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[jetsetfluken]

As others have hinted at in the other thread (should be locked by now), this may be the future (well, by PS4 or at launch of NGP) for a unified Playstation Store marketplace - every region's content all on one storefront. The only issue then is licensing, but now that they have shifted to a new name "SNE" that MIGHT be bypassed.

The only thing to fear of the possibility of not being able to access other region Store's content.

With Qriocity, NGP, Playstation Suite, Playstation Rewards program, and in the far future PS4, they are starting to implement these stepping stones now.

 

[Oppo]

Why couldn't they have added one more superfluous word to the end beginning with R so they could have S.N.E.A.R.

 

[Shed_a_Ninja]

Why couldn't they have added one more superfluous word to the end beginning with R so they could have S.N.E.A.R.

Because Sony seems to love 4-letter acronyms.

SCEA, SCEE, SCEJ, SCEI.

 

[Totobeni]

Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC ("SCEA") will transfer its online services operations, including your wallet and the funds in it, to Sony Network Entertainment America Inc. ("SNEA").

Title is wrong I guess since this don't mean they will change SCEA name to SNEA.
....

So now PSN operations is in America, is this good or bad?

 

[angelfly]

Title is wrong I guess since this don't mean they will change SCEA name to SNEA.
....

So now PSN operations is in America, is this good or bad?

NA PSN was always in America so the only change now is who's handling it.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

More good or bad?

 

[StealthGoblin]

Title is wrong I guess since this don't mean they will change SCEA name to SNEA.
....

So now PSN operations is in America, is this good or bad?

I suspect we'll see SNEE and SNEJ being uncovered at some point.

 

[jetsetfluken]

The discouraging thing about the rumors of a unified PS Store is that this is "SNEA", not "SNE".

But if we have PS4 (and NGP) at launch with a unified Store, I'll be happy. Can anyone insinuate this from what Kaz said?

And since it's not SCEA anymore, does this mean Grace Chen will be fired (or given a lower position)?

Spoiler

lol

 

[ULTROS!]

Kinda weird I didn't get any email.

Then again, I'm not using a credit card.

 

[Mithos]

Kinda weird I didn't get any email.
Then again, I'm not using a credit card.

Same for my US account, not using credit card, no email received.

 

[zomgbbqftw]

I guess the PSN is now under direct control of SNE rather than SCE. It bodes well for Sony as a company, but not sure how it will affect gamers...

 

[raebodep]

Sony's websites are such a fractured mess, I can never easily find what i'm looking for. I can never understand why big companies always have such shitty non-user-friendly websites.

 

[conman]

Lots of doomsayers and naysayers.

I'm hoping that this means Sony is finally getting serious about improving some of its horrible network infrastructure. Combined with some of the new features on PS+ (cloud saving and auto-updates), this could be a sign that they're finally going to do something about smoothing out the enormous kinks that have built up over the past few years.

Hopefully, those of us who have had problems with the overall speed of the network (downloads, updates, trophy syncs/comparisons) will start to see some improvement on that front.

 

[Durante]

This is the first time I got a legitimate email of which I thought that it's almost certainly a phishing attack. Between the weird formatting, the "innovyx" subdomain and the "ensure your account information is accurate and updated" I don't think they could have made it more shady if they tried.

 

[jorma]

Can they really shut down access to the psn games i bought if - for some reason - i decided i don't want to accept their new TOS? Weird shit.

 

[jcm]

That's a really terrible way to send mass emails. Here's some free advice for you, Sony:

Add a DNS A record for something like in.playstation.com, point it at the IP address of Innovyx's server. Use that subdomain in your emails instead of playstation.innovyx.net. It doesn't cost you a penny, and your customers will be much less worried.

Don't truncate your emails at 40 characters per line. Few people today are reading emails on a Commodore 64.

Never, ever, ever link your customers to a domain you don't own and tell them to type their username and password.

That's from Email Marketing 101. The fact that they didn't do this makes me wonder what else Innovyx does poorly.

 

[Mithos]

I didn't see this mentioned anywhere in the thread, and I didn't even reflect upon it when reading the new ToS, but other apparently did.

Remember originally SCEA had promised that PSN would be FREE forever, but now that does not matter as it is a whole new company in charge of PSN called SNEA, and here is some of the major changes.

1. ACCOUNT REGISTRATION
[...] Currently, there is no charge to create a Sony Online Services account [...]

15. GENERAL LEGAL
[...] SNEA, at its sole discretion, may modify the terms of this Agreement at any time, including imposing a fee for creating PSN accounts. [...]

The keywords above is Currently and imposing a fee !!!

Found this on another forum where I visits and this is discussed, posted by someone who found it on another forum he visited (might be a GAF banned site, so no link), and we were like how did we all miss this.

 

[Stoffinator]

Same for my US account, not using credit card, no email received.

I got the email and I don't use credit cards.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

Maybe on certain devices it wouldnt be free?

 

[kvn]

I got the email and I don't use credit cards.

Yeah me too. Got the mail for my US-account and I don't use my credit card on that one.

Also I don't quite get the new passages about possible account creating fees in the future...It clearly refers to the creation of an account, not to the use. Still sounds like a storm warning to me.

 

[Zoe]

Maybe on certain devices it wouldnt be free?

Or it could be a fee to kill an old account and replace it with a new one or userID changes. That's pretty typical on services where the basic account is free.

 

[mr_nothin]

It's posts like this one that make me realize how much I miss the :lol emoticon

It's posts like that that make me realize how much I miss the old GAF.
RIP GAF

 

[Afrikan]

when was it ever stated that PSN would be free forever?

I remember reading early this gen, that Sony always had the option to charge if they wanted to.

 

[Wario64]

I didn't see this mentioned anywhere in the thread, and I didn't even reflect upon it when reading the new ToS, but other apparently did.


Found this on another forum where I visits and this is discussed, posted by someone who found it on another forum he visited (might be a GAF banned site, so no link), and we were like how did we all miss this.

This has been in past TOS. I don't know why people are acting as if this is new

 

[jcm]

This has been in past TOS. I don't know why people are acting as if this is new

Exactly. Here's the user agreement from November 2007:

Currently, there are no charges for creating a PSN account, but there may be charges associated with certain online content or services that are available through PSN.

...

SCEA, at its sole discretion, may modify the terms of this Agreement at any time, including imposing a fee for creating PSN accounts.

The changes don't seem particularly dastardly to me.

 

[Mithos]

This has been in past TOS. I don't know why people are acting as if this is new

Didn't know, usually don't read em, but read the new April 1st one because of all the freaking out around the Internet.

The changes don't seem particularly dastardly to me.

Yeah only seems like the change is SCEA -> SNEA.

 

[jiggles]

Yeah only seems like the change is SCEA -> SNEA.

The name done changed.

 

[Afrikan]

what about Grace?

 

[Wario64]

what about Grace?

Sony is working very hard to teach her how to read clocks

 

[Slavik81]

Why couldn't they have added one more superfluous word to the end beginning with R so they could have S.N.E.A.R.

SNEA®

 

[5333]

I logged in this morning and there was no prompt for me to agree with the new TOS. I want to close one of my accounts and get the refund...

EDIT: I tried again and now I got the prompt, but there is no option to close the account.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

You didnt get the prompt? I just did when Raptr tried to connect to the PSN.

 

[Zoe]

I logged in this morning and there was no prompt for me to agree with the new TOS. I want to close one of my accounts and get the refund...

EDIT: I tried again and now I got the prompt, but there is no option to close the account.

I'm sure that's something that would have to be arranged with a CSR. Especially when you're talking about refunding the balance of your wallet.

 

[LosDaddie]

Has gamesharing been changed?

 

[Zoe]

Has gamesharing been changed?

No.

 

[lupinko]

So does this affect gamesharing in any way?

Probably not.

 

[sleepykyo]

The discouraging thing about the rumors of a unified PS Store is that this is "SNEA", not "SNE".

But if we have PS4 (and NGP) at launch with a unified Store, I'll be happy. Can anyone insinuate this from what Kaz said?

And since it's not SCEA anymore, does this mean Grace Chen will be fired (or given a lower position)?

Spoiler

lol

I honestly don't want a unified store. SCEE seems to be the only region that rejects games, and this in turn forces developers to fix their stuff.

eg. SF HDR, which SCEA should have rejected but didn't. And Puzzle Fighter got voice chat patched in with the European launch.

 

[jonabbey]

Just been reading through the new SNEA terms of service in order to sign into PSN.

The bit about possibly imposing a fee for creating PSN accounts certainly jumped out, as well as the language about how Sony has the right to delete anything on our hard drives or remove any functionality they feel like with stealth updates with no recourse to us.

They also advise 'back up the archivable content on your hard drive, yo!'.

Sounds like they're giving themselves the right to nuke any PS3 signed into PSN after today.

CFW users beware.

 

[conman]

I did notice one other change, it took much longer than usual to sync my trophies. Not quite as long as re-syncing them on a new console, but definitely much longer than typical (15mins for 1400+ trophies, compared to the usual 20-30 secs). So was there also a massive PSN server migration along with the switch from SCEA to SNEA? Or was this just a fluke? Anyone else notice the same thing? And more importantly, will this matter in the slightest?

 

[patsu]

Probably transient. I just compared my trophies with jobabbey's. Didn't have to wait unusually long compared to last time.

Actually, my first sync requires some db update. That took about 20 seconds like last time, but subsequent compare with a few people were almost instant.