A petition on Change.org asks Sony's Chairman to change the number of devices that can be activated from the current two to the original five on PlayStation Network. According to the creator of the petition, the November 2011 update to the PS3 stopped any activated PS3's beyond the first two from being able to download content from the PlayStation Network.

"This has effectively turned many PS3 consoles into very expensive paper weights!," says the main message on the petition page.

In September Sony updated the PlayStation Network's terms of service to include a new clause removing the ability for customers (who were more than likely upset over the major security breach that happened earlier in the year) to file future class action lawsuits. Users who accepted the new TOS had to agree to individual arbitration instead of a lawsuit if they had a grievance against Sony. Since users had to agree to the new TOS in order to sign in to PSN, many simply agreed and moved on.

Sony's Andrew House has told Reuters that the company aims to sell 15 million PlayStation 3's in the fiscal year ending March 2012, despite a turbulent year for the company. The head of Sony Computer Entertainment revealed that sales on the console were ahead of target.

A class action lawsuit filed against Sony for removing the "OtherOS" option from the PlayStation 3 has been put down for a dirt nap by a federal judge. The lawsuit, which was brought against Sony in April 2010 over its decision to remove Linux operating system support from the PlayStation 3 console, was eventually certified as a "class." U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg granted a motion by Sony to dismiss the case.

As with most holiday seasons, games and electronics are becoming hot in December.

The Chicago Tribune and mobile shopping app firm ShopSavvy are tracking the scans of the 10 million active subscribers of ShopSavvy, which allows people to scan barcodes, compare prices and make purchases from their smart phones.

We have often wondered why the popular and free video service Crackle has not been made available on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. Perhaps because it is free... Anyway that has changed this morning, as Sony has added the service in PlayStation Home - it's virtual rest stop on the PS3. Sony has partnered up the service to bring free full-length movies - including the wonderful Final Fantasy: Advent Children - to PlayStation Home. Crackle is a free movie and TV show streaming service available via web browsers or a number of other devices - most notably Roku's various boxes.

While many customers would have pre-ordered the PlayStation 3 version anyway, back in June of this year EA promised that it would include a full version of Battlefield 1943 on the disc as an added incentive to buy it. Yesterday early adopters of the PS3 version figured out that EA broke its promise because the game was not actually on the disc. To add insult to injury EA made no excuses about the fact, nor did they offer an apology to customers.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released new guidelines on Thursday that require publicly traded companies to disclose when they are the victim of a security breach or cyber attack. The new guidelines are the result of members of congress pressuring the watchdog agency to add them following several major cyber attacks earlier this year. Senator John Rockefeller is one of those lawmakers.

Last night Sony's new SVP & Chief Information Security Officer, Philip Reitinger wrote a lengthy post on the official PlayStation Blog, detailing some questionable mass logins. While some of those attempts to login to accounts by unknown persons were successful, Reitinger assures the public that those accounts have been identified by the company and temporarily locked down.

Yesterday we reported that Sony Computer Entertainment America planned to use its PSN Online Pass scheme for Resistance 3, which would effectively charge used game buyers $10 to play the multiplayer portion of the game. It turns out this is not an isolated incident but Sony's new modus operandi when it comes to used games that contain a multiplayer component.

Sony will be rolling out its PSN Pass for the multiplayer aspects of its upcoming game Uncharted 3. As it did earlier this year with Resistance 3, Sony will implement a "PSN Pass" code on Uncharted 3. This means that when you buy a copy of the game brand new at retail it will come with a special code specifically for multiplayer that you will have to activate the first time you play online. Should you sell the game the next person that buys it will have to turn around and pay $10 to get access to multiplayer.

Sony did not break Australia’s Privacy Act during the PlayStation Network cyber attack, ruled Australia's Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim. Pilgrim’s report, released today, said that the Commission found "no evidence that Sony intentionally disclosed any personal information to a third party." Pilgrim said that he was satisfied that Sony Australia took reasonable steps to protect its customers’ personal information, including encrypting credit card information and ensuring appropriate security measures were in place.

A new report by social gaming network Raptr details how Zynga and its gamers are still a forced to be reckoned with. Tapping into the playing habits of its 10 million members, Raptr has found that Zynga's "Ville" games are as popular - or more popular - than hardcore console and PC games.

You may think the unprecedented and massive security breach that took down multiple Sony services including Sony Online entertainment and PlayStation Network is what pushed Sony to make the changes it did recently to the PSN Terms of Service, but a CNN report points to another reason: The Supreme Court. Last week Sony changed the document for PlayStation Network asking customers to give up their rights to file class-action lawsuits against the company and its partners.

A GiantBomb report claims that, even though you may have agreed to the new PlayStation Network Terms of Service recently, there may still be an option to allow an opt-out. In a nutshell, the new ToS asks users to agree to not sue the company as part of a class action, and requires that you agree to it to gain entry to the network. The paragraph in question from section #15 of the ToS:

A little public service announcement for all PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable users that play games over the PlayStation Network in Europe: on Sunday, between the hours of 5am and 12pm British Standard time select PS3/PSP titles will go offline for maintenance.

Sony also noted that users may experience "some additional downtime after the maintenance for testing purposes."

During that time the following games (and associated websites) will not be playable over PlayStation Network:

An interactive entertainment lawyer tells GameIndustry.biz that the new wording in the PlayStation Network terms of service is geared more towards consumers in the United States and is probably not enforceable in the United Kingdom due to existing laws that prevent such contracts.

In case you've forgotten it from yesterday, here's what paragraph 15 of the PSN terms of service states:

If you are a member of Sony's PlayStation Network, chances are you were greeted with an email from the company this morning telling you that that the terms of service for the network are about to change. The big change, in case you haven't received that email yet, relates to your ability to sue them. From section 15 comes this wonderful new clause:

Sony has hired a heavyweight in its ongoing fight to protect its online game services from hackers. The company has hired Philip Reitinger, former director of the U.S. National Cyber Security Center, as its new chief information security officer.

Sony says this week that, following one of the worst security breaches in recent memory for any company, that sales via its online gaming service are exceeding numbers from before the attack occurred.

As part of a Sony conference at the IFA electronics show, Sony CEO Howard Stringer said that the PlayStation Network has recovered and is now doing better than ever, with 3 million new customers since coming back online earlier this year.

London's theater world is apparently about to get a taste of video game culture thanks to Sony, Resistance 3 and London theater group Punchdrunk. Running September 1, through Sunday, Punchdrunk performs "…And Darkness Descended," an "interactive theater experience based on the game Resistance 3, where participants must survive, by cooperating against alien invaders (or not cooperating, as the case may be). Punchdrunk is keen on performing in a way that encourages lots of audience participation and this particular performance should be no exception.

According to new data released by ABI Research, the most popular method of streaming Netflix content continues to be through a video game console. The new data also shows that console owners spend a substantial amount of time --seven to eight hours a week-- watching online video through their console devices.

Sony Computer Entertainment announced that it will cut the price of its PlayStation 3 console by $50. The company, who made the announcement at Gamescom in cologne, Germany, said that the 160 GB model will now sell for $249, while the 320 GB model would sell for $299. The price cut is global and takes effect immediately.

At the annual Black Hat hacker convention that happened in Las Vegas this week Sony earned a dubious distinction of the security breach that took several of its services down for nearly two months. The awards are called "Pwnies" and - unless you are a hacker - you don’t want to be "honored" with on. Sony earned the "Most Epic Fail" award for the massive security breach that brought down the PlayStation Network and related services for nearly two months earlier this year.

Youness Alaoui, known better by his online persona "KaKaRoTo" and for being the first man to develop modified firmware for the PS3, sits down for an interview with PlayStation LifeStyle to talk about the PS3, piracy, black hat hackers, and whether Sony owns its system or consumers do. Alaoui, who describes himself as a software engineer of Moroccan origin currently living in Canada, says that his passions are programming and open source development, which he has been doing for over 10 years.

While Xbox 360 remains ahead of the PS3 on a global sales basis, EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich says that the PS3 is catching up and has a 10 percent lead over Xbox 360 sales so far this year.

"The Xbox 360 does have a 5% lead over the PlayStation 3 worldwide, a minimal difference," noted EEDAR's Jesse Divnich, who goes on to note that, while "the race is neck and neck," the PS3 is winning the battle so far this year.

"If one looks at the total amount of sales through the first 6 months of 2011, the PlayStation 3 has sold about 10 percent more than the Xbox 360, worldwide, so the PlayStation 3 is definitely gaining ground," he told Industry Gamers.

According to a memo sent to GameStop and obtained by Kotaku, the newest PS3 systems will remove the ability to use component cables to get high definition signals. This will make it so that PS3 users will have to be using an HDMI cable to show an HD image. Since HDMI cables can retail for $60 or more, this is not necessarily a good thing for consumers who don't have a lot to spend.

"This means you will want to offer an HDMI cable with every new 'K' model PS3," the memo says.

Ars Technica speculates why Sony decided to take away the ability to view true HD images via a component cable. One reason, they say, is because some Sony Bravia televisions already require an HDMI connection to display video in the full 1080p resolution.

This move will give Sony more control over how the image is used, while limiting the possibilities for recording or duplication. Also, retailers can now make a few bucks selling HDMI cables alongside the system, according to Ars.

It may have taken longer than expected but Sony's various services related to the PlayStation 3 are back online all over the world. As part of an apology by the company, it offered a number of free games to PSN members such as Infamous, LittleBigPlanet, Dead Nation and WipEout through a "Welcome Back" program. Sony will be delighted to hear that the program has been called a resounding success by research firm EEDAR.

EEDAR, referencing IGN GamerMetrics data, said that all four Welcome Back titles were in the top 25 of consumer reported title acquisitions in June 2011. Additionally 17 percent of IGN users indicated that they acquired a PSN digital title in June 2011, up from 13 percent in March 2011 before Sony had to take down PSN.

But the most interesting data point in the report indicates that the Welcome Back program may have boosted PS3 game sales as well. From the report:

Sony has decided to extended its offer of free identity theft protection for PlayStation Network users in North America. The company announced that it is extending the AllClear ID Plus Identity Theft Protection program at no cost until the end of July. This protection will expire approximately one year after the user has registered for the program.

Apparently some users have been slow to sign up for it, or Sony is simply extending the program opt-in out of courtesy to its PSN users. The company offered the plan after the PlayStation Network came back online - two and half months after hackers breached security and forced the company to take its services down to make them more secure.

Sony is expected to announce AllClear ID Plus protection for users in Canada and Latin America sometime soon.

Source: Digital Spy

Sony announced that it will have "full PlayStation Network services" in Japan sometime this week. This will bring all of its services online in the region nearly two and a half months after being attacked by hackers. Later this week Sony hopes to have its PlayStation Store back online, allowing Japanese PlayStation Network users access to its games marketplace and online music.

The attack on Sony’s data centers in San Diego compromised more than 100 million customer accounts and will cost an estimated 14 billion yen ($173 million) for the company this fiscal year.

Most of the delay in Japan was due to a Japanese government request in May to institute "preventive measures against data breaches," and to ease customer worries over having their information stolen. Apparently Sony has finally satisfied these requests, as well as requests from credit card companies who were seeking details on its new security measures.