Posts

PlayStation Network Back Online, No Word From Sony

, , ,

As of 6:20PM CST, we can confirm that our PS3’s are working as expected on the PlayStation Network.  All DRM/DLC, trophies and saved data is present and accounted for.  We first got word of this from Izmeiah Brown, our Lead Designer, when it broke on Gizmodo.  Still no official word from Sony, but that’s typical and to be expected.  This ability to login, however, does not mean that it won’t happen again.  Scary how they can push an update like this and shut almost 40 million systems down without no one really noticing, isn’t it.

This is a use at your own risk deal since there has been no official word from Sony yet.  We’ll let you know as soon as they start making apologies.

== UPDATE ==

Sony releases the following statement on their blog:

We are aware that the internal clock functionality in the PS3 units other than the slim model, recognized the year 2010 as a leap year. Having the internal clock date change from February 29 to March 1 (both GMT), we have verified that the symptoms are now resolved and that users are able to use their PS3 normally.

If the time displayed on the XMB is still incorrect, users are able to adjust time settings manually or via the internet. If we have new information, we will update you through the PlayStation.Blog or PlayStation.com.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

And that’s that.  They “apologize”, but fail to state exactly what they’re going to do for breaking the trust of all of the gamers WORLDWIDE.  Sure the PSN is free, but come on; The trade off is quite obvious at this point – monitoring.  We should be able to play Single Player games like Heavy Rain regardless if the PSN is online or not.  We should also be able to use our games that we downloaded without being told we stole it (basically what the error message implied).  These are the things that they should be focusing on and making Next-Gen actually Next-Gen. 

As one comment we read earlier today, you could pop in a Nintendo cartridge, and BAM you were playing the game.  Why doesn’t this work the same way today for the PS3?  And what about the people without access to the Internet?  Are they still affected?  We’ll never know because they’re completely out of touch with the rest of the living world.  Trust us, if this happens again, we’re going to make sure they answer these questions that all gamers of the PS3 deserve.

/by

How We As Gamers Feel About The PlayStation Network Crash

, , ,

With Sony’s typical “We’ll just let them wait and find out approach” on their Blog and Twitter, not to mention the launch of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 tonight at midnight, gamers without a working PS3 are a bit upset to say the least. A global problem with the PS3 Firmware has caused an outage and system failure to systems both online and offline from the PlayStation Network. One thing we have seen this good for is Sony’s PSN Twitter Account, with records of 120-200 new followers per minute. That seems a lot like people standing around waiting for someone to say something – anything – that might help them get out of this snafu that was a major oversight by Sony’s Q/A Department. With those already doing the “corporate shuffle” and blaming MSI and Freescale as commentators on the PSN Blog should be ashamed of themselves.

At approximately 9PM CST on February 28th, 2010, users began dropping off of the PSN. They found themselves locked out of their systems, including those who had not connected and only updated via PS3 games as a mandatory firmware update, with their system clocks rolled back to December 31st, 1999. Those who had connected to the Internet and updated also found themselves in more trouble than that. Sony confirms that save data, game data and DLC and DRM Content may become corrupt if you even turn on your PS3. That’s right: Sony has advised people to not even turn on their PS3. According to CNN, Sony reported last month a total of 40 million gamers who had connected to the PSN but were not sure how many of those were plagued with this problem.

We have read around the web that players trophies have disappeared altogether – however this may not be the case. After we logged into http://us.playstation.com/, we found that only what we had done within the last two weeks, (last trophy reported was February 15th, 2010) was not present with a convenient fine print of…

Note: The above information is dependent on the proper functioning of the PlayStation®Network. Information is not updated in real time.

That means all of our Heavy Rain and White Knight Chronicles trophies are gone…or maybe not. We don’t know yet because of their fine print. However, we can confirm that users who did hear about this problem last night and unplugged their systems from the Internet were still affected since it was the firmware that caused the problem – not the connectivity to the Internet. One user reported to us that they had never connected their PS3 to the Internet and just played Fallout 3 and their system still worked just fine.

No word from Sony yet. Some users have reported removing the system battery will correct this problem, however this will most likely void your warranty. We’ll update this post further when our staff has a chance to add few more comments.

In the mean time, tell us what you think Sony should do to fix this problem. Just push a firmware update (which we’re hearing might not even work), give us free credit to the PlayStation Store (or perhaps remove the DRM so this doesn’t happen again and we can play Single Player Games) or start shipping out PS3 Slims to everyone. We look forward to your thoughts and comments!

/by
PlayStation Network Down

PlayStation Network Down from 8001050F Error Code Recap

, , ,

As we had reported last night, the Sony PlayStation Network was (and still is) down because of an unexplained technical issue.  The issue causes an error code of 8001050F to appear upon launching any PS3 Blu-Ray Game, setting the clock back to 12/31/1999 (sounds a lot like a Y2K bug), trophy sync problems and downloaded content (DLC) to show that there are invalid copyright permissions.  This has caused a lot of headache among hundreds of thousands of gamers globally and still no update from Sony on their blog or their Twitter feed.

So, what is this? A PS3 Y2K bug? Possibly.  The error code “8001050F” is referenced to mean “Hardware failure. Cannot update firmware or connect to internet.” However, upon launching most games, players are getting a message stating “Registration of the trophy information could not be completed. The game will quit. (8001050F)”. Why would this be? Shouldn’t the PS3 work offline too? That’s what we thought. All of our offline DLC, such as Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII (PS1/PSP Playable) does not work at all. We can’t play single player games that shouldn’t rely on the Internet or not such as Heavy Rain. All we have to say is we hope that this is fixed today, and for sure before the 9th of this month, when Final Fantasy XIII releases.

Usually by this point, Sony would/should have replied…but what’s to be expected from a free network?  Our advice: If you haven’t turned on your PS3 yet, don’t. It’s tragic enough to read about and even worse to see for yourself. Last night, the topic of “playstation network crash” hit the #5 hottest trend on Google and now currently sits at #40. Wait until Sony updates their Blog or Twitter with “we’ve fixed the error”. We will keep you posted as well, so stay tuned.

/by

PSP Go Launch Day Review

,

October 1st, 2009 – Written by Izmeiah Brown, Technical Staff for TurkReno, Inc.

The PSP has had a shaky history: It had a pretty good launch back in 05, and I remember going with my dad to pick mine up on launch day with a copy of Darkstalkers. It was a beautiful thing. However, it’s hard to beat Nintendo in the handheld department, and even harder to stay afloat in the drowning wave that is the DS, and the DSi, respectfully. However, Sony stuck to their guns and despite poor sales last year the PSP system has endured. Now the third iteration in the PSP saga has been unveiled, the PSP Go.

The PSP go at first didn’t seem like a good idea to me. Yes, you can cook a seven course meal before a UMD completely loads, but that’s just the way it was, and fans of the PSP (as I am) dealt with it. However the PSP Go foregoes any notion of a UMD drive and instead opts for digital downloads to deliver its content. This content can be gained one of three ways. The first method is via the included Media Go software which allows you to connect and download games. This method is relatively simple, has a clean interface, and was pretty much hassle free, kudos to Sony for that. The second method is to connect online to the PlayStation Store and download directly to your PSP Go via an internet connection. Lastly is the ability to download via the PlayStation Store to your PS3 system, and then transfer your game via the connection cable included with the PSP Go. All of these choices work well and actually worked really quickly. My downtime for downloading Rock Band Unplugged was about 10 or so minutes, and while speaking of games the PlayStation Store has updated to commemorate this launch to include a plethora of downloadable titles (seriously like 100 or so)  for the PSP Go, and PSP systems.

New to the PlayStation Portable system is the ability to use Bluetooth devices. This makes a lot of sense considering that Skype has been on the PSP for a while now, and now headsets can be used with this feature. Music, Photos, and Video all look and sound really good on the PSP Go, and with the inclusion of a 16 gig hard drive you’ll get lots of play time if you’re using it for an mp3 player. Sony has also stated that they will give vouchers for PSP Go digital copies of movies with the purchase of certain Blu-Ray films in the future. Also if 16 gig’s isn’t enough for your voracious consumption of digital goodness the PSP Go also has a slot for Memory Stick Micro (M2) media cards.

The PSP Go seems to run a bit smoother when compared to the PSP 2001 model that I have. I have a digital copy of Persona, and also a UMD version and the experience is a little zippier and faster on the PSP Go. Also the LCD is very crisp and sharp even though it’s a little smaller than the Original PSP’s with a measurement of 3.8 inches.

I thought at first the movement of the analog nub to the right of the D-pad was going to be an annoyance but actually it’s quite welcome, and I adjusted to it being there very quickly. The start and select buttons gave me a bit more trouble as I had to check to make sure which I was pressing. The overall feel of the system is very nice and for the 3 hours I played Persona, and a few other titles my hands did not cramp at all, something that happens commonly with my PSP.

All in all I have to say that this is a great system. If you’ve already got a PSP and a lot of UMD’s (like I do) then you may want to stick with what you have as the price-point is a little high at $250.00. However, If you’re new to the PSP or if you’re wanting a sleek little system with a lot of perks over the PSP then the PSP Go is definitely the way to go. We highly recommend it.

The details:

Screen Size: 3.78 inch WideScreen LCD
Screen Resolution: 480 x 272 pixels
Form Factor: 4.8 x 2.6 x 0.6 inches
Online Gaming: Infrastructure and Ad Hoc for both.
Music: Yes
Photos: Yes
Movies: Purchase and rental
Internet Browsing: Yes
Memory: 16GB Built-in, expandable Memory Stick Micro (M2)
Bluetooth: Yes
Connect to Console: Remote Play
Store: Playstation Store
Skype: Built-in

/by