Sony Sued For Preventing Playstation Network Users From Suing Sony

Along with the mixed news coming out from Japan regarding the PlayStation Vita launch, it appears Sony has another lawsuit to deal with.

You may remember that Sony updated the PS3 Terms of Service in September to forbid users from filing class action lawsuits against Sony if they wanted to access the PlayStation Network service. Of course, you can always send a physical letter to Sony cancelling that part of the contract. Given the hassle of doing such for a free online service, opting out was probably not worth most PlayStation Network users’ time. Now a Northern California man may have filed a lawsuit against the very clause that forbids PlayStation Network users from filing lawsuits.

GameSpot reports that an anonymous man has filed a class action lawsuit against Sony in a Northern California court. The class action lawsuit aplies to anyone who bought a PS3 before the change in September, and the suit alleges that the updated Terms of Service are evidence that Sony is engaging in unfair business practices of forcing customers to forfeit rights or lose access to the online service they joined to when they bought their Sony PlayStation 3 console. The suit also claims that the optional opt-out policy via physical mail is unreasonable, and that Sony deliberately buried the Terms of Service change within the 21 pages of the contract that are only available for review on the PlayStation 3 (previous changes to the Terms of Service were available for review before release on the website).

You may remember the recent class action suit against Sony alleging that disabling the option to "Install Other OS" was evidence of deceptive business practices; that lawsuit was thrown out by district court judge who declared it bad business, but not illegal. This time the charges seem more serious, and we'll keep you updated as more information comes to light.

The PlayStation Vita Brings Gaming Into Your Reality

[Photo: Screenshot from GameTrailers.com's video on the PS Vita. See the source link at bottom for the actual video.]Game developers and publishers have thrown about the term “augmented reality” for many years, but with usually disappointing results. Sony thinks it may be able to deliver on the promise, however, as the freshly-released (in Japan) Playstation Vita offers an integration between gaming and reality… all in mobile form.

Using the Vita’s rear camera and accelerometer, it gathers visual information from wherever you are and figures out your surroundings. At that point, it can intelligently insert virtual elements--street-fighting goons, spaceships, race cars, whatever--and displays the integrated action on the screen, even intelligently figuring out how to make them interact with the real-world surroundings.

The end result is a compelling augmented reality experience (though the term “virtual reality” might be more fitting). For example: Two tanks doing battle could use stacks of real-world books for cover, or giant flowers could burst through the earth. And yes, there’s already an augmented reality title ready to pop into the Vita (when you get one): Reality Fighter pits two brawny combatants against each other to engage in fisticuffs on your breakfast table, office desk or car dashboard.

Though it's already released in Japan, the Playstation Vita won’t be available to Europe or North America until February, 2012. You can check out some awesome video of the Vita in action, however (including the augmented reality features) at Gametrailers.com.