Update: A subsequent story on Eurogamer confirms that the Information Commissioner's Office has confirmed its plans to grill Sony over the theft of millions of PlayStation Network users' personal data and credit card information.

"The Information Commissioner's Office takes data protection breaches extremely seriously," the organization told Eurogamer this morning. "Any business or organization that is processing personal information in the UK must ensure they comply with the law, including the need to keep data secure. We have recently been informed of an incident which appears to involve Sony. We are contacting Sony and will be making further enquiries to establish the precise nature of the incident before deciding what action, if any, needs to be taken by this office."

A new post from Patrick Seybold (Sr. Director, Corporate Communications & Social Media) on the PlayStation Blog attempts to clarify some of the facts that were released earlier today by SCEA. Seybold says that SCEA first identified that there was a security breach of PSN and that user data might have been compromised on April 19.

It wasn't until yesterday, says Seybold, that the security firm it hired figured out that user data and credit card info had been compromised. Today it shared that information with the public. Below is Seybold's post from PlayStation Blog:

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) is not happy with Sony's revelation today that user data and credit card information may have been stolen from PlayStation Network users (thanks to gellymatos). He is so unhappy that he has sent a letter to Jack Tretton, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America. In his letter to SCEA, Blumenthal noted that SCEA failed its customers by not informing them sooner.

"When a data breach occurs, it is essential that customers be immediately notified about whether and to what extent their personal and financial information has been compromised… I am concerned that PlayStation Network users’ personal and financial information may have been inappropriately accessed by a third party,"

The full letter can be found below:

The U.S. PlayStation Blog has finally been updated with more information on what's going on with the PlayStation Network and what Sony is doing to expedite the process (thanks to Flamespeak and Andrew Eisen).

SCEA's Patrick Seybold (Sr. Director, Corporate Communications & Social Media) said that the service would be back on "within the week," and that they "have a clear path to have PlayStation Network and Qriocity systems back online." This week's releases have been rescheduled for a later time as well - though when that time will be remains a mystery. A letter from SCEA has been sent to PSN account holders’ emails explaining the security breach of the network.

As this Eurogamer report suggests, users are not the only ones being hurt by the extended PlayStation Network downtime; game developers are losing lots of money. PixelJunk series developer Q-Games claims that the downtime is starting to cost it money.

"PSN being out definitely affects our bottom line," boss Dylan Cuthbert told IndustryGamers, "but as long as the people who were going to be playing Shooter 2 and other PixelJunk titles will get right back in there playing them when it comes back up we'll be happy and hopefully income won't be dented too much."

Cuthbert went on to say that he knows as much about the outage as users do at this point.

A speculative VentureBeat report suggests that Sony took down the PlayStation Network completely to avoid a new program that let hackers use a credit card number to download software - even if the credit card number was fake. The report points to a post on Reddit from a user named chesh420 - who is also a moderator at PS3 hacking site PSX-Scene.

The lengthy Reddit post contends that Sony took down the PlayStation Network because of a new custom firmware called Rebug, which basically turns a consumer PS3 into a limited developer PS3. This in turn gives the user access to the private developer section of the PlayStation Network. More from the posts on Reddit:

It has been five full days since the PlayStation Network went down and according to the most recent update from Sony, no end is in sight. The company said in a very brief blog post that they still don't know when PlayStation Network will be back online again. This news has to be disconcerting to PS3 owners who want to play games online, use the PlayStation Store or jump into PlayStation Home.

The latest update from the PlayStation Blog:

"I know you are waiting for additional information on when PlayStation Network and Qriocity services will be online. Unfortunately, I don’t have an update or timeframe to share at this point in time.

As we previously noted, this is a time intensive process and we’re working to get them back online quickly. We’ll keep you updated with information as it becomes available. We once again thank you for your patience."

We will continue to update this story as it develops.

While the fight between Sony and George Hotz is over, collective, faceless hacking group Anonymous says that it will not relent in its very public assault on the company for its treatment of consumers who want to share information and explore the depths of the PS3's technological capabilities. The group released a new video yesterday saying that it plans to fight on against Sony online and will still protest Sony Style stores around the world on April 16.

You can watch the latest video to your left. Obviously, Anonymous does not have the kind of massive support it had when it decided to protest Scientology around the world, but protests - even small ones - are not good PR if they are done right and offer the right messaging.

Source: Kotaku

Sony Computer Entertainment America today issued an official statement via the PlayStation Blog concerning its policy on jailbroken PS3 systems connecting to the PlayStation Network. The short story: it's a great way to get your account banned. First, the official notice from SCEA:

To counteract all the good news coming from Microsoft about its consoles sales numbers and subscribers related to the Xbox 360, Sony made an announcement of its own at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. Sony says that its PlayStation Network hit the 60 million-user mark in 2010. Annual signups of its free services were 20 million in 2010, the company added.

Those figures were announced by Sony chairperson, president and CEO Howard Stringer during its CES presentation

Also this week Microsoft announced that its online gaming service, Xbox Live, had hit the 50 million user mark. Unlike Microsoft, Sony focused on connected devices and 3-D products during CES and less on gaming. Microsoft talked about Kinect, Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7.

Source: MCV UK

A number of common, non-obscene words are being filtered out of text chat on Sony's new PlayStation Home service, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Reportedly, "gay," "lesbian" and "bisexual" are among the words, as are "Christ" and "Jew." Even "Hello" is being filtered, presumably because it begins with "Hell."

Gamer Michael Marsh told the Chronicle:

I can understand if they're filtering out profanity, but if feel like it's discrimination. By blocking a word like 'gay,' which is a preferred term by the gay community, you're encouraging it as a bad word.

SCEA spokesman Patrick Seybold, however, reminded gamers that Home is a work in progress:

The key message is it's a beta and it's evolving on a daily basis. We've said early on that user behavior and feedback will shape where we go with Home.

Sony will launch the beta version of PlayStation Home, its long-awaited PS 3 online service, beginning tomorrow.

PS Home would appear to be Sony's long-overdue riposte to Microsoft's popular Xbox Live service, which has been building a strong user base since the days of the original Xbox. Home takes a decidely different approach to its user interface, however. The service will function as a virtual 3D world along the lines of Second Life. Users will have individual avatars as well as personal spaces called "apartments" which can be decorated.

A company press release describes Home as:

...a ground-breaking 3D social gaming community available on PS3 that allows users to interact, communicate and share gaming experiences... Within PlayStation Home, users can create and customize their own unique avatars and explore the virtual community in real time where they can communicate freely through text or voice chat.

 

PlayStation Home users will not only be able to enjoy variety of entertainment content such as mini-games, videos and special events along with their friends, but will also be able to create their own community by using the “Club2” feature to create clubs with other PlayStation Home users who share the same interests. PlayStation Home also allows groups of users to launch directly into their favourite online games together from PlayStation Home.

VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi, who participated in Home's closed beta, writes:

Home is different from Second Life and World of Warcraft. Unlike those fully-built worlds, Home isn’t really a world. It’s more like a series of virtual spaces. If you want to visit your own personal apartment, where no one can visit without your permission, then you teleport there. If you want to go to the central plaza, you teleport there. Same goes for the bowling alley or the bar from the game Uncharted. You’re free to decorate your home as you wish. If you want to listen to music, you can walk up to a jukebox...

In the movie theater, you can go into a room and see what’s playing. You can actually watch that movie with your avatar in a social setting, making comments about it that others in the theater can see. That turns movie-watching into an online social experience. There is a profanity filter, and Home will be compliant with the PS 3’s own parental controls.

GP: The Home launch is a critical step for Sony and the PS3. Let's hope that they get it right. However, as a PS3 owner who tries to stay optimistic (Sony doesn't make this easy), I am concerned about the PS Home press release (I'm looking at the SCEE version), which devotes several paragraphs to the marketing of virtual crap for avatars. For example:

Thanks to Diesel, avatars can look great from the start with Diesel offering the latest men’s and women’s designer avatar clothing, with items ranging from free of charge to €1.50...

PlayStation®Home gives everyone their own apartment to spend time in and entertain friends - who will now be able relax on exclusive Ligne Roset furniture. At the virtual store, people will be able to choose from a selection of the most popular Ligne Roset designs...

 

A selection of virtual Watchmen merchandise e.g. T-Shirts with the smiley face logo, Doomsday clocks and character statues, will also be available in the New Year...

Meh.

XBL got it right by making an easy-to-use, pleasant gaming environment. Sony really needs to focus on its core gamers with PS Home. Everything else is just a distraction.