunate that Sony has to go through such great lengths to get their service back up and running, but on the same lines.  If you are rebuilding it, make sure it's rock solid second time around.  From a business standpoint, I don't think Sony could get away with their Public Relations if this were sort of outage were to happen again. In the meantime, Sony has made it public knowledge that they are planning on making good on this with their customers.  Somehow, I have a feeling whatever is done won't be quite what everyone is wishing for.  If you read their forum, people are asking for everything from free Playstation + access to cross game chat, and some are even asking for the return of OtherOS (personally I'd opt for either the crossgame chat or OtherOS myself).  But nothing has been confirmed yet from Sony on what they are planning to do.4

My only quarrel is how long it took Sony to publicly acknowledge the problem and to what extent the problem covered.  And I hope Sony realizes that their customer's will not forget this outage.  And before someone tries to flame me for speaking my peace on the matter, yes I have been affected by the outage.  Albeit a minor issue for me, my birthday was the weekend the outage started and my wife bought me 'Mortal Kombat' so I haven't been able to play online.  But for now, big deal.  I've been playing Mortal Kombat offline for years anyways.  So, hopefully Sony is on the upside of this issue and we can all get back to playing online again safely soon.

Thanks for listening and Happy Surfing!

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Sources:
http://bit.ly/jMKXye -Hacker Group Anonymous Condemns PSN Attack
http://bit.ly/lnH9HI    -Sony Considering Make Good for PSN Subscribers, Too
http://blog.us.playstation.com/ -Playstation Blog

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Game Fan Films

I have recently adopted a Playstation 3.  It is awesome.  Since I'm coming into the whole PS3 thing pretty late into the game, I've been playing a bunch of the early PS3 games since they are fairly inexpensive now.  The first two I picked up were 'Metal Gear Solid 4' and 'Resistance: Fall of Man'.  Both of which have turned out to be great games.  I completed my first play through of Metal Gear 4 last night.  Still working through Resistance though.

Metal Gear 4 was an outstanding game.  I haven't played a Metal Gear title since Metal Gear Solid 2 came out on the PS2 years ago.  I have completely missed out on the Metal Gear for PSP titles, and Snake Eater.  Metal Gear has always been about story.  It's plot is heavy with conspiracy and twists and turns.  I remember back with Metal Gear Solid 2 people where complaining about the cut-scenes.  It seemed almost like you were playing a little and watching a lot.  This is no different with Metal Gear Solid 4.  However, I knew this would be the case going into the game.  If you like story and narrative, this is a must play.

After playing through last night, I'm looking forward to going back to the Playstation Store and buying the original Metal Gear Solid for PSX.  Yes, the graphics are very dated...But c'mon, it's classic gaming at it's best.  Since I've been down memory lane a little with Metal Gear.  I stumbled upon a fan film the other day.  It's entitled: 'Metal Gear Solid Philanthropy'.  I know a lot of fan films get the stigma that they suck because they are a fan film.  But often, fan films showcase a lot of talent that isn't able to be backed up by big funding.

It is free for streaming or downloading (admittedly I haven't watched it yet due to time constraints).  But it has a great looking trailer.  I'm trying to make time this weekend to view it.  If you watch it, why not drop by and leave a comment on how you liked it.  Their site is:
http://www.mgs-philanthropy.net/

And one of the trailers:



Enjoy!

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Sony's Playstation Move: Too Funny!

Check this out:

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