I do believe the week-long PlayStation Network outage can officially be deemed a barely controlled train wreck now. At least conductors have a loud whistle to blow before succumbing to the inevitable.
News Blips:
Sony still hasn't come up with a solution for fixing the PSN's severe technical difficulties, but at least they'll inform you that your personal account information was stolen by hackers. In a new post on the Official PlayStation Blog, Sony Senior Director of Corporate Communications Patrick Seybold wrote that whoever intruded upon the network's restricted files got away with just about everything (except maybe your "tasteful nudes" menu theme). "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," Seybold revealed. "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." Seybold also assured customers that Sony is "working day and night" to restore services, which probably includes a change of the PS3's slogan to "It only gives hackers everything."
Portal 2 might be Valve's last dedicated single-player game. That's according to GameTrailers host Geoff Keighley, who wrapped up his Final Hours of Portal 2 report claiming that the game "will probably be Valve's last game with an isolated single-player experience." When asked to clarify his statement on the report's official blog, Keighley noted, "This is coming from Valve, although I don’t have a lot more to share other than what is in the story. I agree it’s a provocative statement, especially given the amazing single-player storyline in Portal 2. Keep in mind Valve said 'probably,' so I get the feeling that this could change." I hope Valve knows what they're doing; I don't want to suffer through Half-Life 2: Episode 3 with a spastic Alyx co-op partner.
Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson institutes mod licensing for his wildly popular sandbox indie title. In a post on his official blog, he explained that aspiring mod developers seeking to work with Minecraft's source code will need to register themselves for a license deal with his company Mojang Specifications to prevent "people from making money off [Mojang's] work (unless they have a license deal with [Mojang])" while "making sure mods don't break with each game update." Persson originally planned to attach a fee for each license, but after receiving negative feedback almost immediately after the announcement, the price was scrapped entirely, with Persson stating, "Our intention wasn’t to make money off selling the access, only to ensure some level of quality. Obviously that wasn’t the most popular idea in the world." Looks like someone was taking Apple's "Totalitarian Overwatch" classes on the sly!
Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata thinks the Wii's fate suffered due to an over-reliance on internal marketing teams. "I now regret that we didn't tie up with someone outside the company to market the Wii," Iwata told investors and analysts in a meeting after the company's second straight fall in annual profits. "If we had done that, the fate of the Wii might have been different. Now I am aware that we should not rely too much on ourselves. You will see what I mean by this when we market the 3DS and the Wii in the future." This might mean that marketing for Nintendo's upcoming "Project Cafe" console will involve more explosions and fewer smiling inanimate objects, but that's probably wishful thinking. [Reuters]
Got any hot news tips? Send 'em over to tips@bitmob.com.