Nearly three weeks later, the Playstation Network is back online. After a hideous debacle where Sony saw a massive attack on its network, which was compromised and lost millions of consumer’s credit cards and personal info, you can finally take your PS3 online again. After many weeks of silence and non-statements, Kazuo Hirai apologized on Saturday and promised that there was a reason for the delay-
“While we understand the importance of getting our services back online, we did not rush to do so at the expense of extensively and aggressively testing our enhanced security measures.”
To get online you’ll have to download a new firmware update and create a new password (yes, it’s mandatory), but it only takes a couple of minutes. The PSN store is still down but most of the functionality is restored- trophies, Netflix and Hulu, and online multiplayer. That means that you can finally use all those multiplayer games that came out in the last few weeks- Portal 2, Mortal Kombat, Brink, etc.
They’re promising new security technology including increased encryption and firewalls to try and regain our trust. If your personal information is safe you might have actually made out in the deal. In a way of making up to its customers Sony is preparing a Welcome Back package. Confirmed components include a free 30 days membership for Playstation Plus (yay?), free service for Qriocity users, and free “selected Playstation Entertainment” for download. European PSN users have already been confirmed as receiving two free games from a selection of five, and PSP users two from a list of four. It’s likely that this will be smaller PSN fare rather than retail games, but hey, two free games is two free games.
Sony will also offer free ‘AllClear ID Plus’ Identity Theft protection for 12 months to Playstation Network and Qriocity account holders to make sure no ones tries to steal your stuff.
Anyone who bought Brink will be happy to note that they’ll receive free DLC for their troubles. Splash Damage wants to thank you for being silly and buying an online game for a system with no online functionality and will give you new maps and other content sometime in June, for the low low price of nothing. Not a bad deal for the fun game.
The Welcome Back program details will likely hit later this week, so keep an eye on the Playstation blog for verification. So what do you think? Too little, too late? Are you pissed that it took Sony so long to own up to what exactly happened? Or is it a nice gesture, especially seeing as how the PSN is free?
4 comments
I’m going to have to get back on my PS3, I did the update but then I couldn’t change my password. Then I got the PSN is currently under going maintenenace prompt. Also did anyone have troubles with Netflix? I was able to pull up and watch my streaming queue with no problems during the outage.
Free Stuff is always welcomed, and it’s a good PR move by Sony. Sure it was an inconvenience, but I chalk it up to idiot pirates/hackers compensating for their small penises. Certainly didn’t make me want to smash my PS3 to bits with a timber axe or make me jump off a bridge because I’m not an ADD twitch gamer in need of unlocking achievements or trophies, and it didn’t affect my gaming habits since I rarely play multiplayer and have used prepaid $20 PSN cards for about a year now to pay for content. Bottom line, Sony doesn’t need to regain my trust, mostly because they have put out stellar product on a consistent basis.
I’m not a techie, but PSN’s security should never have been compromised to the extent it was. Maybe they didn’t invest enough in that area. Bottom line – they royally fucked up.
IMHO the gift of anti theft protection doesn’t do anything to inspire confidence. It’s like the MICROSOFT pledge to replace all those XBOXS. It’s a tacit admission that they expect to have problems
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