Their is a known issue with the PS3, simply known as error 800010514. Although this error occurs less frequently than a southern Alabama church revival, we felt it necessary to our loyal Sony readers to help shed some light on this issue.

The error in question is mainly seen within the first month of use, or to put it bluntly, it has the error right out of the box, however, we have seen this occur at almost a year into service as well. Our particular error occurred shortly after installing a new game we had purchased off the PlayStation Store.

The Error reads as follows:

“An error occurred during the start operation. 80010514″

Since this error occurred, we obviously contacted Sony Support. We were informed that the code is not 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 eachother. If the hard drive suffers a faulty sector ( a section of damaged space on the drive that data may 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.

Basically, what is occuring is the corruption of game disc recognition and execution. If you will notice, in 90% of all cases, the drive will still play DVD and even Blu Ray movies with no problems. When trying to start a game however, the title, sooner or later, will receive the error.

A couple of ways to help prevent these errors from occuring:

1) Ensure that your internet connection is stable. If you are using a wireless connection, make sure your signal is at least a solid 80%. If not, make the proper adjustments until it is.

2) Dust your machine regularly. Any PS3 owner will tell you that the Playstation 3 is a dust magnet. Just run a dry cloth over it every couple days, and you should be fine. This will help prevent heat issues and shorts that may occur.

3) When installing firmware and/or software, make sure you follow the instructions. Even if you have installed 6 versions prior, each one is different, and may require additional steps. Save yourself the headache and just follow them, it only takes a minute or so longer to do it right.

By following these simple steps, you can prolongue the life of your PS3 indefinitely. To sum things up, the error is not hardware releated. Unfortunately, it is occuring through the corruption of firmware. Restoring you PS3 will not roll back the firmware, and unfortunately will not fix the issue 9 times out of 10. If you are receiving this error, contact Sony for a replacement unit. They are very fast when it comes to servicing/replacing as we had our 60Gb (the one that is in shortage ya know) back in about 2 1/2 weeks. Not bad.

Following the most recent rejection by Take-Two, Electronic Arts today announced some slight changes to the proposed deal and the company also extended the deadline/expiration date to April 18. The offer originally had a deadline of midnight, New York City time, on April 11, 2008. As has been noted several times before, EA wants to complete the deal in advance of the hugely anticipated release of GTA IV on April 29.

The primary amendment to the offer stipulates “either (1) that Take-Two’s Board of Directors redeem the preferred stock purchase rights issued as a result of Take-Two’s adoption on March 24, 2008 of the stockholder rights plan, or (2) that EA be satisfied that such rights have been invalidated or are otherwise inapplicable to its acquisition of Take-Two.”

Take-Two previously acknowledged that it adopted a new Stockholders Rights Agreement in direct response to the EA buyout proposal.

“The actions of the Take-Two Board may increase the risk for their stockholders by delaying a potential transaction,” said Owen Mahoney, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at EA. “We continue to believe that our $26.00 per share offer price is full and fair, and that a transaction between Take-Two and EA is the most compelling combination financially, strategically and operationally for all parties.”

Analyst Michael Pachter would seem to agree with Mahoney that EA’s offer is the best Take-Two will get. Pachter said Take-Two made a mistake in rejecting the deal.

EA also noted that as of 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on March 27, around shares of Take-Two had been tendered in and not withdrawn from the tender offer.

In an exclusive interview to be published in the next few days on GameDaily BIZ, Scott Steinberg, VP of Product Marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America, has commented on Microsoft’s exclusive episodic content for Rockstar’s much anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV.

The GTA franchise historically has always been associated with Sony’s PlayStation, but this time not only is the latest GTA not exclusive, but Sony failed to secure a deal for any exclusive episodic content on PS3. If you ask Steinberg, however, none of that ultimately matters to the average consumer.

“[Microsoft] spent the GNP of several small Latin American countries to get that [content], and if you’ve ever played San Andreas…there’s a lot of game to Grand Theft Auto and there’s going to be a lot of game to Grand Theft Auto IV to the point where I think most people will have that Grand Theft Auto experience on the PS3, day and date, same core game shipping on the 360. Perhaps they’ll be shipping some episodic content in the fall, but there is a whole lot of product shipping on the PS3 in April and I personally don’t think there’s going to be a huge percentage of folks who jump into downloadable content for another price when they’re still playing through the core product,” he told us.

“So while I do think having that brand on their system was a move for them which they felt they needed to make because they cut a big check for it, I think PlayStation fans know the Grand Theft Auto experience on the PS2 is how they grew up playing Grand Theft Auto,” he continued, “and when you combine GTA IV with MGS 4 and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, all the exclusive content that we’ve got going forward, I think that goes from tipping point to shoving point for consumers who are on the fence, wondering what platform should I buy. I think the clear exclusive message that we have is that the PS3 is where, not only do you get Grand Theft Auto, but you’ll get MGS, you’ll get Gran Turismo and these are also brands that have moved hardware units. It’s the elite of the elite products that actually enable hardware to be sold with software and we’ll have three of them.”

Stay tuned for the full interview in which Steinberg talks about the impact of Blu-ray, the SKU strategy for the PS3, the Wii, controller complexity and more.