Little Big Planet To Sell Consoles

Much like Metal Gear Solid 4, Sony is looking for LittleBigPlanet to move consoles from the shelves because all types of gamers are going to want this title. Personally, the desire to want and the stronger feeling of need are two separate problems; everyone will want the game but many will need to buy a PlayStation 3 for MSRP.

Although the prices are slowly dropping for a PS3 unit, hardcore gamers are the ones that will rush out and spend a bundle of money for a console just to play one game. If not hardcore gamers, fans of the franchise (MGS4 for example) and LittleBigPlanet is still working on building a fan base for their new franchise.

The platformer LittleBigPlanet, for many, isn’t worth $399 plus the price of the game. That’s asking a lot, but Sony still thinks it can happen:

It’s going to be a hardware seller. Not only do you have the platforming experience that a lot of other games will have, you have this creativity that really is exclusive to LittleBigPlanet. (kotaku)

Would you run out and get a PS3 for LittleBigPlanet? I’m tempted, but that $399 barrier is truly a large obstacle to clear.

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An expert has given testimony to the US House of Representatives Subcomittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade during its commencement on hearings on the “unauthorized intrusion” on Sony’s PlayStation Network and Qrocity service, stating Sony knew that their security software was dated and lacked any sort of firewall against hacking.

Cybersecurity expert Dr. Gene Spafford’s testimony stated that security experts discovered discussions on forums that talked about how the PSN’s security was lacking. The threads revealed that the network was using old versions of the Apache Web server software, which “was unpatched and had no firewall installed.”

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The Sony intrusion alone compromised 100 million accounts both on the PSN and its Qriocity service, according to Spafford. He also cited the total cost of the breach to Sony, credit card companies, and other outfits, at $21 billion. Thieves in credit-card theft forums actually complained that the PSN breach was so great that it was depressing the price of such information by a “factor of five or 10” on the black market.

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Spafford’s proposed solution to future security is to limit the amount of data kept by companies such as Sony and to “age the data” so it expires after a certain time.

C-Span posted the video of the testimony here.

(Thanks, GameSpot.)