We are all waiting to buy Sony’s Playstation Vita, but let’s not forget about the PSP, which has been a flagship device for Sony since December 12, 2004. It has accumulated a total of 70 million sales globally. That’s the number being bandied about at E3.

That sounds amazing doesn’t it? Well, sadly it is nowhere near the 100 million DS units that Nintendo had shipped back in 2009. That total includes the original PSP-1000, the PSP-2000, the PSP-3000 and the PSP go. But perhaps the Vita will add some impressive numbers to hit Mario in his plumber pants.

Nintendo has already promised its next-gen console will make its debut at E3, and rumors continue to circulate about just what this “Wii 2″ can do, and what Nintendo will call it. “Wii” was odd, but what about simply “Nintendo”?

According to Game Informer, “Nintendo” is supposedly among the current frontrunners for names. Nihon Keizai Shinbun confirms the talk of a 6-inch touchscreen, along with a camera and its own internal power source. That will allow it to be used as a standalone gaming device, while the camera can also be used to create an avatar. Sounds good so far. We will know more shortly.

Looking for some Batman inspired controllers to accompany your Batman Arkham Asylum game? These Batman: Arkham City batarang controllers are for the Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers and feature bat-start and select / back buttons, dual rumble motors, comfort-soft grips, and seven switchable versions of LED color.

The PlayStation 3 version has an internal battery, detachable charging cable, and batman-themed USB RF receiver. The Xbox version is wired and not as cool. They will be on display next week at E3 and will hit store shelves when Batman: Arkham City ships in October.

You shouldn’t kick someone when they are down, but that is just what Lulz Security has done by breaking into SonyPictures.com. It claims to have stolen the personal information of over 1,000,000 users, stored in plain text format.

Lulz says that it was done with a simple SQL injection. Part of the group’s exploit is even posted online in a RAR file, which contains over 50,000 emails and passwords of users. Poor Sony. They just can’t catch a break. The Playstation store was only just restored and now this.

It’s been a long time coming, but the Playstation store is finally back. Awaiting you is a huge lineup of new downloadable games, demos, add-on content, themes, avatars and videos. Also, PlayStation Plus has been updated with new full game trials, free games and DLC, free avatars and more discounts.

I know. You want to know about your free games from the Welcome Back program. Well, they aren’t ready yet. But I, like you, am waiting. Can’t be long now.

Sony said today that it will be taking down the PlayStation Network for several hours to finish the restoration process. they said that starting “soon,” it will go down for multiple hours and this is key to bringing back the PlayStation Store. They are on schedule to get everything back to normal worldwide.

Users who are still online during the downtime will stay signed into PSN, but you won’t be able to login until the maintenance is over. Sony needs to get PSN back up and running in all capacities since it’s about to head into E3. Developers have already been very vocal about the fact that the PlayStation Store’s outage has cost them money.

Were you feeling sad when the PS3 got slimmed down? It did lose a few USB ports and support for memory cards. Well, now Duracell is correcting this problem with the Duracell Extender. Just put it to the right of your PS3 and it will extend the console’s body, making it wider and giving you three additional USB ports, an SD and memory stick card slot, and a place to store two controllers.

Pretty cool. However, keep in mind that this unit requires it’s own power supply, which it draws from one of the PS3′s USB ports, so it is using up one port and gives you two additional USB ports. You can get it right now for about $80.

Sony has announced that their PlayStation Network services will be fully restored worldwide before the week is over. Except for Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea. That includes Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity.

Those in Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea have a wait still as their are still problems that need to be sorted out. Hopefully the network can stay up and stay in good health so that we can all game happily ever after.

The latest rumor is that Sony will name their upcoming NGP handheld the “PlayStation Vita.” Yeah, we think it’s weird too. Vita is the Latin term for “Life,” so let’s hope the battery life ends up surprising us. Backing up this rumor, the psvita.com domain features the same technical contact as psp.com.

Well, we should know for sure about this rumor at Sony’s E3 keynote on June 6th. The NGP is expected to sell for $250-$300 for the cheapest model. What do you think of this name?

Sonys new wireless headset looks good. This new official PS3 Wireless Stereo Headset features 7.1 virtual surround sound, a retractable, mutable microphone, and standard embedded volume controls. You’ll be coordinating your attacks and talking smack to your enemies in style.

These headset connects via a USB dongle, and will push headset status updates like your battery life, directly to your TV screen. This Sony-approved headset will cost you $100 when they arrive in September.

Good news for PS3 owners in Asia. The PlayStation Network is finally coming back online. Sony has announced that it will restore the gaming network across the continent, after over a month of downtime. The company’s PSN services are already up and running in other parts of the world and tomorrow it will be back in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan.

Those in South Korea and Hong Kong still have to wait. Hopefully they get everyone gaming online again soon.

Feeling a little blue because your info may have been hacked due to Playstations woes? Well this should make you feel better. A short form on the PlayStation website is now distributing activation codes for a free year of Debix AllClear ID Plus identity theft protection.

The offer is good for all US PSN and Qriocity account holders who activate before June 28th, and it will get you up to $1 million in identity theft insurance coverage. That’s got to make you feel better right? Sony hopes so.

Let’s face it, Sony needs all the help it can get right now, with all of the hacks it has been suffering. That’s probably why Sony is teasing this limited edition PS3 bundle that gets you Call of Duty: Black Ops with a 160GB console.

The price is $299 and Sony’s also throwing in the First Strike content pack. It will be available next week, starting on May 31. If you are just getting a PS3 this is the one to get. This game will have you playing for months.

As cool as the PSP is, it is starting to look a bit dated. So Sony is introducing the PSP Remaster series for PlayStation 3, where Sony will port select portable game titles to the PS3 in high-def Blu-ray. Some of those titles may even have new add-on content and stereoscopic 3D support.

Another new bonus is that gamers will be able to share game save data between the two platforms. The key to the success of this will be what price they charge for these games that you have already played. The first PSP Remaster title announced is Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, which is Japan only and arriving at an unknown date.

This is getting ridiculous. A month ago you might have said that PSN stood for Pretty Safe Network, now it seems more like Pretty S**T Network. PSN had only just gotten back online when hackers breached it once more with a vulnerability having to do with the system’s password reset. This whole situation is crazy. They should have had some sort of plan in place for a total system meltdown in the first place.

I say we all get an extra 2 “Welcome back” games for this. If they ever get things straightened out, we may even get a full gaming session in which we can play them before it crashes again.