Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) has released updated information on the current situation of the Playstation Network (PSN) which is currently offline due to an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into the network.

Due to ongoing work to bring PSN back online there will also be no publish this week for PS Store or PS Home.

SCE writes:

"Thank you for your patience while we work to resolve the current outage of PlayStation Network & Qriocity services. We don’t have an exact date to share at this moment as to when we will have the services turned on, but are working day and night to ensure it is as quickly as possible. We are currently working to send the following message via email to all of our registered account holders regarding a compromise of personal information as a result of this malicious attack on our servers, so please look for this information via email as well. Please note that we are as upset as you are regarding this attack and are going to proceed aggressively to track down those that are responsible.

Valued PlayStation Network/Qriocity Customer,

We have discovered that between April 17 and April 19, 2011, certain PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account information was compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network. In response to this intrusion, we have:

1) Temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services;

2) Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happened; and

3) Quickly taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our network infrastructure by re-building our system to provide you with greater protection of your personal information.

We greatly appreciate your patience, understanding and goodwill as we do whatever it takes to resolve these issues as quickly and efficiently as practicable.

Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state/province, zip or postal code), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity passwords and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence that credit card data was taken at this time, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, to be on the safe side we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may also have been obtained."

The PlayStation Network has been compromised by hackers, and has now been shut down indefinitely until the network can be updated with additional security.

“An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services,” wrote Patrick Seybold, senior director of Corporate Communications and Social Media at SCEA. “In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th.”

We sincerely regret that PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have been suspended, and we are working around the clock to bring them both back online,” Seybold wrote again on the PlayStation Blog.

“Our efforts to resolve this matter involve re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure. Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security.”"

After widely reported offline and online PlayStation 3 errors began surfacing late last night and early this morning (depending on your geographical location), game developers are now reporting similar errors with their specialized PS3 debug units.

Due to an endless looping error message, the debug units are apparently being sent into uninterruptible rebooting cycles, which is thought to be related to the problems users are experiencing with regular retail PS3s.

Even if your PS3 console has been offline, there is a high probability (if it’s an older model) that the internal date may have reverted back to 12/31/1999, as reported by Joystiq, which has caused data corruption errors and resulted in newly acquired content, such as downloaded games and awarded in-game Trophies, to not be recognised and ‘lost.’

Sony is aware of the problem and is currently hard at work on a fix, and we should hear from the company soon in this regard.

[Update] Sony believes that they may have found a solution to the problems plaguing PS3 owners, and that a fix may be available within 24 hours, but for now warns PS3 owners not to use the console until further notice [End of Update]

News-Source: develop-online.net"

Destructoid have a very interesting article about PS3 Trophies and how they fail to compete with their Xbox Live counterparts. Read on as the guys from Destructoid explain the problem with PS3 Trophies..

One of the few good things Microsoft did for the games industry was introduce the concept of Achievements. Some of you may disagree with me, especially as it's considered quite hip to hate Achievements and claim they ruined videogames, but the extra level of interest and longevity they add to a game has certainly had an impact on my own game playing habits, and a great deal many others.

It was only a matter of time before Sony tried to follow Microsoft's lead and introduce its own take on Achievements. As of this year, PlayStation Trophies are now a mandatory part of all PS3 titles, working very much in the same way as MS' Achievements, with a few structural differences. However, unlike MS' Achievements, Trophies have so far failed to really add much of anything to my gameplay experience.

A rather underwhelming addition, marred by some key problems, Trophies have underachieved, proving that perhaps it's not always best to just try and copy someone else's successful idea and expect the same level of success (*coughmotioncontrolscough*). Read on as we explain the problem with PS3 Trophies.

If your on the HQ homepage click the link for more on this story and a direct link to the destructoid website."