Apparently the Miiverse, Wii U's embedded social networking service, has been suffering an outage since last night, according to this C&VG report. The report also details some of the other launch day issues Nintendo's console has been having - some of which we have already covered in earlier stories.

The massive 1 - 1.5 GB firmware update (see note at the end of this story) that Nintendo decided to deploy on the consoles launch day - Sunday - is proving to be a disaster for Nintendo and for customers who might decided the hour or more wait for it to be applied is just too long. According to several games journalists and this GII story, shutting down the system while the update is being downloaded or stopping (resetting or powering the system down) it bricks the Wii U.

iPhone iOS 6 users are complaining that since they have started using Apple's new operating system for its hand-held devices, they have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of data they consume. UK publication The Guardian is reporting that a number of iOS 6 users have been complaining about a "significant hike" in their data usage, which translates into higher monthly mobile data usage bills.

Some players are claiming the newest Borderlands 2's character, Gaige is erasing their "Badass stats." The download, which also requires a patch to play seems to be affecting players on Xbox 360 and PC. The problem seems to be a repeat of an earlier issue some fans had with the game wiping out their progress.

Stardock Systems has filed a lawsuit against a former employee claiming that her actions damaged the launch of its strategy game Elemental: War of Magic. The company filed the lawsuit last month in Michigan Eastern District Court. Their complaint contends that when former marketing manager Alexandra Miseta resigned, she "deleted, destroyed, and/or stole promotional materials, analytics data, and trade show information" that was vital to the game's launch.

Gamers who bought the PlayStation 3 version of Konami's game, Silent Hill HD, got a patch last month that dealt with a number of frame rate and audio-sync issues. Good service. But those who bought the game on the Xbox 360 have pretty much been told to "go pound salt." Konami issued a brief statement this week noting that it wouldn't be releasing an update for Xbox 360 gamers who bought the game. Bad service.

Over the weekend fans were delighted to learn that they could pick up the PC version of Square Enix's popular RPG, Final Fantasy VII for $12.70 on www.finalfantasyviipc.com, but then started having problems with the DRM system it uses, SecuROM. When players tried to start the game, the SecuROM DRM failed to authenticate their purchase. Naturally those who bought the game were quite irate.

If you live in Nashville, Tennessee then you probably use Comcast for most of your internet needs, but a new trial in the region that begins tomorrow will change the way you use your internet connection for gaming and entertainment. Starting Wednesday, August 1, Comcast will test a new usage-based broadband policy on its Nashville customers. The company will data cap its customers at 300 GB a month and anyone that goes over that threshold will be charged an additional $10 per 50 GB of additional data used.

Update: The BBC is reporting that Ubisoft has rushed to patch the exploit unearthed by a Google engineer in its Uplay DRM. The company also issued instructions for Uplay users:

"We recommend that all Uplay users update their Uplay PC application without a Web browser open," Ubisoft said. "This will allow the plug-in to update correctly. An updated version of the Uplay PC installer with the patch also is available from Uplay.com."

EA has decided to yank both Rock Band and Rock Band Reloaded from the Apple App Store next week, the company revealed. The games and the songs that users have downloaded for it will be unavailable after July 31, though local play will still be available. Electronic Arts said that it was pulling the apps because its licensing agreement with game developer Harmonix was coming to an end.

Update: Blizzard strongly denies that it banned players using Linux in conjunction with WINE to play Diablo III. Here's what they told Ars Technica:

According to a report in the UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph video game retailer GAME has announced that its Australian division was going into "voluntary administration." The company has chosen Pricewaterhouse Coopers to deal with its current financial complications, though the accounting firm said that the 92 stores in the country would continue to run while things were sorted out. The company employs about 500 people in Australia.

According to this Kotaku report Microsoft is refusing to give some customers a refund for the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft. Why would people want a refund? Well, yesterday Kotaku uncovered the fact that if you don't own a high definition television set then the game won't allow you to play split-screen multiplayer with friends.

Users of the iOS version of Rock Band were surprised to receive a notice from the game warning them that it was going to expire on May 31. First noted by this Reddit thread and pictured to your left, the notice warned users that the $4.99 app was going to expire at the end of the month, but iTunes is still selling the app without such a warning and EA is incommunicado on the story as of this writing.

A California woman has filed a complaint in state court (Los Angeles) against Verizon, claiming that an upgrade to her DSL service she was talked into did not provide her with the speeds and service she was promised. Patricia Allen of Santa Monica filed the lawsuit on behalf of herself and other DSL customers "in California who are located a certain distance from a Verizon office." What does being a certain distance from a Verizon office have to do with it? When you are a DSL customer it's the difference between night and day.

According to a CNET UK report, Sony's Xperia S phone has a serious issue with heat that can turn the handset's screen yellow if it gets too hot. In a statement issued to CNET UK, Sony confirmed that it knows about the issue, but also said that the problem only affects a small number of Xperia S handsets.

This morning Eurogamer ran a report on a number of users complaining that their Xbox 360 Achievements and Gamerscores were mysteriously being wiped. As you can imagine users were emailing them and other outlets franticly detailing their losses and how they had contacted Xbox Live support.

 The Angry Joe show is pretty angry and anyone with basic English skills should note the tone of his show with the use of an adverb as his first name. Still Joe has a lot to be angry about with Street Fighter X Tekken, because, as he notes in his latest video, it's not like Capcom hasn’t faced the outrage of fans over the practice he is ranting and raving about ("DLC" on the disc) in the past...

Update: Capcom issued the following statement to MCV concerning the locked DLC content found on the retail disc for Street Fighter X Tekken (thanks Andrew Eisen):

Online file-sharing company RapidShare has apparently slowed down the connection of users who are not registered members. These free users have been complaining about reduced download speeds during transfers. Some users have reported speeds as slow as 30/kbs. RapidShare says that the reason for this is simple enough: Throttling these users drive pirates away from their service. They claim that, since the close of MegaUpload, they have seen a major uptick in traffic, and some of it is only interested in sharing and downloading illegal software.

There's nothing quite so joyous as winning a much coveted prize from a contest, so it was with much glee that some customers who entered into Taco Bell's PS Vita contest received an email saying that they had won. But, as it turns out, they didn't win, and Taco Bell is now apologizing for what happened. They claim that someone "tampered" with the competition, in turn causing a bunch of notifications to be sent out to contest participants. The company later sent them an email saying that they had not won the contest.

Sony says that it won't make the same mistakes again with the PS Vita, but in the same breath it says that it won't support legacy software from the PSP on its new platform. With the launch of the PSP Go, the company simply decided that its UMD format was no longer going to be supported on new hardware and so the PS Vita continues that tired old trend. The sad part is it is doing this in the U.S. and European markets - the markets where the new system will ultimately shine brighter than in Japan.

According to an admin on the game's official forums (as reported by Joystiq), there is a glitch in Gotham City Imposters that resets earned stats and unlocked content. The thread already has 63 pages of angry Gotham City Imposters owners complaining at length about the problem.

Ubisoft has issued an apology to customers who were affected by server moves this week that affected games requiring "always connected" DRM - even when they tried to play single player games. Because Ubisoft uses a DRM scheme on some games that require a constant connection, shutting the servers down that these games require made them unplayable.

It looks like those UMDs you bought for your PlayStation Portable will be completely useless if you decide to upgrade to a PS Vita.

Destructoid points out in this story that Ubisoft's plan to take down servers next week shows why "always on" DRM is a bad idea. During the maintenance the publisher has planned next week, any game that has "always online" DRM will not be playable. That means that legitimate copies of games won't work. Which games will be broken next week?

Ubisoft has found itself on the defensive yet again after customers in Europe who bought the latest Anno strategy game complained about its digital rights management software. Reports surfaced last week that the DRM, which offers a limited number of activations, were being used up if users changed their hardware configurations.

Online retailer Amazon has risen slightly among the top companies for customer satisfaction while Netflix takes a significant nose dive, according to an annual holiday online retail satisfaction report released today from analytics firm ForeSee.

This Penny Arcade post details one of the worst public relations train wrecks in history. It all starts with a customer enquiring about a controller he paid for well in advance, but quickly escalates into the kind of conversation you don't want to be a part of. Honestly I’ve seen better customer service from people at the DMV..

Sony is apologizing this week to Japanese consumers who have bought its new PlayStation Vita hand-held, after some found that their systems were having a host of serious technical problems.