The PSN drama continues with the official sweetener announced for the United States as well as Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Strangely Japan itself is not yet being restored.

So basically a couple of free games and some subscriptions.

Well Finally Sony have begun phased restoration of services. Owners can now update to version 3.61 which is mandatory. Passwords must also be changed.

Kazuo Hirai goes through some of the details as well as delivering an official apology.

You know, I would just love to own a PlayStation 3 to review those games but at times like this I am glad I do not own one.

The PlayStation Network (PSN) has now been down now for.. oh.. a few more weeks now.  The messages on its return are garbled by rumours but realistically I think another week at least.

Sigh.  Now the PlayStation blog is down.  Let’s try the EU version instead.  That one is up.  This sounds like pre-emptive blocking by Sony, since I am not in the US.

Anonymous seems to have taken some responsibility now.  Whether that is true or not is unclear but they may well be in on newer attacks.  I’m not sure it’s very wise as it makes Sony look like the poor underdog, and Anonymous the bullies.

Sony are offering Identity theft protection for those affected and there is a “welcome back” pack incuding “a month of free PlayStation Plus membership for all PSN customers, as well as an extension of subscriptions for PlayStation Plus and Music Unlimited customers to make up for time lost.”

The PlayStation Network (PSN) which provides online and multiplayer services for Playstation console users has been down for over a week which is remarkable in itself.

The problem has been due to an illegal intrusion onto their systems commonly referred to as hacking. This happened between April 17 and April 19, 2011. One might leap to the idea that Anonymous is responsible but they have denied involvement. The real perpetrators are as yet unknown but may be brought to light by the security experts.

Sony just released information on just what kind of details were compromised. These include:

• Name
• Address (city, state, zip)
• Country
• Email address
• Birthdate
• PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login
• Handle/PSN online ID

It is also possible that the following has been compromised:

• Profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip)
• PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers
• Credit card details

It’s quite a lot of detail and if you are a victim of this I would strongly suggest you look to your own security especially if you use your PSN password elsewhere. Be aware of scams that might crop up and if you’re worried about your credit card take action on it.

This is a very long outage with potentially serious consequences for their customers so I don’t think this is going to do Sony’s image any favours. It seems Sony have done what they can to deal with it but that of course doesn’t remove what happened. They claim some services may be restored in a week, so this is going to be a long haul.

Update 28 April 2011:  Didn’t take long for a class action lawsuit to pop up.  Looks like Sony are taking advantage of the downtime to rebuilt their network for better security too.

I play Planetside on and off. To me it’s a space marine themed Battleground Europe. In other words, it’s pretty good.

Their new title under development, Planetside Next, is also owned by Sony. Sony have been driving up their business profitability. Recently a major axe fell amongst game hopefuls at Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). There were rumours here and there and some thought Planetside Next might go, but the axe fell differently. 205 jobs are gone as well as ‘The Agency’. Planetside Next lives on but will be delayed. It’s suggested that Planetside Next will have more resources at hand. There is so very little info on Planetside Next. Sony, if you want Planetside Next to shine, it is high time we saw a glimpse of it. Hopefully it will be that good.