SEN (formerly Qriocity) is the name given to Sony’s online streaming services – games, music, movies, and ebooks. Now, users will have to use their SEN accounts to sing into PSN.

According to Sony, this is a rebranding exercise with the explicit purpose of pulling everything under one umbrella. They want everything that they offer to all run through the same account.

So, what’s going to change for PSN users? Not much, really. This is a change in name only – usernames and passwords will all remain untouched. A software update will bring the name change on both the PS3 and eventually the new Vita handheld, but interestingly enough, not the PSP.

This rebranding comes after a tough 2011 for Sony’s Playstation Network. A giant hack took down the PSN for weeks last Spring, and users were less than pleased regarding how Sony handled the whole situation.

Check out the full email to users for details on a few policy changes:

On February 7, 2012, Sony Network Entertainment International LLC (“SNEI”) will update its Terms of Service and User Agreement and its Privacy Policy. As a part of this update, your “PlayStation®Network account” will be renamed a “Sony Entertainment Network account”

The first time you sign in to your Sony Entertainment Network account on or after February 7, 2012, you will be asked to agree to the new Terms of Service and User Agreement and Privacy Policy with SNEI if you wish to continue using your Sony Entertainment Network account. Please review all changes to the Terms of Service and User Agreement and Privacy Policy carefully before indicating your agreement.

In particular, these are some of the additions and changes we have to these agreements:

New terms for parents of minor, subaccount holders regarding the limitations of chat parental controls. Your reacceptance of the Terms of Service and User Agreement and Privacy Policy affirms your consent to the sharing of your child’s data that may occur if your child utilizes certain communication functionalities on PlayStation devices such as PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita systems.

New terms that explain the location-based services offered through the PlayStation Vita system. For parents of minor, subaccount holders your reacceptance of the Terms of Service and User Agreement and Privacy Policy affirms your consent to your subaccount holder’s user of these services on the PlayStation Vita system.

A description of our “What’s New” section, which provides topical information about our services and advertisements.

Information about pre-ordering content.

The name of your “PlayStation Network account” is changing to a “Sony Entertainment Network account.”

You may click here to review the changes to the Terms of Service and User Agreement and you may click here to review the changes to the Privacy Policy.

The rebranding of PlayStation Network accounts to Sony Entertainment Network accounts is a change in name only. Your username or password will not change, nor are we asking you to change them. On Sony Computer Entertainment’s PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita systems, this rebranding will occur in connection with software updates for these devices. (Note, this change will not be applied to the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system at this time.)

This transition is based on Sony’s goal to enhance its unique digital entertainment offering. As a series of these activities Sony started last September, PlayStation Network will be aligned with “Sony Entertainment Network.” This helps us get closer to our goal of establishing a global comprehensive network platform of services across games, movies, music and more, all accessible from one convenient account.

The Sony Entertainment Network account also enables use of Sony’s compelling non-game services such as Music Unlimited, Video Unlimited and PlayMemories Online (currently called Personal Space) across a variety of network-connected devices. If you do not agree with the new Terms of Service and User Agreement or Privacy Policy, you may decline to accept them, and you will no longer be able to access your account.

If you wish to close your account or request a refund of your wallet balance, or have any questions, please contact Customer Service by clicking here. For more information, please click here.

Thank you very much for being a customer!

Sony has been alone in the world of Google TV since LG discontinued their own line of Google TV devices. Several of Sony’s competitors, however, debuted Google TV compatible devices during this year’s CES earlier this month.

Those with Sony Google TV devices – whether set-top box or TV – should be prompted to install the update when they turn their device on. If not, however, a manual update can be performed from the device’s system menu.

Do you have a Google TV? Are you excited about being able to watch Blu-ray discs in 3D? Sound off in the comments.

That is what was hinted at CES this week when Nanea Reeves, CPO of Gaikai, predicted that one of the current console makers would be making a next generation device. Gaikai is a cloud-based gaming company that streams full games to web browsers.

At a panel titled, “The State of the Games Industry” panelists were asked about current and future trends that will affect the games industry. During this panel, Reeves was quoted by Industry Gamers as saying, “I think some will have one more cycle and I think others will not. I think that will be the big news at E3. That’s just my prediction.”

She declined to say which one she thought would drop out, but she remained adamant that one of the three console manufacturers would.

To add fuel to the fire, Mike Vorhaus of Magid Advisors, said that he thinks Nintendo would announce their dropping out of next gen hardware.

The only thing wrong with that is that the Wii U is their next console that debuted last year at E3 and is still being shown at trade events like CES.

The other two, Sony and Microsoft, present other theories. Sony has already confirmed that there won’t be a showing of their next generation of hardware at E3 and Microsoft has said nothing. There have been unconfirmed reports though of the next Xbox being a tablet-based Windows 8 experience.

My personal opinion is that it’s too early to tell. As E3 in June draws closer and more details are revealed, it might be easier to make a conclusion. It could have just been wishful thinking on the part of Reeves as her company is focused on cloud gaming, which is in direct competition with the convenience of physical media-based consoles.

Either way, it’s an interesting way to start the year and to get the speculation rolling. The last major player to drop out of the console race was Sega in 2001. If it were to happen again, it would be the biggest news of the year.

NPD data was released today that cemented Microsoft’s position as the leader of 2011 in video game sales. That $6.7 billion worth of sales equated to Microsoft’s sales accounting for 40 percent of all video game sales in 2011.

The entire industry made between $16.3 and $16.6 billion in 2011. This includes both retail and digital game and hardware sales. The sales are down 2 percent when compared to 2010.

New physical content at retail still accounts for the majority of video game sales. Retail generated about $9.3 billion, an 8 percent decrease from last year.

HD console software sales were up 9 percent in 2011. Used games, full-game digital downloads, downloadable content and mobile gaming app sales were up as well.

“Overall industry results are not entirely surprising given that we are on the back end of the current console lifecycle, combined with the continued digital evolution of gaming. Core gamers continue to be engaged and spend on established franchises across both the digital and physical format using multiple devices for different gaming occasions,” Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group, said.

This ties into December seeing only 6.3 million console sales, down from 8.4 million a year ago. This is the lowest level since 2005 which was at the end of the previous console cycle. These are usually the signs of a new console cycle starting up soon.

December was the main factor that brought the year’s sales down. December is typically a strong month for software and console sales, but the NPD notes that sales were down across most software and hardware that month. In fact, the only two platforms to see an increase in sales in December were the DS and 3DS.

The top 10 best-selling games in December were:

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3, Wii, PC)
2. Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360, PS3)
3. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (360, PS3, PC)
4. Mario Kart 7 (3DS)
5. Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)
6. Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2)
7. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (360, PS3, PC)
8. NBA 2K12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2, PC)
9. Super Mario 3D Land (3DS)
10. Batman: Arkham City (360, PS3, PC)

The top 10 best-selling games of 2011 were:

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3, Wii, PC)
2. Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360, PS3)
3. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (360, PS3, PC)
4. Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)
5. Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2)
6. Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, Wii, NDS, PC)
7. Batman: Arkham City (360, PS3, PC)
8. Gears of War 3 (360)
9. Just Dance 2 (Wii)
10. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (360, PS3, PC)

The December and annual sales, even though they are down, represent the fact that gaming is a huge industry that continues to strive. With the increase in mobile gaming and the proliferation of digital sales, it can only get better.

Also, with new hardware like the PlayStation Vita and Wii U launching this year, there should be some good news and sales for video games in 2012.

It’s an interesting question that has raised a lot of eyebrows the past few weeks as more and more publishers and developers have risen up in opposition to the dangerous legislation.

The ESA issued a statement to Joystiq on why they support SOPA last week. Here it is in its entirety:

“As an industry of innovators and creators, we understand the importance of both technological innovation and content protection, and do not believe the two are mutually exclusive. Rogue websites — those singularly devoted to profiting from their blatant illegal piracy — restrict demand for legitimate video game products and services, thereby costing jobs. Our industry needs effective remedies to address this specific problem, and we support the House and Senate proposals to achieve this objective. We are mindful of concerns raised about a negative impact on innovation. We look forward to working with the House and Senate, and all interested parties, to find the right balance and define useful remedies to combat willful wrongdoers that do not impede lawful product and business model innovation.”

That last paragraph is especially interesting. They claim that they support the House and Senate so they obviously support SOPA and PIPA but are looking for ways to stop piracy that “do not impede lawful product and business model innovation.”

They could achieve this goal to “not impede” by supporting the OPEN Act, the safer alternative to SOPA. The ESA has not updated their stance, however, so it’s safe to assume that they are still firmly in the pro-SOPA camp.

The problem with developers and publishers is that they are represented by the ESA. This makes all of them supporters of SOPA by association.

Sony, Nintendo and EA, all members of the ESA, listed their support for SOPA. They had removed their support after some anger, mostly at Sony, arose from the depths of the Internet. Of course, when asked by Joystiq, EA said, “EA never expressed a position for or against SOPA.” I think putting the company’s name on the list of SOPA supporters firmly planted them in the for SOPA camp.

Some developers that are represented by the ESA have stood up against SOPA though. The list is still really small unfortunately. The confirmed list is Epic Games, 38 Studios, Mommy’s Best Games, Trion Worlds, Major League Gaming, Riot Games, Nvidia and Red 5 Studios. Out of all those companies, only Epic, 38 Studios, Trion Worlds and Nvidia are members of the ESA. They are a minority where as the other publishers just seem to delegate any concerns over SOPA to the ESA.

Capcom was the first to do this as they said that the ESA represented them in legislative matters. They then doubled back and said that they never claimed to support SOPA and that anybody inferring that from their statement was practicing bad journalism. I hate to break it to you, Capcom, but SOPA is a legislative matter.

Sega was even worse when a fan asked for their position on the matter. Sega sent back a form letter telling the concerned gamer that they need to “hard reset” their device. They apologized later for the answer, but still gave no official stance on the subject.

Once again, this is the main problem. By remaining silent, these publishers are supporting SOPA and the ESA.

That’s where you, the gamer, comes in. Keep pestering these publishers to actually say something about it. The more publishers that come out against SOPA, the more likely that the ESA would drop their support for it. This can’t be done by a few dedicated concerned gamers though. Get your friends, your clans, your guilds and everybody else in on this.

Gamers are a powerful force that have and can achieve a lot. Making publishers and developers formulate an opinion on SOPA independent of the ESA should be a piece of cake. We just need to show them our sheer force and numbers.

The companies that have yet to make a stance are 505 Games, Deep Silver, Disney Interactive, Eidos Interactive, Ignition Entertainment, Konami Digital Entertainment, Level-5, Namco Bandai Games, Natsume, Nexon America, Perfect World Entertainment, Square Enix, Take-Two, Tecmo Koei, THQ, and Ubisoft.

Getting a stance, even a pro-SOPA one, is an important step in this fight. Without knowing, we are left to just assume they are supporting it. Don’t let them delegate this stuff to the ESA. It’s too important to just let them delegate everything to them.

Reddit can do a black-out, every tech company can voice their dissent but gamers are a large force that can make things happen.

Demand action and the ESA will have to notice.

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]

Sony, never one to leave well enough alone, announced at CES the next-generation of televisions with the crystal LED display. The company is using a 55-inch prototype model to show off the new technology.

The new display is self-emitting that uses Sony’s method of mounting ultrafine LEDs in each of the RGB colors, equivalent to the number of pixels. There are approximately six-million LEDs in full HD. The light source is mounted directly on the front of the display which will increase light use efficiency and more importantly, a much more vibrant and colorful picture. The display will be able to produce images with higher contrast, wider color gamut, superb video image response time and wider viewing angles when compared to current LCD and plasma displays. The power consumption is also extremely low at under 70W which is pretty amazing considering the technology.

The new technology is ideal for large screens with 55-inch displays only being the beginning. With any new display technology, smaller screens are the best place to start. The fact that the small start is a 55-inch is extremely promising. I would not be surprised to see this new technology leading the charge to ridiculous heights like a home theater system that’s equatable in size to an actual theater screen. Bigger is always better especially with televisions.

Sony wants to bring crystal LED displays to professional and consumer use at some point in the future, but we’ll just have to deal with giant 80-inch or tiny 4mm thick televisions for now. I think we can wait.

Sony at CES announced the new Wi-Fi enabled Bloggie Live HD Camera. The device is significant because it is integrated with Skype’s Qik Video service.

The Bloggie Live camera is a fully featured video recorder that features 8GB of internal storage, full 1080p HD video, 12.8 megapixel still shots, 3-inch touchscreen, records in MP4 format and its Wi-Fi enabled as its full name suggests.

The real kicker with this device is not so much that it’s a video recorder because there are already plenty of devices, including your smartphones, that do that. The device can upload through it’s Wi-Fi connection all the videos the user takes to Facebook, YouTube and PlayMemories Online.

The device can also broadcast live which is a major plus as live streaming on phones is still somewhat iffy. It also allows people with compatible devices to comment on the live stream as it’s being recorded with their comments popping up on the Bloggie Live’s screen.

The device was revealed to be fully compatible with Qik Video service on Skype’s blog. This allows the Bloggie Live to do all of its live streaming magic. It also features Qik’s full suite of video sharing features.

With phones becoming more and more advanced, it’s going to be harder for devices like the Bloggie Live to stand out. A lot of what it can do can already be done by smartphones. Heck, Qik was made for smartphones.

It’s still a nice device since there’s gonna be a market for dedicated mini-recorders for a few more years at least. The move towards Wi-Fi enabled video recorders will definitely extend their life as there are still consumers who prefer devices that are dedicated to a singular function unlike smartphones that are a jack of all trades and master of none.

The Bloggie Live HD Camera will be available on January 11.

Sony announced during CES their first LTE smartphone, the Xperia ion. The phone is significant for more than just its specs. It’s the first phone from Sony to drop the Sony-Ericsson label in favor of just Sony.

The Xperia ion features a 4.6-inch HD display at a 1280 x 720 resolution that is sure to provide brilliant video. While it’s not as crazy as the HTC Titan II, the Xperia ion has a camera that more than makes for up its smaller size at a not-too-shabby 12 megapixels by featuring Sony’s new Fast Capture technology that has the phone going from standby to shoot mode in 1.5 seconds. Both the front and rear cameras provide HD recording capabilities as well.

“With Xperia ion, we’re bringing together several firsts that will take users beyond the smartphone,” Paul Hamnett, President, Sony Ericsson North America said. “Designed to deliver a seamless experience across the multiple screens we use to play, watch, listen, and share, Xperia ion is the gateway to entertainment when and – most importantly – where you want it.”

Xperia ion will also boast its access to the massive Sony Entertainment Network. Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited provide tons of choices for consumers. The device is also PlayStation certified so it will offer some of the best gaming experiences that a smartphone can deliver.

The phone’s innards feature a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 16GB internal flash storage and runs on Android 2.3.

The most interesting feature is the devices’s ability to display on a variety of screens using DLNA, HDMI or Sony’s own Bravia sync service. This means that users will be able to transfer the display and information from their phones onto their TV, tablet, laptop or other smartphones.

CES 2012 is already proving to be the year that every manufacturer tries to bring something new to the smartphone arena that is actually worthwhile. Sony has made one of the best cases so far for their new device. The ability to transfer a phone’s display to a TV or any other device for that matter might end up being a major game changer for smartphones, but we have yet to see.

Expect to see the Xperia ion from AT&T in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, there are products from Samsung, Sony, Vizio, and more still in the pipeline. Last week Google made an announcement about the new partnerships, and published a video showcasing some of the new features coming to a Google TV near you. Check out the video below, and let us know what you think in the comments.