PSN

Windows 8 may kill the Start menu button, the Super Bowl spawned tons o' tweets, and Facebook admits that deleted photos can still be accessed.

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

The debate continues to rage throughout this generation's console wars: Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3?

There are plenty of reasons to buy each, and they share a lot of games in common. The difference lies in the console exclusives.

Microsoft also has its fair share on the Xbox 360 (Left 4 Dead 2, Gears of War, Fable), but the lion's share of quality exclusive games are on the PlayStation 3. Many franchises you're no doubt just a tad familiar with: Uncharted, God of War. Others you might be less aware of: Flower, Heavy Rain. Collectively, these games alone are worth buying a PS3 for.… Read more

Sony has greatly reduced the number of gaming devices that can access games purchased from the PlayStation Store through one user account.

In the past, someone with a PlayStation Network account could play a purchased game on up to five PS3 or PSP devices. A revised policy--which went into effect Friday for several countries in Europe, as well as Australia--stipulates that only two of each Sony gaming devices (PS3, PSP) can access purchased games and content (purchased after November 18) from the PlayStation Store.

Sony announced the policy earlier this month on its official European PlayStation blog. Sony representatives did not immediately reply to CNET's request for comment on whether the change would come stateside. … Read more

2011 was a rather remarkable year for products and companies that were on top, taking a flop.

Here are our Top 5 moves and happenings that were hard to watch, from Flip to HP to Netflix and BlackBerry. It just goes to show that some of the biggest names can lose their way spectacularly.

Sony said today it had locked down 93,000 user accounts on its online gaming and entertainment networks after detecting a large number of unauthorized attempts to gain access to the accounts.

Intruders "using very large sets of sign-in IDs and passwords" had brief access to 60,000 accounts on the PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network and another 33,000 accounts on Sony Online Entertainment's servers, Sony said.

The attacks occurred from Friday through Monday and affected "less than one-tenth of 1 percent" of PSN, SEN, and SOE consumers, Sony said in a statement. … Read more

This week on preGame, Mark and Jeff will crawl through a dungeon or two in Dark Souls and then mess around with a gravity gun in Rochard.

But first we'll dive into instant reactions regarding the news that broke today about Xbox 360 bringing TV programming to Xbox Live. Beginning around the holiday season, Microsoft will partner with close to 40 content providers like HBO GO, Verizon, and Comcast and stream over Xbox Live.

All these demos, stories, the Xbox Wireless Speed Wheel, and chance to win a limited-edition Deus Ex: Human Revolution T-shirt on today's show!

preGame … Read more

Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) Australia wasn't on the wrong side of the law when it experienced a massive data breach due to a cyber attack earlier this year, according to Australian Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim.

The commissioner had decided to investigate April's Sony PlayStation Network (PSN) breach, which saw hackers gain access to over 70 million customer records. SCE Australia told the Commissioner that each individual's name, address (city, state, postal code), country, email address, date of birth, online ID, PSN/Qriocity password and possibly credit card data could have been accessed during the attack.

Principles set … Read more

Adam Curry joins the show today to discuss Google's antitrust hearing (charade or not charade?), Facebook's redesign backlash, and how HP's board is looking at ousting Leo Apotheker as CEO--which apparently has many more political ramifications than we would have expected. Things you find out when Adam is on the show.

Sony's PlayStation Network is currently experiencing an outage affecting users of the service around the world.

An error message appears when attempting to log in to PSN: "An error has occurred. You have been signed out of PlayStation Network. (8002A548)." According to an official PlayStation support site, the error code 8002A543 may also appear.

"We're aware that some of you are having issues trying to log into PSN. We're working to resolve the issue, and we'll update you here," read a tweet on the PlayStation Twitter account several hours ago.

PlayStation Blog Europe also chimed in on Twitter with an acknowledgement that the PSN is down in that region. "PlayStation Network engineers are working hard on restoring the service."

Just a few moments ago, the same account offered a timetable and some hope for confused users of the service who can't get online: "Current indications are that we'll be restoring PlayStation Network services in approx. two hours. We appreciate your patience." (Update: As of 1:30 p.m. PT, tweets were beginning to indicate that the service was gradually returning online.) … Read more