Engadget is reporting that the new PlayStation 4 console from Sony will not allow you to transfer all of those PlayStation Network games you might have purchased on the PS3. Sony admitted last night that current-generation PSN titles won't be playable on the system because architecture of the Power-PC-based PS3 and x86-64 based AMD processor powering the PlayStation 4 are so different.

Tonight is the night that Sony will make some sort of announcement about the future of the PlayStation brand. Some speculate that it will be more details on their next system, commonly referred to as the "PS4." Hopefully there will be some other surprises like game announcements, new features for the technology they already have on the market now and - with any luck - a price cut to the North American and European versions of the PS Vita hand-held - which currently cost as much as a brand new PS3.

DealNews, a web site dedicated to bringing you all the latest news on all the hottest items past and present makes a pretty bold prediction: After Sony makes its big announcement (it is presumed) about the PlayStation 4, the PlayStation 3 will see a price drop of 64 percent at retail. They base this price drop percentage on historical retail data for the PS3 versus the PS2 and the Wii U versus the Wii. Here is the crux of the argument:

Earlier this week we reported that the Chinese government was considering lifting a 13-year ban on game consoles in the country. While there's plenty of black market devices and software for Chinese consumers, there's no way to legally buy a PS3, Xbox 360, or Nintendo device in the country. The story from a few days ago was based on a China Daily report that quoted an anonymous source inside the Ministry of Culture.

Sony has confirmed with IGN that PlayStation All-Stars developer SuperBot has laid off a number of its staff. An SCEA spokesperson told the publication that work would continue on PlayStation All-Stars DLC to be released in the next few months despite the smaller staff at the studio. Sony did not confirm just how much of the staff had been laid off.

Citing a government source, the 13-year-old ban of consoles in China may be coming to an end. According to sources cites by China Daily the seven Chinese government ministries that banned the sale of consoles in the country in 2000 are opening up discussions on allowing them to be sold to Chinese citizens.

The United Kingdom has levied a fine of £250,000 against Sony for the PlayStation Network security breach that occurred in 2011 that put the personal information of 77 million customers at risk, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) announced. The government's agency in charge of data protection called the Sony security breach a "serious breach of the Data Protection Act" and note that - if Sony's security had been up to date - the attack "could have been prevented."

Eurogamer reports that actor Jerry Lambert has settled a lawsuit with Sony over his part in a Bridgestone ad where he played an engineer playing a Wii video game. In 2012 Sony sued Bridgestone and the actor because they claimed that Lambert's engineer character in the ad was too much like its popular fictitious PS3 spokesperson Kevin Butler.

While many think that the Nintendo Wii has won the overall race in this current console cycle against Xbox 360 and PS3 in the United States, one research firm says that it will ultimately be Microsoft's console that sits at the top of the mountain. DFC Intelligence's new report predicts that more Xbox 360s will be sold in the US than Wiis by 2017. The research firm is forecasting that Xbox 360 will have sold over 46 million units in the US by 2017, while the Wii is estimated at just over 42 million. Sony's PS3 comes in at 33.5 million.

A number of Activision's James Bond games have disappeared from Valve software's Steam digital distribution platform, Xbox 360's Games on Demand service and Activision's own store, according to GameSpot.

The results are in, the votes have been tallied and the sole light in my mom's windowless, basement bathroom burnt out while I was taking a shower this morning.  It's time to reveal which of the current consoles GamePolitics poll participants think has the dumbest name!

A particularly light and fluffy question for this week's poll, GP faithful:

Which of the current crop of video game consoles do you think has the dumbest name?

Is it the Wii?  It's the Wii, isn't it?

Yeah, it's probably the Wii.

Gearbox Software has finally issued an update that deals with the bug that stripped some players of their "Badass tokens" in Borderlands 2. The update for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game enables the game to analyze save games and detect Badass Rank that might have been lost due to the glitch. Players first reported issues with their Badass Tokens inexplicably disappearing.

Episode 5 of Telltale's horror adventure series The Walking Dead based on the popular comic series took the top spot on the PlayStation Store charts for the month of November, according to Sony. In fact all five episodes in the series managed to make the Top 20. Coming is second was Assassin's Creed 3, followed by Sonic Adventure 2, Okami HD, and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

The creative team behind Adult Swim's Robot Chicken animated show detail a special episode of the show on the PlayStation Blog. The special episode, airing tonight at 10 PM ET during the Adult Swim mature cartoon block on Cartoon Network - features an imaginative PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale skit. Apparently Sony approached the Robot Chicken folks to create this special episode:

In Episode 29 of the Super Podcast Action Committee hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight discuss the shaky launch of the Wii U console over the weekend, Sony perma-bans for PS3 'hackers,' and the good and bad side of Electronic Arts. It's a show to remember unless you stopped that Wii U firmware update - then it's a painful reminder that getting your brand new console 'bricked' kind of sucks! Download it now: SuperPAC Episode 29 (1 hour, 19 minutes) 73 MB.

Multi-platform TV and movie streaming service Crackle today unveiled a new PlayStation 3 application, making its full suite of ad-supported, full-length movies, television series and original programming more easily accessible to all PlayStation 3 users in the United States and Canada. Along with the PS3 App, Crackle recently re-launched on Sony Entertainment Network (SEN), offering a "premium user-experience" to those accessing Crackle from Sony Connected Devices such as BRAVIA TVs and Blu-ray players.

Sony has begun taking steps to secure the PlayStation Network to deal with the threat of the PS3 lv0 boot loader key leak and the ability for hacked consoles to play online alongside legitimate users.

Sony released the PlayStation 3 on November 11, 2006 in Japan; in North America on November 17, 2006; and in Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Africa and New Zealand on March 23, 2007. China never got access to the system because the Chinese government didn't approve it for sale in the region. Nearly seven years later it looks like Chinese gamers finally have some hope of playing PlayStation 3 titles legally.

Last week we detailed a new hack for the PlayStation 3 that has some in the PlayStation Network concerned that they could face another major security breach like what happened back in 2011 when millions of users' information was compromised by hackers. But security firm GFI Software says that PSN users shouldn't be all that concerned about it.

Sony's PlayStation 3 is facing a new security threat - one it hasn't seen since the system was cracked via the PSJailbreak in 2011. According to a report on Eurogamer, a new PlayStation Network-enabled custom firmware was recently released along with the publication of the console's LV0 decryption keys.

A federal judge has dealt a class action lawsuit filed in early 2012 against Sony several blows that have seriously hindered their plans to take Sony to task for the 2011 security breach on the PlayStation Network, Qriocity, and Sony Online Entertainment.

It looks like Sony has decided that it will no longer support Stanford University's Folding@home distributed computing project via PlayStation 3. According to a post in the European PlayStation Blog, Sony will kill the ability for current and future PS3 owners to contribute part of the CPU power to the project with the next firmware update scheduled to go live sometime later this month. Sony didn't really give a reason why they have decided to do this...

Bridgestone Tires has responded to a Sony lawsuit claiming that a recent Bridgestone tire ad featuring actor Jerry Lambert infringed on its IP. Sony alleges that Lambert was playing fictional PlayStation executive Kevin Butler in its new ad which featured lab technicians playing Mario Kart on the Wii. According to a Bridgestone representative, the actor who plays Kevin Butler simply appeared in the commercial as one of the company's engineers.

A "day late and 30 minutes short" would be the best way to describe Episode 23 of the Super Podcast Action Committee as host Andrew Eisen struggles with being sick and co-host E. Zachary Knight rails against the wickedness of the state of Oklahoma keeping his preferred candidate off the ballot. In between these trials and tribulations, Andrew and EZK talk about Kevin Butler being sued by Sony, Nintendo's non-gamer ad, the latest poll on GamePolitics, and troubles at the drive-in.

Kevin Butler may once have been the face of Sony's PlayStation 3, PlayStation Network and the PSP platform as the fictitious Vice President of various made-up departments within the company division. But apparently Sony has decided to sue the man (actor Jerry Lamber) that plays Kevin Butler and his company - advertising firm Wildcat Creek - over the Kevin Butler IP. Sony claims that Wildcat used the character in an advertising campaign for Bridgestone Tires, with a "Butler-type character" wearing a lab coat testing out Mario Kart Wii.

Were you planning on dropping a C-note in the PlayStation Store this month?  If so, you’re in luck because Sony announced on the PlayStation Blog this morning that gamers who spend $100 dollars during the month of October will get $20 credited to their wallets next month.

Sony Computer Entertainment America announced a new digital content program for customers called PSN Day 1 Digital. The goal of this new program is to provide consumers access to digital versions of retail releases of PS3 games on launch day via the PlayStation Store. The program begins on October 1.

Beginning today, PS3 owners can pre-order a handful of select titles ahead of their release dates as well. Pre-ordering these titles will earn consumers a ten percent discount.

Sony Computer Entertainment President and group CEO Andrew House told Reuters that his company is relying on its PS3 business to help it return to profitability this year.

"I think we will be profitable this year," House told the news agency at Tokyo Game Show this week. "We have a growing installed base, growing connectivity of the PS3."

Despite announcing two new PlayStation 3 SKU's for Japan and North America and three for Europe, Sony says that it has absolutely no plans on slashing the price of its older PS3 models that are in stock around the world.

Speaking to Engadget, Sony's John Koller justified the position by saying that customers are tired of "weird price moves" often made by the hardware manufacturers related to promotions such as price promotions, gift card offers, etc.