Sony Releases PS3 3.61 Update Ahead of PSN's Imminent Return 233
Sonny Yatsen writes "Sony has released the PS3 3.61 firmware update as a part of the phased return of the Playstation Network and Qriocity. The new update now requires all PSN users to change their passwords in order to sign back into the PSN service." And several readers are pointing to reports that the network is slowly being spun up. Snips one anonymous submitter: "Sony Japan told customers today that it would begin phased restoration of its services of its beleaguered Playstation Network which has been suffering from an outage for nearly a month. The company would start bringing back its gaming network this Sunday, on a country-by-country basis, and expects it to be completed by May 31."
Re:The problems go much deeper (Score:2, Insightful)
Too late I think.
An outage like this one will cause more than a few to rethink why they spend so much time gaming online. Perhaps the issue may serve a higher purpose and get folks out doing something else.
I'm very curious to see how many will cancel their accounts with SOE after this, and of those, how many will be better off for it.
Why is the whole network linked to credit cards? (Score:2, Insightful)
Seems a big failure on design. If I designed a credit card payment system I would have it only be active in the portion of the network that required people to pay for something.
So... your playstation comes online and you want to sign in and play a game. Ok, the console has been authorized before it should be able to send a token saying "I'm whois let me play games."
In fact, PSN shouldn't really care who you are unless you're trying to buy something. Buying something and playing a game are two fundamentally different things. Your credit card should probably not be linked to the same username that you use for web browsing. There should be two accounts or two privilege levels that require different types of sign-on.
Why does the PSN network care who you are until you buy something? The entire store should still be online and all free downloads available, just no payed downloads until they fix that part. You should be able to play Black Ops without risking your financial future right?
You might say the customer wouldn't put up with the bullshit of having two accounts, or everyone will use the same password twice but:
1. If you explain how it works some people will do the right thing and be protected.
2. We've already put up with crazy amounts of bullshit, like weekly system updates that can't be backgrounded and take forever. Loss of features some people specifically payed for (ps2 compatibility, running Linux), and just a bad UI that can't do simple things like play your mp3 collection while you game or browse the store.
Re:Why is the whole network linked to credit cards (Score:5, Insightful)
You got to love arm chair systems architects. Every thing is easy peasy and obvious. Simple answer is:....
Management has no idea how things work. So they turn everything off at once during a breach. And turn everything back on in small steps with tons of testing along the way. It is a best practice as old as computing.
Re:The problems go much deeper (Score:3, Insightful)
The upside for everyone else - Wii, Xbox, PC - is that they've been playing their games this entire time.
I've been playing my PS3 games for the entire outage without it affecting me in the slightest.
Re:At least it happened to Sony (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The problems go much deeper (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Why is the whole network linked to credit cards (Score:3, Insightful)
Has it actually been confirmed (by Visa, Mastercard, or Sony) that credit card numbers were stolen? Not just anecdotes -- we'd expect a few of the millions of PSN customers to be victims of ID theft anyway.
Re:Fuck you. (Score:2, Insightful)
You don't know the meaning of the term.