It seems Sony has decided to rename PSN to “Sony Entertainment Network” or SEN on February 8th. For now it seems that this is simply a name change, and PSN users are now getting emails regarding the new change.

To quote:

On February 8, 2012, your “PlayStation®Network account” will be renamed a “Sony Entertainment Network account” or a “SEN account” in conjunction with Sony Computer Entertainment’s PlayStation®3 system software and PlayStation®Vita system software updates. (Note, this change will not be applied to the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system at this time.)

For general purposes, this account change is a change in name only. Your username or password will not change, nor are we asking you to change them. In accordance with this transition, some necessary naming changes will be made to the TOS and Privacy Policy.

This transition is based on Sony’s goal to enhance its unique digital entertainment offering. As a series of these activities Sony started last September, PlayStation®Network will be aligned with “Sony Entertainment Network.” This helps us get closer to our goal of establishing a global comprehensive network platform of services across games, movies, music and more, all accessible from one convenient account.

Thank you for your continued loyalty and support during this transition.

Sincerely,
The Sony Entertainment Network Team

What do you guys make of SEN, like it or hate it?

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Hotz8611 has updated his popular homebrew application reActPSN, the first OFFLINE PSN license generator, here is a quote from the read me, followed by the tutorial used in conjunction with the first release.

1. Compatible with reActPSN v2.00.
2. Changed v2.0 backup file format to one zip file, backup speed fast more than 20 times.
Fixed some rap long name bug.
3. Added edat fix mode, this mode working on any CFW, no need aa user or patched vsh.self.
(1) Auto generate XMB purchase full activation edat, no need any raps or official edat files.
Install official LIMBO.pkg TERIS.pkg HCU.pkg,
Run reActPSNv2.10 and keep pressed BUTTON_CIRCLE about 6s, all will be full working.
Higher PS3_SYSTEM_VER also be fixed in SFO files (old save data could not be accessed).
(2) Fix PSone PSP THEME with raps. raps from USB0(1)/exdata/*.rap .
Install official PSone PSP THEME, copy raps to USB0(1)/exdata/ folder(not in subDirs!).
Run reActPSNv2.10 and keep pressed BUTTON_CIRCLE about 6s, all working.
And also fix PARAM.SFO to enable PSP remote, higher PS3_SYSTEM_VER also be fixed.
(3) DLC, in game purchase PSN games not working on this fix mode.
Please using reActPSN v2.00 raps mode. Raps mode is flawless!

Tutorial

***********************************
TUT for how to run full PSN games:
***********************************

1. Install reActPSN v2.00
2. Run it and keep pressed BUTTON_R1 about 6s, make a forced full backup to dev_usb000/reActPSN/BKxxxx.
Backup xx.edat xx.rap to dev_usb000/reActPSN/pubPSN/exdata folder.
3. Download vsh.self patched package, patch your CFW.
3. Import license from exdata folder
Copy exdata folder to USB media root, inserted it to dev_usb000 or dev_usb001 port.
Create a new ps3 account aa
Run reActPSN, auto reboot.
4. Delete all replayGamesN_Cyyyy(v1.1x generation) user account.
5. Enjoy official PSN games now,
Run PSN games.

Download MediaFire
Download MultiUpload

Source PS3Crunch

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A hacker/group by the name of EXEtrimALL have released an assortment of of PSN games and DLC, the games DLC include:

• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Resurrection DLC
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Revive DLC
• Disgaea 3 DLC
• Sword and Soldiers
• Moon Diver
• Metal Slug X
• Dungeon Hunter: Alliance
• Angry Birds
• Shank
• Gatling Gears
• DeathSpank
• Deathspank Thongs of Virtue
• Auditorium HD
• Pixeljunk Shooter 2
• Resident Evil Director’s Cut
• Resident Evil 2: DualShock Version
• Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
• Resident Evil 4
• Final Fantasy VII,VIII,IX
• Metal Gear™ Solid
• Parasite Eve
• Parasite Eve II
• Crash Bandicoot
• Crash Bandicoot® 2: Cortex Strikes Back
• Crash Bandicoot: WARPED
• CTR: Crash Team Racing
• Syphon Filter 1,2,3
• Dino Crisis 1,2
• Metal Slug series

For those of you that state this is supporting piracy, you are wrong, this is merely here for informational purposes.

On the 11th of November, the PS3 celebrated its fifth birthday and we held a competition, where the winner would win $50 PSN/ $50 PayPal credit, here is the winner.

Post #81 won Congrats advocatusdiaboli
Also it shows on the video me highlighting post #84, but that was a mistake, due to tiredness, sleep deprivation, etc and to make up for my retardation i shall throw in a $20 PSN card, for getting markin91 hopes up.

CEO Of Sony, Sir Howard Stringer has recently been interviewed by The Street, in it he speaks of the PSN attacks and states that he believes that they were the victim of a sophisticated vendetta orchestrated by elements within the hacking community, stating it was a revenge attack, due to them going after a hacker who hacked the PS3, here is a quote from the interview:

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Sony(SNE_) has bounced back from a wave of hacking attacks on its PlayStation business earlier this year, according to CEO Sir Howard Stringer, who says that digital assaults are an occupational hazard for major firms.

“The press was on us for four days until somebody else got hacked and everyone realized that hacking is a fact of life,” he said, during a briefing event organized by The Wall Street Journal. “We took it on the chin over and over again — the problem that we have is that we were alone out there, so nobody had anything else to write about that month.”

Sony’s security travails certainly grabbed plenty of headlines. In May, the company confirmed that it was the victim of a massive denial-of-service attack, likely timed to coincide with the hacking of its PlayStation Network. Sony subsequently warned its 77 million users that their private account details, such as passwords, addresses and credit cards, may have been compromised after the network was infiltrated by the unknown hacker.

The Japanese tech giant was even forced to pull the PlayStation Network down while it dealt with the hacking attack, although the service was fully restored in early June.

Not that customers have taken their frustration out on Sony, according to Stringer. “They came back — they were not angry with us,” said Stringer. “They were upset that they had lost their ability to connect to their favorite service.”

The PlayStation network, he added, now has approximately 90 million users.

Stringer also reiterated the company’s belief that Sony was the victim of a sophisticated vendetta orchestrated by elements within the hacking community.

“The target opportunity was a revenge attack, initially — it was because we went after a hacker who hacked PlayStation,” he said. “PlayStation is vital to us, and so we were afraid that it would essentially destroy a PlayStation.”

The CEO explained that Sony has significantly bolstered its security defenses in the aftermath of the hacking attacks. “We have done a lot to stop that,” he said. “We have brought in a lot of forensic studies — we have brought in executives, that you have read about in the papers, that are dealing with this constantly.”

Source

Hotz8611 has released reActPSN v2.00. See the readme below and this pastebin link for more information.

Source and Downloads: PS3Hax

Duplex keep on churning out those releases and at quite a fast rate, so instead of spamming the front page with the news of releases every couple of days, use Sawatis thread to check on new Duplex releases.

Some of today’s games:

Streets of Rage 2
Zombie Apocalypse Never Die Alone

Check the below link for more and remember no posting any links to these games:

Sawatis Duplex PSN Thread

Whether we like it or not, there is another side to the PS3 scene and that is piracy, though many people will not consider downloading these PSN games as piracy as they are only gaining back what Sony stole from them, hundreds of pounds of PSN games can be liberated, so this may be seen as those in the scene as a lesser evil.

Duplex the team responsible for about 95% of PS3 releases, have released a multitude of PSN games, they are listed below:

Xmen Arcade
Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection
God of War Ghost of Sparta HD Music Fix
OutRun Online Arcade
Daytona USA
Resident Evil Code Veronica X HD
Back to the Future Episode 1
Back to the Future Episode 2
Back to the Future Episode 3
Back to the Future Episode 4
Back to the Future Episode 5
Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 1 Launch of the Screaming Narwhal
Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 2 The Siege of Spinner Cay
Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 3 Lair of the Leviathan
Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 4 The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood
Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 5 Rise of the Pirate God
Wizardry Labyrinth of Lost Souls

Now whilst we talk about PSN games being the lesser of evils, the release of retail disc games would be the bigger of the evils and saying that, Duplex have released a week early, the most anticipated game of this year a week early, the game “Uncharted 3″, out of two of the releases i have seen, one is 50GB and the other 49GB, though with 3D being ripped from the game, it should shrink the size quite a bit, the game is only playable on 3.70.

PLEASE NOTE WE DO NOT CONDONE PIRACY, SO NO LINKING FILES, NO LINKING TO WHERE TO GET SAID GAMES ETC.

A PS3HaX member mallory released his tools to reactivate your legally purchased PSN games, here is a quote from his thread:

Here is v2. Now unself2 and readself2 have the NPDRM magic too. Trying to use unself2 on one of my game stops with an unknown section type error. That section is of type 3 and it looks like it is some kind if linking info. Look in the readme for more information.

And a quote from the Read Me:

Based off of gitbrew’s 215d8903bc86539ca1da53519e2ac10eeafc4c27
ps3tools. .git folder not included to protect senstive info about the author.
Sorry about the fucked up tabs, TAB = 4 SPACES 4 LYFE!!!
Add the files in the npdrm_keystuff folder to your ps3 keys folder. Create a
file with your console’s 16 byte IDPS in the ‘idps’ file in your ps3 keys
folder (e.g. ~/.ps3/idps).
Copy your PS3′s exdata folder containing your act.dat and rif files to your
ps3 keys dir (e.g. ~/.ps3/exdata/act.dat). Compile and have fun with your
LEGALLY purchased NPDRM games!

Also works on free games without exdata/idps.

Apologies for any existing bugs in unself. Adding these changes to
unself2 is left as an exercise for the reader.

v2 info:
Added npdrm magic to unself2 and readself2
unself2 doesn’t like the metadata section with type 3 in my game.
This section looks to be some kind of linking information. Here is a snippet:
crt0:p190002crt1:p190002libaudio_stub:p190002libaudio_stub:p190002

I haven’t yet looked around to see if this is type of section is documented anywhere.

Thanks:
fail0verflow for the orginal tools
JuanNadie for figuring out NPDRM
euss for his endless hours of work on the wiki

Why didn’t you beat me to the punch, Team PS360? I didn’t need to reverse a
single instruction! It isn’t that hard…

Source And Download

UPDATE
mallory has updated his work to v.3, here is a quote from his post:

unself2 now ignores metadata sections of type 3 instead of aborting. Additional help with any remaining bugs would be greatly appreciated.

I’m sorry if everyone got the impression that these unself/readself modifications can, by themselves, “reactivate” your NPDRM content. These are just the first steps in the process. To those who say this is useless because you need act.dat and rif files: unless you can get unencrypted (debug) or easily decrypted (free, demos) PSN content, the only way to get the unencrypted files is by decrypting it with act.dat and the content’s rif file. There are no “crypto fails” here, proper decryption with the true keys is the only way forward. Using the NPDRM algo with the right keys is the only way to decrypt unless you let GameOS do it for you and hook into GameOS to either grab intermediate keys or dump decrypted content. Using hacks to restore the NPDRM decryption info to jailbroken PS3s is only a partial fix. For instance, unless you patch vsh or set the SRTC to some time in the past, some content (even non-demos and non-trials!) expires until you log into PSN and reauthenticate.

Sorry about your “technical difficulties”, Team PS360. You should L2IRC.

Source And Download

And just when you thought all the fun stuff with PSN was over. According the the PSBlog, PSN incurred another minor attack which affects 0.1% of PSN accounts. The breach was minor but it did still occur. As a preemptive measure Sony is now “requiring secure password resets for those PSN/SEN accounts that had both a sign-in ID and password match through this attempt”. Oh and just a reminder if you were affected, you waived your right to sue.

To quote:

We want to let you know that we have detected attempts on Sony Entertainment Network, PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment (“Networks”) services to test a massive set of sign-in IDs and passwords against our network database. These attempts appear to include a large amount of data obtained from one or more compromised lists from other companies, sites or other sources. In this case, given that the data tested against our network consisted of sign-in ID-password pairs, and that the overwhelming majority of the pairs resulted in failed matching attempts, it is likely the data came from another source and not from our Networks. We have taken steps to mitigate the activity.

Less than one tenth of one percent (0.1%) of our PSN, SEN and SOE audience may have been affected. There were approximately 93,000 accounts globally (PSN/SEN: approximately 60,000 accounts; SOE: approximately 33,000) where the attempts succeeded in verifying those accounts’ valid sign-in IDs and passwords, and we have temporarily locked these accounts. Only a small fraction of these 93,000 accounts showed additional activity prior to being locked. We are currently reviewing those accounts for unauthorized access, and will provide more updates as we have them. Please note, if you have a credit card associated with your account, your credit card number is not at risk. We will work with any users whom we confirm have had unauthorized purchases made to restore amounts in the PSN/SEN or SOE wallet.

As a preventative measure, we are requiring secure password resets for those PSN/SEN accounts that had both a sign-in ID and password match through this attempt. If you are in the small group of PSN/SEN users who may have been affected, you will receive an email from us at the address associated with your account that will prompt you to reset your password.
Similarly, the SOE accounts that were matched have been temporarily turned off. If you are among the small group of affected SOE customers, you will receive an email from us at the address associated with your account that will advise you on next steps in order to validate your account credentials and have your account turned back on.

We want to take this opportunity to remind our consumers about the increasingly common threat of fraudulent activity online, as well as the importance of having a strong password and having a username/password combination that is not associated with other online services or sites. We encourage you to choose unique, hard-to-guess passwords and always look for unusual activity in your account.

A few weeks ago we told you Team Duplex had managed to unlock a handful of PSN games for CFW. They now did it again releasing 3 more new PSN games to the list.

Explodemon (Explodemon.PSN.PS3-DUPLEX)

Stacking (Stacking.PSN.PS3-DUPLEX)

A group of gamers have set up a website, and are offering to send Opt-Out letters to either Sony Or EA, which will break the mandatory binding arbitration, imposed on you by these two companies, here is a quote from the source:

Gamers Opt Out is a collective of gamers who are sick of absurd EULAs from game companies. These EULAs have clauses preventing class-action lawsuits, though you can opt out of the clauses by sending a letter. We want to make it easier for everyone to opt out because Sony, EA, et al, believe most people won’t bother to. Let’s show them they’re wrong.

We will make it easy for you to create the letter needed to send to these companies and can even send the letter on your behalf at no cost. All we ask is that if you like what we are doing, spread the word or donate to help with the cost of paper and postage.

Source

Whilst we do think that this is a good idea, we have to warn you, that you will have to fill in your personal details, such as PSN username and home address, if you are not comfortable with this DO NOT use the service, also we are no way affiliated with them.

Thanks to both Alycan and Mr.Goodfrag for the news.

Found this while checking twitter (Thanks NeoSabin).

[via source]

There is going to be a big debate around this, we were unsure if we should post or not, but this is huge news in the PS3 Scene.

A group known as “Duplex” has done what no one else has managed to and decrypt/crack PSN games, that are fully playable on 3.55 CFW, what this could mean for us, is that we could possibly unlock the PSN games that we own, that lost their deactivation’s through various actions committed on the PS3, here is a quote from “Duplex”:

Since no scene group managed yet, we thought it’s time to work on some
PSN games to give everyone something to play for CFW 3.55
Fully decrypted .elfs are included as proof and of course for
educational purposes

They have managed to crack the following games:

Critter Crunch
Savage Moon
Galaga Legions DX
Ricochet HD
Spare Parts
Deadliest Warrior Legends
Marvel vs Capcom 2
Earthworm Jim HD
Deadliest Warrior The Game
Dream Chronicles
Castle Crashers
Bomberman Ultra
BloodRayne Betrayal
Blast Factor
Beyond Good and Evil HD
Bejeweled 2
Alien Breed Trilogy

We do not condone piracy, so no linking to any of these files, the reason for this thread, is merely for news, anyone providing any such links, will immediately be banned, without warning.

Stay tuned for more breaking scene news at PS3Hax.

The recent ToS change for the PS3, makes you waive your legal rights, has a 30 day Opt Out clause, You must send Sony a letter within 30 days of agreeing to the ToS

Washington attorney Thomas Buscaglia, who specializes in games

States “”This really sort of sucks because it is doubtful that any individual could afford to sue them,” explained Washington attorney Thomas Buscaglia, who specializes in games. “Not sure how enforceable it will be, but I think it it would be really cool if gamers started to circulate a form opt out rejection of these terms and mailed them in.”

“If you do not wish to be bound by the binding arbitration and class action waiver in this Section 15,” reads the Terms of Service, “you must notify SNEI [Sony Network Entertainment] in writing within 30 days of the date that you accept this agreement.”

“This is certainly not standard practice by any standards…in fact it may well not be enforceable,” said Buscaglia. “Time will tell on that one. The US Federal Trade Commission and various state consumer protection agencies could have a problem with it. Also, some courts might not allow it to be enforced due to existing state court precedent.”

SOURCE

The source also confirms , at the moment, this ToS solely applies to US and does not affect EU/Australia yet.

I suspect they are trying to live up to their slogan, “It only does everything”…

Now screw’s you in the a$$

Well im sure some of you have been trying to access the PlayStation network, but with difficulty, that will because the network is down, with Sony having “no idea” of when it will be back up, this throws back to memories of the whole PSN hacking fiasco, now nothing is confirmed and no reasons are given, but here are a few tweets, from the official twitter accounts of @Playstation and @PlaystationEU.

Im personally hoping that it isn’t hacked, really want to grab my Free Resident Evil games, but if it is hacked, it is understandable, considering the nasty new TOS they rolled out and how long will it take them to tell us it is hacked.

If it isn’t hacked, then what is the reason, comments welcome below.

Recently Sony went through some changes, regarding the naming of some of it services, it has renamed its Qriocity service to S.E.N(Sony Entertainment Network), with that name change and its restructuring of the S.N.E.A/S.N.E.I services, came a some what Controversial New T.O.S, i wont use shocking as nothing that Sony does in regards to its loyal customers is a shock anymore, not that i will be getting into the root kits and removal of OtherOS, i will stay with the subject at hand, the new T.O.S:

Throughout most of the T.O.S, you will see loads of red text and red lines running through text, one thing that caught my eye was the striking out of key words like purchasing and owning, that were replaced with “licensing”, so what that basically means, that any product you “buy”, is no longer yours as you are only licensing it, or in other words renting it, until such times Sony removes that service/feature, a quote from article #4:

Your existing PSN wallet will be used forto purchase of content licenses or services offered on QriocitySEN. You must transition your QriocitySEN account to a PSN account for purchase ofto license content or purchase services available on PSN.

Now whilst that is quite bad in itself, the main reason for this article, which was brought to my attention, by PS3/aMSN Developer KaKaRoTo via Twitter, is chapter 15 of the T.O.S, which is an Individual Binding Arbitration, which with it being a PSN T.O.S, means it is an mandatory binding arbitration, as you HAVE to agree to it in order to use the service, here is a quote of what a binding arbitration means, pay close attention to the part i have highlighted in red and underlined:

What is arbitration?
Arbitration is an alternative method of resolving disputes in which two parties present their individual sides of a complaint to a arbitrator or panel of arbitrators. The arbitrator, who is supposed to be neutral, then weighs the facts and arguments of both parties and decides the dispute. Arbitration may be voluntary or mandatory.

What is mandatory binding arbitration?
In mandatory binding arbitration, a company requires a consumer to agree to submit any dispute that may arise to binding arbitration prior to completing a transaction with the company. The consumer is required to waive their right to sue, to participate in a class action lawsuit, or to appeal.

Why are so many consumer groups opposing mandatory arbitration in automotive transactions?
Many mandatory binding arbitration agreements are written to protect the dealer.

Read more about arbitration here.
(more…)

Not important news, but just a heads up to those of you that have two PS3′s or on 3.70 OFW, that there is a Scheduled Maintenance tomorrow, Thursday the 8th of September, the time of the maintenance is between 17:00(5PM) and 19:00(7PM) BST(UK Time), two hours so nothing major, here is a quote from the source:

PlayStation Network is offline for scheduled maintenance from 17:00 until 19:00 on Thursday 8 September 2011, BST.

During the maintenance, you will be unable to access the following services:

PlayStation Store on PS3 and PSP.
PlayStation Network Account Management.
PlayStation Network Account Registration.

In addition, you will not be able to sign in to PlayStation Network from eu.playstation.com. If you wish to play online during the maintenance, please ensure you sign in to PSN before 17:00 on Thursday 8 September 2011.

During this maintenance, you can continue to collect in-game trophies and these will be updated on your profile once PlayStation Network is back up and running.

If you have any questions about this down time, feel free to visit the official PlayStation Forums at community.eu.playstation.com where you can post your query and a member of the Community Team will get back to you.

For the latest maintenance updates, visit the PlayStation Blog at blog.eu.playstation.com, keep an eye on our Facebook page at facebook.com/SonyPlayStation and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/PLAYSTATIONEU.

Source PS EU Blog
Via Their Twitter