All Articles: ApocalyPS3 2011

Sony promised that when the PlayStation Network services were restored, they’d be offering us some free goodies as part of a “Welcome Back” initiative to make up for the time lost on our online games. Now, the PSN is back, and they’ve detailed the free games, subscriptions, and other content we’ll be enjoying.

First up, PlayStation 3 users will be able to select two PS3 titles from the following list:

Dead Nation, InFamous, LittleBigPlanet, Super Stardust HD, and Wipeout HD + Fury. PlayStation Portable users can grab two from LittleBigPlanet (PSP), ModNation Racers, Pursuit Force, and Killzone Liberation.

A host of other perks will be available as well. Sony will select a weekend when a selection of “On Us” movie rentals can be downloaded, PlayStation Plus subscribers get two additional months of the service free, non-Plus subscribers get a free 30 day trial, over 100 free items will be available in PlayStation Home, and Qriocity users get a free thirty days.

I gotta say that’s a nice mix of media… except on the PS3 side. Most of those games have already been offered as either free downloads or discounted items on the PlayStation Plus program. And it’d be hard to imagine a hardcore PlayStation fan who doesn’t own InFamous, LBP, Stardust, and Dead Nation. I would have much preferred a flat $20 credit to get whatever we want. Lord knows the PSOne Classics and Japanese Imports I want would never be offered on a Welcome Back list. Right now, it seems like PlayStation’s biggest supporters are getting rewarded the least for their loyalty.

While most of the world logs back onto the PlayStation Network, the gamers of Japan are still left in the dark. The problem no longer deals with hackers, but rather the government, which refuses to let Sony continue online game services until Sony provides more information on the measures it’s taking to prevent another attack.

Kazushige Nobutani, director of the Media and Content Industry department at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, told Dow Jones Newswires, “We met with Sony on May 6 and 13, and basically we want two things from them.”

“The first is preventative measures. As of May 13, Sony was incomplete in exercising measures that they said they will do on the May 1 press conference.” The second answer they need is how Sony plans to win back consumer confidence. “There were similar cases in the past that were caused by other firms, and we are asking Sony whether their measures are good enough when compared to countermeasures taken in the past.”

Sony began restoring the PSN on Saturday after last month’s hacking nightmare that compromised the personal information of 100 million users.

We’re all back online playing our favorite multiplayer games (Black Ops w00t), but many issues still remain for the PlayStation Network. Jeff Rubenstein from the PlayStation Blog took the time to answer some of the more prevalent questions.

For one, a couple PlayStation Store updates were missed, and there was a lot of great content scheduled to go up, such as a demo for Motorstorm: Apocalypse. Rubenstein expains that once the Store becomes operational again, there will be a couple of publishes throughout the week to bring all of the missed content back. For PlayStation Plus subscribers, they’ll be picking up where they left off on the schedule of games to go up/come down, so you won’t miss your chance to get a free download before it’s unvailable. Also, Sucker Punch is working out the details on a possible InFamous 2 beta extension, and a missed Call of Duty: Black Ops double XP weekend will be made up to us very shortly.

As you can tell, I’m particularly excited about that last bit!

Also, if you’ve been following the PlayStation Blog, you’ve noticed that their regular content of interviews, previews, and features has been interrupted while Sony dealt with the PSN outage crisis. Fortunately, some new content will be coming tomorrow and we’ll all be more in touch with our favorite games, series’ and services.

The PlayStation Network is back! Sony began the process of restoring PSN functionality at 5 PM Pacific Time starting with the following services:

• Online play
• Third party services like Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and MLB.TV
• PlayStation Home
• Friends List and Chat
• Trophies

As part of the restoration, PS3 owners will have to download the new 3.61 firmware. This update will require all PSN users to create a new password as well. Services are being turned back on on a state-by-state basis. Sony has started with the northeastern states and California and the PlayStation.Blog is tracking the system restoration progress. Sony also released a special message from CEO Kaz Hirai, which can be viewed above.

So the PSN outage is finally over! Time to celebrate by buying that game I’ve always wanted… oh, right… the PlayStation Store will be restored “as soon as possible.” Still, it’s great to have online play back.

Sony has supplied another update to the PlayStation Network restoration timeline. It looks like it’ll be a few more days at least:

I know you all want to know exactly when the services will be restored. At this time, I can’t give you an exact date, as it will likely be at least a few more days. We’re terribly sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work through this process.

That’s a better estimate than May 31st, but it’s still pretty bad news for any PS3 owner that wants to play new games like Mortal Kombat, Portal 2, SOCOM 4 or Brink (which was released today) online.

[Source: PlayStation.Blog]

Brace yourselves PlayStation 3 owners, Sony has some bad news about the PSN outage. Shigenori Yoshida, a Sony Japan spokesman, has told Bloomberg that the company is “uncertain” on when the PlayStation Network will be back online.

Oh, it gets worse.

Yoshida went on to say that the target date for the restoration of all services is May 31, nearly six weeks after the service first went down on April 20th. While that’s the deadline, it’s still very possible Sony will have the PSN back up and running sooner than that. Though they previously expected online play to be ready by Friday, May 6.

And there original estimate of the outage on April 20th was “a day or two” so perhaps we shouldn’t hold our breath for May 31st either.

Here we go, PSN users, Sony has announced (via the PlayStation.Blog) that the PlayStation Network restoration has entered its final stages. No timetable for the network’s return was revealed, but an open letter from Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer stated “In the coming days, we will restore service to the networks and welcome you back to the fun.”

So, in other words, don’t expect the PSN to be turned back on tomorrow. And I wouldn’t hold my breath for this weekend either.

In a final PlayStation.Blog post, Sony announced that they have partnered with Debix to offer their AllClear ID Plus identity theft protection service to PSN users at no charge for a year. Redemption codes will be sent via email over the next few days and more information is available at the link.

It may be slow going, but it looks like ApocalyPS3 2011 may finally be coming to an end.