Hurt Locker lawsuit hits record levels

Roughly a year after Voltage Pictures filed suit against alleged pirates of its Best Picture-winning film “The Hurt Locker,” the company has updated the complaint – and it’s a whopper.

The suit has grown from the original 5,000 users to a record-breaking 24,583, topping the number of people being sued for illegally downloading “The Expendables”.

YouTube adds stereoscopic 3D offerings

While there are a handful of 3D videos on YouTube already, they’re anything but cutting edge.

The only 3D format the service supports is anaglyph – requiring the old-school red and blue glasses to see the effects. That’s hardly ideal for studios looking to promote upcoming films or publishers looking to showcase 3D video games. But that’s all about to change.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Report: Social games giant Zynga to file IPO

With a valuation of $10 billion, Zynga is by far the largest private game maker in the industry. Now investors hoping to get a piece of that pie may have their chance.

Tech blog AllThingsDigital reports the company could file for a public offering as early as this week. Once that IPO takes place, the company is widely expected to be the second biggest publicly-traded publisher in the industry, far surpassing Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive Software.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Gloves come off in Apple vs. Amazon

Apple is certainly the biggest music/tech company around, but Amazon has been very clear in its intention to up the stakes in the fight with the company – and today, it threw a haymaker.

Amazon is offering a daily special for Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way,” offering the entire album as a digital download for 99 cents. That’s less than the cost of a single track on iTunes.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Apple inching closer to its cloud music service?

Nothing has been formally announced yet, but if online reports are to believed (and they’re coming from reputable outlets) Apple has most of its ducks in a row for its long-awaited cloud music service.

Warner Music Group, Sony Music Group and EMI Group have all reportedly gotten onboard with the Cupertino tech giant, though it’s still not certain if the agreements are in principle or if they’ve been signed. The status of a deal with Universal Music Group is unclear.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Spike TV to air Microsoft’s E3 briefing

We’re about two-and-a-half weeks from the start of E3, but if you weren’t able to get a pass to the video game industry’s annual trade show, you’ll still be able to see some of the big moments.

Spike TV and Microsoft have struck a deal for the network to broadcast the Xbox 360 E3 media briefing on June 6.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Sony faces new security fears

Sony has acknowledged another security hole in its PlayStation unit – and while it might not be as catastrophic as the recent security breach, it’s bound to be an embarrassment for the company – and another hurdle officials have to overcome as they work to regain consumers’ trust.

The company has blocked user logins on all PlayStation Websites after being informed of an exploit (or workaround) that could let unauthorized people take control of user accounts using the very same information that was stolen from Sony roughly four weeks ago.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Sony’s Stringer lashes out at critics

While Sony has been apologetic over the last month about the breach of its PlayStation Network (and subsequent personal data theft), CEO Howard Stringer is apparently adopting a new tone.

The head of Sony, who found himself personally under a lot of fire for his silence on the matter as it was unfolding, had angry words Tuesday for critics who have accused the company of taking too long to inform consumers that their data had been stolen.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

PlayStation Network revived: What you need to know

With the PlayStation Network up and running once again, gamers jonesing for some “Call of Duty: Black Ops” multiplayer action or the chance to truly break in their copy of “Socom 4” are finally able to scratch that itch.

But the relaunch of the system is only a partial one – and there are still plenty of questions floating around about what’s next. Here’s where things stand:

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Hackers hit another video game publisher

As Sony continues to struggle with its recent cyberattack, another video game publisher has had its database hacked.

Square Enix has confirmed hackers gained access to a database on Wednesday, taking 25,000 email addresses along with 350 employee resumes.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog