ps4 – SomeGadgetGuy

March 13, 2015March 12, 2015

PS4 User Account Hacked, Sony Refuses to Refund $600 in Fraudulent Charges

I really want to jump into a pages-long, old-man tirade about what video gaming was like when I was a kid. When the “bits” of a console were single digit. When playing a game meant punching in a cartridge and pressing the power button. Where instead of waiting for updates to download, the worst “tech support” we’d need to perform was blowing out some dust from the tray. But I digress…

Redditor Kadjar posted yesterday about an infuriating aspect of modern day gaming, the fact that we don’t own our games in quite the same way we used to with cartridges and discs. Instead we have an account, and our games are attached to that account. Kadjar’s Playstation Network account was compromised, and he woke up to $600 in fraudulent charges and the discovery that his PS4 was no longer attached to his account. Someone else had all his stuff and racked up some huge bills.

Worse, upon discovering the hijack, and contacting Sony, he got some bad news. Sony would only reverse $150 of the charges. If he used his credit card company’s ability to dispute the charges, Sony would ban his account and wipe out any and all record of any game attached to his account, even those not in dispute and purchased legally. Continue reading “PS4 User Account Hacked, Sony Refuses to Refund $600 in Fraudulent Charges”

March 15, 2014

Playstation 4 Price Rising to $449 in Canada Starting Today

In an odd response to “changing market conditions” Sony is bumping up the price of the PS4 console, Playstation Camera, and the Dualshock 4 controller.

Starting today, the PS4 will jump $50, from $399 to $449, the Dualshock and Camera now retail for $64.99, and games will also increase in price by about $10 over USA prices.

This move makes sense to a degree as the current exchange rate puts the Canadian dollar at around 90 American cents, which would bring the price difference pretty close to that rate adjustment, as $399 USA is about $443 Canadian at the time of this posting.

As a platform strategy however, the timing on this increase is tricky. Sony still enjoys a sales lead, but rival Microsoft has been chipping away at that, and currently has no plans to raise the price of the XBox One which remains at $499 in Canada. Sony’s bump here brings the stock PS4 (without a camera) to within $50 of the XBox which includes the Kinect camera and tracking system.

Consoles exist to move software however, and Microsoft is only adding a $5 premium to their games up north, largely eroding the cost advantage Sony enjoyed when you factor in a console, and additional controller, and actually buying a game to play on that new system.

NPD sales data for February showed Microsoft selling just over 90% of what Sony moved over the same time period, and we’re about to see the impact of Titanfall, which has all the buzz and momentum of being the first true “Next Gen” hit. It’s impossible to declare any kind of “winner” this early into the console life cycle, but thankfully the competition is about to get a lot more interesting.

November 6, 2013

Activision announces $1Billion opening day sales for ‘Call of Duty: Ghosts’, while we wait for Next-Gen sales numbers…

Great news for Activision, but potentially troubling news for Sony and Microsoft.

Activision today released sales figures topping $1 Billion for it’s opening day release of Call of Duty: Ghosts, a new series to its popular shooter franchise. This obviously points to the $800 Million opening day performance of Rockstar Game’s GTA: V, even though these two opening day “sales” figures aren’t directly comparable.

Rockstar announced sales to consumers for it’s opening day, while Activision is talking about sales to retail channels. Regardless, it’s still juggernaut sales performance considering Activision somehow manages to pop out a new installment every year.

What the entire industry now awaits are CoD sales numbers for the PS4 and XBox One. Nearing the release of these next gen consoles, Activision opted to release versions of the game compatible with Sony and Microsoft’s next systems. Those sales figures could be valuable data for gauging what early console adoption might look like, and how engaged the consumer base might be.

It must be a difficult decision for the hardcore gamers out there. Play CoD immediately or wait for next gen consoles to arrive. Activision can only hope that some of their consumer base might actually motivated to buy the game twice…

November 2, 2013

Weekly Tech Roundtable: Nexus 5, Lenovo Yoga, and #iVerge Outrage – Google Hangout Video!

It’s Saturday! Which means we spend the morning wrapping up all the week’s tech news. Catch opinions from the editors of Boored At Work, Mobile Burn, BWOne, and yours truly as we chat out this week’s headlines.