As Sony continues to try to restore its PlayStation Network, it is trying to appease gamers through updates and the promise of ways to "show appreciation" for those who have been hardest hit by the almost-10-day outage that compromised their personal information and eroded their trust in the company.
It's been nine days since the outage began on April 20, and since then, the anger against Sony has only increased as the truth confirmed what many had suspected: that this was a "malicious intrusion" that has affected some 77 million user accounts with the PlayStation Network and Qriocity entertainment-delivery service.
And the hits just keep on coming.
Security bloggers have posted and tweeted about the possible existence of a database of user information being sold in online forums; a gamer has filed a lawsuit accusing Sony of "negligence in data security" seeking class action status for the case (as well as monetary compensation and free credit card monitoring); and infamous hacker George "GeoHot" Hotz has been the latest to heap criticism upon his former nemesis, saying Sony brought this upon itself for its "arrogance and misunderstanding of ownership."
Last night, Patrick Seybold, Director of Corporate Communications for Sony of America, posted another Q&A on the PlayStation blog, which we're re-posting here for you:
Q: Will our download history/friends list/settings be affected by the PSN downtime?A: No, they will not. Q: Will trophies that were earned in single-player offline games during the outage be intact when the service resumes?A: These trophies are intact and will be re-synched when the network is once again operational. Q: Will my PS+ cloud saves be retrievable?A: Yes, once PSN is restored. Q: What if we have a subscription to PS3 MMOs DC Universe Online or Free Realms? Will we get compensation for that?A: From Sony Online Entertainment: “We apologize for any inconvenience players may have experienced as a result of the recent service interruption. As a global leader in online gaming, SOE is committed to delivering stable and entertaining games for players of all ages. To thank players for their patience, we will be hosting special events across our game portfolio. We are also working on a “make good” plan for players of the PS3 versions of DC Universe Online and Free Realms. Details will be available soon on the individual game websites and forums.” Q: Will there be a goodwill gesture for the time we haven’t been able to utilize PSN/Qriocity?A: We are currently evaluating ways to show appreciation for your extraordinary patience as we work to get these services back online.
No word yet on how they plan to do right by gamers, but keep checking here and on the PlayStation blog for more updates. Seybold wrote that Sony is "closer to restoration of service" but nothing that indicates whether that means the network will be back online by this weekend. (Remember, when they first posted about this outage, they said it would only be a day or two.) Meanwhile, msnbc.com's Todd Kenreck tells you the top 3 single player games you can play while you wait to get back online:
More PlayStation Network outage stories:
- Sony sued, could bleed billions following PlayStation Network hack
- Former PlayStation hacker blames Sony arrogance for breach
- Microsoft issues security alert on heels of PlayStation hack
- Is Sony user database for sale in online bazaar?
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