PlayStation Network

This afternoon the folks at Valve have let it be known that they're rolling in with a cool 65 million users total for the Steam gaming network. This number can be compared to the most recent report from Sony on the PlayStation Network working with 110 million users and Microsoft reporting that they're in at 48 million users in Xbox Live. These numbers are not the same as "active users", a number which is much more difficult to grasp.

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Sony has committed to boosting the PlayStation Network in time for the PlayStation 4, after the online game arena faltered at the launch of Grand Theft Auto 5 leaving some players struggling to download or install the hotly-anticipated title. Concerns as to how the PS4 - which will feature bigger game downloads and more online components - would cope when the existing model could not left some would-be PlayStation 4 upgraders second-guessing their next-gen console selection. However, the gaming division's UK boss has insisted, that's not going to be the case.

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Supposing you didn't see the news yesterday, there's word from Sony today that the PSN (PlayStation Network) will be down today starting at 9:15 AM PST until 3:15 PM PST. This is a standard amount of down-time and will affect the PlayStation Store, PlayStation Home community, or any of the account-management settings. This 6-hour period will be spent tuning up and maintaining the PlayStation Network and Sony has assured us the world will continue spinning while the downtime commences.

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As part of its keynote at the Tokyo Game Show, Sony has detailed the PSN aspect that will come with the PlayStation 4, saying that in addition to PSN IDs, gamers will also be able to use their real names. Such a change will facilitate the ability to form more traditional friendship-esque bonds over the PS4 gaming experience, rather than the impersonal nature of random IDs.

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Black Rock Shooter: The Game, spawned by the Japanese media franchise Black Rock Shooter and released by Imageepoch, will be making its way to the United States April 23rd via the PlayStation Network. It will make its way to Europe a day after. The game was initially released on the PlayStation Portable in Japan in August 2011, however, it's just finally made its way on over to us. The game will be available for $19.99.

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Rockstar will be releasing Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories to the PlayStation Network next week. The games will be available for $9.99/9.99 euros/7.99 pounds a piece. These games are the prequels to their PlayStation 2 counterparts, and they bring in a variety of new features introduced in later installments of the franchise, including motorcycles, more in-door environments, clothing options, and more.

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The PlayStation Network has just released the online multiplayer aspect of Uncharted 3 for free. Anyone with a PlayStation Network account can download the online part of the game without actually owning the game. Of course, there are a few limitations that come with this free-to-play release, and there will be micro-transaction features added to the game at later dates. There will be premium packages that players can buy if they want more in-depth multiplayer action.

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This week the folks at the UK-based Information Commissioner's Office have made it clear that under the Data Protection Act they've had "one of the most serious" dealings in history with PlayStation's privacy blunder up for charge here in 2013. The actual offense that's being fined occurred back in 2011 when Sony had a security breach and millions of gamers' information sets were leaked online by hackers. The fine that's being issued is no more than £250,000, this being the maximum the ICO is able to push against a private company.

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Given the number of undesirable people who won't hesitate for a second when it comes to making off with your financial information, there are many gamers who are understandably not willing to pay with a credit or debit card when buying games digitally. Previously, those who didn't want to use a credit card on the PlayStation Store were left with one option: buying a PlayStation Network card and redeeming the code online. Today, however, Sony has announced that US PlayStation Store users can now make payments with their PayPal account.

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Sony is always looking for more ways to make the PS3 standout from the likes of the Xbox 360 and Wii (soon to be Wii U), and one new way its doing that is by putting games on PSN the same day they launch at retail. Unveiled today, Sony's new "PSN Day 1 Digital" program will kick off in October with the release of Resident Evil 6, letting users purchase and download full, new games on launch day right from their couch. Even better is that PS Plus users will get to enjoy a 10% discount in some cases.

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In addition to announcing a brand new, super-slim PS3 model at the Tokyo Game Show, Sony finally gave a time frame for the arrival of PlayStation Plus on PS Vita. Sony announced that PlayStation Plus would be coming to PS Vita back at Gamescom in July, but today it announced that PS Plus will launch November. Unfortunately, the company didn't get any more specific than that, so it looks like we'll be left waiting for additional details once again.

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Here's something that's rather interesting: Anonymous is claiming that it has hacked the PlayStation Network, making off with information on 10 million accounts. Anonymous announced the hack on its Twitter account just over an hour ago (though that tweet has since been removed), and someone claiming to be "the man behind Anonymous" posted this list of emails and encrypted passwords reportedly stolen from PSN as proof of the attack.

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