If you are a gamer then you are probably aware that the PlayStation Network went down on April 20th. After a few days it was revealed that the reason for the outage was due to Sony checking the system after they discovered the network had been compromised. The original belief was that PSN would be down for a few days while the vulnerability was patched. This caused two large outcries from the gaming community :-
PSN Users: “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! What will we do?”
Xbox Live Users: “HAHAHAHAHA”
Now, I am one of the lucky ones who have both. Oh before you ask, no I did not scream NOHAOOHAOOHAOOHA!
A short while later when Sony discovered the full extent of the depth of penetration their system had encountered, They decided (Rightly in my opinion) to use this downtime to do a overhaul on the security of the PSN and related systems. Leading to a much longer downtime for gamers than was originally advertised.
As of the date of publish for this post, PSN has be partially brought back online for most people, Multiplayer gaming is possible, and Sony are doing their best to get all services back online for all players. They are also compensating users for the inconvenience. There will be a list of games that you can pick three from to download, there will be free months use of PSN+, and a lot of other gifts from Sony.
Now I think this is very good of them, they did not have to give away anything to compensate users for the unavailability of what is a free resource. Yes those who pay for PSN+ or other paid for systems deserved a month or two of their subscription back. But for everyone to get a gift, that’s something they did not have to do, and I think its very decent of them.
For those of you in Europe you can read more on what you will be offered here.
