OnLive the cloud based gaming service that promises to stream games over the Internet has gone live. The new service as Bit-Cast has previously mentioned will allow game play on virtually any device that has a decent broadband connection. Thus removing the need for expensive hardware and makes gaming ubiquitous across all platforms, be it Windows, Mac or Linux and with the addition of the onLive micro console due for launch this year the service will be accessible from nothing more than a television. The ramifications of such a service could be profound on the gaming industry in the coming years as it has the potential to completely and utterly change the way consumers play games and how developers make and publish games.

onLive CEO and founder Steve Perman had the following to say about the launch, "This launch is just the beginning for the OnLive platform. We'll be rolling out new features, capabilities and performance improvements, continually adding new content along with the latest releases, and extending the service to more people,". He continued by saying, "Today we're taking the first step toward a future where video game content is increasingly free from the restrictions of device and location, while showcasing the ability to instantly play the latest, most advanced games at the touch of a button."

To mark the launch, onLive have announced the 'onLive Founding Members Program' which will basically offer the service for free for one year to those who showed the service a bit of faith and signed up to it back when it was still in Beta. However it's a time/availability limited offer, so if you did sign up to the service months back then you'll have to be quick to get this great offer. As an added bonus the second year will be just $4.95 per month instead of $15 which is a pretty good deal if you ask me.

Now to the nitty gritty...what games can actually be played at launch? The simple answer would be there are around 23 launch titles including the following:

• aaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity
• Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft)
• Batman: Arkham Asylum (Square Enix / Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• Borderlands (Take Two Interactive Entertainment)
• Brain Challenge (Gameloft)
• Defense Grid: Gold (Hidden Path)
• Dirt 2 (Codemasters)
• Dragon Age: Origins (Electronic Arts)
• FEAR 2: Project Origin (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• Just Cause 2 (Square Enix)
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) demo now full version available at official launch
• 6/29
• Madballs in Babo: Invasion (Playbrains)
• Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts)
• MLB 2K10 (2K Sports)
• NBA 2K10 (Take Two Interactive Entertainment)
• Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Ubisoft)
• Puzzle Chronicles (Konami)
• Red Faction Guerrilla (THQ)
• Shatter (Sidhe)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction (Ubisoft)
• Trine (Frozenbyte)
• Unreal Tournament III (Epic)
• World of Goo (2DBoy)

More titles will be added in the coming months, but expect the following games to be released to the service very soon:

• Alpha Protocol (SEGA)
• Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Ubisoft)
• Darksiders (THQ)
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Square Enix)
• DRIVER San Francisco (Ubisoft)
• F.E.A.R.3 (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• Homefront (THQ)
• Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (Square Enix)
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• MLB 2K10 (2K Sports)
• Red Faction: Armageddon (THQ)
• Shaun White Skateboarding (Ubisoft)

For a demo of the service "working", check out the video below of it being shown off on Apple's iPad, via WiFi.

Video by touchArcade.com

It remains to be seen how popular this service will be or even if it will work as intended but if the video above is anything to go by then this could simply be huge. Also consider this, if the technology didn't show potential then why would  so many large game developers invest the time, expense and risk of getting their content onto the onLive platform? It's a huge risk for them to take and if it wasn't a promising technology then there wouldn't be so many developers on board from the off, right? With over 25 developers on board, including some big names such as Electronic Arts, Take Two Interactive Software, THQ, Ubisoft, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Square Enix, SEGA, Capcom and Konami Digital Entertainment, there must be something in it for them.

Also consider the fact that onLive could kill game piracy, something which is considered the scourge of the market and is blamed for decreasing games sales. What's more is that developers only have to develop for one platform instead of multiple platforms like Windows, Mac, Xbox, PS3 and so on. The net result could be a far more streamlined development process, hence quicker to market games with fewer development costs. The savings could then be passed on to us the consumer. Of course I'm speculating here, but it makes sense to think this way. One platform, one expense, one set of problems.

What's certain is that the gaming industry has and will be changed forever and it will be interesting in the coming months and years to see how things pan out.

For more information see the official onLive blog and press release.

Microsoft has ended months of speculation and rumour by announcing a revamped and slimmer Xbox 360 console today at E3. The redesigned console ditches the boring beige colour of the original Xbox in favour of a nightmare to photograph, ultra shiny black finish. The console also looks much more menacing and angular, but in a good way as you can see.

As it's an updated console and not actually a new architecture there isn't a whole lot to talk about, but the new console does sport built in wireless connectivity of the 'n' variety no less. Built in wireless is something that Xbox 360 users have been craving for since the launch of the original and something the PS3 fanbois have been poking fun at for far to long now, well not any more. As well as this the new slim version features the following:

• Touch sensitive buttons
• 250GB hard drive which is also swappable
• Kinect port, this port will provide power and data transmission to and from Kinect (formally natal). Original Xbox 360 consoles will need to use one USB port for each operation.
• Quieter running, reportedly whisper quiet (uses one larger fan as opposed to two on the original boxes).
• Five USB ports, two of which are on the front
• Integrated CPU/GPU based on a 45nm manufacturing process.

Although it is much smaller the console still makes use of an external, albeit smaller more efficient 'power brick', which may disappoint some. What will also disappoint is the lack of a Blu-Ray drive. For months rumours have been circulating that Microsoft would build Blu-Ray support into their console, but hope of that happening any time soon has all but vanished.

What won't disappoint is the fact that gamers in the US can get their hands on the new Xbox 360 (that's it's official name) as early as this week for $299. Gamers in the UK/EU can get their hands on one from July 16th.

This will be short but sweet. Tomorrow (May 22nd) will mark 30 years since the release of pacman, probably one of the most famous and fondly remembered games ever created. Despite being 30 years old it's still as addictive today as it has always been. In their traditional style Google have decided to honor this historic event by replacing their home page logo with one that pays homage to pacman (see below).

Nothing new here you might think as Goolge regularly updates it's pages to mark some special event, Google calls affectionately calls them 'doodles'. The awesome difference this time around though is that you can actually play pacman right on Google's home page and navigate a Google logo maze. Just go to Google and wait for the classic music to kick in and your good to go with your keyboard arrow keys.

You will also notice that the 'I'm feeling lucky' button has been replaced by an 'Insert Coin' button. Clicking that will start the game right away instead of waiting for it to auto start. But not only that, if you click the button again you can play two player pacman! Awesome or what? The second player controls the game using the WASD keys.

Enough said I think, get to it people!

Does Google rock, or does Google rock?

No industry is safe from Google at the moment with the search and advertising colossus dipping it's fingers into almost any market it can right now. Until now though the gaming industry has been pretty safe and largely overlooked by Google but if a company job posting is anything to go by then that stance could soon be changing.

TechCrunch has reported that over at Google's Job listing page the company is looking to employ a "Product Management Leader, Games", which strongly indicates that the company is going to be dipping it's toes into the gaming industry. They have already bought Israeli game developer LabPixies and hired Mark DeLoura who was Nintendo's Lead Engineer as Developer Advocate for Games. Such activity strongly suggests that Google are taking a serious look at the gaming industry after previous attempts to enter the market fell flat. Whether Google are aiming to develop causal online and mobile games or full blown 3D games is unclear. By my guess if this whole story turns out to be true is that Google will go down the latter route at some point; Google's an ambitious company after all but it makes sense for them to first get some content out for the Android platform and get a feel for things before offering full blown 3D games.

According to the posting, the job applicant will need to be an "experienced senior leader who will be responsible for developing Google's games commerce product strategy". Not only this but the applicant will also need to have experience in the "online content business", suggesting that whatever they are upto will be cloud based as you'd expect from Google.

So what's the deal? The deal in my view is Android and Chrome OS in particular. If one looks at the markets Google is trying to enter and think about how they might all be related you might see where Google are heading.  For cloud based services to function (Google's products rely heavily on cloud computing) as intended on Google's Chrome OS they will require a super fast broadband connection, that's a key requirement for the future of Chrome OS or any other web centric platform that relies heavily on cloud based solutions. 

Hence to achive this and ensure the infrastructure existis, Google announces plans to enter the ISP market touting 1Gbps speeds. Google also has plans to enhance the HTTP protocol with it's own SPDY protocol. Initial tests have been encouraging and have shown significant speed increases over the aging HTTP protocol. Chrome OS is merely a window or access point to next generation web content and services, some call the whole notion Web 3.0. It's weakest point is the Internet connection it will interface with. If Google can provide and ensure a stable, fast and reliable connection to Chrome OS a world of possibilities for the platform will open up in the years to come. Which leads into the world of cloud gaming, a market that has the potential for huge revenue and one that could reinvigorate the gaming industry.

Chrome OS has been shot down by gamers as it's a completely web centric platform, hence no or little locally installed content. If Google can provide a cloud based gaming service to the masses that is similar to onLive albeit a trimmed down version then they can make it so much more of an attrative option to potential users of the platform, as I doubt your run of the mill flash games will appeal to hardcore gamers. That's all Google need is the platform for publishers to distribute their content on. Not only this but Google in their traditional style would probably offer the service for free or a nominal fee at the very least because remember the service can be provided over Google's fibre network with minimal overheads/costs to Google themselves.

onLive in contrast is at the mercy of the ISPs to provide their services that onLive requires. Many ISPs throttle or limit their customers speeds when they consume too much bandwidth. No doubt, a lot of ISPs will frown at the prospect of onLive providing a constant stream of bandwidth intensive content to consumers.

If Google can figure out a way of streaming game content over the Internet as onLive claim to have then there is no reason why they couldn't offer a similar service, no reason at all. After all Google has already ported quake 2 to run in the browser with HTML 5 and javascript and achive 30FPS even at this early stage. If anyone can Google can it seems.

One thing's for sure, good or bad, Google continues to intrigue.

BT announced today that it has entered into a partnership with OnLive Inc. The deal will mean that BT will be the official and exclusive supplier of the game streaming service when it launches in the UK, thus stealing a march on rivals Virgin Media who currently have the biggest cable broadband network in the UK. BT plan to bundle the onLive services with their own broadband packages.

The company also cemented it's commitment to onLive by taking a 2.6 percent stake in the cloud based gaming company. BT will announce further details later in the year, however it is quite likely that the service will end up being integrated into BT's on-demand TV service 'BT Vision' in some form or another.

Gavin Patterson, CEO of BT Retail welcomed the partnership and said: "Entertainment is going to be at the heart of what we offer customers in the future. The partnership with OnLive complements our existing BT Vision service. It's great for our customers - they'll have access to a huge catalogue of games, available instantly on their TV or PC without expensive hardware. And it's great for BT - it will enhance our premium broadband position and we'll be entering into a market that's worth more than £2billion."

As previously discussed, onLive is a potentially market changing gaming platform that will provide gamers with a new way of buying and playing video games. Instead of downloading or installing content to their PCs or Macs, onLive allows players to stream game content in real time over the Internet. It has the potential to change the distribution model of games forever.

All game content is processed in onLive's data centres before being packaged up and streamed out to the user via proprietary video streaming technologies developed by onLive over the past seven years. onLive say that the proprietary compression algorithms used for streaming game content will give the player lag free gaming providing they live within 1000 miles of a data centre and that their broadband connection is a sufficient speed. This concept of playing and distributing game content is hotly contested by many who are sceptical that the service can work.

Despite this onLive has gone through a successful beta period says the company and is all set to launch in the US this summer for $14.99 per month, sans game purchases.

The beauty of onLive is that it will have a catalogue of games from many of the worlds best known publishers and will allow gameplay on virtually any platform be it PC, Mac, Linux or via a TV. Since games aren't processed on any local machine the user doesn't need expensive hardware to run the games they wish to play. The other great thing with this concept is that all the games can be played as the developer intended; with all graphics settings maxed out.

onLive CEO, Steve Perlman had the following to say about the BT, onLive partnership: "The UK market is extremely important to OnLive and our videogame publishing partners as we expand into Europe. We view BT as the ideal UK partner. As gamers are moving increasingly to online game distribution, OnLive delivers video games as a pure form of online media, playable instantly on almost any video-capable device attached to the internet. The implications are nothing short of transformative to video games and in time, all interactive media. OnLive is delighted to be pioneering this revolutionary technology in the UK together with BT".

Epic has confirmed that the much loved and massively successful series of games, Gears of War will reach it's climatic end on April 5th 2011 in the US (and Asia) when it's third and final instalment comes to the Xbox 360. The first two blockbuster games have sold more than 12 million copies and continue to draw people to the Xbox 360 platform. Microsoft and Epic are looking to whip up a frenzy before the game's release next year by announcing it early. Epic say the third game will tie up all the loose ends from the first two games and bring the story to a close one way or the other.

Gamers in Japan will receive the game on April 7th while those in Europe can get their hands on it the following day on the 8th. The really awesome news about Gears of War 3 is that it will feature 4 player co-op throughout the campaign, allowing players to play as Baird or Cole. Now that's just spiffy.

There will also be several enhancements to online multiplayer including better region filtering which will limit laggy gaming. GOW3 will also see the return of some of the original multiplayer maps that gamers enjoyed previously.

Epic's design director Cliff Bleszinski said, "When we released 'Gears of War' more than three years ago, we set out to tell the world an unforgettable story of bravery and sacrifice in the face of insurmountable odds, and a year from now, players will get the chance to experience the final chapter in the story of Marcus Fenix and his companions in Delta Squad. This is definitely the biggest and most dramatic chapter yet in the 'Gears of War' saga, and we can't wait to deliver it."

The third instalment will see Marcus and his Delta squad team fight to save what's left of humanity after the last of the human cities has been destroyed by the Locust armies and the Lambent. Of course to do this one needs the right equipment which is why you'll find some new weapons in Gears of War 3.

Gamers will get the satisfaction of pummelling the Locus with rounds from a double-barrel shotgun. The new shotgun is more powerful than the original but on the flip side takes longer to reload. In addition to this there will also be the Pendulum Lancer, which in the Gears universe is the model before the Chainsaw Lancer which is the gun of choice in the original two games. Don't worry about the lack of chainsaw however, as the gun features a large blade instead.

Click to enlarge

The game will also see the return of Anya from the original games, fighting along side Marcus as part of Delta Squad. It's not clear if she'll be a playable character, however it will be the first time that a female character has been seen fighting in Gears of War.

As part of the  announcement, Microsoft and Epic have put together a little teaser trailer to whet our appetites for the game. The game looks awesome, can't wait, end of story...just watch the video :).

Let us know your child like excitement for Gears 3 by leaving a comment below. I know I can't wait for sure.

According to Major Nelson and Joystiq, Microsoft are preparing an update for the Xbox 360 that will see the system gain "USB Mass Storage Device Support". Currently Xbox 360 gamers can only save content to official Xbox 360 Memory Units and hard drives. Both of which are prohibitively expensive considering their capacities.

On April 6th it seems that Microsoft will relinquish control of what type of storage device can be used on their system and will in effect bring an end to official Xbox 360 Memory Units. The largest capacity at the moment for these devices is just 512MB, which in this day and age is no good to man or beast, particularly gamers.

After the update is applied gamers can plug their flash storage device into the system and will have to configure the device either manually or via an automatic means. It is not just a simple process as whacking the device in and saving straight to it, this is Microsoft after all.

The catch however is that only two USB Storage devices can be used at a time and further to this only 16GB can be used on each device even though both devices may total more than 16GB each. In effect you can add up to 32GBs of extra storage space to your beloved 360.

The configuration process will basically perform a check of the device to make sure it is compatible and in good working order. It will also set a system partition on the device which will occupy 512MB of memory. The remainder of the device (or up to 16GB of it, whichever comes first) can be used by the gamer to store virtually anything that can currently be saved to the 360's hard drive. This includes game profiles, demos, themes, video and saved game files.

This also means that one could install their games to multiple USB sticks and run the game off those devices when they require them. This is instead of from the game disk its self. The disk will still need to be inserted into the tray to authenticate the installation on the flash device. This is the current operation when installing a game to an Xbox 360 hard drive.

Although the system will only allow you to use up to 32GB at anyone time, the addition of 3rd party storage devices on the 360 is a welcome move by Microsoft if it turns out to be true.  After all, the PS3 and Wii have allowed 3rd party storage devices to be used on their consoles from day one. Microsoft should have been on board with this from day one as well instead of locking the system down the way they have. Now Microsoft need to open the system up to enable gamers to install their own hard drives...one can dream!

Source: Major Nelson and Joystiq

OnLive the cloud based, gaming-on-demand service that has the potential to kill game piracy and also kill traditional gaming platforms will go live this June in the US. The service has the potential to fundamentally alter the way games are developed, distributed and played forever, if it succeeds.

OnLive was announced last year and has since drawn widespread intrigue, scepticism and often hatred from gamers and analysts alike. Many gamers think the service will fail after them questioning whether games can be streamed over the internet without any input lag.

Whilst others think it will take too much control from the gamer and kill the enthusiast market and modding communities alike, which is something PC gamers in particular hold very dear. PC Gamers and console gamers rarely see eye to eye but having read a lot of reaction to the service, it would seem that both sets of gamers for the most part want this service to fail and aren't willing to even give it a chance.

OnLive have tried to reassure gamers by stating the service uses a propriety video compression algorithm which enables broadband connections of no more than a few megabits per second to use the service without any input lag. This is providing their access is no more than 1000 miles away from the OnLive data center providing them with a service. There are currently three such centers across the US. One in California, and the other two being in Texas and Virginia. At the moment these centers are providing the the service in beta form.

If it works the platform will give the gamer the illusion of playing any game locally as they do now. No impression of the game being streamed over 1000 miles should be felt. However it still is not clear how multiplayer games across different territories will work. For example will gamers in the US and UK be able to interact in the same games and at the same times?

If it delivers, OnLive promises to allow even the most demanding of games run on old or budget hardware since the game is streamed over the net, rather than being processed on the client computer. All the intensive on the fly rendering is done within OnLive's data centers and not through the gamers own hardware. This means we can all experience Crysis and any other game for that matter at the highest quality settings the game has to offer. That's if it works of course.

To help the service become as ubiquitous as possible, OnLive will also be releasing their own MicroConsole that will allow access via nothing more than a TV. The diminutive console will also come with a wireless controller although this device will not be launching at the same time as the service. The MicroConsole features a USB port, HDMI, Ethernet and Optical inputs on the back and two USB ports on the front.

OnLive has been in development for eight years and has cost millions to get to the point of release. OnLive CEO and founder Steve Perlman welcomed the announcement and  said "Everyone here at OnLive is just incredibly excited about this milestone. It’s the realization of a dream that we knew would be a huge undertaking, but also one that would change everything."

He continued by saying, "OnLive fundamentally transforms the way users experience games and interact with each other, and in time, will transform the way games are developed and marketed. By distilling specialized game hardware out of the equation, OnLive will allow games to be played as a pure media experience on virtually any device, with the same flexibility and instant-play experience that we’ve come to expect from online video and music."

The service is due to finally launch in the US on June 17th after several months of beta testing. Access to the service will cost $14.95 and does not incorporate the cost of game purchases or rentals. You will still have to cough up for those separately. Loyalty programmes, game pricing and other special offers will be announced by the start of E3.

OnLive could fundamentally change the way the gaming industry operates. With such a service, piracy could be wiped out as the games' are hosted rather than distributed. This has another affect in that developers and publishers will no longer need to go to the expense of having to box games up and physically distribute them. "OnLive breaks the console cycle. We don't need new hardware devices," said company founder Steve Perlman.

If OnLive takes off (I'm seemingly one of the few that thinks it will), then it could hit a lot of retailers hard, particularly those selling physical goods. If publishers are no longer distributing content to the high street, then many companies who's sole business model is based around the idea of selling games and renting them out could quickly be cut out of the market all together. This is the way it could well end up going with some of the industries leading publishers and developers providing top titles from day one. These include EA, Ubisoft, Take-Two Interactive, Warner Brothers Interactive and THQ.

Gamers from outside the US will have to wait for the service as no details have yet been released. The focus for the company right now is getting the US up and running with the service before expanding to other territories.

What are your thoughts and prospects for the service? Do you think it's the best thing since Mario or do you think and hope it will be an embarrassing flop? Let us know by leaving your thoughts below.

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) have announced that they have struck a deal with six major film studios that will see downloadable HD film titles made available over the Playstation Network. The deal will see content made available for both purchase and rental.

Sony are proud to point out that their Playstation Network is the first such service available on a console that will supply content from all the major film studios. Although film content has been available for download for a while, there was little HD content available. Now with 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Brothers on board to deliver content over PSN, Sony will be able offer an exhaustive list of HD titles for it's PSN users to choose from.

Towards the end of last year it was announced that Netflix would be available on the PS3, as it already was on the Xbox 360. What's unclear now though, is how this will affect Netflix on the PS3 as Sony have effectively made them selves a direct competitor with that service. Although the content available probably won't be as extensive as what Netflix have on offer, users won't need to have a paid membership or use the "instant streaming Blu-Ray disk" that is required for the Netflix service to work on the PS3. With the announcement that Sony has penned deals with all the major film studios to provide content directly though PSN, Sony could in effect remove Netflix from their platform if the service matured enough.

What's also worth considering is that Sony if they wanted to, could ship Internet ready TVs that could access the same movie content via PSN, making movie rentals and purchases extremely convenient for those that don't have a Playstation 3.

Access to to expanded list of movies will also be available to European users, including those in the UK, France and Germany, although it's not expected to be rolled out just yet.

Sony might be having problems getting Gran Turismo 5 out the door, but that doesn't stop them posting trailers for the up and coming title which we've all been waiting an age for.  The company via it's Playstation blog have released a new GT5 video/trailer targeting the games inclusion of NASCAR. The video features Polyphonic Digital's CEO Kazunori Yamauchi seemingly walking around taking snaps of all the cars as they whiz by and of the pit area it's self. It's not clear if this is research for the game or pure leisure, maybe it's a bit of both.

It will be interesting to see just how far Polyphonic Digital have gone with the inclusion of NASCAR in GT5 and whether it will actually be as good and worth while as they claim on the video. Anyway, find the video below.

Update: The issues described here have now been resolved, see the information at the bottom of the article for more details.

It would appear that users of the older "fat" PS3 are experiencing connection issues when trying to sign into the Playstation Network. Currently it seems that only the older PS3 systems are affected and that owners of the newer "slim" models have escaped the problem, at least for now.

Outages are bound to happen from time to time, but what's frustrating and annoying gamers is that they can't access their trophies, dynamic themes, multiplayer games or paid for content from the Playstation Store. Worse still and this is what's really irking gamers, is that they can't even play offline, single player games. Their systems are in effect expensive bricks for the time being.

According to Kotaku developers are also experiencing problems. Some are saying that their debuging units, those systems that are used to create PS3 titles are caught in a never ending cycling of rebooting due to an endlessly-looping error message. This means that developers are loosing valuable development time.

Sony have been forced to recognise this issue early on as it's affecting so many machines, including those of the developers who actually make content for the platform and have said via the PS blog, "We are currently working to restore service as a matter of priority and will update with further information as necessary."

Some are speculating that the sudden demise of PS3s all over the world has come about because of a problem with the PS3s internal clock. This is pure speculation at this time, but a member of the NeoGaf forums says the problem is to do with the way the PS3 is trying to jump from February to March.

According to forum member 'iammeiam', "What's apparently [gone wrong], as speculation goes, is when the internal GMT-tracking rolls over to 3/1. It's either not rolling, or rolling to 2/29, at which point a system tries to add/subtract from 2/29, which it can't do because the front-end calendar doesn't have a 2/29/2010, and [it all] explodes. Seemed to happen around 4PM PDT, which I think is 12AM GMT, so.

And the PS3 launched in 2006; it's hit 4 2/28s so far. 2007 and 2009 were odd-numbered years; 2008 was an even, and a leap year. 2010 is the first even non-leap-year the system's been around for. If some sort of base-level math is choking on itself, it may have ruled out the odd 2007 and 2009 successfully, but is convinced the even 2010 is a leap year (this part I'm less sure of, but is why leap year could theoretically come into play at some point.)"

If this is the case then the system may right it's self tomorrow as has happened to other products in the past, but for now it's probably a wise idea to avoid turning your PS3 on for today, just in case it's something worse than a calendar malfunction.

Update

Sony have released an update to the situation which confirms that it is indeed a glitch in the consoles clock. The company also confirmed that PS3 Slim models are not affected by the bug. Sony have found the following glitches (this is lifted off the PS blog):

• The date of the PS3 system may be re-set to Jan 1, 2000.
• When the user tries to sign in to the PlayStation Network, the following message appears on the screen; "An error has occurred. You have been signed out of PlayStation Network (8001050F)".
• When the user tries to launch a game, the following error message appears on the screen and the trophy data may disappear; "Failed to install trophies. Please exit your game."
• When the user tries to set the time and date of the system via the Internet, the following message appears on the screen; "The current date and time could not be obtained. (8001050F)"
• Users are not able to play back certain rental video downloaded from the PlayStation Store before the expiration date.

As previously suggested Sony advise all those with a pre slim model to not turn their systems on as it could prevent certain data from being restored once a fix is rolled out. Sony say they are doing their best to resolve the problem and hope it will all be sorted within the next 24 hours. They also issued an apology for the inconvenience and dare I say, distress the fault has caused to gamers.

Update - Issue Resolved

The issues that the pre Slim, Playstation 3 consoles were experiencing over the last 24 hours appear to have corrected them selves as predicted. The Playstation Blog has confirmed that the internal clock thought 2010 was a leap year and added another day to the end of February, which caused things to be out of sync with the Playstation Network. After the 29th day, which was actually March 1st the system has put its self right again.

If your clock is still wrong you can change it manually and Sony say it is safe to turn your systems back on and get back in the game, everything should work and sync up as normal form now it. Although the Slim models were not caught up in the problem, those systems have not yet experienced a leap year, "does a problem lay dormant in their systems?" is a question that some might be asking after recent events. In any case, Sony are aware of the problem with the 'fat' systems and can work to push an update out for the 'Slim' systems, should they require it.

Alan Wake, the game teetering on the fringes of being regarded as vaporware and announced as the first PC game to run exclusively on DirectX 10 five years ago has rather ironically been scrapped for the PC. Microsoft has officially confirmed that the PC version of the game will no longer bear fruit as the platform is "too intimate" for the game. This is yet another blow for PC gamers who will surely see red yet again.

According to StrategyInformer.com a Microsoft spokesman said, "Some games are more suited for the intimacy of the PC, and others are best played from the couch in front of a larger TV screen. We ultimately realised that the most compelling way to experience "Alan Wake" was on the Xbox 360 platform, so we focused on making it an Xbox 360 exclusive. Both Microsoft and Remedy have long histories in PC game development. This decision was about matching this specific game to the right platform."

Remedy, the game's developer, is said to have changed the games focus and will only release the game on the Xbox 360. Speaking at Microsoft's X10 event, Remedy Entertainment and Microsoft finally after years of development stated that Alan Wake would be released on the Xbox 360 on May 18th 2010 in the US and May 21st for the rest of the world.

Pre-orders for the game will receive the 'Bright Falls Bonus Pack', which includes an Xbox Live theme, making of video and an avatar. However not all retailers will be offering this deal.

As is popular these days, a 'limited edition' collectors version is planned for release also. It will include bonus materials such as behind the scenes footage of the game's development, soundtrack, in-game commentaries and a book about the game. To keep gamers' interested the game is also expected to have episodic expansions in the future.

Sources: Bit-tech.net (one, two), StrategyInformer.com, ShackNews.com