The PSN error 8001050F which kept PS3 (fat) owners off their systems, by Sony's advisement, appears to be fixed. Forum users around the interwebs are announcing functionality returning to their console, and I myself with my 60 GB fatty have encountered no problem signing into the PSN or playing some Uncharted 2. Things appear to be fine now, although Sony has made no official announcement.

Bet you didn't know your console could be floored by a teensy little clock sync bug, did ya? Let us hope this eventful day is one of a kind and nothing more than that.

A bug in the original PlayStation 3 models has left the systems unable to access the PlayStation Network. The issue surfaced last night, suggesting that the problem is related to a calendar bug. Sony quickly issued a statement addressing the widespread outage.

"We have found out that some users are experiencing a network connection failure when signing on to PlayStation Network," SCEE said in a statement. "We are currently looking into the issue to identify the cause of this network connection failure and will update further information as necessary (on the Blog or official website). We appreciate for your understanding and continued support."

What's worse is that systems offline are also affected, including PS3 debug kits used by the press and developers. Some PS3 hard drive content cannot be started at all, and titles that synchronize trophies are also unable to launch.

Sony has not yet offered a solution to the problem but says a fix is coming in the next "24 hours."

[via GI.biz]

The PSP hasn't exactly been the most steady platform in the industry, especially with the outright miserable launch the PSPgo experienced. Industry Gamers recently spoke with SCEA Senior Vice President of Publisher Relations, Rob Dyer, about the current state of the PSP and what Sony is planning to do about it. Dyer explains how piracy has really hurt the PSP but says that they are addressing it. He also promises that "big" games will be coming to the platform this year.

"I think we had a great lineup last year. The biggest problem that plagued PSP was piracy; we have not been able to slow that down," said Dyer. "We think we have some answers going forward, but we're not ready to talk about that publicly at this point. So we're working on fixing that, because that's been a big problem. Publishers, when they put out good games, are not getting the same sales results that they got a few years back. So piracy's been a big issue and we're working on that very diligently to bring about some solutions.

"That said, we still have a very robust lineup this year from third parties on the PSP, starting with Metal Gear Peace Walker," he continued. "I won't go through the whole lineup because I want our third-party partners to make those announcements, but there are some big, big titles coming out this year and you'll see those announcements at GDC, DPS (Destination PlayStation) or E3. We're into the sixth year now on the platform, and that's a long time for a handheld. I think given where we're at right now, we're doing very, very well. But yes, the business has had problems and I think it all stems, candidly, from the piracy."

[via TVGB]

A patent, spotted by GoRumors, has been dug up that suggests Sony is working on a controller that will work with the Xbox 360, Wii and PS3.

"Just like remote controls, game consoles, and thus game controllers, are becoming widespread," reads the patent filing. "It is not surprising to find more than one game console in a household, especially when competing game console manufacturers attempt to attract unconventional consumer groups in the gaming industry.

"As understood herein, it would be useful to have a universal controller that would be able to work with a variety of game consoles."

The controller is said to be an LCD display that shows different layouts depending on the console used.

"A game console controller includes a hand-holdable housing and a touch sensitive liquid crystal display (LCD) on the housing. The LCD is caused to present, depending on what type of game console a user has selected, a controller key layout for a first type of game console or a controller key layout for a second type of game console," it describes. "A key layout includes plural keys selectable by a user to input commands to a game console."

Adding on to his criticism of Microsoft, SCEA senior VP of publisher relations Rob Dyer took a shot at Nintendo, saying that third parties are leaving the Wii and DS.

"What publishers have said is they're not going to spend the resources on Wii," the Sony exec told Industry Gamers. "In my job, we compete against Microsoft and Nintendo, and we're competing for resources.

"So when I walk into a publisher, I ask, 'Where are you guys pushing your resources?' In the past, it was 'look how hot the Wii is,' or 'Look how hot the DS is,' and 'we should put resources there.' They did that and realised, 'You know what, third-party products just doesn't sell on that platform.'"

Dyer says publishers are instead shifting their resources towards the PlayStation 3 as a result of Nintendo's weak third-party platform. "Now they're taking those resources, coming back to us and saying, 'Sony, we're going to be able to provide you with that exclusive content,' or 'We're going to put more engineers on it and figure out to maximize the Blu-ray and get more out of PS3.' That's what we're seeing now.

"And I don't even have to fight for their hearts and minds," he claimed, "I just show them the TRST data with regards to how many top 10 titles are third-party titles on the Wii, or how many top 10 titles are third-party titles on the DS. Not many.

"It's not a hard story to sell, and they get that. Unless they've got a particular franchise that's worked well on the Wii, you don't see a lot of innovative new IP coming out on that platform."

[via CVG]

Although the PS3 had a bit of a rocky start, 2009 was a big year for the console with the release of the Slim model. SCEA senior VP of publisher relations Rob Dyer believes the PS3 is "better for publishers than 360," and the price cut had a "huge impact" on Sony's sales. With that, Dyer took some shots at Microsoft and its Xbox 360.

"They had a year's head start against us, so we've been playing catch-up ball," he explained. "Before the price cut, they had a two-to-one advantage; if you were a third-party publisher looking at the index, you should have been selling twice the number of units on the 360 as you would on the PS3."

Dyer also criticized Microsoft's first-party labels, saying they don't have enough strong labels or an internal development studio.

"They have very few first-party studios at Microsoft. Bungie's next Halo is the last one, Rare rarely puts out anything, you've got Peter Molyneux with his Fable stuff...but they don't have first-party development studios inside at Redmond or anywhere for that matter," he added.

"We do," he countered. "So rather than putting their money behind that, they've been going to Epic or Valve or BioWare to do what they did with Mass Effect, and that's where they throw their dollars.

He concluded by saying, "Candidly, we're not going to compete with Microsoft on that front, but what we have is a global business here. Our global business is bigger than 360's and will continue to get bigger than 360, and people are seeing that. We passed them in Europe and they don't even exist in Japan, and we're going to catch them and pass them here in the U.S. as well."

[via Industry Gamers]

Speaking with NowGamer, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter gave his thoughts on the console war, specifically with regards to Sony and Microsoft's motion-control devices. According to him, there's a few factors that will determine the "winner."

"The key to success with a retrofitted motion controller is penetration," said Pachter. "If price points are high, it is unlikely that Natal or Sony's motion controller will sell many units; if they are very low, they will sell a lot more. Without a meaningful installed base of consoles with the new motion controllers, developers will not be able to cost justify development of games that require motion control.  Therefore, it’s a chicken and egg problem."

Pachter expects Microsoft's Natal to outsell Arc because it will likely have a lower price tag, meaning greater accessibility to a wider audience.

"My uninformed opinion is that Microsoft will price relatively low (around $50), and Sony will price higher (around $100), and that suggests that Microsoft will have greater success," he added.

SCEE has confirmed that EyePet 2 is on the way. Sony Europe boss George Fornay made the announcement in an interview, saying that the PlayStation Eye game is currently in development, and it may even release as early as this year.

It comes as a bit of a surprise since the game didn't do terribly well in Europe, and it hasn't even released in North America yet. I guess Sony still thinks the game has untapped potential. Any chance we could see Arc support for it? That's right, I called it Arc.

[via Destructoid]

Discussion surrounding the possibility of fees coming to PlayStation Network have been floating around for the better part of two months. It was pretty evident that Sony was planning on rolling out some new premium, subscription-based services. They've come clean today, saying that the company is indeed "actively" considering the idea.

"It's been our philosophy not to charge for it from launch up until now, but Kaz recently went on the record as saying that's something we're looking at," said Sony's Peter Dille. "I can confirm that as well. That's something that we're actively thinking about. What's the best way to approach that if we were to do that? You know, no announcements at this point in time, but it's something we're thinking about."

It sounds like they're pretty sure about it, so it's only a matter of time now. However, Sony has assured PS3 owners that the gaming side of things will remain free. The charges would just be for additional content.

[via IGN]

Sony expects to surpass Microsoft in sales very soon, and "it's  not going to take long." Peter Dille, Sony's VP of marketing and head of the PlayStation Network, made the statements, even going so far as to say the Xbox 360 won't be around in 10 years.

"I don't think they'll be around in 10 years, so I'm very confident we'll pass them within that time frame," he told IGN. "I mean, we've got 31 million [units sold] worldwide right now -- they've got 39 million [units sold]. I don't even need to go out 10 years. I'm not going to make any predictions for your interview today other than we'll pass them, but you look at where we are today and where they are today, and they had an opportunity to sprint as far ahead of us as possible when they had the head start. Well, we're breathing down their necks and they can see us in the rearview mirror and it's not going to take too long to pass them."

Those are some pretty ballsy words. Can the PS3 pass up the Xbox 360, or has it been too costly (particularly around its launch) to catch up?