On Friday, Gabe Newell took to Steam to tell users exactly what happened:

Dear Steam Users and Steam Forum Users:

We continue our investigation of last year’s intrusion with the help of outside security experts. In my last note about this, I described how intruders had accessed our Steam database but we found no evidence that the intruders took information from that database. That is still the case.

Recently we learned that it is probable that the intruders obtained a copy of a backup file with information about Steam transactions between 2004 and 2008. This backup file contained user names, email addresses, encrypted billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. It did not include Steam passwords.

We do not have any evidence that the encrypted credit card numbers or billing addresses have been compromised. However as I said in November it’s a good idea to watch your credit card activity and statements. And of course keeping Steam Guard on is a good idea as well.

We are still investigating and working with law enforcement authorities. Some state laws require a more formal notice of this incident so some of you will get that notice, but we wanted to update everyone with this new information now.

Gabe

This is a good example of a company being frank and open with their customers about their data. It’s a far cry from Sony’s mishandling of their own hack attack last year that saw the company taking their sweet time to let customers know that their data was compromised.

Remember to take Gabe’s advice, kids. If you still have the same credit card number from 2004 to 2008, watch your bank account like a hawk just in case.

Irrational Games revealed a new mode for BioShock Infinite today – the fittingly titled “1999 mode.”

The new mode is for those of us who remember how difficult, but rewarding, older games were. This mode is especially designed for those who fondly remember games like System Shock 2 that challenged the player with a harder difficulty and more stats to keep track of.

“We want to give our oldest and most committed fans an option to go back to our roots,” Ken Levine, Creative Director of Irrational Games, said. “In 1999 Mode, gamers face more of the permanent consequences of their gameplay decisions. In BioShock Infinite, gamers will have to sweat out the results of their actions. In addition, 1999 Mode will demand that players pick specializations, and focus on them.

The mode came about when the team at Irrational asked players about their individual play styles. They came back with results that said 94.6 percent of players indicated that they used and enjoyed the upgrade choices in BioShock, but they were not permanent either. Those who felt that upgrades, however, should remain permanent constituted 56.8 of respondents.

In addition to the permanent decisions, 1999 mode will demand that players manage their weapon, power and health more closely. It also takes a harder stance on player respawns by sending the player directly to the “Game over” screen if they lack the resources to be brought back to life.

While 1999 mode is cleverly titled, it’s not the first time that game developers have realized that many gamers want a challenge that is reminiscent of days gone by. Fallout: New Vegas from Bethesda and Obsidian featured a hardcore mode that forced players to eat and drink to surive as well as other realism factors.

The game will release for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC later this year.

For an idea of what they’re going for with the new 1999 mode, check out the main inspiration for this new mode: Irrational’s System Shock 2 which coincidentally released in 1999.

Consoles were the biggest troublemakers overall, accounting for more than 60% of the total questions posted on the website. In fact, of the top 7 problematic products consoles took the first three spots. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was the most troublesome console, with 5,000 more questions reported than Sony’s PlayStation 3, which in turn had over 30,000 more complaints than Nintendo’s Wii. The biggest problem for Xbox 360 users was the dreaded Red Ring of Death, which signals massive failure of the console’s hardware (usually due to overheating), and was responsible for 45% of reported issues.

Meanwhile, the iPhone topped the list of troublesome smartphones by a wide margin. There were nearly 100,000 complaints about the iPhone, compared to just shy of 40,000 for the second place Samsung Galaxy S. Forty percent of the iPhone complaints dealt with battery life, while a further 15% were concerned with dropped calls.

Apple fared far better in the tablet department, however. The iPad WiFi was at the bottom of the list of tablets, and had less than a third the complaints of the leader, the Coby Kyros. The iPad also got fewer complants than the Samsung Galaxy and the Amazon Kindle, again by a considerable margin.

Did you have any of these problems over the holiday break? Let us know in the comments.

[Source: FixYa]

Now, I’m going to file this one under all but confirmed because it’s not actually confirmed yet, but a fan on twitter asked if Diablo III was coming to consoles. Community manager “Bashiok” confirmed the console port and said that Josh Mosqueira was the project lead on it.

Now it’s rather uncommon for a community manager to confirm a game’s existence before the company makes the official announcement, but it seems legit for now.

Ars Technica did some digging in Mosqueira’s LinkedIn profile and found that he has been a lead game designer at Blizzard since last May. Beforehand, he had worked on Far Cry 3 for Ubisoft and a few games for Relic such as Company of Heroes.

If this is indeed true. It makes perfect sense. While Blizzard’s other games such as Starcraft II and World of Warcraft don’t make sense on consoles, Diablo III is a perfect fit. Torchlight’s release on Xbox Live Arcade last year proved that a loot heavy dungeon crawler could work wonders on a console.

The only doubt is Diablo III’s auction house that allows players to sell and buy equipment for real world money. Microsoft and Sony both have tight control over their platforms to make sure they get a little piece of the pie through any transactions made through their service. An open service like Blizzard’s auction house would have to be axed or monitored heavily if it were to be released on consoles.

Now if only we can get Blizzard to make a new Lost Vikings for consoles, the entire world would be at peace.

As an extra bonus, here’s the incriminating twitter conversation that started it all:

However, if the mischievous Internet collective known as Anonymous has its way, the PlayStation Network (PSN) will once again be brought to its knees. Because of Sony’s support of the SOPA legislation, they are once again a target of the infamous hacking collective. Perhaps these two entities collaborated in order to get more coverage, seeing how the hubbub surrounding both parties, Sony and Anonymous, has been relatively quiet after a busy spring/summer.

While that’s about as ludicrous as it sounds, stranger things have happened. As for Anonymous’ message, here it is, in YouTube format:

Hello, SONY.
We are Anonymous.

It has come to the attention of the Anonymous activist community that you have chosen to stand by the Stop Online Piracy Act. This act will halt online businesses and restrict access to many sites for many users. Supporting SOPA is like trying to throw an entire company from off a bridge. Your support to the act is a signed death warrant to SONY Company and Associates. Therefore, yet again, we have decided to destroy your network. We will dismantle your phantom from the internet. Prepare to be extinguished. Justice will be swift, and it will be for the people, whether some like it or not. Sony, you have been warned.

To those doubting our powers. We’ve infiltrated the servers of Bank of America, The United States Department of Defense, The United Nations, and Lockheed Martin. In one day.

For their approval to SOPA, we have also declared that our fury be brought upon the following persons. Justin Bieber. Lady Gaga. Kim Kardashian. and Taylor Swift.

Operation Blackout, engaged.
Operation Mayhem, engaged.
Operation LulzXmas, engaged.

We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Supporters of SOPA, you should’ve expected us.

There are even instructions listed for those of you who’d like to help Anonymous takedown the PSN:

How to join the attack:
1) Download NetTalk6.exe
2) Connect to this IP address: irc.anonops.li OR ipv6.anonops.li
3) TYPE IN: /join #opsony

It’s surprising that Sony hasn’t asked YouTube to pull the video, considering the directions in the description. Granted, Anonymous could broadcast these instructions over many different web mediums, but the fact remains, the attack directions could be inferred as inciting others to act in a destructive manner.

Nevertheless, since correcting and/or the merciful end of the errors that plagued Sony during the Spring–console hacks, lawsuits that made a certain hacker infamous enough to land a job at Facebook, the downed PSN service debacle that almost resulted in an exodus of PS3 supporters–Sony has been working incredibly hard to improve the moral surrounding its next-gen console.

This includes an impressive “Welcome Back” package that allowed customers to download two free games from the now-restored PlayStation Network. Speaking of the word “inFAMOUS,” that was one of the games included in the free, “we’re sorry” booty.

The latest move by Sony is the aforementioned price drop, which takes $50 off the top of each version of the PS3 console. This means the 160 gigabyte model is now $249.00 and, more impressively, the 320 gigabyte model is now only $299.

Jack Tretton, the President and CEO of SCEA (Sony Computer Entertainment of America), posted about the adjustment over at the official PlayStation blog:

Today, I believe that value becomes even more evident. I’m excited to share with you that effective immediately at retailers throughout North America, the 160 GB PS3 and the 320GB PS3 are now available for $249 and $299, respectively. In addition, a limited edition inFAMOUS 2 bundle is now available at participating retailers across North America. The bundle retails for $299 and includes a 320 GB PlayStation 3, a copy of inFAMOUS 2 and a 30-day membership to PlayStation Plus.

It should be noted that Amazon has not yet adjusted their PS3 prices, at least for the 320 GB model. Maybe tomorrow? The 160 gig already has the updated price.

Naturally, Sony took to Twitter to spread the word, and while one of the announcement tweets were retweed over 100 times, reaction has been fairly muted on the national stage.

It should be noted that it is the promoted Twitter trend of the moment, so it’ll be interesting to see how well Twitter’s new advertising service is working.

While this may not be looked at as a big deal–even the official forums are fairly muted about it–the move is significant in relation to the ongoing Xbox 360/PS3 war. With the price drop move, you can now buy a console with many more capabilities than the 360, at least when it comes to home entertainment, and has a larger internal storage device than Xbox’s largest model–no, the special edition 320 gigabyte models don’t count–for exactly the same price.

70 gigabytes may not seem like a huge gap, but when people are storing movies and other forms of content besides games, and then you throw in the ever-growing size of the game saves themselves, and the difference is noticeable.

With that in mind, expect an Xbox 360 price drop any day now.

The battle between the two parties has been covered extensively. The hacks began after Sony went after hacker George Hotz, who publicized the technique he used to take further control over the console he owned — a capability Sony seemed to support when the PS3 was initially released. Once Sony unleashed their legal department on Hotz, not for the hack, mind you, but to censor Hotz, the war between Sony and Hotz’ supporters was on.

There were many casualties, something a Google search of “sony hacked” reveals quite nicely.

But now, after weeks of attempting to restore the network that provides the Playstation’s online capabilities, it appears as if the entire network is ready to reveal itself, as indicated by the official Sony PS3 blog. According to the post/release, the restored PSN will available to most of the world, save the Far East, and all the services included with the PSN will be available as well:

Sony Corporation and Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) announced today that Sony Network Entertainment International (SNEI, the company) will fully restore all PlayStationNetwork services in the Americas, Europe/PAL territories and Asia, excluding Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea by the end of this week. The company will also resume Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity for PlayStation3, PSP, VAIO and other PCs. Details for Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea as well as the remaining services on Qriocity will be announced as they become available.

What does this mean for PlayStation 3 owners? Fully functional capabilities that the were paid for when the console was acquired, but beyond that, what else? The release indicates additional layers of security were added to the PSN, and considering the verbal reaming Sony took for the previous version, that’s a good thing.

Of course, the scolding Sony received is surely small potatoes when compared to the potential revenue the company lost during its “our network has been hacked” debacle. Losing 171 million dollars has a way of reducing the impact of other admonishments, one would think. That being said, considering the PSN is free to PlayStation owners, clearly, the money Sony lost isn’t primarily from console owner revenue, although, it’s likely the negative stories scared would-be owners away. No, the large sum of money Sony lost comes from securing the network and atoning for any misdeeds caused by the personal information leaks.

As for the restoration, Sony promises the following:

The full restoration of PlayStation Network as well as part of services to become available on Qriocity will include:

Full functionality on PlayStation®Store

In-game commerce

Ability to redeem vouchers and codes

Full functionality on Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity for PS3, PSP, VAIO and other PCs

Full functionality on Media Go

Customers will be able to purchase and download games and video content from the PlayStationStore on PS3 or PSP. In addition, consumers will have full access to Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity through PS3, PSP, VAIO and other PC’s. Service restoration of Video on Demand powered by Qriocity and Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity for a variety of network-enabled Sony devices will be announced later.

The question is, just how long will the current, updated, secured network will stay secured? Is this a case of consumers getting what they pay for, in this case, nothing? Does Sony truly care about a service they aren’t getting revenue from, ala Xbox Live? Time will certainly provide the answers, because it’s not like Sony’s long list of hacker enemies are going to go away quietly.

It’s the circle of ownership in the modern era, apparently.

Sony latest move, confirming the law is indeed on its side, while perhaps ignoring the rights of property owners, and in this case, privacy, allows its legal team to subpoena PayPal. The goal of this quest is the acquire the records of one George Hotz, otherwise known as the infamous GeoHot, the hacker who Sony won a significant gag-order-style ruling against last month.

According to PCMag’s report, the subpoena will allow Sony discover the identity of who or what California entity deposited funds into Hotz’ account. The time period requested in the filing is from January 2009 until February 2011. Considering the jurisdiction of the initial case is being disputed by Hotz, — it was even questioned by the presiding judge, such a window of time gives Sony ample opportunity to strengthen its claim that the state of California is indeed tied to the restraining order trial.

On the hackers’ front, they have apparently struck another blow against Sony’s efforts to negate their work by jailbreaking the latest PlayStation 3 firmware update, version 3.60. Though the reliability of the latest hack is still in question, there is a video of the steps involved, if anyone dares to be so bold. Also, Myce.com has an interview with the hacker who apparently cracked Sony’s latest update.

Lastly, it’s being reported that Sony is running authentication software on the PlayStation Network to determine whether or not connected consoles are jailbroken. If so, they will be nuked from the network, permanently.

Saving the “who’s right” discussion for another day, it’s clear that, critics and questions about the definition of ownership be damned, Sony is out for blood when it comes to cracking down on those trying to hack or jailbreak a PS3.  Besides going after existing hackers, armed with a judicial system that appears to favor Sony’s claims; firmware updates to block currently-successful hacks; PlayStation Network bans; and the apparent development of an “unhackable” PS3; they’re also working on another weapon to use in their little war:

An anti-piracy legal team.

Meanwhile, XBox developers encourage owners to hack the Kinect, but I digress.  BusinessInsider.com found some job listings over at SCEA that mentioned the creation of such a legal team.

Not only is Sony being incredibly headstrong about what they consider a hack attempt, which, to Sony, is tantamount to pirating PS3 games — their true concern here — they are also receiving outspoken support from game developers who don’t appear to understand the concepts of ownership either; or, worse yet, they’re willing to disregard them in order to ensure financial gain.

David Braben is one such developer: "Buying a PlayStation 3 does not give me unrestricted ownership of it. If I ‘dig’ into it, I can’t just sell or even give away all the information I find."  Braben goes on to say that people who broadcast PlayStation 3 hacking methods should be condemned.

I’m guessing that sound logic doesn’t apply to Kevin Butler.

Over at the Playstation 3 blog, a post discussed Sony Computer Entertainment’s statement concerning the “GeoHot” hubbub and how the act of PS3 jailbreaking is viewed around Sony’s parts.  Essentially, the posting echoed SCE’s sentiments about how they plan to terminate any PlayStation Network account if the user is found to be using hacked hardware; a necessary requirement if players are trying to cheat during games.

Just a friendly reminder

The Sony PS3 blog says:

While I fully support the right of consumers being allowed to do pretty much whatever they want to an item after they purchase it, I also support Sony’s stance of banning cheaters.  If you want to hack/jailbreak your system, Sony shouldn’t be allowed to stop you.  However, if you try connecting to their online/multiplayer game network with plans on using an aimbot on the latest Call of Duty, you should be punished if you get caught.

It’s a pretty simple concept, and one that clearly has a great deal of support from the PlayStation 3 community.  A quick glance at the mountain that is the 648 reader comments that have been added to the post — so far — finds almost unilateral support for Sony’s chest-puffing.  Here are some examples; although, I think the first one is confused by the various definitions for the word “pirate.” 

The line breaks have been removed to conserve space.  All other [sic]s are left as they were found:

Ftwrthtx  |  February 16th, 2011 at 9:05 am

Well said. Pirates should be treated like the dirt they represent.  A Somali pirate just got 33 years in prison.

Myke-Myke  |  February 16th, 2011 at 9:05 am

Thx. I support you Sony in this. I don’t want my experiences online to be crappy cause people wanna cheat.

teradome  |  February 16th, 2011 at 9:10 am

Yep. “unauthorized or pirated software” isn’t just about not getting paid for software, it’s about people modding and hacking that software to support exploits, aimbots, etc.., all the things that make online play maddening and unsatisfying.  As community members, who want fun and fair experiences with our online games, supporting Sony on this is pretty much a mandatory.

There are a couple of cries of hacker support, but these are largely drowned out, at least, during the first few pages.  I didn’t go through every comment, but looking at the last page, the content is about the same.  A few “Go Sony”s and an ongoing discussions about how the PS3 Move’s “eye” is monitoring user behavior. 

There is, however, someone who gets the big picture quite nicely:

HollyPollins  |  February 17th, 2011 at 4:56 pm

There’s a really big picture that a lot of people are missing.  When you bought the PS3, you did gain ownership of that console. As long as that Playstation is never connected to the internet, you preserve the privilege to do WHATEVER your heart wishes with it. For instance, if the system is offline, the update was never prompted. You still have the Other OS option! If the PS3 is offline and you want to hack it until it screams your name, Awesome. 

**Bottom Line** It’s your PS3 system, not your Playstation Network. Sony runs the network. If your ps3 is hacked and not connected to the internet, you never received the email asking you to uninstall the hack because that’s how they knew where to send the email.

Clearly, the lesson is, if you’ve hacked your PS3, stay away from Sony’s online game service.  Or don’t.  It’s up to each individual. If you want to grief other users with your “sick aimbot skillz,” don’t get mad when Sony kills your PlayStation Network account for good.  True, such a move doesn’t brick the system, but it does brick the idea of online play — at least with other, legitimate-in-Sony’s-eye, users.