This press release just hit the wire – PlayStation Store and related services (like voucher redemption) back this week:
SONY AND SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCE FULL RESTORATION OF PLAYSTATION®NETWORK SERVICES
Tokyo, May 31, 2011 – Sony Corporation and Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) announced today that Sony Network Entertainment International (SNEI, the company) will fully restore all PlayStation®Network services in the Americas, Europe/PAL territories and Asia, excluding Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea by the end of this week. The company will also resume Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity™ for PlayStation®3 (PS3®), PSP® (PlayStation®Portable), VAIO and other PCs. Details for Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea as well as the remaining services on Qriocity will be announced as they become available.
The company implemented considerable security enhancements to the network infrastructure, as well as conducted testing of the payment process and commerce functions. The first phase of PlayStation Network and Qriocity restoration began on May 15 in the Americas and Europe/PAL territories, followed by Japan and Asian countries and regions on May 28, when the company brought partial services back online. With this partial restoration users were able to access to some of the services such as online game play, account management, friend lists and chat functionality were restored. The full restoration of PlayStation Network as well as part of services to become available on Qriocity will include:
• Full functionality on PlayStation®Store
• In-game commerce
• Ability to redeem vouchers and codes
• Full functionality on Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity for PS3, PSP, VAIO and
other PCs
• Full functionality on Media GoCustomers will be able to purchase and download games and video content from the PlayStation®Store on PS3 or PSP. In addition, consumers will have full access to Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity through PS3, PSP, VAIO and other PC’s. Service restoration of Video on Demand powered by Qriocity™ and Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity for a variety of network-enabled Sony devices will be announced later.
“We have been conducting additional testing and further security verification of our commerce functions in order to bring the PlayStation Network completely back online so that our fans can again enjoy the first class entertainment experience they have come to love,” said Kazuo Hirai, Executive Deputy President, Sony Corporation. “We appreciate the patience and support shown during this time.”
The company will be offering customers a “Welcome Back” package of services and premium content to all registered PlayStation Network* and Qriocity account services. The details of this program will continue to be detailed regionally.
* Only available for those countries with access to PlayStation®Store.
We will update the PlayStation Blog when the PlayStation Store is once again open for business.
Alot of you guys are lucky. My dad had an old vic 20 and an atari but can’t remember the model number. We didn’t have another computer until about 91 or 92 I beleive. They also didn’t want to buy any consoles so I was stuck with the arcade or those tiger hand helds. The sad thing I was 25 when I first played an snes and a few years after that my girlfriend got rid of it.
PRAISE THE LAWD!!! lol finaly ive been waiting for ever, gota get my dlc map pack fix already!!!
Wounder how people are going to react at Sony this E3? I think the loyal PS fans will be good with hearing whatever Sony throws at them. But if you think about it, I can’t imagine any new PS3 titles that can come up and shock people that have already been announced. All I see is the NGP getting a lot of Sony’s E3 time, unless the PS4 is announced. And I doubt Sony would announce the PS4 so soon.
@1538 that is a good question and chances are they may crash due to traffic but let’s hope they’ve prepared for it.
I also did say PC like running Windows. I think we’re probably both in the same age ballpark. Amazing how things change!!
@bigbaddoom31 you live a very sad life lmao
they need to fire up that map…and start hookin peeps up
I can still remember spending *DAYS* downloading programs at 2400 baud from BBS sites. How about getting a brand new program in a box and installing the *12* 5 1/4 inch floppies?
I still remember buying PC games that came in 3 1/2 inch AND 5 1/4 inch floppy disks because not everyone had the new fangled 3 1/2 inch floppy drives yet.
Heck, I remember the very first ‘computer literacy’ course they offered at my High School. All the students were banging on the keyboards with stones and clubs. :) I lost count how many times they crashed the computers in that class in the first year. nobody knew what they were doing.
I can see myself playing PS15 games while a nurse changes my adult diaper and wipes the drool off my chin. Thankfully I will be able to control the console with my thoughts because my hands will be all twisted up with arthritis. Multiplayer online shuffleboard anyone?
@1544 Not alot of kids where I grew up didn’t have systems to begin with and if they did their parents had money. Plus the only place to find systems for a long time was an hour drive away.
everybody vote to ban @LuiguiPR he swears way to much and makes racial comments on blog and on the ps3
@chjwatson Sounds pretty familiar. That old 8 gig also had a now defunct 100MB ZIP Drive!
OK WOW SONY THE PSS IS STILL NOT ON!!!!! JUST WOW!!!!!!
yay
When I started it was 300 baud. Now look at it! Broadband.
So I just realized, by the time the NGP comes out, which will probably be this holiday season, that it’s dead on arrival. If you think about it, Nintendo will have enough games for the 3DS, most likely a price drops and sales for the 3DS. Not only the 3DS, but the thing that’s killing handheld gaming, mobile smart phone/tablet gaming, with their games being cheap for the most part. And seeing that the last two game systems to come from Sony, PS3, and PSP, were pretty expensive for their release, and I bet the NGP will be no different.
From what I have been reading they have said the ngp will be sold at a loss. The main reason I got my psp is because I was sick of all the kiddy crap on the ds. Now don’t get me wrong I still have it and buy games but way to many of them are remakes. Now with tablet/mobile gameing you can sell those for less because the graphics really are not that great and very short. The 3ds needs to make improvements and get some real games before I buy one.
map pack for blackops comes out june 3rd(playstation store pending)
What is it about blackops people love so much? Just curious.
wowowowo1@ what are you talking about I love america the same way you love Osama Bin Laden.
Were is the love in this planet???!!
at the top where it says we can redeem codes doese that inclued codes that expired
The only real complaint I have about SONY right now is how they wait until the last freaking moment to make announcements.
BTY- we will be doing a *scheduled* shutdown right….. now!
Oh, that rumor about the PS store coming online today? NOT! maybe by the end of the month…
Hi everyone! It’s the end of the month and we hope to have the PS store up by the end of the coming week…
I can only hope they are desperate to have it up before E3 because, if they don’t, they are going get a LOT of bad press and messages from pissed off customers. You know, now would be a perfect time for Microsoft to offer *free* online play to everyone for a month.
Previously on this blog I have read others suggesting SONY should split off the downloading of purchased stuff away from the store. I really like this idea. This is one of those future wish list items we should be hounding SONY for.
The PS STORE IS BACK!!!!!!!
ON YOUR MOTHER’S BACK
BACK PACK
BACK SLASH
BACK TAG
BACK ATTACK
BACK PLASH
No is not; wait more another WEEK
And if Sony have soooo much money why are they still working???
Well…….
They want MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE
So they need us
@bigbaddoom31. Yeah the 3DS isn’t really milking out the games fast enough. Hopefully Sony will avoid the mistake Nintendo is making, and have good quality games at launch and keep a steady flow of good games too. But that won’t be enough if the NGP will be priced high and/or have a crummy battery life. I honestly want the NGP to do good despite what I said in my last post. Because it looks like now that the 3DS isn’t enough to keep the handheld gaming world as great as it was before all these mobile phones and tablets started generating these 99 cent games that only last 5 minutes or less.
In english, “We will offer our customers a ‘Welcome Back’ package” means, “We’re gonna give you something cool!!” !!!
Don’t dissapoint us Sony! You got this!
call of duty online is just duck duck goose now, one big ring around the rosey circle chase, battlefield, mag, and socom, now those are better, actually need to use teamwork :)
@blazeb4ozzy they only offering free stuff that most ppl already have
I bought angry birds for the psp and let me just say it’s the only game that I have cursed out the most. One thing I don’t like about the ngp is downloading directly to the system. Where I live net connection is iffy at times and with people who burn through bandwidth it doesn’t help.
im happy and sad at the same time
happy cause the ps store is coming back
sad cause you lied to us, you never do that D:
its k i forgive
what about the details of Welcome Back ?
@1567 not much has been said yet I think they are going to wait until about the time they open the store back up.
Another week? but… thats not the end of May… What is the deal. Sony your PR department needs a little shake up.
Welcome back details were released like 2 weeks ago.
Finally…
thank you playstation i have a question though i but 60 dollars worth of the prepaid cards for the store before playstation went down are they still usable i never used em they have been sitting in my room for this whole time
@1572 you should be able to use them once the store comes up.
finally i can get my map pack for red dead redemption………………………….. :) lol thanks for makeing us wait for 50 years for it to be fixed. lololololololololololol :):):):):):):):):):):):)
w00t! Now that’s good news…
The wait is over. WE LOVE YOU SONY!!!
FINALY thanks sony
Hilarious, you write a comment too long on this board and it says “shorten to 1250 characters”. You hit the Back button and your comments are gone.
Short version then: Until Sony can successfully thwart future attacks, they need to make it where the store only accepts pre-paid cards. Prevent future downtime, but leave the system open for future updates to where the servers can once again accept credit card info without fear of them being stolen.
And someone said Sony is good at making constant updates. No they aren’t. The May 24th rumor had been around for days and it took Sony’s customer service department until the last minute to officially dispel the rumor. Then they wait until May 31st to say they couldn’t reach the May 31st target date.
I’m a database programmer – if I constantly went to my supervisor and told her the day of the deadline that I couldn’t reach the deadline, I would be in serious trouble. I’m sure the techies are doing their best and are being realistic about when the store can safely be back up, but I don’t think Sony’s customer service is getting that same message.
And that short version wasn’t so short. Sorry, I like to type everything all at once and be done with it.
finally get to use my playstation network card
@chjwatson…Nice to see another old school gamer here lol Can’t leave out ther old Acorn and IBM’s neither lol
Are doing nothing more than the Obligation of them, Alias, it was not to have happened …
Shows that Sony does not invest in structure, and then broke the lock that no use putting padlocks.
Confidence in you is scratched, I think 1000 times before buying something with a credit card now in PSStore …
Like many ave said will our wallets be restored as well?
@1583 they should be I have yet to see anything that said they were lost. Plus I can see what I’ve downloaded and the funds I added as long as the site is up.
About time
FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TOOK LONG ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!
Ready to buy escalation wats good!