gaming - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Sony denies PSN hack, confirms PSN Web exploit

  The PlayStation Network wasn't hacked so much as threatened yesterday when a password exploit accessible through its PSN web page login page came to light, claims Sony.

• PSN apology: What else would you have Sony do?

  Now that the PlayStation Network’s back, Sony’s trotting out something it's calling a "PlayStation Network and Qriocity Customer Appreciation Program," prompting cries of "too much" or "too little" in certain press channels.

• Skills shortage as Aussie gaming industry booms

  Australians are expected to spend $5.8 billion on computer and online games over the next four years however a lack of locally available skills available to the country's gaming industry could see it miss out on this boom.

• Sony shifts blame back to Anonymous for PSN attack

  In a response to a congressional inquiry into the hack of the PlayStation Network, Sony appears to have shifted the blame back to the hacktivist group Anonymous.

• Sony Online Entertainment hacked, 12,700 credit cards stolen

  Not quite out of the frying pan, but into the fire anyway: Sony just acknowledged another network breach related to the first one.

• Is Sony’s PSN ‘Welcome Back’ enough?

  Sony Japan’s explanation for the PSN’s takedown yesterday didn’t tell us much, but -- nearly a week and a half on -- at least the company apologized. Sony’s deputy president Kazuo Hirai took the stage, bent forward as if to touch his toes in a deep and held bow, then apologized “for the great anxiety and inconvenience” caused by the ongoing PSN and Qriocity outages.

• Portal 2: a little better all the time

  The fleeting hour I was able to devote to Portal 2 last night, dashing through the remainder of its suddenly capacious middle chapters, proved a little better than the dull, shallow preliminary five.

• Wii 2 on the way: Nintendo is growing up

  Almost five years after the Nintendo Wii launched, broke sales records, and revolutionized gaming with the introduction of motion-sensitive controllers, the console is slated to get a successor by E3 in June 2011.

• Angry Birds Rio soars to 10 million downloads

  Onward Angry Birds Rio, the exotic new adventures of a bunch of irate avians that just flew past 10 million downloads. If they had legs, they'd probably be dancing on the sand.

• Sony Online Entertainment job cuts, closures confirmed

  The numbers are humbling: Three studios (of five) terminated, 205 jobs simply gone. That's the damage -- substantial by any measure -- at Sony Online Entertainment, Sony's flagship online games development brand.

• Kinect Breaks Guinness Record, Sells 10 Million Systems

  It looks like Kinect's officially a record-setter, grabbing Guinness' attention long enough to snag the title 'fastest selling consumer electronics device'. According to Microsoft, their controller-free Xbox 360 motion-sensing camera has sold a whopping 10 million units since it launched in early November last year.

• Nintendo 3DS sells 400,000 in Japan, already R4 hacked

  It looks like Nintendo's 3DS isn't having trouble finding buyers in Japan. According to Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun (via Andriasang) gamers essentially exhausted Nintendo's initial shipment of 400,000 units. The 3DS launched in Japan Saturday to reports of lines and pre-order sellouts.

• Police raid PS3 hacker's home, hacker retaliates

  Sony is pretty annoyed with those hooligans hacking its beloved PlayStation 3. So annoyed, in fact, that they've involved law enforcement: On February 23, PS3 and Linux hacker graf_chokolo said the local police and a Sony representative raided his house.

• Nintendo 3DS launches in Japan

  Nintendo's bid to put glasses-free 3D into the anxious hands of the masses just got underway in Japan. The company's 3DS -- sequel to the DS and DSi, and employing a new 3.53-inch widescreen that uses parallax barrier tech to create the illusion of three-dimensional imagery -- launched Saturday in the Land of the Rising Sun to long lines, claims of emptied stores, and Twitter tales of 3D-induced headaches.

• Sony Unveils PlayStation-Friendly 'Xperia Play'

  Sony popped the lid on the industry's worst kept secret this afternoon, trotting out its Xperia Play Android phone at Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona, Spain. You probably know all there is to say about the device at this point, except for one little thing.