As promised earlier this week, all PlayStation Network services are being restored today in Europe, America and most of Asia.
On Tuesday, we reported that Sony intended to bring back the service by the end of the week. Today, Sony is confirming it once again in a press release:
Sony Corporation and Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) announced today that Sony Network Entertainment International (SNEI, the company) will fully restore all PlayStation®Network services today June 2, 2011, in the Americas, Europe/PAL territories and Asia, excluding Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea. The company will also resume Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity™ for PlayStation®3 (PS3®), PSP® (PlayStation®Portable), VAIO and other PCs.
The service is already accessible in London and New York, and possibly in surrounding areas too, although a 80710D36 error seems to pop up intermittently, possibly due to amount of people trying to access the service.
Sony also reiterated its intention to deliver "Welcome Back" packages to all registered PlayStation Network customers, in countries where the PlayStation Store is available. Such packages will be attributed in region-by-region basis, but will include several free games, a free PlayStation Plus subscription and a few other goodies:
Details of "Welcome Back" package program offered to all registered PlayStation Network* and Qriocity account services will be announced from each region.
The PlayStation Network debacle began in April, when passwords, addresses and credit card information belonging to PSN users was leaked into the web. The service was immediately brought down to a halt, but more successful hacks took place on PSN, as well as several other Sony properties, such as Sony Music Japan and Sony Ericsson Canada, both resulting in user details finding its way onto hacking websites. These successive hacks led many to believe that Sony didn’t take enough precautions to stop the attacks in the first place, although the company fiercely denies it.
Sony’s profits were also heavily impacted by this incident. It’s been reported that Sony lost $173 million repairing the damages. In all, the company reported a loss last quarter, when it expected a profit, partially due to the break-ins.
All services are expected to be fully restored today, except for Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea. This incident will forever stain Sony’s history, just hopefully not the product in the long run.
If you want to check the service’s status in your area, you can get the PSN Status iOS App, which pings the network and displays the result.
You can follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook fanpage to keep yourself updated on all the latest from Microsoft, Google and Apple.