To start December off with the count down to Christmas, Sony are offering their customers 12 different details, each lasting 48 hours with the last one ending on Christmas day.

The deals will only be known once the deal has started. Each deal starts at 12pm GMT and finishes at 12pm GMT 48 hours. The deals will take place on the following dates:

Christmas Deal 1 – 1st to 3rd December
Christmas Deal 2 – 3rd to 5th December
Christmas Deal 3 – 5th to 7th December
Christmas Deal 4 – 7th to 9th December
Christmas Deal 5 – 9th to 11th December
Christmas Deal 6 – 11th to 13th December
Christmas Deal 7 – 13th to 15th December
Christmas Deal 8 – 15th to 17th December
Christmas Deal 9 – 17th to 19th December
Christmas Deal 10 – 19th to 21st December
Christmas Deal 11 – 21st to 23rd December
Christmas Deal 12 – 23rd to 25th December

Christmas Deal 1 included Little Big Planet 2 and 10 DLC costume packs for £24.99/€34.99 with a 10% discount for PlayStation Plus members. Deal number 2 will be unveiled today.

Certain services on the PlayStation network and on Qriocity are to be reopened, according to a press release from Sony. Kazuo Hirai, the head of the PlayStation department has made a statement apologising for the error that caused over 75 million PSN users to have their confidential details stolen by hackers. He has also announced that some services on PSN will resume

“The organisation has worked around the clock to bring these services back on line and are doing so only after we had verified increased levels of security across our networks. These illegal attacks obviously highlight the widespread problem with cyber-security” – Mr Hirai

Sony have also announced that the PlayStation 3 is to recieve a compulsory system software update which will make users change passwords before they can use the network again. Sony intend implimenting a number of new security measures including more intricate firewalls and data protection and by allowing users to change passwords only from the PS3 console that they first activated the password on or by activating through email.

The ‘limited’ services that Sony are reopening on the PlayStation Network and Qriocity are expected to be up and running within the next week or so.

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For many users, the initial reaction to the Sony Playstation Network (PSN) and Qriocity services going ‘offline’ on April 20th was one of disappointment and irritation. Many were optimistic that the service would be resumed quickly though, presuming maintenance or a small glitch were to blame for the downtime.

The optimism ended officially on the 23rd of April however, when it became apparent that the reason for the outage on the PSN was a lot more serious than a simple glitch, as Sony themselves declared on their own blog – the reason that the PSN was offline was because there had been an “external intrusion” to their systems.

“An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. 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. Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience. We will continue to update you promptly as we have additional information to share.”

Although at that time, no further explanation regarding the ‘intrusion’ was given, days later Sony finally admitted that the intrusion was actually an electronic hacking attempt that had successfully taken user details including names, addresses and more seriously, credit card details from the Sony databases.

“..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.”

Sony are now working to ‘save the situation’ and the closure of the PSN was their first step. However, users are now left wondering firstly why their details were left accessible to a hacking attempt in the first place secondly, why Sony took several days to admit that these details had been stolen and thirdly, what damage will be done by the theft of their personal and financial details.Credit card companies/financial institutions have been quick to reassure affected customers that they should be covered in the event of any fraudulent use of their details however, the whole event is causing much anguish amongst PlayStation Network users, understandably.

As news comes in regarding the hacking of the PSN and the fallout from it, we will update our readers. In the meantime Sony suggest following them on Twitter for updates on the situation:  Follow – @PlayStation or @PlayStationEU.

It’s been a long time coming for many but, at the PlayStation Meeting 2011 in Japan, Sony Computer Entertainment have at last announced news and information on their upcoming device codenamed the NGP, thus confirming the existance of a successor to their handheld gaming device, the PSP (PlayStation Portable).

Technical specifications for the NGP are as follows:

*  CPU ARM® Cortex™-A9 core
* GPU SGX543MP4+
* External Dimensions Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth)
* Screen size – 5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, approx. 16 million colors
* OLED Multi touch screen (capacitive) and Rear touch pad Multi touch pad (capacitive)
* Cameras Front camera, Rear camera
* Sound Built-in stereo speakers
* Built-in microphone
* Sensors Six-axis motion sensing system
* Three-axis electronic compass Location Built-in GPS
* Wi-Fi location service support Keys / Switches PS button
* Power button
* Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left)
* Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square)
* Shoulder buttons (Right/Left)
* Right stick, Left stick
* START button, SELECT button
* Volume buttons (+/-)
* Wireless communications Mobile network connectivity (3G)
* IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1×1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode)
* Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR （A2DP/AVRCP/HSP）

Game releases confirmed by Sony are as follows:

* Call of Duty
* Uncharted
* Killzone
* Monster Hunter Portable 3
* LittleBigPlanet
* Resistance
* Hot Shots Golf
* WipEout
* Gravity Daze
* Reality Fighters
* Smart As
* Broken
* Little Deviants
* Dynasty Warriors

We’re excited, it seems like a lifetime ago that our PSP was glued to our hands. There was even a rumbling belief that Sony would ‘give up’ and abandon handheld gaming. Clearly Sony have other plans and with a powerful new handheld like the NGP, they are out to pummel their rivals in the future. The NGP (Next Generation Portable) will take over the reigns as Sony’s number one handheld gaming device from the ‘aging’ PSP at the end of 2011.

Good news for PS3 gamers looking to pick up a copy of Killzone 3 – if you manage to get one of the ‘special’ copies then you will be given access to the BETA of the upcoming SOCOM 4 Mutiplayer extravaganza!

Just keep an eye out for the Killzone 3 game with the marked packaging that shows that that copy gives access to the BETA and you’re good to go. You get early access to the 32 player BETA of SOCOM 4 via a PlayStation Network code that is found in the game box. The code can be redeemed once the BETA is live.

Killzone 3 is released on February 22nd and the SOCOM 4 BETA servers are due to be taken live in mid March.