According to Eurogamer, Sony has denied knowing anything about the now mysterious error code that some PS3 owners have reported seeing, following the failure of their Blu-ray drives. Not to be confused with that other set of fictional unlucky numbers, this one is purported to have real life consequences.

However, if Gamerevolver is to be believed, the error and the drive failure are somehow coincidental in nature, and not related:

“Since this error occurred, we obviously contacted Sony Support. We were informed that the code isn’t common, and a simple reset of the system, and restoral of factory settings should do the trick. Unfortunately, after the restoral, the error still occurred. So, we dug a bit further, and this is what we found.

The error code is actually one of two things, a) a faulty sector on the internal hard drive, or b) a faulty installation of software/firmware, both iterations actually coincide with each other. If the hard drive suffers a faulty sector (a section of damaged space on the drive that data might have been written to that no longer is readable), an installation may still be processed, and even work, but the error can cause some serious side effects, such as option b. If your PS3 has installed an item incorrectly, including firmware, it is in high risk of receiving this error.”

More on this, after the jump:

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Nearly ten months ago, Blockbuster announced that they were going to drop HD DVD from their retail stores across the nation. Now that the format war has been officially over for nearly two months, Blu-ray.com is reporting that the movie/videogame rental giant is going to go huge with Blu-ray this week. Until now, you could only find Blu-ray Discs at about 1,700 of Blockbuster’s brick-and-mortar locations, but now every single Blockbuster in the US and Canada — almost 5,000 total — will rent and sell Blu-ray Disc movies.

In addition, Blockbuster will be bringing the PS3 and Blu-ray to the forefront of their marketing. Each of the North American Blockbuster stores will soon have a PS3 hooked up to a 42-inch HDTV to show off Blu-ray Disc movies. I don’t know about you guys, but this will be a large technological jump for my local Blockbuster, which currently has around five small CRT Televisions hanging from the ceiling, playing endless loops of motion picture trailers. Isn’t that standard?

[via Blu-ray.com — Thanks, Jonathan!]

Via Destructoid

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Good news, my fellow Europeans! Despite concerns that Europe would not be getting in on the beta for Metal Gear On the internet, it has been confirmed by Konami that such talk is falsehood. It looked like Europe would be getting the shaft due to retailers knowing totally nothing about pre-order beta test entry. The reason for this is that, unlike in America, we might not be getting our chance at a beta in this way.

Konami is going to announce its plans for the European beta soon, but until then, if you were in the PAL territory and worrying that you wouldn’t be able to get your MGO on, then fret not. Just sit tight and Kojima will send for you.

Via Destructoid

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Filed under: Nintendo Wii, Online, Puzzle

You could be forgiven for missing out on Toki Tori, a cute tiny Game Boy Color puzzle-platformer released in 2001, just as the Game Boy Advance was swallowing up everyone’s portable gaming attention. You’d also be forgiven for missing last week’s trailer announcing that the game is being revamped for Nintendo’s Wii Ware service. We sure did!

Despite the week-old trailer, Netherlands-based developer Two Tribes for some reason waited until this day to issue a press release officially revealing the new game’s “Dozens of Levels” and “New Wii Remote Controls.” Strangely enough, now that the press release is out, the game’s official web site seems to be down for maintenance and a project page about the game on the Two Tribes site is similarly inaccessible. Come on guys … this is no time to shrink from attention. Get that cute little yellow face out there to the public!

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Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, On the web, Video

A day after the BBC announced a version of its iPlayer streaming video service for the Wii, an obvious follow-up question arises: “Why isn’t a similar service available for the PS3 and Xbox 360 as well?” A partial answer from BBC Future and Technology Group Coordinator Erik Huggers, who stated in a BBC’s dot.life blog that Sony and Microsoft weren’t willing to open up their infrastructures to the iPlayer. “If you want to get on the PlayStation or Xbox, they want control of the look, the feel and the experience; they want it done within their shop, and their shop only,” Huggers stated.

The BBC blogger uses this as a leaping-off point to declare that the Wii’s deal with the BBC “makes something of a mockery” of the multimedia capabilities of the Xbox 360 and PS3. Never mind that the Wii can’t even play DVDs (much less Blu-ray discs) or that the system offers no way to download video for permanent, offline viewing. According to the BBC’s blogger, Nintendo is “bridging the gap between the web and the TV” in a way that its competitors aren’t.

Regardless, the implication that Sony and Microsoft are unwilling to accommodate on the internet video outside the walled garden of their narrow, profit-generating shop services is a little upsetting. The beauty of having a machine connected to the internet should be the ability to access the wide array of free content on that internet, not just the chance to buy things from the console maker and its partners.

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Filed under: News

In an excellent back-and-forth style write-up over at 1up, the Computer editors break down their newest look at Bethesda’s Fallout 3. The prose of the piece is a good read and intersperses interesting and important pieces of Fallout news all throughout. Like the fact that the game begins with being born. Literally. You evidently get to view that moment in all it’s first-person glory. The words womb and sphincter were used.

On a more serious note, the game’s previously noted 200 endings has now ballooned to 500. Now, upon first reading that number, fanboys everywhere are getting ready to state that with that many endings, they can’t possibly be all that different! Duh, that’s the point. When the number of game endings was first announced, it was around 10-15. Assuming those were all relatively different from each other, then our 500 ending are just 10-15 endings (likely more) with various gradations between them. The whole point is to (effectively) never have exactly the same ending twice. For those of you who think that’s a raw deal because you can’t see everything, then we have something to show you.

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Via Xbox360fanboy

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Filed under: News

Mark Rein has been making comments recently that despite appearances, the 360 version of Unreal Tournament III is “coming along really nicely.” The real story is nicer even than that apparently, as Rein says that the internal team knows the date, but that they just haven’t released it yet. When asked if they’ve a release date, Rein replied “We do, but I don’t think we put it out yet,” then stated “It’s kind of a when it’s done thing. We’ve an idea of when it’s coming.” There wasn’t any kind of a reason put forward, and then Rein teased a bit claiming that the media would see the game running at a press event in Las Vegas soon. We don’t really see why the final release date couldn’t just be nailed down, as Rein “was playing it yesterday here in my office.” The only downside we could see is the eventual announcement (thanks to MS’s draconian ideas about player generated content) that the 360 version won’t have any mod support.

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Via Xbox360fanboy

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Filed under: News, Xbox Live, Multiplayer

As the weekend rolls around again, the folks over at Bungie are bringing their flavor playlist of the week into rotation again. Now, usually that would mean that there would be Double EXP in every game played in the playlist, but it seems that those crazy engineers had a technical glitch, and while there is a new playlist, folks playing games within only receive a single point of EXP. Bungie assured us that they know of the issue and that everything should be ok by tomorrow (Friday) morning. This week’s Double EXP playlist is “Living Dead“

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

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Via Xbox360fanboy

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Filed under: News, Xbox Live, Multiplayer

Heads up to all the COD4 players out there! Remember back when the game launched last fall and there was a weekend event to celebrate? Sure you do. Well it’s happening again next weekend. Thanks to a press release from Microsoft, we can report that next weekend you’ll have the opportunity to play against the COD4 devs as well as an MMA fighter named Jens “Lil Evil” Pulver (though we honestly have no idea what significance being an MMA fighter has in the land of FPS). Not only that, but just playing during the weekend will enter you for all sorts of prizes. The times for the prizes and sweepstakes are Friday, April 18 at 12:01am through Sunday, April 20 at 11:59pm. The time that the MMA fighter and devs will be online is Friday, April 18 from 6-9pm. If you’re at all interested register here. Good luck! (Note: All times are Eastern Daylight, EDT)

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Via Xbox360fanboy

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Filed under: News, Xbox Live Arcade

Dev blogs are becoming more and more popular these days, as devs are learning that community managers have much more diverse tools at their fingertips to hold consumer attention and interest, while at the same time informing them about the upcoming game’s inner workings and mechanics. The Castle Crashers dev blog has done a great job at this, giving the community a consistent flow of news. The blog has been updated several times since we last updated on it’s contents and now includes a few new weapons (as well as the names of all those so far revealed), a new animal orb (the cat, who will add to your agility and strength) and a new playable character (the bear, who wields the deadly fish).

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Via Xbox360fanboy

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