Joystiq

Rumor: Maxis insider claims SimCity servers not essential

Mike Schramm — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:45:00 EST

Though EA's official stance on SimCity's persistent Internet connection has been that it's absolutely required for the core game to function, a report from Rock, Paper, Shotgun claims that is not the case. An inside source who asked to remain anonymous told RPS the online servers are "not handling any of the computation done to simulate the city you are playing."

According to the source, the servers are coordinating social messages between cities in a region, as well as "cloud storage of save games, interfacing with Origin, and all of that. But for the game itself? No, they're not doing anything."

Even when the servers go down, certain cities have stayed online and playable for a period of time, suggesting off-site computation is not entangled in the main gameplay loop. The RPS source claims servers are also being used to repeatedly check for instances of hacking and cheating - and the game's verification messages to servers are creating queues and hampering responsiveness.

Finally, the source casts doubt on EA's claims that a single-player version of this SimCity would be impossible to produce. "It wouldn't take very much engineering to give you a limited single-player game without all the nifty region stuff." EA's current public reasoning about why the game needs to stay online has done little to quell frustration voiced over the game's tremendous launch issues.

Joystiq has contacted EA for comment regarding the source's claims.

Rumor: Maxis insider claims SimCity servers not essential originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Anonymous: PSN hacked again, 10 million accounts at risk [update: Perhaps not]

JC Fletcher — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:20:00 EST

A tweet by hacker group Anonymous links out to a document titled "Sony Hacked (LEAK) Playstation Network Pwned," containing a list of email addresses and what appears to be hashed passwords.

The hacker claims to have about 50 gigabytes of information beyond what's in the document, and about 10 million accounts are "at risk." "Yes, if you play PlayStation Network, you're included <3." So yeah, change your passwords, remove your credit card info from your account. Unfortunately, you know the drill by now.

Update: Kotaku reports that the list in the Pastebin doc is a copy of a seemingly unrelated list of email addresses from March 2012, called "Email accs! // universe security sucks." The PSN hack, in other words, appears to be a rumor that didn't turn out to be true. We're checking with Sony regardless.

Still, when was the last time you changed your password?

Anonymous: PSN hacked again, 10 million accounts at risk [update: Perhaps not] originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How GeoHot went from winning science fairs to instigating the hacker war

Jessica Conditt — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:30:00 EST

Hackers built the Internet. Throughout the 1970s and '80s hackers altered the Internet from a strictly business communications system for the defense department and librarians into a robust online community for anyone with a computer to use as they pleased. The Internet and computer technology is still evolving, perhaps at a a faster, more public rate today, and hackers are still at the forefront of its design. Hackers such as Geohot, the guy who rooted Sony's PS3 early last year.

George Hotz posted the PS3 root key online with a statement reading "I don't condone piracy" in January 2011 and it spread online. Geohot became an unsuspecting martyr in the hacker community when Sony sued him and won an injunction barring him from ever tampering with a Sony product again. Thus began the hacker wars, The New Yorker suggests in a biographical run-down of 2011's events.

Hotz was brilliant in science and technology fields throughout middle and high school, winning $15,000 at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in 2007 and appearing in Forbes and on The Today Show for his technological achievements.

He hacked the PS3 master key while he was high on OxyContin and Vicodin. He didn't condone or participate in any of Anonymous' hacks into Sony's servers, and since his online spotlight has faded he's worked for Facebook, quit and run amok in Panama, and met with Sony engineers curious about his methodology. He has reminders to "Call therapist" on his whiteboard. Geohotz is human, The New Yorker makes sure to point out.

The full story is available here, or we figure you can just watch this eerily similar dramatic recreation of an antisocial programmer's rise to fame. They're both human, after all.

How GeoHot went from winning science fairs to instigating the hacker war originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alleged former THQ staffer sends furious note to board, press

Alexander Sliwinski — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:10:00 EST

An anonymous letter sent to media and THQ's board of directors, allegedly written by a former employee of THQ, rains fire on the company's management and, specifically, CEO Brian Farrell. The letter arrives the same day as THQ announces another strategic realignment, a little over a week after the company had to spin a major cancellation rumor and over a month after THQ's stock dropped below $1.

"It is to the point where having [THQ] on your resume is not a point in your favor. And that shouldn't be the case," the "Formerly Mismanaged" writes. "I'm/We're sending this note anonymously because some of us are still awaiting final checks and others know how little corporations like employees who air their dirty laundry. We feel the need to say something to combat the partial misinformation being written."

The Formerly Mismanaged lays out its belief that the beginning of the end came when the cash rich company went on an acquisition spree years ago, allegedly "with no plan" -- many of those studios have since been shuttered or sold off. Then came what the accuser(s) call bad licensing deals and the most recent business miscalculation with the uDraw tablet, which caused the company to lower its fiscal outlook for the year.

The scope of THQ's problems is expected to come into slightly better focus when it announces its current financial position on February 2. Wedbush Morgan Financial Analyst Michael Pachter has pointed out he believes THQ will generate a "substantial loss" at the end of its fiscal year and that "THQ is at risk of running out of cash by the June 2012 quarter."

You can read the entire letter by "The Formerly Mismanaged" after the break.

Continue reading Alleged former THQ staffer sends furious note to board, press

Alleged former THQ staffer sends furious note to board, press originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Anonymous after Sony execs, not PSN

JC Fletcher — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:00:00 EST

PlayStation Lifestyle reports that Anonymous has clarified its position regarding attacks on Sony over the abhorrent SOPA law -- keeping in mind that Anonymous isn't a strongly cohesive "group," and so it's not entirely possible to ascribe a single point of view to it.

The opening message on the group's "#OpSony" IRC room was reportedly changed to "NO SOPA! NO ATTACK ON PSN!" In an area for planning "ops," the group suggested that "Doxing [posting personal documents] will occur on Sony executives." Other avenues of attack included hacking Sony websites to place anti-SOPA material.

This attitude is consistent with statements previously attributed to the group, expressing a desire not to inconvenience Sony customers while carrying out protests against Sony.

Report: Anonymous after Sony execs, not PSN originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Anonymous is apparently gearing up to shut Sony down again

Ben Gilbert — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:10:00 EST

The amorphous hacker collective known as "Anonymous" (or entities claiming to be, as it were) has once more announced its intentions to attack electronics manufacturer "Sony Company and Associates." Unlike the previous attack, which crippled Sony's PlayStation Network service during several months in the first half of 2011 and for which the group is suspected of involvement, this time the group pins its reasoning to Sony's support of the Stop Online Piracy Act ("SOPA").

In a video missive uploaded to YouTube, the group declares its intentions to "destroy your network," presumably referencing the aforementioned PlayStation Network employed by Sony's game consoles. It also names several famous targets it plans on going after, from Justin Bieber to Taylor Swift. Hasn't Taylor Swift been through enough, folks?

No timing is given for the purported attack, but we're putting our money on "pretty soon," if at all. Curiously, Anonymous only picks Sony for its scorn, though a variety of other companies across the game industry (including Sony's domestic competitor, Nintendo) have signed on in support of SOPA. Joystiq, as you might imagine, has not, and neither has our parent company.

Update: This post originally listed Microsoft as a SOPA supporter, which is no longer the case.

[Thanks, Doc]

Anonymous is apparently gearing up to shut Sony down again originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Anonymous members say Sony attacks were 'likely' connected to movement

Mike Schramm — Fri, 06 May 2011 21:30:00 EST

The Financial Times reports that two "veteran" members of Anonymous say some element of the organization was "likely" behind the attacks on Sony earlier this month. At least, they're saying that as much as any two people can take credit for a large, essentially unconnected group of strangers. There was an "official" Anonymous movement against Sony called "OpSony," say the veteran members, and according to them, "if you say you are Anonymous, and do something as Anonymous, then Anonymous did it."

That's the problem Sony is having with the non-organization -- members of Anonymous have both now taken credit for and denied being behind the attacks, but since Anonymous is by definition a decentralized, self-defined community, it can't really "take credit" or be held responsible for anything itself.

That said, while the Anonymous movement is hard to pin down, it is made up of a group of real people, and those people are being investigated as "one of the key targets" by US law enforcement. If and when charges are brought in this case, "Anonymous" won't be on the stand -- it's not a real organization you can arrest or subpoena. But the hackers who were reportedly acting in conjunction with the online movement likely will be.

Anonymous members say Sony attacks were 'likely' connected to movement originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 06 May 2011 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Anonymous denies involvement with PSN hack

JC Fletcher — Thu, 05 May 2011 10:30:00 EST

Despite Sony's report of an Anonymous slogan found on a compromised SOE server, the hacking group denied responsibility for the attack in a statement sent to The Guardian. The group claimed that this hack, which resulted in the prolonged (and ongoing) outage of the PlayStation Network and the leak of data from millions of accounts, is not in keeping with Anonymous's MO of fighting organizations' criminal activities with hacks.

"Public support is not gained by stealing credit card info and personal identities," the statement reads. "We are trying to fight criminal activities by corporations and governments, not steal credit cards." The statement showed confidence in Anonymous's lack of involvement: "If a legitimate and honest investigation into the credit card is conducted, Anonymous will not be found liable. While we are a distributed and decentralized group, our 'leadership' does not condone credit card theft." Of course, the "intrusion" could still have been the work of someone who self-identifies as an Anonymous member; that very "distributed and decentralized" structure makes it difficult to identify officially sanctioned actions by those claiming affiliation.

Last month, during intermittent PSN outages, Anonymous issued a release saying that it would not attempt to take PSN down, because it did not want to "severely impact Sony customers."

Anonymous denies involvement with PSN hack originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 05 May 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PSN outage due to 'external intrusion' [update]

JC Fletcher — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 01:00:00 EST

You might have guessed this already, but it's no simple error that's been keeping the PSN down over the last few days, forcing us into productive activities (like writing this) instead of playing multiplayer Spelunker HD. Sony finally came forward on the PlayStation Blog and admitted that "An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services." Sony says it turned off PSN and Qriocity services on Wednesday to investigate this "intrusion" further.

If this is the work of "Anonymous" members, they failed to read their own nebulous organization's press release -- Anonymous supposedly backed off from PSN attacks in early April. It's entirely possible, however, the latest hackers are members of no group other than the loose worldwide confederation of jerks.

Update: PlayStation Blog has provided another update on the outage, explaining, "we are working around the clock" to bring the PSN back online. The update adds, "Our efforts to resolve this matter involve re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure. Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security."

PSN outage due to 'external intrusion' [update] originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 23 Apr 2011 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Anonymous suspends PSN attack

JC Fletcher — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:00:00 EST

According to AnonNews, a community-driven news site for the nebulous hacktivism cooperative Anonymous, a cease-fire is underway in the group's fight against Sony. Over the last week, Sony's websites, forums, and even the PlayStation Network have been intermittently out of commission, allegedly due to attacks from the group.

A press release on AnonNews says that though the group's campaign against Sony will continue in some form, "Anonymous is not attacking the PSN at this time." The group, according to the announcement, is suspending that effort "until a method is found that will not severely impact Sony customers."

Even though whoever wrote this might feel that way, of course, there could still be hundreds of thousands of people out there who feel differently and continue attacking PSN. There's no way of knowing how "official" this announcement is, or even how many Anons were into hacking PSN in the first place. The group is, well, anonymous.

[Thanks, Raniz]

Anonymous suspends PSN attack originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PlayStation Network issues persist as hacker collective continues attacks

Ben Gilbert — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:00:00 EST

Taking to the US and EU PlayStation Forums en masse, PlayStation 3 users continue to report connectivity issues with PlayStation Network today. Starting with the declaration of attack by hacker group "Anonymous" earlier this week, PSN has been experiencing sporadic issues over the past few days -- Sony characterized the outages as "intermittent" earlier this week, and promised that "engineers are working to restore and maintain the services." As of the time of publishing, we have been unable to connect to PSN today through several staff accounts.

According to a Sony EU forum moderator, a trio of error codes could be showing up for affected users (80710092, 80710D36 and 8071053D), though little else is offered in way of information. "We are currently looking into this and I will update the thread as more information becomes available," the post notes.

Additionally, PlayStation Lifestyle reports that a splinter group of Anonymous -- identified as "SonyRecon" -- is apparently going after specific Sony executives, seeking to reveal "names, phone numbers, pictures, home addresses, email, internet protocol address, family members and other data." CEO Sir Howard Stringer is said to be one of the group's targets, among others.

As previously detailed, Anonymous launched the attacks on Sony earlier this week as a sign of solidarity with hackers George "GeoHot" Hotz and Alexander "Graf_Chokolo" Egorenkov, both of whom are currently in litigation with Sony.

PlayStation Network issues persist as hacker collective continues attacks originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hacker group 'Anonymous' attacks Sony and PSN

Ben Gilbert — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:30:00 EST

The amorphous hacking collective "Anonymous" is now fighting a war on two fronts -- while one battle continues to rage over WikiLeaks, a new battle has begun with Sony. As of yesterday, Anonymous is focusing efforts on both PlayStation Network and PlayStation's official website, bringing both down at various points. Sony's PlayStation blog noted the issue yesterday, stating that some folks were "experiencing intermittent service" and saying Sony was "working on finding a solution."

"We are currently investigating, including the possibility of targeted behavior of an outside party, "Sony senior director of corporate communications and social media Patrick Seybold told us this morning. "If this is indeed caused by such act, we want to once again thank our customers who have borne the brunt of the attack through interrupted service. Our engineers are working to restore and maintain the services, and we appreciate our customers' continued support."

A manifesto declaring the group's intentions was posted, which not only declares loyalty to George "Geohot" Hotz and Alexander "Graf_Chokolo" Egorenkov, but also states intentions to "attack your [Sony's] private property because we disagree with your actions." While the group acknowledges this is "wrong," the idea is to mimic what it believes Sony to have done -- restricted the actions of folks trying to use an object they own.

Additionally, Ars Technica reports that the group is encouraging people to show up at Sony stores on April 16 and complain. Nothing quite says "stick it to the man" like complaining to retail employees.

[Thanks, Aaron]

Hacker group 'Anonymous' attacks Sony and PSN originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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$40 XBL Vision camera & UNO bundle detailed by MS source along with prices & dates for other 360 accessories

Dan Choi — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 00:26:00 EST

Filed under: Arcade, PC, Wireless, Microsoft Xbox 360, Driving, First Person Shooters, Online, Simulations, Strategy, Peripherals, Business

Our friendly anonymous source at Microsoft has provided us with a few more details concerning the 360 accessories announced back at E3.

Perhaps the most important involves the bundling of the Xbox Live Vision camera with a wired headset, the popular Live Arcade title UNO, and a month of Live Gold service for $39.99 when it releases in the States on September 19, 2006.

Granted, this is still an unofficial report (based on a leak of "official" info), so understand that you're probably not gonna get much confirmation from MS until they're good and ready to give it. If you'd like information on what other peripherals are coming out "Holiday 2006" (so sometime in the 4th quarter) and at what price, read on for more.

Continue reading $40 XBL Vision camera & UNO bundle detailed by MS source along with prices & dates for other 360 accessories

$40 XBL Vision camera & UNO bundle detailed by MS source along with prices & dates for other 360 accessories originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 02 Jun 2006 00:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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