When we first reported the excuse given as to why the “Unlock The Box” campaign was a bust, it seemed like total b.s. But apparently, hackers really are the reason why those who rightfully deserved a free Vitas for chowing down on Taco Bell did not get one ]]>

When we first reported the excuse given as to why the “Unlock The Box” campaign was a bust, it seemed like total b.s. But apparently, hackers really are the reason why those who rightfully deserved a free Vitas for chowing down on Taco Bell did not get one in the end.

In the end, it wasn’t Anonymous or LulzSec, but just some random dude on the internet who did indeed “game the system,” and helped others as well. According to Kotaku, a guy calling himself “Sinister” on a message board has come forward to explain what he did, which was create a bot to auto-input codes, until winning numbers were eventually produced.

A shiny new Vita was the result of his deft programming, and not from eating a bunch of gorditas. He also gave the bots to other forum members, and the timing of this event does line up with all those folks, who had legit winning digits, being unsuccessful. Hopefully no such shenanigans will go down with the aforementioned second change drawing.

Hey, at the very least, Taco Bell was not lying. This is good since they will be our primary food source in the not so distant future, as eventual winners of the fast food war, which was predicted by Demolition Man. Sorry, but I just had to remind everyone of that movie’s existence.

They’re still going after Sony, make no mistake, but according to some, PSN is not one of their targets.

According to Game Informer, the merry band of hackers decided to clarify their stance and are now stating that, instead of taking down ]]>

They’re still going after Sony, make no mistake, but according to some, PSN is not one of their targets.

According to Game Informer, the merry band of hackers decided to clarify their stance and are now stating that, instead of taking down Sony’s dedicated channel for online game playing and game content distribution and inconveniencing countless gamers, and also hurting the bottom line of game makers, who honestly have nothing to do with this mess, they’ll be going after Sony executives personally.

Which I imagine are along the lines of publishing their personal info online, stuff like that. Personally, that’s the best move possible, since those are the higher ups are truly the ones responsible, and I personally was not happy with the idea of some poor indie game developer having to be swept up in such b.s. once again. As for the idea of being “inconvenienced” by what was originally assumed? Considering that PSN is slow as sh*t for me anyway, if it had indeed gone down, I honestly would not have noticed it.

It’s also worth noting that the original call for action may gotten the attention of the other major game players who were supporting the bill as well, namely Nintendo and EA. Because most recently, both parties along with Sony have all “supposedly” dropped support for the bill.

Some would argue that all the negative backlash is what prompted the change of heart, but I honestly don’t think a comparison with the whole GoDaddy situation is apt. I do believe them being scared witless by Anonymous played a significant part. But the truth is, it’s all for show, they’re still behind the act. Because in the end, they’re still members of the Entertainment Software Association, the industry-wide group that still backs SOPA 100%. Sorry, but the good guys are still the bad guys.

Hey PS3 users, time to change those passwords for the 900th time!

For those of you who wanted to get in a quick round of Resistance 3 before heading off to work or class earlier this morning, but was asked to reset your password and wanted ]]>

Hey PS3 users, time to change those passwords for the 900th time!

For those of you who wanted to get in a quick round of Resistance 3 before heading off to work or class earlier this morning, but was asked to reset your password and wanted to know why the hell again, well… blame those dirty, rat-bastard hackers yet again.

A blog post from Sony last night alerted everyone that about mass long in attempt, from 93,000 accounts, but none of them worked. Why? Well, it’s somewhat hard to say because Sony loves using jargon that’s fairly obtuse, for purely legal reasons.

From what I’ve gathered, it’s login info that the hackers obtained earlier this summer, during the long ass black out (that many indie devs are still trying to recover from). Which naturally failed since everyone’s passwords has since been reset. Yet those whose accounts were close to be hijacked again had their passwords reset once more, in a “better safe than sorry” move.

Given that Sony forced EVERYONE to update their account settings after the fiasco died down, this seems like a completely unnecessary move. Unless Sony’s not telling us the whole story, or they’re just doing a crap job of laying down the facts. Two things they’ve more than demonstrated a history of doing. Just great.

It’s also clear of Sony’s of business as usual stance since, i.e. meaningless firmware updates that I believe were promised to be rid off, or at least somewhat different by this point, is again working wonders.

Sony announced earlier this morning that PSN, specifically the Playstation Store, will be fully operational by the end of this week, for most territories (including the US). Sure Sony, sure.

Personally, I’ll believe it when I’m able to finally download Arcana Heart 3 as I’ve been ]]>

Sony announced earlier this morning that PSN, specifically the Playstation Store, will be fully operational by the end of this week, for most territories (including the US). Sure Sony, sure.

Personally, I’ll believe it when I’m able to finally download Arcana Heart 3 as I’ve been wanting to for over a month now. I honestly can’t believe it has taken Sony this long to get their house back in order. There’s also a ton of DLC I’ve been aching to download, so much that I either don’t remember or almost don’t care anymore. Now more than ever, I feel stupid for getting Mortal Kombat on the PS3 instead of the Xbox 360.

And who is to say what will be finally available when? The store is way behind their updates, with back-up content supposedly to go live according to a schedule, but considering how they missed their initial re-launch date…. And just watch folks dying to finally redeem their codes so they can play Dirt 3 online still get stonewalled due to the system being overloaded. No doubt by those who want their free game, part of the “Welcome Back” initiative. After all, PSN was never that fast to begin with.

Even then… according to one commentator is Joystiq’s post on the matter asks: “Mm, I’m still worried about this. Especially with that new planned attack from Anon.” No doubt another attack is just around the corner. Meanwhile, yet another group has already claimed that they will pretty much be the end of Sony as we know it, according to Destructoid.

For those who haven’t heard, while PSN has been down, hackers have basically gone after pretty much every single other online Sony entity you can think of. So those who think Sony is in the clear are just kidding themselves.

Man, this year’s E3 presentation by Sony will be interesting to say the least…

And it only took them an entire week to do so. Great job, Sony!

Earlier this afternoon, Sony updated their PlayStation blog to confirm what many of us have been worried about: the parties that took down PSN might have their hands on everyone’s personal information…

“Although ]]>

And it only took them an entire week to do so. Great job, Sony!