Looks like a whole bunch of users are reporting that they are unable to log in to the PlayStation Network again. This after outages that “anonymous” claimed responsibility for. Sony acknowledges that there’s a problem saying that “We’re aware certain functions of PlayStation Network are down”.

They promise an update on the situation as soon as possible. But that statement was issued over nine hours ago and there’s still no change in the situation. Hopefully they fix it soon.

Sony has reason to celebrate when it comes to sales of its gaming hardware. The PS3 has reached over 50 million units shipped worldwide and the PS Move controller has shipped over eight million units. That’s a lot of gear no matter how you look at it.

These are categorized as “shipped” because Sony reports sales to retailers, not end users like you and me. Anyhow, those are still huge numbers. The PS3 is on fire.

This generation’s console cycle is already longer than usual. However even though we are getting a successor to the PSP, it looks like we are going to have to wait for the PS4. Sony has stated that a PS4 isn’t in the works for launch “anytime soon.” They remain confident in the ten year life-cycle. Apparently very confident.

One analyst says that this could leave the door open for others to enter the console market. Maybe even Apple. Apple TV for instance could use an SDK and App Store to deliver games to television sets. The next generation Apple TV might just have the same hardware and software improvements that accompanied the iPad 2. That could be very interesting.

While the Xbox 360 is still outselling the PS3 in the US, new data from Strategy Analytics shows that globally, Sony’s console reached 43.4 million at the end of 2010, compared to 42.9 million for Microsoft’s system. Take that Xbox.

In comparison, the Wii’s worldwide installed base was 75.5 million at the end of last year. If you have been paying attention, global demand for Sony’s PS3 has exceeded that of the Xbox 360 for the past two years, and there’s no reason to think it will stop this year. Microsoft needs to keep innovating and build on the success of the Kinect to compete.

There won’t be a widespread PlayStation 3 shortage in Europe after all. Thank the gaming gods! You can also thank the Hague’s civil court of justice, who has just ruled in Sony’s favor in its dispute with LG, and ordered that the 300,000 PS3s that are currently seized by customs be released to Sony for distribution.

Apparently LG has also been ordered to pay €130,000 in legal fees. If the company doesn’t comply, it will face a fine of €200,000 per day until it does. It’s a win for Sony all around, but you can bet LG isn’t done with them yet.

Do you have a burning question about a PlayStation product? Well if you have a Twitter account then you are in luck and can find some answers. Just @AskPlayStation. It’s that simple. Although I wouldn’t bother them with questions about how to jailbreak your PS3.

Yep. @AskPlayStation is the official account for all of your PS concerns, questions and comments. They will give you assistance via tweets Monday through Friday from 9:30AM – 5:00PM PST and will even answer in real-time between the hours of 2 and 5 PST. Mighty nice of them.

Sony’s PlayStation Plus subscription just became more worthwhile with the new addition of online storage for game saves. It’s coming with v3.60 of the PS3 firmware, which we should receive tomorrow, March 10th.

You will get to save up to 150MB of PlayStation 3 game progress data in Sony’s make.believe cloud. That isn’t a ton of space, but these files are usually small anyway. Really the most interesting aspect here is being able to just put your account details into any PS3 anywhere and play your games.

Bad news if you were hoping to play some Killzone 3 in the next 11 hours. Sony has announced that the Playstation Network will be down for 11 hours due to required maintenance. It seems like a long time compared to how long it usually is, but maybe they have a surprise for us.

You will not be able to sign into PSN, Play games online or use the PSN store. Other than that, we don’t have any details, but if you get the message “The PlayStation Network has been suspended.” when trying to login, don’t sweat it. It doesn’t mean your account has been banned.

At GDC this week Sony outed some impressive numbers: 41 million to be exact. That’s the number of PS3 consoles the company says it has sold worldwide. In 2010 the PlayStation store saw a 60 percent boost in traffic and a 70 percent boost in revenue from a total of 70 million PSN accounts.

That impressive stuff. And titles like Killzone and Call of Duty sure help. Playstation Plus doesn’t hurt either. To be clear, we are talking about 70 million PSN user accounts, 41 million PS3 consoles, and 80 percent of them are online. Sony has a lot to celebrate right now.

SteelSeries has announced the Siberia v2 for PS3 headset for serious gamers. This headset is for the PS3, but will still play nice with other platforms like the Xbox 360, PC and Mac. It features comfortable leather earcups for those long hours of gaming, impressive audio reproduction for optimal directional sounds, and independent audio/voice volume.

It uses lightweight material, so your ears will be comfortable for the duration of your gaming session and 50mm driver units will deliver superior sound reproduction. The SteelSeries Siberia v2 for PS3 will arrive in the third quarter for $119.99.

Sony has unveiled a new addition to its PS3 accessories. The DualShock 3 Charging Station will charge up two DualShock 3 or Sixaxis controllers without having to plug into an actively running PS3. There’s no word from Sony on how quick the controllers charge, but cradling the gamepads needs an adapter for each gamepad. There’s one included in the box.

There’s also a new candy blue color version of the DualShock 3. Both will ship to Japan on April 21 for about $30 and $67. We don’t know if that new DualShock 3 will arrive in the US, but most PS3 accessories ship to the US after they hit Japan.

You might recall that Sony and LG have been at each other’s throats lately. It involves allegations of patent infringement. Now Sony has a major setback in Europe because of this. The civil court of justice in the Hague has just granted LG a preliminary injunction that will have all new PlayStation 3s imported into Europe confiscated by customs for at least ten days.

Bad news for European gamers who just imported a console for sure. They are already being stockpiled in warehouses and the injunction could be extended even further. That would lead to a shortage of PS3s on store shelves. Right now retailers generally have two to three weeks worth of stock on hand.

Last week Sony said that those who hack their PlayStation 3 consoles would have their PlayStation Network access “terminated permanently.” Hackers didn’t care for that message or the tone. Now hackers have reportedly found a way to unban themselves and more than that, they can actually ban any other console they want.

However, to do this, the hackers need to know the unique ID assigned to the other console that they’ll be banning, so it might be more a case of swapping a “good” ID onto a “bad” console. We don’t have any more info, but keep your PS3 ID to yourself.

I thought this was already the case, but I guess not. Sony has released a statement on their official PlayStation blog, stating that anyone who hacks the PlayStation 3 or runs unauthorized or pirated software will be permanently banned from the PlayStation Network and also won’t be able to use Qriocity services through the PlayStation 3.

Seems like they have had enough of people abusing their product. It likely won’t deter hackers who will just work harder to circumvent any measures they put in place.

Sony has just released a PS3 app for those people who watch a lot of video using the PS3. The new app is called Filmy and is designed to organize and play videos recorded in the AVCHD (H.264) format and can be accessed from the PS3’s hard drive or from a device attached through a USB cable.

If the videos are geotagged, users will be able to see where they were taken and sort them by date. The Filmy app is available in the media section of the PlayStation Store. The trial version is free, but it will only be fully functional for 15-minutes, after which you’ll need to pay $5 to access the full features.