Coordinates | 55°45′06″N37°37′04″N |
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Title | PlayStation Network |
Logo | |
Developer | Sony Computer Entertainment |
Type | Online service |
Released | November 11, 2006 |
Status | |
Platform | PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita |
Members | 77 million registered accounts |
Website | Official Japanese websiteOfficial Australian websiteOfficial Canada websiteOfficial European websiteOfficial UK websiteOfficial USA website }} |
At the Tokyo Game Show on September 21, 2006, it was revealed that users will be able to download some of the PlayStation and PSP titles from the PlayStation Network for about US$5–$15, starting with those with the smallest game data.
On May 8, 2007 Sony Computer Entertainment announced PlayStation Network Cards, a form of electronic money that can be used with the Store. PlayStation Network Tickets, available in units of 1,000, 3,000, 5,000, and 10,000 yen, can be purchased at convenience stores throughout Japan. Each ticket contains a 12 character alphanumeric code which can be input on the PlayStation Network to place credits in the virtual wallet. The tickets are available through electronic kiosks at 26,000 convenience stores, including Lawsons, Family Mart, Daily Yamazaki, Ministop and Sunkus. They are also available at 26,000 post office ATMs, although registration is required first at a special mobile website.
A similar PlayStation Network card system based on actual cards instead of tickets was introduced in South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan in Summer 2007 and in Spring 2008 in North America. And latterly the United Kingdom and the EU in October 2009. PlayStation Network Card was also launched in Malaysia in June 2009 in conjunction with the launch of the local PlayStation Store.
On June 29, 2010, a premium PSN subscription service was launched on top of the free PSN service called PlayStation Plus offering exclusive content to its subscribers.
In 2011, Sony sued George Hotz. One of the claims was that he had violated the PlayStation Network's Terms of Use (the PSN User Agreement), which Sony argued constituted a violation of law known as Breach of Contract.
While remaining offline, the PlayStation 3 was unable to play certain Capcom titles that were downloaded from the PlayStation Store. Streaming video providers Hulu, Vudu and Netflix are noted to be inaccessible displaying the same maintenance message. The maintenance message on Netflix can be bypassed, however, and the service can be used (two failed attempts to sign into PSN will allow access to the service).
Sony reported on April 26, 2011 that user data had been obtained by the same hack that resulted in the downtime. This includes names, addresses, email addresses, birthdays, PlayStation Network passwords and logins. It is also possible that profile data, including purchase histories, billing addresses and PlayStation Network password security answers may have been obtained. Sony proceeded to give step-by-step guidelines on how US users could obtain a credit report, place a fraud alert, and freeze their credit file through Equifax, Experian and TransUnion in an effort to prevent identity theft.
On May 1, Sony issued a press release and their sincerest apologies stating that the PlayStation Network would shortly begin a "phased restoration", starting with gaming, music and video services. Sony also announced "a series of immediate steps to enhance security across the network and a new customer appreciation program to thank its customers for their patience and loyalty". On May 5, Sony announced that they would be offering all PlayStation Network and Qriocity account holders in the United States one free year of AllClear ID Plus, an identity theft protection program powered by Debix.
On May 14, 2011, various PlayStation Network services were being brought back online on a country-by-country basis, starting with North America. These services include: sign-in for PSN and Qriocity services (including password resetting), online game-play on PS3 and PSP, playback of rental video content, Music Unlimited service (PS3 and PC), access to third party services (such as Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and MLB.tv), friends list, chat functionality and PlayStation Home. This accompanies a firmware update for the PS3, version 3.61.
In June 2011, Sony launched a "Welcome Back" program following its data breach allowing all PSN subscribers who joined prior to April 20 to download two free PlayStation 3 titles and two free PlayStation portable games. Users also got 30 free days of PlayStation Plus, while users who already were subscribed got 60 free days.
Since Master/Sub accounts are not linked to the PlayStation 3 serial number, which allows users to buy and sell used consoles, they can be used with different consoles as a guest user; therefore a single console can have multiple Master accounts. Although unregistered users can access and browse the PlayStation Store, registration is required to purchase items. Once purchased, items can be downloaded from the PlayStation Store to up to five consoles, however, if the owner account is deleted from a console, the content becomes invalid and is locked.
PlayStation Network launched in November 2006 to coincide with the launch of the PlayStation 3 console in North America and Japan. Due to the delay of the European launch to March 2007, Sony allowed residents of Europe to pre-register their PlayStation Network via PC in order to reserve their favored PSN ID, allowing them to quickly retrieve their details on the day of release.
;Account
;Communication/Community Friend List, allowing for up to 100 players
;Commerce/Entertainment
;Features
Canceled Services:
Room for PlayStation Portable - development halted on April 15, 2010
Online IDs also contain avatars, often associated with certain games or game characters. Downloadable avatars (including premium ones) were made possible with firmware 3.0, but will be made available on the PlayStation Store in time. These avatars are not to be confused with the PlayStation Home avatars, which are 3D representations of the user only used in Home.
"Trophies" are an accomplishment tracking system, introduced to the PlayStation 3 in system software update 2.40 in July 2008. The upcoming portable console PlayStation Vita will be the second console to feature Trophy support for games.
The four different types of trophies—bronze, silver, gold, and platinum—are awarded to players for making specific accomplishments (e.g. completing a level or defeating a certain number of enemies) or reaching certain milestones in games (e.g. reaching a "pro" rank online). Developers can also choose to make certain trophies hidden so that the trophy's value, title and description is not shown until the user has unlocked it. A gold, silver, or bronze trophy is normally awarded based on the difficulty of the accomplishment with each trophy contributing to a 'level' system linked to a player's PlayStation Network profile, with gold trophies contributing more experience level advancement than silver, and silver contributing more experience than bronze. A platinum trophy is automatically awarded to the player once they unlock all other trophies in a game, excluding extra trophies that can only be obtained through downloadable content, and contribute more experience than a gold trophy. However, smaller games such as certain PlayStation Network titles, lack a platinum trophy. Trophies are displayed on a player's PlayStation Network profile screen, which also shows their trophy level.
As of the beginning of January 2009, trophy support would become mandatory for all PlayStation 3 games submitted to Sony for certification.
Video content such as films and television shows are also available from the PlayStation Store on the PlayStation 3 and PSP and will be made available on some new Sony BRAVIA televisions, VAIO laptop computers and Sony Blu-ray Disc players from February 2010.
The service was expanded to the UK, France, Germany and Spain on 20 November 2009. The service launched in other territories in Summer 2010 At the same time Sony started offering movies and TV Shows in Japan whereas before they only offered anime and manga shows. The service was launched in Italy on the 18th May 2010 and Australia on the 20th May 2010. Sony announced at their E3 2010 press conference that the video service will hit Canada on July 1, with other territories to follow the same month.
''FirstPlay'' (previously known as ''Official PlayStation Magazine HD'' or ''OPMHD'') is an electronic magazine similar to Qore, produced by Future Publishing. Released in April 2010, it is available to PlayStation 3 users via the PlayStation Store in the UK. Like Qore, ''FirstPlay'' offers exclusive videos, demos and downloads. but is released weekly instead of monthly.
Title | PlayStation Plus |
---|---|
Logo | |
Developer | Sony Computer Entertainment |
Type | Premium online service |
Released | June 29, 2010 |
Platform | PlayStation 3 |
Website | Official US website }} |
SCEA offered a limited time offer for the one-year subscription, which was additional three-months for free, while SCEE offered one-year subscribers a digital copy of ''LittleBigPlanet'' for a limited time. Regular free bonuses are also made available. These include PlayStation Store discounts and free PlayStation Network games and Downloadable Content (DLC), PSone Classics and PlayStation Minis which the user will own for the duration of their subscription as well as themes and avatars which the user can keep after their subscription has lapsed. PlayStation Plus also offers "Full Game Trials" of some PlayStation Network and retail games, allowing the user to download the full game and use it for one hour (the game expires 1 year after download until the trial has commenced, after which, the trial expires 60 minutes after it has been launched from the XMB). Users can later purchase the game and continue their progress (earned trophies are not added to the users PSN profile until the game is purchased). For SCEA, the first Full Game Trial to be offered was ''inFamous'', while European subscribers get to try out ''Shatter'' and ''Savage Moon''. More titles have been added since. In addition, users who are PlayStation Plus subscribers have the PlayStation Plus icon by their PSN ID. Users can only sign up for PlayStation Plus through the PlayStation Store via the PS3.
On March 9, 2011, Sony expanded the features list for its PlayStation Plus service with the addition of online game save storage. As part of the PlayStation Plus subscription, subscribers are given 150 MB of space in "the cloud" for up to 1,000 save files. Copy-prohibited files can be backed up, with the caveat that users can only restore files that have been deleted from their systems once per 24 hours. This feature came into effect with the introduction of PlayStation 3 firmware v3.60.
As part of Sony's "Welcome Back" program from the PSN outage, Sony offered each user who were PSN subscribers before April 20, 2011 a free PlayStation Plus subscription for 30 days, while already existing Plus subscribers received an additional 30 days to their service plus the amount of days PSN was offline.
PlayStation Home is a virtual 3D social network gaming service for the PlayStation Network. Home allows users to create a custom avatar, which can be groomed realistically. Users can edit and decorate their personal apartments, avatars or club houses with free, premium or won content. Users can shop for new items or win prizes from PS3 games, or Home activities. Users interact and connect with friends and customise content in a virtual world. Home also acts as a meeting place for users that want to play multiplayer games with others.
A closed beta began in Europe from May 2007 and expanded to other territories soon after. Home was delayed and expanded several times before initially releasing. The Open Beta test was started on December 11, 2008. Home is available directly from the PlayStation 3 XrossMediaBar. Membership is free and requires a PSN account.
Home features places to meet and interact, dedicated game spaces, developer spaces, company spaces and events. The service undergoes a weekly maintenance and frequent updates. As of December 2010, since Home's release in December 2008, the number of users has increased from 0.2 to 17 million, the games from the original nine to 236, virtual items from 114 to 7,000 and 25 events to 600 events.
What's New was released on September 1, 2009, with PlayStation 3 system software 3.00. The feature was to replace the existing [Information Board], which displayed news from the PlayStation website associated with the user's region. The concept was developed further into a major PlayStation Network feature, with the [Status Indicator] featuring some of What's New (currently in North America, Japan and Brazil only).
The system displays the What's New screen by default instead of the [Games] menu (or [Video] menu, if a movie was inserted) when starting up. What's New automatically animates even without opening the application, just by hovering over it. The application has four sections: "Our Pick", "Recently Played",, and new content available in PlayStation Store. There are four kinds of content the What's New screen displays and links to, on the sections. "Recently Played" displays the user's recently played games and online services only, whereas, the other sections can contain website links, links to play videos, and access to selected sections of the PlayStation Store.
The PlayStation Store icons in the [Game] and [Video] section similarly to the What's New screen, except that they only display and link to games and the Video Store in the PlayStation Store, respectively.
Life with PlayStation, released on September 18, 2008 to succeed Folding@home. ''Life with PlayStation'' uses virtual globe data to display news and information by city. Along with Folding@home functionality, the application also provides the user with access to three other information "channels", the first of which being the ''Live Channel'' which offers news headlines and weather. Information is provided by Google News, The Weather Channel, the University of Wisconsin–Madison Space Science and Engineering Center, among other sources. The second channel is the World Heritage channel which offers historical information about historical sites. The third channel is the United Village channel. United Village is a project designed to share information about communities and cultures worldwide. A recent update has allowed video and photo viewing in the application. The fourth channel is the USA exclusive PlayStation Network Game Trailers Channel for direct streaming of game trailers.
As access restrictions are based on the address entered by the user and not on IP address, it is possible for users from non-supported regions to use the service. However, this required the user to provide false address information, which is against SCE's Terms of Use.
Category:Multiplayer gaming service Category:Online gaming services Network Network Category:Sony Computer Entertainment
ar:بلاي ستيشن نتورك ca:PlayStation Network da:PlayStation Network es:PlayStation Network fa:شبکه پلیاستیشن fr:PlayStation Network ko:플레이스테이션 네트워크 it:PlayStation Network ms:PlayStation Network nl:PlayStation Network ja:プレイステーションネットワーク no:PlayStation Network uz:PlayStation Network pl:PlayStation Network pt:PlayStation Network ru:PlayStation Network simple:Playstation Network fi:PlayStation Network sv:Playstation Network th:เพลย์สเตชัน เน็ตเวิร์กแพลตฟอร์ม tr:PlayStation Network zh:PlayStation NetworkThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Coordinates | 55°45′06″N37°37′04″N |
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name | Kazuo Hirai |
birth date | December 22, 1960 |
birth place | Tokyo, Japan |
occupation | Executive Deputy President, Sony CorporationChairman, Sony Computer Entertainment |
spouse | }} |
is the Representative Corporate Executive Officer and Executive Deputy President of Sony Corporation, concurrently serving as president of the Consumer Products & Services Group, which includes all of Sony's consumer electronics (including TV, home video, home audio, digital imaging, PC, game, and mobile products) and networked service businesses. He also serves as Chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony and part of the Consumer Products & Services Group. He was noted by ''Entertainment Weekly'' as one of the most powerful executives in the world. Hirai became Chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment on September 1, 2011 and was replaced by Andrew House as President and Group CEO.
It was his interest in games that later brought him into the entertainment business. After graduating from the International Christian University in August 1984 with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree, Hirai was hired at CBS/Sony Inc. (now Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc.), where he was involved in marketing international music within Japan. His hard work and dedication allowed him to rise through the ranks, eventually placing him once again in New York, where he became head of Sony Computer Entertainment Japan's international business affairs office.
With the release of the PlayStation 2 in 2000, Kazuo continued his success, utilizing second-party franchises such as Jak and Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper, and SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs series of games. Under his leadership, SCEA continually managed to retain high profits throughout the sixth generation era.
On November 30, 2006, just under two weeks after the launch of PlayStation 3, Hirai replaced Ken Kutaragi as President of Sony Computer Entertainment. While maintaining his positions at SCEA, Hirai also became chief operating officer of SCEI. Kutaragi himself was promoted to chairman of SCEI, and remained chief executive officer of the group.
On April 26, 2007, it was announced that Hirai will be promoted to President and Group CEO of SCEI, replacing Ken Kutaragi who would retire and instead take up the role of Honorary Chairman.
On April 1, 2011, Sony's consumer electronics, game, and networked service businesses were reorganized into one group, named the "Consumer Products & Services Group." Hirai was promoted to Representative Corporate Executive Officer and Executive Deputy President of Sony Corporation. He oversees the Consumer Products & Services Group. Hirai will also possibly become the successor to Howard Stringer, the current sitting president and CEO of Sony Corporation, who is expected to step down in 2013.
Category:1960 births Category:Living people Category:Japanese businesspeople Category:Sony Computer Entertainment Category:Sony people Category:People from Tokyo
da:Kaz Hirai fr:Kazuo Hirai it:Kazuo Hirai ja:平井一夫This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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